Wonderful Article by Bill Gates in Washingtonpost

Pssssttt !

In reality he wants people working long hours there for the same salary. He knows we foreigners are willing to do that...till we get our greencards :)
 
I am also highly surprised with very few comment in favor of EB GC on important article of washingtonpost. It is most likely that lot of media people, lawmakers and US citizens are reading this article. I posted three comments and requested every one to post comments since last Saturday. More than 90% comments are posted by anti-immigrants.


How come no one is rebutting.

These comments are on a very credible place (washingtonj post); this isn't being posted on some anti immigrant web-site.


Everyone has had lots of practice over the last year through these boards of why increasing greencard quota is a good thing; but it seems people are not responding to the postings on washington post.

Didn't everyone think the day was going to come when the other side or the American who was working in IT was going to strike back in a public way? Now, is the time for everyone to use their arguments.
 
I am also highly surprised with very few comment in favor of EB GC on important article of washingtonpost. It is most likely that lot of media people, lawmakers and US citizens are reading this article. I posted three comments and requested every one to post comments since last Saturday. More than 90% comments are posted by anti-immigrants.

Why are you surprised? You can't expect citizens to be for immigration when it directly effects them. Even people already on H1, in the GC queue, with GC are against increasing H1 quota. Why do you think this is? It is due to the innate instict of survival and their own comfort.

The common man does not care about America's competitiveness. What they care about is how to put food on their table and how to survive and prosper to their best of abilities.

This article is geared more towards the law makers than the common person. I don't think any common person will be for something that will potentially displace him. Actually a shortage of workers is better for him as his skills will be in more demand and will be able to make more money.
 
UN,
I can't think of reasons for why EB visas need to be increased unless the industry can prove it. For the US, it might be better to have a floating H-1b working class without giving them any residentship rights. Obviously that means less commitment from these workers.
However, I can agree with Bill Gates' reasons for retrogession not making it possible for legal immigrants to contribute to their potential due to lack of mobility. I don't have any reasons to prove this though except take Bill Gates word on it.
It might be good if there is a backlash for legal immigrants. We need to go one way before we may go the other. Something like the House Bill for criminalization of illegals....

My posting was tongue in cheek.

There were a lot of people coming up with reasons to increase greencard quota which were basically not anywhere near good enough but they thought it was valid. I strongly suggested to people that these arguments would have absolutely no merit when the other side started their arguments.

Now the genie is out of the bottle and can't be put back. However, all the people who were making loud noise now may feel a little sheepish to go and post when they know they can't rebut them.

Lucky for most that Bill Gates does carry someinfluence. However, it looks like this might backfire for the IT people just like it had backfired on the undocumented.
 
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Bill Gates written wonderful article in Washington post. This will make big difference. Please write comments on this article as lot of people will read this article. It is golden opportunity to convey our issue to many many people. Please post your comments like we post on washingtonwatch.com

Thanks,
Raj

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/23/AR2007022301697.html

This is good article, but some facts appear to be incorrect. For example annual quota for H1 is not 65,000. It is 85000 (65000+20000 for people having US MS degree). Also some jobs (like University Prof) are quota exempt.
 
I got laid off from Sun Micro 5 years ago and havent been offered anything but 3 month temp assignments 2000 miles away from home.

This is form one of the comments on washington post. Is this guy for real? Do you guys know of people really going through this. If this is for real, I would think that is it has to do more with the person's short coming than due to the H1B's.
 
I got laid off from Sun Micro 5 years ago and havent been offered anything but 3 month temp assignments 2000 miles away from home.

This is form one of the comments on washington post. Is this guy for real? Do you guys know of people really going through this. If this is for real, I would think that is it has to do more with the person's short coming than due to the H1B's.
from what i know this can be near to real.........this guy may not have found similar job that was there in 2000.........and instead of working hard to improve his skills........he goes into depression.......and wants protection.

right now there are enough jobs everywhere......but due to H1B employees.......wages go down....

once a employer hires a H1B he realises that its a gold mine.......committed 60hr/wk worker......with no demand for salary hike........at atleast 20% less rate than an american worker........the employers just love it....and they would not like to touch a american after that...
 
from what i know this can be near to real.........this guy may not have found similar job that was there in 2000.........and instead of working hard to improve his skills........he goes into depression.......and wants protection.

right now there are enough jobs everywhere......but due to H1B employees.......wages go down....

once a employer hires a H1B he realises that its a gold mine.......committed 60hr/wk worker......with no demand for salary hike........at atleast 20% less rate than an american worker........the employers just love it....and they would not like to touch a american after that...

Is this from your personal experience? This is my 7th year on H1B and I was on OPT for 1 year before that. I never worked more hours than my american co-workers nor paid less. I was lucky enough not to work for any of the desi blood suckers.
 
I got laid off from Sun Micro 5 years ago and havent been offered anything but 3 month temp assignments 2000 miles away from home.

This is form one of the comments on washington post. Is this guy for real? Do you guys know of people really going through this. If this is for real, I would think that is it has to do more with the person's short coming than due to the H1B's.

This could be true, this was in news long back, check this out
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/705864/posts

http://news.zdnet.com/2100-3513_22-993123.html

This is a very common phenomenon in bay area. There are many companies like this in bay area, they make people slog day, night and weekend. If anyone don't agree with that companies just kick them out. Also force the guys who are working here to work at nights and do a knowledge transfer to the offshore guys. Once it is done, they will offer a job in India for those who transferred knowledge selflessly.

At the end, public does not have any sympathy for H1B's or desi execs in bay area; what they did few years back to citizens is coming back at them now. By this time if one has got his/her citizenship he/she will be happy to go back to home country.
 
