Senators Push for High-skill Immigration Reform

[Newsjock]

Source: IDG News

A group of U.S. senators pledged Tuesday to open up the country's borders to high-skill immigrants, with lawmakers arguing that the U.S. is turning away some of the world's smartest people.

Senators Chuck Schumer, a New York Democrat, and John Cornyn, a Texas Republican, both called for immigration reform that would allow more high-skill workers into the U.S.

... Without a new immigration policy, U.S. tech companies will move more jobs overseas, said Brad Smith, general counsel at Microsoft. "The world economy has changed," he said. "It used to be that people would move in search of the right job, but increasingly, jobs move in search of the right people."

Some senators questioned the need to raise the annual H-1B cap from 85,000. The H-1B and L-1 intracompany visa programs are full of abuse, with some tech companies replacing U.S. workers with cheaper foreign workers, said Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. The L-1 visa program has no wage requirements, leading some companies to bring low-salary workers to the U.S., he said.

Read more: http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/236592/senators_push_for_highskill_immigration_reform.html

[alp227]

1. CITIZENS FIRST! These senators need to deal with unemployment of CITIZENS!

Nothing is evil about immigrants working in countries. HOWEVER, immigrants taking jobs from citizens is an absolute NO-NO.

[humblebum]

23. There is nothing more true or important right now! K&R

I had a good job and health insurance 2 years ago. Now no job and no health insurance. Outsourced.

[OHdem10]

2. Over 20 Million Americans unemployed, and they want a bigger

shovel to dig the hole deeper. Typical DC.

Cisco Systems is laying off 1150 workers and others
contemplating layoffs.

Where are their heads???

The buses in this system are scandalous.

[Angry Dragon]

3. schumer and cornyn should lose their jobs

I will take either of their places and do the job for $165,000

Each senator and representative should have to get their pay from their state and
any pay raise should have to be voted on by the people of that state

[karynnj]

19. These are FEDERAL jobs paid for by the FEDERAL government

As to you taking their place, that works assuming you of age and will move to Texas or NY and convince more people that you should be a Senator when either is up for re-election. I think those are the only requirements to getting those jobs.

I really do not see that the salaries are too high for these jobs. In many cases, the Congressperson needs to maintain two residences. From many accounts, it can be a financial sacrifice for many who are not independently wealthy. Lowering the salary would likely have the unintended consequence of making it LESS likely that anyone not rich would be in Congress.

[midnight]

4. If we had wage reform in this country they could not get away with this B.S.

[Cool Logic]

8. Wage reform...?

I believe reform of our education system is the preferred option.

[FreakinDJ]

5. PLEASE Give Away My Job

I already compete with every assholes willing to work for 1/2 of what I make from South Africa, Philippines, India and every other diploma mill country on the globe

[jwirr]

6. When I was in college I met many foreign students who had lived

here for years going to school and then teaching at the same University. They may be right about losing brain power when we do not allow them to stay. Genius is found in all cultures, classes, gender and races. The question is how do we distinguish which immigrants should be allowed in and how is this fair in any way shape or form to all of us.

Back then one of the biggest problems faced was foreign students who found someone to marry just to get to stay in the US. I was witness to at least three such situations. They were heart breaking.

[lbrtbell]

21. Cry me a river!

There are plenty of poor kids here who are extremely intelligent, but never get the chance to develop it because they can't get a good education.

I'm tired of people feeling sorry for immigrants, but not giving a damn about our own poor people.

Take care of Americans first!

[AlphaCentauri]

7. Don't worry there will be plenty of minimal wage jobs after all the Mexicans are deported

:shrug:

[lbrtbell]

22. Plenty of Americans would do those jobs

It's just that the people who hire illegal immigrants don't even want to pay minimum wage, nor do they want to give their workers the basic rights Americans know they're entitled to.

Where I come from, teenagers always have--and still do--work in the fields to pay for schooling, buy a car, etc. With all the Mexicans in this area, I've never seen ONE working in a field. They work in the air-conditioned meat packing plants, while the American kids work their butts off.

Don't tell me Americans are lazy. That's just a RW meme designed to justify hiring poorly-educated people to work for slave wages.

