16 Articles Worth Reading
16 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Friday, December 09, 2005 6:46 PM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
December 09, 2005 No. 1383
<<< COMMENTS FROM ROB >>>
The Mercurynews is on a yellow journalism binge. In Article #1 Alan
Greenspan thanks the global workforce for keeping inflation low by keeping
down labor costs. Greenspan thinks jobless Americans are good for Amerika!
The Mercury follows that with Article #2. Wipro is one of the world's
largest outsourcing companies, and operates as a bodyshop in the U.S. for
H-1B and L-1 visa holders. The chairman of Wipro said he opposses unions
because they are communist. Duh! The Mercurynews should have never printed
this piece of self-serving propaganda.
Articles 6 and 7 illustrates how little has changed since 1993.
Corporations and universities say there are shortages of PhDs, while
unemployed PhDs ask where the jobs are.
Article #14 shows that the lobbying campaign to raise H-1B is on - letter
from AILA to the Senate urging an increase in H-1Bs. To see the list of 750
companies and universities that signed the letter, click on the link.
Be sure to the letters from the AFL/CIO 9-10.
Article #15 is the H-1B sob story of the week!
<<< END OF COMMENTS >>>
Article 1:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13269662.htm
Global work force helps Fed on inflation
While Alan Greenspan has won praise for his successful 18-year battle to
keep inflation under control, he's the first to say he's had a lot of help.
Among those most responsible are tens of millions of workers in China,
India and Eastern Europe.
Article 2:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13275780.htm
Wipro chairman opposes unionization of India's tech sector
The chairman of Wipro Ltd., a top Indian software exporter, says he is
opposed to unionization of India's information technology sector.
Article 3:
http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_national_government/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19861_4274780,00.html
Congress milks fees from visa workers
Congress is gearing up to get tough on the border, but meanwhile, it's
happy to rake in the cash from legal immigrants and their employers. While
the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to take up border security
legislation in December and the Senate will do so in February, the
Judiciary Committee in each chamber is meeting budget spending targets by
raising more than $80 million from companies employing foreign workers.
Article 4:
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5027
Bitter Holidays for Nestle USA "Associates" Extensive Outsourcing Sends
Work Offshore via HP and IBM
"We currently have 1600 employees of HP R&D in India as well as 4 to 500
more with some of our partners in India."
Article 5:
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=technology&storyID=nBOM238019
Intel to invest $1 bln in India R&D, venture fund
Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker, plans to invest more than $1
billion in India to strengthen its research and development and invest in
telecoms and technology start-ups, its chairman said on Monday.
Article 6:
(link not available)
From David Goodstein's "Scientific Ph.D. Problems"
published in The Spring, 1993 issue of The American Scholar, pp. 215-220
Enter the foreign graduate students. With the saturation of demand for
Americans with doctorates around 1970, the best American students proved
their superior abilities by reading the writing on the wall, and they began
to choose other lines of work.
Article 7:
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/27/math__science__innovation_but_us_lags_in_the_equation/
Math + science = innovation, but US lags in the equation
Behind these moves lurks the fear that many young Americans are abandoning
math and science at a time when students in emerging countries like China
and India are mastering the subjects.
Article 8:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/columnists/business_update/13351825.htm
Microsoft to invest $1.7 billion, add 3,000 jobs in India
Want to work for Microsoft? Everyone's favorite software behemoth is taking
applications -- in Bangalore, India. Chairman Bill Gates said, according to
an Associated Press report. ``The growth in employment for Microsoft will
be more in India than the United States.''
Article 9:
(no link available)
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
to The Honorable Jim Sensenbrenner, Jr.
It is our understanding that Judiciary Committee conferees of the House and
Senate will shortly meet to reconcile the differences between their
respective revenue raising proposals as contained in the Budget
Reconciliation package. In this regard and on behalf of the 22 national
unions represented by our organization, we urge you to: support the
House-approved increase in the L-1 visa fee, and; set aside any proposed
increase in the number of H-1B visas.
Article 10:
(no link available)
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
to The Honorable Robert C. Byrd U.S. Senate
On behalf of the 22 national unions affiliated with the Department for
Professional Employees,
AFL-CIO, I wanted to thank to you for your recent efforts to prevent an
increase in H-1B visas during debate on the Budget Reconciliation
legislation.
Article 11:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1318264.cms
NRI techie moves court over racial slur
An Indian-American tech worker has filed a suit in a federal court in Texas
against a US firm alleging daily incidents of racial harassment and
discrimination because the company outsourced work to India.
Article 12:
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3282253
GOP forms strategy to OK guest workers
In a bid to bypass critics, the Senate will pass the plan and then merge it
with a House bill, observers say.
Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's controversial
guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in the House.
Article 13:
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14044098
Advanced degree H-1B visas may dry up soon
First, the H-1B visas ran out even before the start of the US Federal
Government's new fiscal, and now the clock is ticking for advanced degree
H-1B visas, as well. Barely two months into the new fiscal 2006, petitions
for the advance degree H-1B visa are inching closer to the 20,000-cap.
Article 14:
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/business_support_for_immigration_solution.pdf
Over 750 American Businesses and Universities Call for a Reasonable
Solution to H-1B Blackouts and Lengthy
"Green Card" Backlogs
We are writing to urge Congress to take immediate steps to address the
crisis currently facing American businesses and educational institutions as
a result of lengthy visa backlogs and an H-1B
"blackout."
