What You Can Do to Raise the H-1B Cap
What You Can Do to Raise the H-1B Cap
Date: Saturday, July 22, 2006 7:24 PM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1524 -- 07/22/2006 >>>>>
Just in case you are one of the few on this mailing list that actually want
more H-1Bs, the first article will tell you how you can join hands with
AILA in their effort to lobby Congress. They don't mention the bill by
name, but you can bet they are referring to the Skil bill because that's
the only H-1B increase that is working it's way through both the House and
Senate. The "comprehensive" immigration bill (S. 2611) has only passed the
Senate.
The "farsighted" politicians they are referring to are probably the
sponsors of the bills - Shadegg in the House and Cornyn in the Senate, and
of course all the sellouts who have signed on as cosponsors.
It's worth noting that AILA knows where the money is coming from to lobby
for the Skil bill. That's why awhile back I nicknamed it "Bill's Skil
Bill".
Fortunately, a few farsighted senators and representatives have
proposed bills in the both the Senate and in the House of
Representatives to increase the 65,000 cap to 115,000 immediately,
and to increase the cap automatically by 20 percent whenever it
is reached in the previous year. The 20,000 cap would be reserved
for persons with advanced degrees from foreign universities while
persons with advanced degrees in science, technology, engineering
and mathematics from U.S. universities would exempt from the cap.
Intel, Microsoft and a hundreds of employers are pushing for these
changes in the law.
Two recent articles are also included that explain why we must have more
H-1Bs. They are unabashed propaganda, but there are a few tidbits of useful
information, like for instance, an explanation why rogue countries like
Pakistan, Iran, and China have been able to steal our nuclear weapons and
rocket technology:
Many of the area laboratories also employ foreign nationals.
At Fermilab in Batavia 240 of its employees are foreign nationals
and 63 different languages are spoken on the premises.
Argonne National Laboratory in southeast DuPage County employs
511 non-citizens out of 2,900 employees from 67 countries. One
hundred of those employees are from China and 56 of them are
from India.
Most of the women on this mailing list are probably too busy to read this
far because employers are beating their doors down. Must be nice!
Tory Johnson, head of New York-based job fair and recruiting firm
Women for Hire, said being a professional - particularly a woman -
with highly technical skills means "employers are knocking down
your door." And that equates to more than just a substantial
salary. These candidates can shop around for the right fit as far
as corporate culture, location and flexible work schedules,
she said.
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http://immigration.about.com/b/a/256069.htm
H-1B Visa Shortage: What You Can Do to Raise the H-1B Cap?
Want an H-1B Visa? Wish there were more available? Maybe there is something
you (yes, you) can do to get that H-1B cap raised... something quick, easy
and effective.
Learning from History
Before 1990, there was no cap on the number of H-1B workers who could enter
the U.S. And, surprisingly, the system worked well. The free market
determined how many H-1Bs professionals were hired by American companies
each year.
The Immigration Act of 1990 changed all of that. Suddenly, only 65,000 H-1B
professionals could enter the U.S. each year, and for a maximum of six
years.
As the economy began to heat up, and the demand for professional workers
increased, the 65,000 cap was reached prior to the end of the fiscal year
on October 1st. I remember being interviewed for a story on the front page
of the Wall Street Journal when the quota for reached 30 days prior to the
end of the year.
The Cap, Raised
The computer industry was successful in raising the cap twice, first to
115,000 and then to 195,000. However, a couple of years ago, the cap fell
to 65,000, which is an unreasonably low number in todays growing
economy. Congress stepped in and added 20,000 more numbers for persons with
advanced degrees in the U.S., but it was too little, too late.
Current H-1B Disaster
This year, 2006, the 65,000 cap which reached in late May, over four months
before the beginning of the fiscal year. Worse yet, the 20,000 copy was
reached in July, months before the start of the new fiscal year.
This is an unmitigated disaster from both H-1B professionals and the
employers who disparately need their services. Hi-tech companies have no
choice but to outsource their work destroying American jobs in the process.
Hospitals and school districts, who cant outsource their work are in big
trouble, and its the American students and patients who suffer.
Fortunately, a few farsighted senators and representatives have proposed
bills in the both the Senate and in the House of Representatives to
increase the 65,000 cap to 115,000 immediately, and to increase the cap
automatically by 20 percent whenever it is reached in the previous year.
The 20,000 cap would be reserved for persons with advanced degrees from
foreign universities while persons with advanced degrees in science,
technology, engineering and mathematics from U.S. universities would exempt
from the cap.
