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It would be great if the US government provided an expedited Visa program for college-educated foreign nationals who have received a job offer from a company in
by jcrites 13y ago
It would be great if the US government provided an expedited Visa program for college-educated foreign nationals who have received a job offer from a company in the US. There is H1B, but that applies to specialty occupations. (I'm not an immigration expert - perhaps this already exists and I don't know about it?)
How many people from those countries immigrate to the US or wish to? If they're willing to work, and a company here has offered them a job, I say bring them over!
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free;
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore,
Send these, the homeless,
Tempest-tossed to me
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!
(I do get the impression that Google, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. can hire the candidates they want, but is that true for smaller companies as well?)
The article mentioned that about 30% are college educated. It would be interesting to look at a breakdown of degrees. For example, many Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics graduates are highly sought after in industry. Additionally, are the degrees reputable from an international perspective and in fields suitable by commerce and industry?
- icelancer 13y agoWhy do they have to be college-educated?
- sliverstorm 13y agoIt's a reaction to the observation that the most valuable immigrants, the ones that we want most, have options elsewhere and are going elsewhere. So, shouldn't we lower the barriers to entice said valuable immigrants? College-educated is just an easy metric to approximate this distinction.
- mullingitover 13y agoAs someone who'd like to drive down the value of my labor down to poverty levels, this is a fantastic idea.
- jcrites 13y agoThis isn't a particularly constructive comment, especially the sarcasm. I can see that you've been on HN for a while, but in the future it would be great if you could consider stating your concerns directly. (Unless you're just trying to make a joke, in which case it doesn't make complete sense to me. We're talking about positions that require college education.) Or do you genuinely believe that allowing a greater level of immigration will have more drawbacks than benefits?
- nhebb 13y agoOn one hand you're trying to invoke the emotional imagery of a wave of immigrants coming through Ellis Island, but with the stipulation that they are college educated. Give us your tired, your poor, your huddled masses - as long as they have a STEM degree. You've managed to come across as both populist and elitist in the same argument, so sarcastic replies aren't completely unexpected.
- mullingitover 13y agoMy sentiments exactly. "Let's plunder these unfortunate countries for their talent" is a bit unseemly. I'm not against immigration, in fact I think the US needs it if we're going to avoid having our birth rate go flat/negative. But why couldn't these companies open offices in Spain and Greece instead of trying to siphon off their talent?
- potatolicious 13y agoOh, this is just hysteria. The kind of software engineers that Amazon, Google, Facebook, et al are importing are all above the six-figure threshold, many of them well above it. This community really makes me facepalm sometimes. It is the only group that can, while getting free massages, catered meals, free shuttles to/from work, get paid well into the six figures, and enjoys an incredibly high standard of living even by its own country's standards, still make noises as if they're the exploited proletariat that can't make ends meet. Whatever the effect of skilled immigration - some argue it raises all boats, others argue it suppresses wages, "down to poverty levels" is dishonest hysterics when applied to our industry.
- mynameishere 13y agoCrummy sonnets do not set public policy. It's tiresome and mystifying that people think they do. Also, why are you complaining about Microsoft, et al? They are dead-set on reducing tech workers' wages through immigration. You should applaud them.
- jcrites 13y agoThe sonnet doesn't set public policy. But I think it's worthwhile to remember the US's historical views towards immigration - that it made the country stronger. On the other hand, since then protectionism, especially the desire to protect American jobs, has grown over time. > Paul Auster wrote that "Bartholdi's gigantic effigy was originally intended as a monument to the principles of international republicanism, but 'The New Colossus' reinvented the statue's purpose, turning Liberty into a welcoming mother, a symbol of hope to the outcasts and downtrodden of the world". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_New_Colossus > The statue is an icon of freedom and of the United States: a welcoming signal to immigrants arriving from abroad. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Statue_of_Liberty I'm not complaining about the companies that can get Visas. I work for one of them. I'm just pointing out a fact that seems to be true.
- benologist 13y agoWhy does it have to be US? The whole world is shrinking, a centuries-old, artificial line shouldn't be a barrier.
- jcrites 13y agoI think that's a good question. I would support similar views in other countries. However, the US is my home, and I would not presume to dictate other countries policies to them, knowing nothing of their circumstances.
- ajross 13y agoThe point was more that the US is a plausible sink for that excess labor. Yes, it would indeed be great for Belize or Angola to loosen immigration restrictions and make more six figure tech jobs available to young europeans. But...
- sliverstorm 13y agoYou might think the line is dated and artificial, but so long as that line determines where taxes go, it does matter.
- deleted 13y ago[deleted]