Article 15:
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051205/NEWS08/512050313
Highly skilled immigrants confront web of costs, chaos in trying to stay
Article 16:
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/051202_jobs.htm
Dont Confuse the Jobs Hype with the Facts
By Paul Craig Roberts
The November payrolls job report was announced Friday with the usual
misleading hype. Spinmeisters made the most out of the 215,000 jobs.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/13269662.htm
Sun, Nov. 27, 2005
Global work force helps Fed on inflation
MARTIN CRUTSINGER
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - While Alan Greenspan has won praise for his successful 18-year
battle to keep inflation under control, he's the first to say he's had a
lot of help. Among those most responsible are tens of millions of workers
in China, India and Eastern Europe.
Adding all those workers to the global economy has made the Federal
Reserve's inflation-fighting job easier by increasing competition. That has
helped hold down labor costs - the biggest single expense for employers -
and, as a result, prices.
It has come at a cost: Many of the jobs being done overseas used to be in
America.
Last week, General Motors Corp. announced plans to cut more than a quarter
of its North American manufacturing jobs - 30,000 in all - and close 12
facilities by 2008. Those cuts will be added to the more than 3 million
manufacturing jobs - one in six - that have been lost since mid-2000.
"U.S. manufacturing jobs have withered over the past five years and many of
those jobs are never coming back," said Mark Zandi, chief economist at
Moody's Economy.com, a private consulting firm.
For those U.S. workers who still have jobs, the pressure on their wages has
intensified as companies use the threat of moving more production overseas
- where labor is far cheaper - as a way to extract concessions from their
U.S. workers.
This phenomenon has hit manufacturing the hardest. But service workers are
starting to be hurt as well. The ability to transmit digitally massive
amounts of information to faraway places has led companies to send overseas
jobs in such high-tech areas as architecture, computer software, medical
services and engineering.
"It is one thing to celebrate keeping inflation in check. It is another
thing to celebrate that living standards are stagnant or falling for most
American workers," said Thea Lee, policy director for the AFL-CIO.
All the goods flowing into the U.S. from overseas have produced a record
trade deficit that must be financed by borrowing from abroad.
In 1987, the year Greenspan took over as Fed chairman, the U.S. had a
deficit in its current account, the broadest measure of trade, of $160.7
billion. Last year, that deficit set a record of $668.1 billion and is
projected to go even higher this year.
Like most economists, Greenspan is an ardent supporter of free trade and
has said the current account deficit should improve gradually without
destabilizing the U.S. economy.
Other economists worry that foreigners suddenly might decide to stop
holding so many U.S. investments, driving down the dollar's value against
other currencies, as well as U.S. stock and bond prices.
Greenspan also has a benign view about how the U.S. can deal with workers
who have lost jobs and or seen their wages depressed because of foreign
competition. He thinks the country can solve this problem by doing a better
job of educating workers so they have the skills they need for the
high-tech jobs of the future, rather than the low-skill jobs that
increasingly are moving to other countries.
That solution, Greenspan believes, will help combat the growing wage
inequality in the U.S. This trend has seen incomes for high-income
Americans rise sharply while the wages of low-income workers have been
stagnant.
According to figures from the Census Bureau, the top 20 percent of U.S.
households earned 50.1 percent of all income last year while the bottom 20
percent received just 3.4 percent of total income.
Other analysts are not so sure that Greenspan's approach will work,
especially given that high-tech jobs are being sent to countries with
well-educated workers who earn far less than Americans.
"The idea that you can educate yourself out of this problem is not accurate
any more," said Jared Bernstein, an economist at the Economic Policy
Institute, a liberal think tank in Washington.
Greenspan had a different worry in recent congressional testimony. He said
the Fed and other central banks will have to be diligent about fighting
inflation once the beneficial effect of the huge increase in the global
work force begins to wane.
Greenspan will step down as Fed chairman at the end of January, so that
will be a problem for Ben Bernanke, his designated successor.
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/13275780.htm
Mon, Nov. 28, 2005
Wipro chairman opposes unionization of India's tech sector, report says
NEW DELHI - The chairman of Wipro Ltd., a top Indian software exporter,
says he is opposed to unionization of India's information technology
sector, according to a news report published Monday.
``The unionization of the sector would certainly be a retrograde step. It
will unnecessary damage the growth of the industry as global clients will
get concerned about whether they should be sending business to India,'' the
Hindustan Times newspaper quoted Aziz Premji, chairman of Wipro, as saying.
Currently, there are no labor unions in India's information technology
sector, a key part of the country's huge outsourcing industry that does
software programming, customer service and backoffice work for
multinational corporations.
India claims 44 percent of the world's outsourcing market, with $17 billion
in sales annually from the business, according to the National Association
of Software and Service Companies, the country's main software trade body.
Trade unions, especially those supported by communist parties, accuse
Indian outsourcing companies of violating labor laws.
If workers want to unite and bargain collectively with management, they
have a right to do so under the constitution, Prakash Karat, chairman of
the Communist Party of India (Marxist), said last month.
Wipro's revenue totaled $1.87 billion in its last financial year that ended
in March, of which $1.39 billion came from Western outsourcing.
Premji, 59, is ranked 38th in Forbes magazine's list of billionaires, with
a personal wealth valued at $9.3 billion. Wipro also has interests in
lighting, consumer products and edible oil.