Intel, Microsoft and a hundreds of employers are pushing for these changes
in the law.
So What Can You do to Raise the H-1B Cap?
What can you do to help raise the H-1B cap? Believe it or not, you can do
something, and its quick, its easy and its very effective.
If you are pressed for time, simply use the pre-existing sign-on letter
prepared by the American Immigration Lawyers Association (AILA).
Of course, it carries even more weight if you write a personalized letter
to you senators and representatives supporting H-1B cap reform. You can
find their addresses, e-mail and snail mail, on the Shusterman.com
Immigration Legislation page.
When political leaders feel the heat, they usually see the light. Together,
we can make a difference. ~ Carl Shusterman, Esq.
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http://www.easybourse.com/Website/dynamic/News.php?NewsID=27249&lang=fra&NewsRubrique=2
America's Got Talent, But Not Enough In Tech Fields
By Christopher Scinta Of DOW JONES NEWSWIRES NEW YORK -(Dow Jones)- NBC's
television show declares "America's Got Talent."
True for contortionist-archers and harmonica wizards, but good luck finding
engineers and software designers.
Corporate America is desperate to find technical talent, prompting many to
step up retention efforts, while making a mad dash to move higher paid
research operations to China and India. It raises new debate about caps on
visas for foreign workers and the need to attract more U.S. students to the
careers in math and science.
"I think there are too few people choosing technical careers," says Urs
Holzle, senior vice president at Google Inc. (GOOG). The company has added
operations in places such as Seattle and New York to be closer to talent
pools.
The Bureau of Labor Statistics says the U.S. needs 135,000 new computer
professionals a year, but its universities are producing only 49,000
computer science graduates annually. The agency also predicts the need for
science and engineering graduates will grow 26% to 1.25 million by 2012.
However, the number of graduates in those fields has remained relatively
flat for two decades.
In 2004 Chinese schools awarded 351,000 bachelor degrees in engineering,
computer science and information technology, while the U.S. awarded only
137,000 similar degrees, according to a Duke University study. India was
close behind with 112,000.
Tory Johnson, head of New York-based job fair and recruiting firm Women for
Hire, said being a professional - particularly a woman - with highly
technical skills means "employers are knocking down your door." And that
equates to more than just a substantial salary. These candidates can shop
around for the right fit as far as corporate culture, location and flexible
work schedules, she said.
The search for technical talent in the U.S. has become "fiercely
competitive," said Yahoo Inc. (YHOO) spokeswoman Heidi Burgett. The company
"re-recruits" existing employees to keep them happy, offering job rotations
and access to the most important, high-profile projects.
R&D Beyond The Sea The intense competition for such a limited group of
workers has fueled an expansion to off-shore locations well beyond the
now-ubiquitous customer call center in Bangalore. Many U.S. companies are
now moving more advanced - and higher-paid - research and development work
to China, India and Eastern Europe, not only to be involved in their
fast-growing economies, but to tap a pool of thousands of engineers,
software developers and other technical professionals.
Texas Instruments Inc. (TXN), Intel Corp. (INTC) and International Business
Machines Corp. (IBM) are just a few of the companies that have said
recently they would open, or add to, technical operations in India.
Data storage company EMC Corp. (EMC) last month said it would make large
investments in both India and China. "We said will invest $500 million in
India through 2010, and in China $500 million between 2006 and 2010," said
Greg Eden, an EMC spokesman. Those investments are meant to be
all-encompassing efforts to build sales and infrastructure, as well as
product development.
EMC currently has about 28,000 employees worldwide including 700 software
developers in Bangalore. The company expects to increase that figure to
1,600 by 2008.
John McArthur, a senior analyst at research firm IDC Corp. in Framingham,
Mass., said EMC has been adding workers in India and China to gain access
to highly skilled but relatively cheap labor, particularly in software
development, as well as to gain a foothold in those countries as they
become bigger information technology consumers.
Foreign-Born Talent Another answer to the dearth of talent in America is to
simply bring foreign workers with the skills companies need to the U.S.
Gold producer Newmont Mining Corp. (NEM) has found it difficult to recruit
engineers and geologists in the U.S., human resource manager David Kern
said. It's particularly tough to find experienced engineers, he said,
noting Newmont recently staffed three upper-level engineering jobs with
candidates from Canada, Mexico and Australia.
The mining industry has been particularly hard hit by the lack of technical
talent and expects tough times ahead - about half the 5,200 practicing
mining engineers in the U.S. will retire in the next dozen years, said
Leigh Freeman, general manager of Downing Teal, a search firm specialized
in finding talent for natural resource industries.
