Outsourcer: A 'global citizen' will emerge

Increasing language enrollments may signal future U.S. workers to apply for jobs in San Francisco, Delhi and Dubai

Computerworld - WASHINGTON -- There's a lot of worry in India about whether the U.S. Congress will restrict H-1B visas -- but not so much for Phaneesh Murthy, president and CEO of IT services firm iGate Corp.

The company, headquartered in Fremont, Calif., is an offshore IT services provider. Of the 6,500 employees in his company, only about 10% are in the U.S., or roughly 650 people. And out of that U.S. workforce, 35% are permanent residents, or like Murthy, U.S. citizens. The balance of iGate's U.S. workforce is temporary visa workers.

It's those kinds of workforce numbers that put Murthy on the firing line of the H-1B debate. But he believes he will be largely unaffected by anything Congress does. Some of it has to do with the way he operates his business, and the rest to do with how he sees the future.

Murthy envisions that perhaps 20 to 30 years from now, a world where restrictions on the movement of workers will melt way. U.S. workers will travel and work globally, in pursuit of the most interesting jobs and projects, something that is already going on. "Many countries in the world will start becoming melting pots for different cultures and skill sets," said Murthy.

It's a Star Trek-like Federation view of the world, but there is some evidence that students are preparing for a more global future.

Foreign language enrollments in elementary schools is believed to be increasing dramatically, driven by parents, many of whom "are looking at the growth and emergence of China as a major player," said Steve Ackley, a spokesman for the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages.

Underpinning this is a belief that "those that can speak the language are going to have a leg up," Ackley said. The council is now updating a survey of foreign language enrollments in K-12, the first since 2000, and Ackley expects it to confirm its anecdotal reports of rising enrollments.

Foreign language enrollments at U.S. colleges and universities in the U.S. have increased. In 1998, there were 1,151,000 students enrolled in a language course in a survey of some 2,800 institutions by the Modern Language Association in New York. By 2006, the last available data (PDF document), that number had increased to 1.522 million, or more than 32%.

But much of that gain is due to increasing colleges enrollments overall, from 14.5 million in 1998 to 17.64 million in 2006. There was nonetheless a gain in course enrollments over that period, from 7.9 students per 100 to 8.6. This enrollment survey is being updated this fall.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9136349/Outsourcer_A_global_citizen_will_emerge

that will pre-empty such a manifestation.

He's using wide-eyed one-world fantasy-speak as a cover for his stated goal of destroying the American IT industry and replacing it with citizens of his native land.

We call that un-American.

gotta try and push their once $60/share stock up over 6-bucks!