The industry, he said, was facing a big challenge not only from the United
States and other developed countries, but also from low-cost countries like
China, the Philippines and Malaysia.
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.abqtrib.com/albq/nw_national_government/article/0,2564,ALBQ_19861_4274780,00.html
Congress milks fees from visa workers
By James W. Brosnan
November 29, 2005
WASHINGTON - Congress is gearing up to get tough on the border, but
meanwhile, it's happy to rake in the cash from legal immigrants and their
employers.
While the U.S. House of Representatives is scheduled to take up border
security legislation in December and the Senate will do so in February, the
Judiciary Committee in each chamber is meeting budget spending targets by
raising more than $80 million from companies employing foreign workers.
That's on top of recent fee increases to the immigrants themselves for
visas, citizenship applications and other documents, which help pay for
increased security.
Even some groups who want to limit immigration worry that Congress is
becoming addicted to cash from foreign workers, who already hold one in
seven U.S. jobs.
Dan Stein, executive director of the Federation for American Immigration
Reform, is alarmed by the Senate's proposal to increase revenue by allowing
U.S. employers to hire an additional 30,000 highly skilled foreign workers
a year for a fee of $500 per worker.
"The Senate Judiciary Committee is selling out the American worker for
absolutely no good reason," Stein said.
Employers can hire a foreign worker under an H-1B visa if they certify to
the Labor Department they couldn't find an American worker with the same
skills in the United States.
The visas cost $2,190 per worker for large companies and $1,380 for
companies with fewer than 25 employees.
U.S. employers are limited to a total of 65,000 of these H-1B visas a year.
This year's quota was filled in about six months.
"Hundreds and hundreds of companies have informed Congress that this is an
issue of critical importance if they're going to continue to be
competitive," said Marshall Fitz, director of advocacy for the American
Immigration Lawyers Association. "If you can't get the workers you need to
turn the corner, you just stop growing."
Intel, New Mexico's largest manufacturer, is a strong supporter of H-1B
visas. The company used 115 in fiscal year 2003, said spokeswoman Jennifer
Greeson.
Stein says the H-1B program is full of loopholes and fraud, which some in
Congress hope to close.
Sen. Robert Byrd, a West Virginia Democrat, tried to block the H-1B
proposal during debate on the reconciliation bill.
"Senators are casting themselves as tough on enforcement and wanting to
protect American jobs. Well, that pronouncement stands in stark, stark
contrast to this effort," Byrd said.
Byrd could persuade only 14 other senators to join him. Both New Mexico
senators, Albuquerque Republican Pete Domenici and Silver City Democrat
Jeff Bingaman, voted against the Byrd amendment.
Sen. Saxby Chambliss, a Georgia Republican, said the cap and fee increases
would generate $45 million for scholarships and training for U.S. workers
and $15 million to strengthen enforcement to make sure employers aren't
abusing the H-1B visas.
But senators must negotiate with the House, which instead of raising the
visa cap, chose to impose a $1,500 fee on U.S. companies when they transfer
a worker from a foreign subsidiary to the United States. Such L1 visas are
often used for temporary training or education.
The U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services bureau gets 95 percent of its
$1.8 billion budget from fees.
In 10 years, the basic application for a green card, to allow permanent
residency for an immigrant, has risen from $50 to $410. That includes $70
to pay for biometric cards with electronic fingerprinting.
To bring in a foreign orphan costs $545, plus $70 each for the parents for
the electronic fingerprinting.
Under the latest fee schedule imposed in October, a couple with two
children would pay more than more than $1,000 to naturalize the whole
family - $330 for each parent, $250 for each child, plus $70 apiece for the
biometric card.
"The new fee increase puts the dream of U.S. citizenship beyond the reach
of many of our nation's immigrants and discourages applications (for
citizenship)," said Michele Waslin, director of immigration policy research
for the National Council of La Raza.
Only about 15 percent of the immigrants to the United States since 1990
have become citizens, according to the Census Bureau. That's a far smaller
percentage than immigrants in previous decades.
Citizen and Immigration Services officials have told Congress the fee
increases were needed to increase security and reduce a backlog of 553,000
applications as of September, about 100,000 fewer than September 2004.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washtech.org/news/industry/display.php?ID_Content=5027
December 2, 2005
WashTech News
Bitter Holidays for Nestle USA "Associates" Extensive Outsourcing Sends
Work Offshore via HP and IBM
By Dan Gillespie
Named one of "Americas Most Admired Food Companies" by Fortune Magazine,
Nestle USA enjoyed sales of $12.5 billion in 2004, as well as being a part
of the largest food company in the world (Nestle S.A, headquartered in
Vevey, Switzerland) with sales of $69.9 billion. But even being the biggest
doesnt appear to keep Nestle USA feeling confident in their place in the
global market. According to external and internal documents, supplied to
WashTech News by anonymous sources, their next step is to eliminate
hundreds of jobs held by their U.S.-based workers, from whom they distance
themselves by calling employees "associates."
In May of 2004 Nestle USA announced in an internal document from Peter
Reese, Director of Business Information Solutions, that a decision "had
been reached to contract with an external supplier for Help Desk, Desktop
Support, Desktop, Development and Asset Management services." The external
company chosen was Hewlett-Packard. The agreement with them began May 3,
2004.