During a downturn in the 1990s, many people left the mining industry, and
now that natural resources are a hot market again, Newmont is using
headhunters to try to track down some of those veterans, as well as make
sure it keeps the people it has. Kern says Newmont tries to provide clear
career paths for its technical professionals, so they can see the
opportunities to advance within the company and won't be tempted to leave.
Gary Flaharty, spokesman for oil services company Baker Hughes Inc. (BHI)
said universities in the U.S. and Western Europe simply aren't attracting
and graduating enough students with the skills needed by the energy
industry.
"The industry is more and more turning to the Eastern Hemisphere to meet
the requirements" for qualified petroleum engineers and geophysicists,
Flaharty said.
Citing statistics compiled by the Society of Petroleum Engineers, Flaharty
noted that 1,732 undergraduate students were enrolled in petroleum
engineering programs at U.S. universities in 2004, versus 11,014 in 1983.
Visas But getting foreign-born professionals into the country to fill those
jobs isn't always easy either. Short-term visas for foreign workers coming
to the U.S. to fill specialty occupations such as mathematics, physical
sciences and engineering - known as H1B visas - are limited to 65,000 a
year by the federal government, though that was temporarily raised to
195,000 a year from 2001 to 2003. Another 20,000 visas are available to
foreign-born workers who received a master's or doctorate degree from a
U.S. university.
Arthur Rothkopf, senior vice president at the U.S. Chamber of Commerce,
said the H1B quota for fiscal 2007 has already been used up. The chamber is
lobbying, with various companies, to have that cap increased to 200,000 or
300,000 a year. Rothkopf says there is a "critical, urgent need" for more
foreign-born professionals in the U.S.
Education In the long term though, Rothkopf said the U.S. needs to build up
its science and math education system. A report published in late 2005 by
the National Academies of Science said addressing the lack of math and
science graduates in the U.S. would be key to maintaining the country's
economic stability.
"We have to remain competitive," said Mark Heesen, president of the
National Venture Capital Association, which represents most venture-capital
firms in the U.S. "Otherwise, Asia will take over what we're doing."
Science and engineering tend to be difficult disciplines to master and many
students are lured by positions in law and finance that seem more
lucrative, he said.
As competition for the shrinking pool of American engineering graduates
becomes more intense, defense contractors like Northrop Grumman Corp. (NOC)
have established "pipeline" programs with U.S. universities, high schools
and even junior high and grade schools to encourage more American students
to study engineering. Los Angeles-based Northrop has put more resources in
apprenticeship and internship programs, said John Krakowski, Northrop's
corporate director of employment and employee relations. The company is
also encouraging veteran engineers to delay retirement to mentor young
employees.
Newmont has made a $2.5 million commitment to University of Nevada - Reno
to fund teaching and recruitment for mining professions, while copper giant
Phelps Dodge Corp. (PD) has made a $2.5 million endowment to the University
of Arizona for training mining engineers and offers scholarships at several
other schools.
But thus far it appears the efforts haven't been very effective. During
fall 2003, there were 91,000 engineering students in masters programs,
while in fall 2005 that number had dropped to 83,000, said Michael Gibbons,
director of data research for the American Society for Engineering
Education.
(Bob Sechler, Frank Byrt, Megha Rajagopalan, Mark Boslet, Jonathan Vuocolo
and Jason Ma contributed to this report.)
- By Christopher Scinta, Dow Jones Newswires; 201-938-5218;
chris.scinta@dowjones.com
Jeudi 20 juillet 2006 / 19h54
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http://www.thebusinessledger.com/Articles.asp?artId=1245&isuID=72
Tech Jobs Aplenty, but Fewer U.S. Citizens To Fill Them
While there are high-tech jobs in abundance, theres a significant
shortage of U.S. citizens filling them.
The skilled U.S.-born workforce is not large enough to fill all the
available jobs in engineering, computers, math and sciences, forcing many
companies to hire non-citizens to fill these roles.
Last year the National Academies released a study regarding the number of
engineering graduates in the U.S. as opposed to countries like China and
India that are beginning to challenge America in numerous technological
fields. The study concluded that China graduates 600,000 new engineers a
year, India 350,000 and the U.S. only 70,000.
These numbers may seem extreme, but it is important to note the difference
in population among the countries, as the U.S. now has reached 300 million,
while India and China each have more than 1 billion inhabitants, and how
each country defines an engineer.
