New legislation proposing to raise the number of H-1B visas for science and technology workers has lots of bipartisan support: Sens. Orrin Hatch (R-UT), Jeff Flake (R-AZ), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), Chris Coons (D-DE), and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) are on board. Link
Alabama Senator Jeff Sessions is having none of it:
[A] stunning 3 in 4 Americans with a STEM degree do not hold a job in a STEM field—that’s a pool of more than 11 million Americans with STEM qualifications who lack STEM employment.
It is understandable why these corporations push for legislation that will flood the labor market and keep pay low; what is not understandable is why we would ever consider advancing legislation that provides jobs for the citizens of other countries at the expense of our own. Who do we work for?Democrats and a silent majority of Republicans are squeezing the American middle class from the bottom by holding out essentially limitless importation of unskilled labor; now Republicans and a silent* majority of Democrats are squeezing the American middle class at the top by offering essentially limitless importation of highly-skilled labor.
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*Except for that Sugar Mountain** chap, who is a loudmouth.
**Zuckerberg means "Sugar Mountain" in German
17 comments:
What is zuckerberg's problem? Not rich enough? He must hate American workers.
Facebook can drop dead.
I really like Marco Rubio, but on this issue - failure.
Sessions isn't having any of it because there are no STEM professionals in Alabama.
Incomprehensible that our own Congress is selling us down the river.
As a generalist [meaning no real skills] and HR manager, Titus, I suspect it won't be long before you get axed for being a non-revenue generator. I suggest you be prepared.
Titus said...Sessions isn't having any of it because there are no STEM professionals in Alabama.
Alabama hosted one of the earliest and most successful examples of imported foreign STEM talent: Wernher von Braun and his team. Fortunately, they chose to work for US and not for THEM. But those were different times -- pre-Sputnik. Plus, in that case, the foreign talent was better and not just cheaper.
April Apple said...
I really like Marco Rubio, but on this issue - failure.
I feel the same way about Darrell Issa.
I don't understand why the Left doesn't capitalize on this weakness and make it a wedge issue. They must really hate fellow Americans. Plus they have their own immigration pandering to mind.
Do you know what Mickey Kaus position is on these types of visas.
Do you know what Mickey Kaus position is on these types of visas.
Well, I didn't get it from that piece.
I think many Americans truly buy the story that their children/grandchildren and teachers are too stupid to compete against a smarter world. They aren't taking into consideration the economic model of tech hubs like Si-Valley.
Slashdot did a poll of its readers that said the same thing.
As I say, amnesty is about slaves
STEM is portable, unfortunately.
You can open an operation in the US or you can open it in India.
Visas let you open it in the US.
Otherwise you'd go out of business because you can't compete with the India operation.
So it may be about where you want STEM operations to be. American workers are undercut in any case.
I switched from STEM to law 25 years ago for fear of the writing on the wall.
I may have jumped the gun a bit, to mix metaphors or something or other.
Anyway, I watched They Live by John Carpenter the other night.
Conspiracy paranoia.
I can relate, as we used to say.
The way to defeat the attack of the STEM Indians is to scoop out one of their eyeballs with a hot spoon and then force them to beg for money on the streets of Detroit.
And make sure they don't get on any TV game shows.
Why this sell out of American workers is not getting more attention is beyond me…
There are plenty of STEM professionals in Alabama Titus. Stop being all Massachusetts centric.
I worked in this and that STEM profession for a long time, the last few years working via internet with co-workers in India and a couple Chinese, all of whom were fine people, as well as a few ordinary Americans.
Me working from home, so the dog was never unattended.
It was a US company, but perhaps I was in a mostly overseas division, I couldn't say. I never actually set foot in the place.
The internet is a wondrous thing.
rhhardin said...I worked in this and that STEM profession for a long time, the last few years working via internet with co-workers in India and a couple Chinese, all of whom were fine people, as well as a few ordinary Americans.
That was sweet and heartfelt, but I wasn't commenting or blogging on anyone's character, rather on immigration policy, especially in the face of farcical propaganda purporting there to be a shortage of US STEM workers.
Tell me Hardin, have you ever worked in STEM education, especially at the HS level?
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