The announcement went on to say, "The ITSS Customer Services organization
will be significantly smaller than it is today. The remaining group will
serve as the governance group and will be responsible for overseeing the
relationship with Hewlett-Packard."
Later that year Hewlett-Packards Executive Vice President of Technology
Solutions, Ann Livermore, disclosed during a security analyst meeting on
December 7, 2004, that: "We currently have 1600 employees of HP R&D in
India as well as 4 to 500 more with some of our partners in India." She
also stated: "We have 20 percent of our HP services employees (65,000
employees) already in these global delivery centers. And these global
delivery centers have their main hub in China, India, (and) Eastern Europe.
Were looking at a couple of other hubs as well that we are growing in
addition to that."
Meanwhile, back to Nestle USA, internal documents show announcements of
further offshoring plans. In June 2004 Joe Weller, Chairman and Chief
Executive Officer, reported that Felix Allemann from GLOBE Center
Management in Sao Paulo, Brazil, had made an important outsourcing decision
that affected GLOBE associates in Glendale, California. "When GLOBE AMS was
first envisioned two years ago, a GLOBE support team, headed up by Ron
Kreuzer, Vice President of IT, was scheduled to work from Glendale,
California....As two years worth of good work and analysis have been
completed, the majority of this work will now be outsourced to IBM."
On May 19, 2005, an article appeared in the The Hindu Business Line
Internet Edition, bearing the headline: "IBM Headcount Close to 25,000
Here."
The article further stated, "Industry sources said IBM continues to hire
aggressively for its global services division" and "IBM could be adding on
an average of 500 people every month." In addition, "Considering the fact
that the company has been aggressive in moving jobs overseas, IBMs
headcount in India could have easily crossed the 25,000 mark to date."
One final line reported, "These technology majors can get their work in
India at a fraction of the costs in the U.S."
Back at Nestle another internal document, dated August 18, 2004, and
addressed to all associates from Dan Stroud, President of Nestle Business
Services, announced a new shared purchasing organization "...designed to
sustain the $200 million in annual savings from our Strategic Sourcing
initiative."
Still, Nestle had to look for more savings as indicated in another
announcement from Joe Weller on March 23, 2005. The decision was made to
outsource Accounts Payable, Accounting Operations and Account Services to
Hewlett-Packard. The document states flatly, "Many of the jobs in the
specific in-scope functions will most likely be eliminated." This was
hammered home in another document on June 21, 2005, announcing that "The
transition will begin in late June, with full transfer activities planned
for completion by February 2006."
Most recently, on October 10, 2005, Cam Starrett, Executive Vice President
at Nestle USA, announced, "Nestle has contracted IBM to provide
transactional activities from their Costa Rica facility in the following
areas: Payroll, Healthcare Benefits Administration, and the Associate
Service Center."
None of these documents mentions the number of jobs that are to be lost,
but the various reports, internal and public, suggest that Nestle USA plans
to outsource the work of at least eleven departments. For instance, the
Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on March 25, 2005, "Nestle USA, Inc. says
it plans to outsource about 220 accounts-payable jobs in its North American
Operations."
One article, however, truly illustrates the hidden costs to all of us so
that Nestle can enjoy their profits.
Patricia Rice in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch (Missouri) reported that
Nestle USA "Will close two manufacturing lines in December, a third in
January and the whole operation by February." The factories employ 288
workers.
Beyond the number of workers that will become unemployed is the fact that
the 2500- student Affton School District will loose about $300,000 in taxes
paid by the plant to the region.
And therein lies the rub. The ripple effects of outsourcing and then
offshoring U.S. jobs are both immediate and long range to our economy and
to our society. People are put out of work. They and their families suffer
the immediate crisis, while local students will suffer the long-term
disadvantage of diminished educational opportunities in addition to fewer
job prospects in the future.
It wont be Nestle workers, their families, or their communities who will
be ringing in the New Year.
Dan Gillespie is the Out Of State Organizer for WashTech/CWA Local 37083.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://today.reuters.com/business/newsArticle.aspx?type=technology&storyID=nBOM238019
Intel to invest $1 bln in India R&D, venture fund
By Shailendra Bhatnagar
NEW DELHI, Dec 5 (Reuters) - Intel Corp., the world's largest chip maker,
plans to invest more than $1 billion in India to strengthen its research
and development and invest in telecoms and technology start-ups, its
chairman said on Monday.
California-based Intel has a development centre in Bangalore,
India's technology hub, which designs and develops software to power chips
that drive computers and high-end networks for Internet-based applications.
It has already invested $700 million in Asia's third-largest economy over
the past decade and provided venture funding worth more than $100 million
to 40 firms such as computer trainer NIIT Ltd. and telecoms
software firm Sasken Communication Technologies Ltd. .
"We will grow our local operations, boost venture capital investments and
work closely with the government, industry and educators," Chairman Craig
Barrett told reporters.
Barrett, on his seventh visit to India, said $800 million would be invested
over the next five years to expand research and development at Bangalore in
addition to marketing, education and community programmes.
The Bangalore centre, opened in 1998, has 2,800 employees.
Intel is among a long list of firms that have set up huge outsourcing
operations in India, which have become the driving force of a $17.2 billion
software services industry.
The firm will also create a $250 million India-specific venture fund to
invest in start-ups focussing on mobile communications, broadband
applications and mobile commerce.