In China, auto mechanics are considered engineers and were included in the
study. It also must be noted that in many cases India and China included
degrees from two-year technical schools rather than the four-year degree
which is the U.S. standard.
This prompted a study from Duke University, which concluded that in
"like-to-like" comparisons the U.S. is not behind and in fact remains
competitive with other countries.
"Inconsistent reporting of problematic engineering graduation data has been
used to fuel fears that America is losing its technological edge," the
study states. "A comparison of like-to-like data suggests that the U.S.
produces a highly significant number of engineers, computer scientists, and
information technology specialists, and remains competitive in global
markets."
According to the American Society for Engineering Education, the U.S.
awarded 72,893 bachelors degrees to engineering students in 2005. The
Duke study finds however, that if the U.S. were to use Indias more
inclusive definitions it would have accounted for 137,437 bachelors
degrees, more than Indias 112,000.
However, while the gap may not be as striking as the figures from the
National Academies would imply, many prominent universities and colleges
have witnessed a decline in U.S. citizens entering the math and sciences
fields, as graduation numbers clearly show.
The University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign is one of the top five
engineering schools in the world. In the past decade a growing number of
foreign nationals have been receiving their education and advanced degrees
from the public school.
"In places like China and India there are few institutions that are good
enough for a graduate education," said Karen Carney, associate dean for the
graduate school at Illinois. "It allows us to cherry pick the best
students."
In November of 2005 the states flagship university awarded 208 PhDs in
engineering, with 135 of those degrees, or 64 percent, going to foreign
nationals. The majority of students were from India, China and South Korea.
This past year the program admitted more foreign nationals than it had the
previous year, as quality overseas applicants continue to apply in growing
numbers, said Carney.
U.S. citizens are still obtaining graduate degrees and PhDs, but its
just that they are not earning them in math and science programs in the
same numbers as in the past, said Carney.
"The lack of technical preparation in U.S. students is apparent," said
Carney. "If a student in China gets a perfect SAT score in the math portion
that is difficult to ignore. The pool simply isnt as good here."
Carney believes that much reform is needed and students need to focus on
math and science at a much younger age if the U.S. is to catch up
domestically to foreign countries where these subjects are seen as
important and prestigious.
And as these other nations continue to improve, they soon will have the
quality facilities and teachers to educate their own students at much
higher levels, added Carney.
The Illinois Institute of Technology has seen a growing trend as well in
that the number of U.S. citizens receiving masters degrees and PhDs has
decreased steadily from 204 in 2001 to 147 in 2005; conversely, the number
of foreign students receiving masters degrees or PhDs has increased from
272 in 2001 to 417 in 2005.
As these foreign graduates end their tenure at their place of study their
next step is somewhat up in the air, depending on their worker or student
status in the U.S. The majority of them would like to stay and work in the
U.S., but many return home to work in their respective countries.
"Some head home, but then come back here as soon as they can," said Rick
Kubetz of the College of Engineering at Illinois. "They need to head home
and settle their visas, but then they move back."
Stuart Emanuel, CEO of NueVista, an Oak Brook-based staffing agency that
specializes in IT positions, has seen an increasing number of foreign
nationals applying for high-tech positions in the United States.
"In the last 10 years there has been an increasing percent of foreign-born
applicants for IT positions," said Emanuel. "If I look at the number of
applicants who come into our office for technical positions the percentage
of non-U.S. citizens is greater than U.S. citizens."
Emanuel believes this is because the majority of U.S. students are focusing
on liberal arts studies rather than sciences and technology.
Because of the lack of U.S. candidates to choose from and the increase in
available positions, the federal government has more than doubled the quota
for non-citizens allowed to work in the IT industry, he said.
"Since 2000 the quota has gone from 55,000 non-citizens to 125,000
non-citizens allowed," said Emanuel. "The employment year starts in
November and the quota is usually filled by January."
Emanuel admits that it is much easier and less troublesome to hire
Americans because of the large amount of paperwork and visa processing that
is involved when hiring non-citizens, but the fact remains that those
candidates are few and far between.
"We just dont have the people," said Emanuel. "U.S. citizens are just
not going into these fields."
Many of the area laboratories also employ foreign nationals. At Fermilab in
Batavia 240 of its employees are foreign nationals and 63 different
languages are spoken on the premises.
Argonne National Laboratory in southeast DuPage County employs 511
non-citizens out of 2,900 employees from 67 countries. One hundred of those
employees are from China and 56 of them are from India.
Officials at Abbott Labs in North Chicago declined to comment for this
article.
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