Remove cap on H1B visa and Green Card: New York Mayor (Bloomberg)

Source: Economic Times of India

17 Jun, 2011, 12.10AM IST,PTI

WASHINGTON: Calling for a comprehensive immigration reform that gives more opportunities to high-skilled workers from countries like India , New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg has demanded removal of Congressional mandated cap on H-1B visas and Green Cards.

"We must stop telling US companies that they cannot hire the high-skilled workers they need. By making it difficult for them to obtain temporary and permanent visas for high-skilled workers, the federal government is slowing growth and worse, promoting the outsourcing of American jobs," Bloomberg said in his address to the Council on Foreign Relations.

"Make no mistake about it: If companies can't hire the workers they need here, they will move those operations out of the country. You just have to look at Microsoft's recent decision to open a research park in Vancouver," he said.

Arguing that the ability to attract and keep high-skilled labour is essential for US companies competing on the world market, Bloomberg said that's true not only for high-tech companies but also for banks and insurance, pharmaceutical and other companies.



Read more: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/nri/visa-and-immigration/remove-cap-on-h1b-visa-and-green-card-new-york-mayor/articleshow/8872517.cms

We have plenty of Americans with better skills right here at home. Fucking pay them a just wage and they will work!

"Uh . . . what about the several million unemployed American workers HERE, some of whom have been out of a job for years?"

"Who? Er. Pipe dreams are under the bed. They're what we call, and no offense . . . 'priced out of the market'. "

"I'm not getting why corporations can't just hire Americans?"

"Weaaaaallllll, if they did that, there'd be no profit$ and you'd be paying 17.00 for stuff you can buy for $5. What do you have against profit? We gotta eat too. It's not always about you!"

"What do you have against win/win . . . or logic or shoes without bullet holes . . . tool . . . "

"We must stop telling US companies that they cannot hire the low-priced workers they need."

Microsoft is their own worst enemy. They could expand out of Redmond to other spots of the US but they choose not to in any significant manner. Instead they expect all the talent to move to Redmond.

Mayor... go fuck yourself.

My suggestion is that for every H1b1 visa person employed, the company must pay in double the salary to a training program for Americans. Let's see if the money or the person is more important....

and they've succeeded catastrophically. :(

IT Dept. We needed a programmer experienced with MS and capable of learning another program which our acct. software was written in. I interviewed several people and had several additioal appts set up, when another manager came to me with what he termed "A BRILIANT idea that would not only get me a GREAT programmer, but save the co. a ton of money! Sceptically I asked him just how is that? "I can get you someone from India that would be great fo the job and willing to work for $14,000/yr and be thrilled about it. I know how to get the H1B processed and we could have him is a short time." O told him that was unfair to US workers AND to the worker from india! You'd just be taking advantag of his poor status in India and NO I'm not interested.

I hired someone else, and I wasnt looked upon favorably after that.

BTW, apparently the SR. mgmt. was looking for a reaso to gt rid of me after that and finally did.

Believe me, there are thousands of managers out there who would take unfair advantage if we removed the cap o H1B's.

that can most certainly hire someone in India if they want.

And all will be solved.

Buck Floomberg.

Like me and an uncounted number just like me.

There are too many to count of older programmers, scientists, and engineers that can't even get a job interview.

We could probably hire everyone in a small nation for the salary of a few of these criminals.

Dan Rather Reports: Guest worker visas (think H-1Bs) and their continuing abuses - Sat noon EDT

View the trailer at:
http://www.hd.net/programs/danrather /

With the unemployment rate over nine percent, why are lawmakers, lobbyists and pundits across the political spectrum clamoring to increase the flow of high-skilled guest workers from overseas? Business advocates say U.S. companies need the world’s “best and the brightest” in order to out-innovate global competitors and to create new jobs. Critics claim the federal guest worker visa programs are rife with abusive practices and that there’s no shortage of the best and brightest talent right here – especially now with more than 20 million Americans jobless or underemployed.

“Dan Rather Reports: No Thanks for Everything,” Tuesday, June 14 at 8:00 p.m. ET; Saturday at noon EDT.

Unemployment and living arrangement being factors. Why couldn't Rather have done such a report on CBS.

Here we go, another friend of the American worker. How and why people are not outraged about the never-ending quest to destroy opportunities for American citizens is beyond me. This crap has been going on for nearly 20 years. The number of jobs lost to H1Bs and the like is intolerable.

