Comment H1-B's not just for programmers (Score 2) 385
While I know the article is aimed at programming jobs, people need to be aware that not all H1B workers are in programming - some are in other fields too. I'm an H1B from the UK employed in engineering - consultancy in design and simulation of systems involving wave propagation (waveguides for example). It's a small company, I get along well with everyone, like the work and they treat me well, and pay above the minimum required for an H1B (yes, there is a minimum that's a decent amount, which isn't mentioned in this topic often).
So why didn't my company get in a US worker to do the job I do? Simple - there isn't anyone with the skills required available. How do I know this? Because I work with all the people in the US that have this skill set (other companies) and they aren't available - and there's not a lot of them either.
My company has worked closely with several US universities over the last few years, supporting at minimal costs research groups and teaching courses, in an attempt to foster skill sets in the next generation of engineers in our field. What happens? The US students don't carry on in engineering, because it's too hard. They can make more money with less effort in business and law. The people that do run with the ball are either the 'very focussed' or the foreign students (either here or in their native countries).
And don't slam the H1B people for lowering your salary - that's a government restriction and with a loosening of those the bargaining power increases, and so do your wages. I find it amusing that in the land of the free market, people are advocating restricting trade (the selling of skills). Things need to be more free, not more regulated. I pay a lot of tax, a lot of social security I'll likely never see and contribute to the bottom line of my company in a big way.
Also, while there will always be stories about the crap foreign worker who couldn't do what he claimed, remember that most H1Bs are talented people in their field with the 'get up and go' to move halfway around the world. You're likely getting the benefits of someone who's in the top few % of ability in their own country, and has been educated at zero cost to you (talk about a bargain!). I suppose that's quite something to compete with, so maybe you'd just better keep them out so you don't have to.
This whole topic smacks to me of the racism I saw at home when the economy took a downturn - 'damn foreigners coming in here and stealing our jobs', when these were the people doing the jobs natives wouldn't do (clean toilets, sweep streets) or providing services everyone else wants (24 hour shops), working damn hard for not much money. While there are genuine concerns about abuses of the system (abusive companies need to be the target, not H1Bs) - don't let man's 'baser insticts' and fear rule attitudes.
While you may deny there is racism in any way here, look at some of the phrasing of sentences talking about Indians and eastern Europeans. 'These damn Indians taking a job from an honest hard-working American!'. Try replacing Indian with 'Jew' or 'Black' and see how it sounds. And I doubt you realise how often otherwise liberal people say this sort of thing - I've been in groups of educated Americans as they bitch about foreign workers and how they're just leeches etc - I pipe up with 'damn foreigners throw them all out of our country' and they agree. Only a few realise the irony that I'm a foreigner too. Why? Because I'm white and English is my first language.
So why didn't my company get in a US worker to do the job I do? Simple - there isn't anyone with the skills required available. How do I know this? Because I work with all the people in the US that have this skill set (other companies) and they aren't available - and there's not a lot of them either.
My company has worked closely with several US universities over the last few years, supporting at minimal costs research groups and teaching courses, in an attempt to foster skill sets in the next generation of engineers in our field. What happens? The US students don't carry on in engineering, because it's too hard. They can make more money with less effort in business and law. The people that do run with the ball are either the 'very focussed' or the foreign students (either here or in their native countries).
And don't slam the H1B people for lowering your salary - that's a government restriction and with a loosening of those the bargaining power increases, and so do your wages. I find it amusing that in the land of the free market, people are advocating restricting trade (the selling of skills). Things need to be more free, not more regulated. I pay a lot of tax, a lot of social security I'll likely never see and contribute to the bottom line of my company in a big way.
Also, while there will always be stories about the crap foreign worker who couldn't do what he claimed, remember that most H1Bs are talented people in their field with the 'get up and go' to move halfway around the world. You're likely getting the benefits of someone who's in the top few % of ability in their own country, and has been educated at zero cost to you (talk about a bargain!). I suppose that's quite something to compete with, so maybe you'd just better keep them out so you don't have to.
This whole topic smacks to me of the racism I saw at home when the economy took a downturn - 'damn foreigners coming in here and stealing our jobs', when these were the people doing the jobs natives wouldn't do (clean toilets, sweep streets) or providing services everyone else wants (24 hour shops), working damn hard for not much money. While there are genuine concerns about abuses of the system (abusive companies need to be the target, not H1Bs) - don't let man's 'baser insticts' and fear rule attitudes.
While you may deny there is racism in any way here, look at some of the phrasing of sentences talking about Indians and eastern Europeans. 'These damn Indians taking a job from an honest hard-working American!'. Try replacing Indian with 'Jew' or 'Black' and see how it sounds. And I doubt you realise how often otherwise liberal people say this sort of thing - I've been in groups of educated Americans as they bitch about foreign workers and how they're just leeches etc - I pipe up with 'damn foreigners throw them all out of our country' and they agree. Only a few realise the irony that I'm a foreigner too. Why? Because I'm white and English is my first language.