Intel's earlier Indian investments have ranged from $500,000 to $10
million. Some firms it backed, such as Rediff.com, have gone public.
India's booming technology and telecoms sectors have been the flywheels of
economic growth over the past three years as overseas and domestic demand
for such services has exploded.
Dozens of entrepreneurs are searching for quality funding, and a stock
market boom has handsomely rewarded early investors.
Barrett said Intel was in talks with the government on setting up a
chip-making facility in India, but no decision had been reached yet.
Smaller rival Advanced Micro Devices Inc. has stolen a march on
Intel by signing a deal with consortium SemIndia to supply technology for a
proposed $3 billion chip-making factory in the country.
Barrett said if the firm did set up a chip fabricating unit in India, it
would be wholly-owned by Intel.
Indian demand for chips is seen at $30 billion a year by 2015 as low
penetration levels, rising incomes and soaring aspirations fuel demand for
electronic products such as televisions, mobile handsets and washing
machines.
Analysts say India does not have a chip-making facility yet due to a lack
of continuous power and deficient ports and roads.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
From David Goodstein's "Scientific Ph.D. Problems"
which was published in The Spring, 1993 issue of The American Scholar, pp.
215-220
David Goodstein is the vice provost and professor of physics and applied
physics at the California Institute of Technology, and author of States of
Matter and the creator of the PBS television series "The Mechanical
Universe".
Word has gotten around that the country will face a grave shortage of
Ph.D.s in both the sciences and humanities, later in the decade. Within
academic middle-management circles this dilemma is well-known to be related
to the "pipeline" problem. Just say the word pipeline and every dean in
earshot will nod gravely, expecting the phrase to be self explanatory. The
idea is that our young people start out in the early grades as a torrent of
bright, eager, curious, minds ready to study and learn and become scholars
and scientists, but wind up at the opposite end as a mere trickle of
Ph.D.s......
...I should like, at this point, to raise my hand modestly and point out
that all these concerns are misplaced. The Ph.D. shortage is an illusion, a
kind of mirage caused not by the hot sun but by too much staring at
statistics unmoderated by serious thought. What we face instead is a
chronic, systemic oversupply of Ph.D.s, a rising tide of Ph.D.s that we
seem hopeless to stem. The educational system is not a leaky pipeline, and
if it were and we could repair it, the result would be a genuine torrent of
Ph.D.s that would threaten to flood the place. And finally, the very real
problem Lederman writes about is caused by the fact that we have too many
academic researchers. It is a consequence not of government penury, but of
academic
promiscuousness......
....Enter the foreign graduate students. With the saturation of demand for
Americans with doctorates around 1970, the best American students proved
their superior abilities by reading the writing on the wall, and they began
to choose other lines of work. In the meantime, however, the golden age had
produced an unprecedented degree of genuine excellence in research and
graduate education. Almost unnoticed, the declining number of American
students was replaced by an increasing number of foreign students....
....I would predict that we will always have just enough Ph.D.s to absorb
whatever research funds are available....
....The American taxpayer (both state and federal) is supporting extremely
expensive research universities whose main educational purpose is to train
students from abroad. When these students finish their educations, they
either stay here, taking relatively high paying jobs that could have gone
to Americans, or they go
home, taking our knowledge and our technology with them.
The American research universities are in a dither because Congress
has discovered an interest in indirect cost payments on federal research
grants and contracts, an issue so arcane it confuses the experts (I'm one
of them). Congress and the public doesn't seem to have noticed that, while
largely ignoring our own students, we are putting our money and our best
talent into training our economic competitors. Just wait until this one
hits the fan.
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.boston.com/business/articles/2005/11/27/math__science__innovation_but_us_lags_in_the_equation/
Math + science = innovation, but US lags in the equation
By Robert Weisman, Globe Staff | November 27, 2005
Captains of commerce have groused in recent years about everything from
estate taxes to the expensing of stock options. But the issue that has
risen to the top of the corporate complaint agenda this fall is the wilting
of American education in math and science.
The problem was spelled out last month in a National Academy of Sciences
study that reported, among other things, that 12th-graders in the United
States performed below the international average for 21 countries on a
general test of science and mathematics knowledge.
Even before the academy shined a spotlight on the issue, business leaders
had fretted about the erosion of the American lead in research and
innovation. Now, no longer content to leave education to the educators,
some have begun to take matters into their own hands.
Area technology executives last week unveiled plans for a regional robotics
competition for high school and middle school students March 23-25 at
Boston University's Agganis Arena. The event will be part of FIRST -- ''For
Inspiration and Recognition of Science and Technology" -- a national
program launched in the early 1990s by Dean Kamen, the New Hampshire
inventor of the Segway scooter, among other high-tech devices.
Raytheon Co. of Waltham introduced a national program called MathMovesU on
Nov. 10 in a bid to fuel enthusiasm for math in middle schools. Under the
program, students with ideas on making math more fun can enter a contest at
www.mathmovesu.com. Soccer star Mia Hamm, BMX biker Dave Mirra, and other
celebrities will visit the winners' schools as substitute teachers. The
program also will award $1 million in grants and scholarships to schools,
teachers, and students.
The Business Roundtable's education task force, led by Joseph M. Tucci,
president and chief executive of Hopkinton's EMC Corp., released a
statement in August calling on the national business community to speak
with one voice on the need to improve US competitiveness in science,
technology, engineering, and math education. The business group's proposals
have been sent to US governors, members of Congress, and Bush
administration officials.