Just another unbelievable load of crap out of a politician's mouth. Trouble is money talks and the rest of us get screwed.

Sure here I am. Degree in Computer Science, already had a 15.5 year career in IT. Been out of the business for 8 years. A couple voluntarily, 2 or three do to my significant others kidney failure and 3 looking to get back into an IT job. I understand that my current skills are not up to date and I don't have the 5 to 7 years experience in everything under the sun that most employers seem to want but I am willing to take a junior position or even entry level position in order to get back into the business (oh didn't mention I have managed to get one certification and working on a second, taken classes and have studied and worked with everything I can get my hands on to prepare for a job). What it comes down to is that these corporation don't want to put money into training American workers and would rather just bring in 'already trained' foreign workers (I have seen what some of these H1B workers make and they are not necessarily cheap) and they use the threat of moving jobs overseas to cow the government into relaxing immigration restrictions. Maybe they should answer this 'what difference does it make to the American worker if you won't hire them for the job here in the USA if you move it overseas you are still saying you don't give a damn about the United States or the workers here'.

I am sure somebody is going to answer my post with the idea that corporations are in the business of making profits not creating jobs for American labor and therefore if they can get cheaper labor somewhere else they should. I think they can do both if they would step away from the idea that profits have to be 'maximized'. A corporation can make more than enough profit to make money for their investors and still put some money into building to qualified American workforce and still stay in business but the executives running the show would rather put that money in their own pockets that make the success of American businesses a true team effort where everybody benefits from their work.

while our politicians throw us under the bus

Bloomberg is an arrogant fool.

They need sponsors to remain here. They fear pissing off anyone for fear of being deported so they work extremely long hours and weekends at lower wages.

I think this is the real goal of these corporations.

How do I know? I have a green card.

H-1B workers who work for honest and ethical employers have the same rights and benefits as all other workers. How do I know that? I work in immigration law for a living and I've been doing so for well over 11 years for quite a lot of companies, from start-ups to international corporations.

I assure you I've never worked at lower wages than anyone else; in fact, because I'm multilingual and versed in multicultural environments I have been highly sought. Long hours? yes, unfortunately, but not because I'm being blackmailed. My green card (actually it's called lawful permanent resident) status cannot be taken away by an employer.

There are multitudes of H-1B workers who are not in IT; they include architects, scientists and other professionals who are sought because, at times, they do possess skills that are hard to find in the U.S. A prime example is a French company establishing a subsidiary in the U.S. wishing to hire an accountant who is knowledgeable about the French accounting practices of the parent company. Chances are this person will probably be a French accountant and thus be hired on an H-1B visa (or L if s/he has worked for the parent company in France).

I understand that it's fashionable on DU to criticize H-1Bs. There certainly may be some justification for some of the anger directed at the program. But what I also find as true is that a lot of posters are very very ignorant about what H-1Bs are and are not and what it takes for an employer to hire an H-1B worker (financially and legally). This ignorance which, to me, smacks of xenophobia at times, is one of the reasons why lately I don't respond to a lot of misinformed posts on immigration. No matter how much I try to educate and correct people on the actual requirements and descriptions of visas, inevitably my posts will be dismissed.

Remember that a lot of foreign companies in the U.S. could not exist here if they didn't have at least some of their personnel from their countries of origins come to the U.S. and operate with a non-immigrant visa (such as the H-1B among others). You may not think it important for a foreign company to have some of its personnel familiar with that country's laws and regulations to operate in the U.S., but it nonetheless is fundamental.

Lastly, green card workers are not required to work for their sponsor (if they obtained such status via employment). Indeed, they (we) have the same rights as everyone else and can work for whomever (except certain federal jobs).

The firm I work for has many H1B's, none in IT and all in very specific roles and about half a dozen unfilled positions. When we recruit for these positions we pretty much only hear from professors looking for opportunities for their graduating foreign students, the odd journalist fishing for a story and immigrants who might have been qualified twenty years ago.

For us most of the time it comes down to USEFUL language skills, and to that end we interview entirely in the required language. Many Americans will call themselves "fluent" having say taken Spanish in high school or successfully having propositioned a French woman.

Most of the time we can find Chinese speakers locally, Spanish is hit and miss, but everything else usually means a foreign candidate.

Douche Bag.