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It may be true that the guy was unfairly laid off from Sun, but if he really couldn't find a steady job in 5 years he must be not very good, or he didn't really want such a job (some people like the money from the short-term consulting projects, so they don't try hard to find a regular job).
 
Is this from your personal experience? This is my 7th year on H1B and I was on OPT for 1 year before that. I never worked more hours than my american co-workers nor paid less. I was lucky enough not to work for any of the desi blood suckers.
that data is about a company here in birmingham, AL who have around 11 people out of 20 on H1B.....chinese and indians.....

a friend of mine once went for an interview.....he is an american.....they find him too expensive.....even though they want a project lead and a architect...

one of their consultant came to our company to implement something.......an indian H1B guy.........he worked 3 weeks......80hrs/wk.......because he was given an impossible assignment....

BTW i used to drool about that company....because they are pure IT solution providers.......i would love to work for a IT solution provider......a new project/client every six months......no maintenance/operations headache....

but when i saw their work culture......which is no fault of the employers btw.....its just that these people on H1B are willing to suck-it-up.....most H1Bs (i can bet around 70%) are like that by nature.....
 
Right now Senate Judiciary committee have hearing with Secretory Commerce and Secretory DHS. In the first hours of discussion, I heard, at least, three to four times the Bill Gates article on Washingtonpost was discussed. How important that article is as far as skilled legal immigrants are concerned. It appears that all the lawmakers and policy makers have read that article along with comments posted on that article.
Many time I requested to post comments in favor of skilled immigrants. We missed the flight as lot of anti-immigrants have posted against that article! Timely action is highly needed.
I don't know, if we are not convince about EB GC reliefs, how come other people convince about it and shower GC to all of us!
 
Right now Senate Judiciary committee have hearing with Secretory Commerce and Secretory DHS. In the first hours of discussion, I heard, at least, three to four times the Bill Gates article on Washingtonpost was discussed. How important that article is as far as skilled legal immigrants are concerned. It appears that all the lawmakers and policy makers have read that article along with comments posted on that article.
Many time I requested to post comments in favor of skilled immigrants. We missed the flight as lot of anti-immigrants have posted against that article! Timely action is highly needed.
I don't know, if we are not convince about EB GC reliefs, how come other people convince about it and shower GC to all of us!
khodal, where are you watching/reading this? c-span2?
Also, I didn't see this on the agenda at senate.gov - do you know why it's not listed? Is it because it is still being introduced? then when does the debating begin?
 
Right now Senate Judiciary committee have hearing with Secretory Commerce and Secretory DHS. In the first hours of discussion, I heard, at least, three to four times the Bill Gates article on Washingtonpost was discussed. How important that article is as far as skilled legal immigrants are concerned. It appears that all the lawmakers and policy makers have read that article along with comments posted on that article.
Many time I requested to post comments in favor of skilled immigrants. We missed the flight as lot of anti-immigrants have posted against that article! Timely action is highly needed.
I don't know, if we are not convince about EB GC reliefs, how come other people convince about it and shower GC to all of us!
most of the comments i read in the first page were from people up against bill gates..........only one or two made any argument about the demerit of immigration/H1B visas....
 
most of the comments i read in the first page were from people up against bill gates..........only one or two made any argument about the demerit of immigration/H1B visas....
frankly speaking....even though i am on H1B visa....

H1B visa/outsourcing is for the rich business to get more richer while the middle class american workers dont get any benefit....

if they are really serious about bringing best brain or talent (which i would have done if i was running the show...) they should be giving out GC based on candidates merits........something like a 500k visas for the best brain of the world........

H1B may have been good to keep the cost under control in the 90s since the demand for IT pros was instantaneous......but not anymore.....the demand is almost stable enough that it can be satisfied with local talent...

this is just my opinion....i may be wrong.....i would love to hear other views...
 
gcwhenever,

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=2555

Click on the "WEbcast"

The discussion is on
khodal
thanks for providing the link.
but could not hear much.
can you update us on what the general feeling and discussion was?
anything specific to high skilled legals?

All I heard was something along the lines of "this will be a long drawn out process...."
that's not good news, was hoping things would move quickly since it was already passed by senate last year
 
The testimonies of Secretory Commerce and DHS are posted at

http://judiciary.senate.gov/hearing.cfm?id=2555

Nothing specific about skilled immigrants. More on border security and illegals


khodal
thanks for providing the link.
but could not hear much.
can you update us on what the general feeling and discussion was?
anything specific to high skilled legals?

All I heard was something along the lines of "this will be a long drawn out process...."
that's not good news, was hoping things would move quickly since it was already passed by senate last year
 
KM,
Don't worry! If the Judiciary committee does not listen to Bill Gates and listens to everybody else, then you are better off not living in such a place anyways.
There is no urgency around legal immigration reform.
One of the good things that Biil Gates mentioned was retrogession which although known to the judiciary committee needed to be highlighted and who better than Bill Gates to do so.
I would support some movement around removing retrogession and pushing H-1B and more Green Cards as additional provisions. At the moment, the effort is to push H-1b and EB visas and then remove retrogession/ I-485 filing relief as an additional step.
In any case unless there is some movement by retrogessed candidates themselves rather than by Bill Gates there may not be much urgency shown by the Congress on this. IV seems to be trying to push for more lobbying which I hope works.

Right now Senate Judiciary committee have hearing with Secretory Commerce and Secretory DHS. In the first hours of discussion, I heard, at least, three to four times the Bill Gates article on Washingtonpost was discussed. How important that article is as far as skilled legal immigrants are concerned. It appears that all the lawmakers and policy makers have read that article along with comments posted on that article.
Many time I requested to post comments in favor of skilled immigrants. We missed the flight as lot of anti-immigrants have posted against that article! Timely action is highly needed.
I don't know, if we are not convince about EB GC reliefs, how come other people convince about it and shower GC to all of us!
 
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