Behind these moves lurks the fear that many young Americans are abandoning
math and science at a time when students in emerging countries like China
and India are mastering the subjects. China graduated 500,000 engineers
last year, and India 200,000, compared with 70,000 in the United States,
according to the National Academy of Sciences study.
''Our kids are the first generation of Americans that are growing up less
technologically proficient than their parents," Kamen warned. ''It's the
wrong time for America to be taking its eye off the ball. This is the first
generation that will compete in a global economy."
But a Raytheon-commissioned survey found the majority of US middle
schoolers would prefer to clean their rooms, eat their vegetables, and take
out the garbage than do their math homework. ''They really don't see the
linkage yet between math and what it can do for your career," said William
H. Swanson, Raytheon's chairman and chief executive. ''The term engineer
has more of a positive connotation in Asia and Europe than it does in the
United States."
Swanson, an engineer who worked his way up the ranks, acknowledged that the
MathMovesU program ''is really Raytheon getting outside its normal swim
lanes." But he said the company is motivated by its need to assure it will
be able to hire top-flight American engineers in the future. With the
Pentagon requiring that employees working on many of its defense programs
have security clearances, Raytheon can't take the path of commercial
companies that farm out engineering work abroad.
EMC, which has opened research and development centers in India and Belgium
over the past decade, continues to maintain research operations in
Massachusetts, Silicon Valley in California, and in North Carolina's
Research Triangle. But with the government restricting the number of
foreign engineers that can enter the United States on work visas since the
Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks, EMC has plenty of technical jobs it can't
fill domestically, said Michael C. Ruettgers, the company's chairman. ''As
we look ahead, if we don't get more graduates in these skilled areas, the
US will start to lose ground," he said.
Ruettgers, a member of the Massachusetts Business Roundtable, said business
groups are pressing to improve the skills of math and science teachers,
give them higher ''differential pay" than other teachers, and, somehow,
make math and science cool.
''It's about changing the culture," said technology entrepreneur Marc A.
Hodosh, chairman of the Boston FIRST event. ''How can we generate a new set
of heroes that kids can look up to as opposed to entertainers or athletes?
These are people who are solving problems and addressing medical issues and
helping to save lives."
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/columnists/business_update/13351825.htm
Posted on Wed, Dec. 07, 2005
Microsoft to invest $1.7 billion, add 3,000 jobs in India
By Frank Michael Russell
Mercury News Assistant Business Editor
Want to work for Microsoft? Everyone's favorite software behemoth is taking
applications -- in Bangalore, India.
Microsoft said today that it plans to invest $1.7 billion in India, adding
3,000 jobs to its current workforce of 4,000. ``We are keen to grow
Microsoft activities in India,'' Chairman Bill Gates said, according to an
Associated Press report. ``The growth in employment for Microsoft will be
more in India than the United States.''
Microsoft will create a new research center in Bangalore, India's
technology hub. That center is expected to open next month. Microsoft also
has a research center in Hyderabad, India.
Some of the money will be used to create a version of the Windows operating
system for India that will be available in nine languages.
Gates announced a similar $400 million investment in the country in 1992.
Of course, Microsoft is only one of several U.S. tech giants making big
investments in India. Santa Clara chip maker Intel, for example, said
Monday that it would spend more than $1 billion in the country over the
next five years.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Department for Professional Employees, AFL-CIO
December 7, 2005
The Honorable Jim Sensenbrenner, Jr.
U.S. House of Representatives
2449 Rayburn House Office Building
Washington, DC 20515-4905
Dear Representative Sensenbrenner:
It is our understanding that Judiciary Committee conferees of the House and
Senate will shortly meet to reconcile the differences between their
respective revenue raising proposals as contained in the Budget
Reconciliation package. In this regard and on behalf of the 22 national
unions represented by our organization, we urge you to: support the
House-approved increase in the L-1 visa fee, and; set aside any proposed
increase in the number of H-1B visas.
Our unions are adamantly opposed to any back door effort to inflate the
H-1B program. We are sincerely troubled by the fact that not a moment of
public hearings was held by the Senate Judiciary Committee on the efficacy,
or lack thereof, of this proposal. Claims by the business lobby of
widespread "shortages" of competent U.S. professional and technical workers
were, in effect, taken at face value without any attempt to ascertain their
veracity. This is the second year in succession that the Senate Judiciary
Committee has used budget-related legislation to cloak a substantial
weakening in the modest annual visa limitations and in effect obliterate
job opportunities for American workers.
Under current law, the annual statutory cap on H-1B visas is 65,000.
However, a previously approved exemption for educational institutions,
non-profits and other entities allows another 27,500 foreign workers on
average to come in to the U.S. Last year's Senate Judiciary Committee
exemption-adopted as part of the Omnibus Appropriations bill-created still
another cap loophole by adding on another 20,000 annual allotment for U.S.
educated foreign workers with advanced degrees. In addition, since the
"temporary" H-1B visa is good for up to 6 years, according to government
data some 125,000 existing visa holders renew annually.
As a result, under current law over 230,000 foreign professionals get new
or renewed guest worker visas-and American jobs-each year! The pending
Senate proposal would add another 30,000 visas annually for each of the
next five years increasing the number of yearly H-1B visas to over a
quarter of a million.
