In the opposite corner: Immigration skeptics… Ouch. I disagree with this, so much. The US takes over a million new legal immigrants into the country every ye

In the opposite corner: Immigration skeptics… Ouch. I disagree with this, so much. The US takes over a million new legal immigrants into the country every year. These immigrants are free to choose their career path in response to market signals and their own personal interests. This sort of immigration has nothing to do with the H1B visa. A lot of people are certainly skeptical of claims that there is a severe shortage of tech workers. Many of us simply believe that when people are free to choose their own path in life, those with the skills necessary to become excellent programmers are able to apply those skills more profitably and find greater personal fulfillment in other areas. We believe that the government should not coercively force people to work for a period of time in certain fields and for certain employers as a condition of gaining the right to become a free participant in the US labor market, and that this sort of corporate power invites mischief. In fact, I'd say that a program that provides a captive workforce whose ability to enter new fields and jobs is limited will create bad market distortions. It will prevent or at least suppress the kind of changes that would make programming and other tech fields attractive enough to start drawing that top talent out of other fields and into programming. Employers, even "good" ones, should not control their employee's right to live in the US. People should be free to choose their path in life, and should not be coerced into studying or working in a particular field as a condition of living in the US. Those beliefs do not make an immigration sceptic. I'd say they are consistent with a very pro-immigration mindset.