[AlphaCentauri]

26. That would be a story for a movie

The Highly-educated American kids working in the fields

[on point]

9. There is no shortage of workers in the US. Just a desire to pay them less.

[harun]

20. +1

[no_hypocrisy]

10. Give what few jobs out there to "new" citizens?

I was accepted to be a teacher in an AMERICAN school in Zurich, Switzerland in 1984 and practically packed & ready to go. At the last minute I was told the position had to go to a Swiss national due to the unemployment in the country. No, I didn't like it and was disappointed, but I understood and accepted the premise that Switzerland had a duty to its own citizens. And so should this country.

[madokie]

11. We need to train and hire people who are US citizens first

Then if there is a need maybe do this otherwise fuck Schumer and Cornyn, I don't trust either one. Best I remember it was chuckie baby that gave us Murdock to begin with by sneaking it into a bill that was going to be voted on the next morning making him a nationalize citizen.

I remember it when it happened but I can't find any reference to that by googling it now, funny that, huh

[reformist2]

12. Stop treating workers like commodities!!

They talk about importing cheaper labor the same way they talk about importing barrels of oil. It is unacceptable.

[pampango]

13. Which are the "good" immigrants? High-skill, low-skill, neither, both?

Evidence of the existence of a bizzaro world:

"Some senators questioned the need to raise the annual H-1B cap from 85,000. The H-1B and L-1 intracompany visa programs are full of abuse, with some tech companies replacing U.S. workers with cheaper foreign workers, said Senator Chuck Grassley, an Iowa Republican. The L-1 visa program has no wage requirements, leading some companies to bring low-salary workers to the U.S., he said.

Grassley also questioned whether the U.S. should automatically give green cards to foreign graduates of U.S. colleges. Foreign students could crowd out U.S. students if that happened, he said. "While it is important to keep the best and the brightest, getting a degree from U.S. institutions and universities should not equate to a fast track to citizenship for all," he said. "Universities would, in essence, become visa mills.""

"Schumer said he hopes to push forward a comprehensive immigration reform bill, dealing with other immigration issues as well as high-skill jobs, even though other recent attempts to pass a wide-ranging bill have failed.

It doesn't make sense for the U.S. to make foreign graduates return to their home countries, then apply to come back to the U.S. under the H-1B visa program, Schumer said. "If we do not enact an immigration policy that continues to attract the world's best minds, we will cease to be the world's economic leader," he added. "Unfortunately, our broken immigration system discourages the world's best and brightest minds from coming to America to create jobs."'

[OhioChick]

14. In this economic climate?

Fucking insanity.

[ChromeFoundry]

15. Schumer and Cornyn are drinking that Microsoft Kool-Aid again

Take them out of office and pin their job search up against low-wage H-1B applicants... that's the only way they will "get it".
Take away the kick-backs these politicians receive from the top 25 corporations which use these visas to the likes of drinking from a firehose... then you will find that congress will have no interest in increasing the cap.

[pampango]

18. How does Grassley fit into your analysis? What's he drinking?

It sounds to me like Schumer is talking about revamping the immigration system to give green cards (permanent residency) to "foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges with science, math and technology degrees..." These immigrants then wouldn't be here temporarily under a flawed visa program like the H-1B, but permanent legal residents subject to the same laws and protections as we all are.

[zaj]

16. Nearly zero unemployment in AZ for skilled IT professionals

I just discovered this recently in talking to some folks in the profession. People on both the employer side, and the employee side. And the results are being confirmed by a new academic study being done at ASU.

The .com bubble along with outsourcing threat has killed the early stage pipeline of young IT professionals. People stopped studying in the field.

I know it sounds like corporate BS but it's not. We have a huge skills gap in IT and really a whole range of STEM/engineering/technical jobs.

[zaj]

17. Quoted from article

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2011/03/04/eveningnews/main20039482.shtml

:

"For a certain skill set, the unemployment rate is extremely low," Murphy said.

In fact, for workers with a bachelor's degree or higher, the unemployment rate is just 4.3 percent.

At Bison Gear and Engineering in St. Charles, Ill., Ron Bullock is also struggling to find qualified workers.

"We've gone up to a year-and-a-half filling an engineering position," Bullock said.

[AndyTiedye]

25. AZ May be Too Right Wing for Many Computer People

[No Elephants]

24. Ain't bipartisanship grand?