There is absolutely no economic justification for expanding the H-1B
program. Unemployment among professionals in H-1B occupations remains
high. For example, according to BLS data, joblessness for computer
scientists/systems analysts, programmers, and software engineers is at 45%,
133%, and 115% higher respectively than in 2000 the year before the tech
bust. Thus claims of labor shortages in key computer occupations are bogus
particularly when weighed against wage data. If the laws of supply and
demand are to be believed, then alleged shortages would produce significant
wage hikes as employers bid up the price for scarce labor. In fact, real
wages for computer scientists/systems analysts declined by nearly 7.5% from
2000-04 while income for IT workers in the other two categories barely grew
above the rate of inflation. None of these wage improvements are
indicative of a labor shortage.
Finally it is worth pointing out that industry apologists for off-shore
outsourcing have long proclaimed that one of the benefits of globalization
would be the creation of high end, high skilled technical and professional
jobs for workers in the U.S. These same industries now seek to contract
the number of these very same high end job opportunities that should
otherwise be available to highly skilled American workers by vastly
expanding the H-1B visa program.
As you are aware, most citizens view U.S. immigration policy as a train
wreck. It is a debacle of monumental proportions made worse by hastily
conceived proposals to expand the H-1B program at a time when so many U.S.
professionals in H-1B-impacted occupations are out of work.
The House provision to impose a first ever L-1 visa fee is not only a more
reasonable alternative to raise revenue, it also represents along with the
prohibition on employers from seeking reimbursement from the prospective
guest worker two reforms of the L-1 program that have been long advocated
by the AFL-CIO.
On behalf of the 4 million professional and technical workers that we and
our unions represent, please oppose an expansion of the H-1B program that
would in effect make it more difficult for unemployed U.S. professionals to
find work.
Thank you in advance for your consideration of our views.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida
President
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
December 6, 2005
The Honorable Robert C. Byrd
U.S. Senate
311 Hart Senate Office Building
Washington, D.C. 20510-4801
Dear Senator Byrd:
On behalf of the 22 national unions affiliated with the Department for
Professional Employees,
AFL-CIO, I wanted to thank to you for your recent efforts to prevent an
increase in H-1B visas during debate on the Budget Reconciliation
legislation.
We share with you the perspective that most citizens embrace, namely that
U.S. immigration policy is a train wreck. It is a debacle of monumental
proportions made worse by ill-conceived and convoluted proposals to expand
the H-1B program at a time when so many U.S. professionals in H-1B-impacted
occupations are out of work.
We are sincerely troubled by the fact that not a moment of public hearings
was held by the Judiciary Committee on the efficacy, or lack thereof, of
this proposal. Claims by the business lobby of widespread "shortages" of
competent U.S. professionals were, in effect, taken at face value without
any attempt to get at the truth. No witnesses were called, no data
examined, no rebuttal testimony was heard in this inexcusable rush to
judgment. And this is the second year in succession that the U.S. Senate
has voted to end run the process, weaken modest limitations on this visa
program and obliterate job opportunities for American workers.
To your credit, you recognized the substantive defects and the procedural
shortcomings of the H-1B proposal and tried to stop it. We are deeply
disappointed that we could not convince more Senators to support your
efforts.
Please accept our sincerest appreciation for a valiant effort. When you
asked on the Senate floor "how much is enough" you clearly recognized that
each and every time H-1B visas are increased, a U. S. worker is denied the
dignity of work. What is truly discouraging is how few of your colleagues
share your compassion and understanding for the devastation that programs
like H-1B inflict upon American working families.
Sincerely,
Paul E. Almeida
President
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1318264.cms
NRI techie moves court over racial slur
CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA
December 05, 2005
WASHINGTON: An Indian-American tech worker has filed a suit in a federal
court in Texas against a US firm alleging daily incidents of racial
harassment and discrimination because the company outsourced work to India.
The lawsuit by Neelima Tirumalasetti, a senior IT analyst in quality
assurance, says that after her company Caremark announced in December 2003
that it would be outsourcing work to IBM India, she became the target of
widespread anti-Indian harassment.
Her co-workers repeatedly called her "brown-skinned bitch", "dirty Indian",
and other insults, accused her of coming to the US to take their jobs,
mocked her accent in team meetings, and excluded her work projects.
Hoping for some relief, Neelima, who is a US citizen, reported the
harassment to her manager, her managers direct supervisor, human
resources, two vice-presidents and even Caremarks Ethics hotline. But
the reports made matters worse, she says.
Caremark removed her team leader responsibilities on a large project,
isolated her from prime work assignments, began auditing her work daily,
denied her pay, and blocked her access to leave.
According to the lawsuit, Caremark told Neelima that she was making up the
harassment as well as faking the physical symptoms of her escalating
workplace stress, which repeatedly landed her in the hospital.
To Indian-American Neelimas complaint of racial discrimination and
harassment, Caremark, reportedly conceded at some point that she was the
victim of harassment. However, it concluded that the harassment was
"understandable given Caremarks employees concerns about outsourcing to
India".
Nevertheless, the company prohibited her from working from home to avoid
the continued harassment, a privilege enjoyed by other employees.
The lawsuit also reveals that days after Caremark requested Neelima to
confidentially disclose the names of co-workers responsible for her racial
and ethnic harassment, she received death threats at work.
The lawsuit shows that Neelima suffered a final emotional breakdown after
Caremark reassigned her to report to a co-worker she identified as one of
her chief harassers, a more junior employee and this coworker stated that
she would "kill the bitch who complained".
Caremark sent Neelima a termination letter after she reported her situation
to the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission.
"Caremarks investors deserve to know how it conducts itself behind
closed doors," says Neelima. "This lawsuit is about dignity and assuring
that employees are treated equally regardless of their origin, race, or
ethnic background."
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.denverpost.com/nationworld/ci_3282253
Article Last Updated: 12/06/2005 03:06 AM
GOP forms strategy to OK guest workers
In a bid to bypass critics, the Senate will pass the plan and then merge it
with a House bill, observers say.
By Anne C. Mulkern
Washington - Republican leaders will try to pass President Bush's
controversial guest-worker proposal without putting it to a direct vote in
the House.
Observers say the new GOP strategy that begins today is for the House to
deal only with the more politically palatable issue of increasing border
security and clamping down on employers. Republican leaders then will let
the Senate pass some form of a guest-worker plan.
After that vote, senators and House members will merge the House's border
security bill with the Senate's legislation in closed-door meetings.
The House will then vote on the final package, which will include some
guest-worker provision, according to a GOP aide familiar with the plan, a
Colorado lawmaker and other observers.
The strategy is designed to avoid a divisive debate and contentious vote in
the House.
"There is a widespread expectation that that is how it's going to play
out," said Tamar Jacoby, immigration expert with The Manhattan Institute, a
conservative think tank. "I think it would be hard to pass in the House
without the Senate going first."
The legislation that is likely to be the core of the House's immigration
bill is expected to be introduced today. Sponsored by Rep. James
Sensenbrenner, R-Wis., it tightens border security and forces employers to
verify workers' citizenship. It does not address guest-worker issues.
Rep. Tom Tancredo, R-Colo., the biggest opponent of the president's
guest-worker proposal, said the strategy limits his ability to challenge
the measure.
"They're doing it this way because they know in the House they'll run into
a buzz saw and maybe my name's on it," said Tancredo, who heads the
92-member Immigration Reform Caucus in the House.
Sensenbrenner's bill is expected to be voted on within the next two weeks.
That allows House members to visit their districts for the Christmas break
and say that they passed immigration reform, Tancredo and Jacoby said.
But the House members will be aware of the plan to build in a guest-worker
program through the conference committee, said Grover Norquist, a
Republican strategist who often serves as an informal liaison between
Congress and the White House.
"The president's made it clear he wants both (border security and a
guest-worker program)," Norquist said.
13. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://sify.com/finance/fullstory.php?id=14044098
Advanced degree H-1B visas may dry up soon
09 December , 2005, 08:18
New Delhi: First, the H-1B visas ran out even before the start of the US
Federal Government's new fiscal, and now the clock is ticking for advanced
degree H-1B visas, as well. Barely two months into the new fiscal 2006,
petitions for the advance degree H-1B visa are inching closer to the
20,000-cap. Today in Sify Finance
Gates India Visit
Microsoft Corporation, Bill Gates is on a four-day visit to India. Read
more.
Pulses turn pricey
In the last few months, commodities have turned more costly. View
Slideshow.
The US has approved 14,281 petitions out of the additional 20,000 H-1B
visas allotted for holders of US masters or higher degrees, and 2,417
applications were pending November-end. This takes the total number to
16,698, according to the latest data of the US Citizenship and Immigration
Service (USCIS).
Under current law, while the annual cap in the H-1B category is 65,000
(down from 1.95 lakh in financial year 2003), the Congress has created an
exemption for 20,000 foreign nationals earning advanced degrees from US
universities. H-1B visas give employers access to highly educated foreign
professionals with experience in specialised areas and with at least a
bachelor's degree or the equivalent. Typical H-1B professionals include
computer programmers, engineers, architects, accountants and doctors. |
Read more Finance news. |
Given the rise in demand for skilled temporary workers in the US, the
current cap of 65,000 H-1B visas was reached even before the start of the
fiscal year on October 1, 2005, prompting organisations such as IT
Association of America (ITAA) to demand a significant increase in the
number of visas for the current and future years.
Last month, the US Senate cleared a provision approved by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, hiking the visa limit by 30,000. Subsequently,
however, the US House of Representatives passed its version of the Budget
Reconciliation Bill which did not include the provisions related to the
recapture of unused H-1B and immigrant visa numbers from previous years as
passed by the Senate, and instead imposed a $1,500 fee increase on
intra-company L-1 visas. Much now depends on the reconciliation between the
US Senate and the House of Representatives, on the issue.
14. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.hammondlawfirm.com/business_support_for_immigration_solution.pdf
Over 750 American Businesses and Universities Call for a Reasonable
Solution to H-1B Blackouts and Lengthy
"Green Card" Backlogs
November 29, 2005
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510
Dear Senator:
We are writing to urge Congress to take immediate steps to address the
crisis currently facing
American businesses and educational institutions as a result of lengthy
visa backlogs and an H-1B
"blackout." The Senate Judiciary Committees bipartisan budget
reconciliation package would provide
a reasonable and workable solution to both of these problems, and we urge
you to give it your strong
support, while opposing any attempts to weaken it.
As you are likely aware, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services, on
August 12, announced that the
FY 2006 numerical cap limiting the H-1B program for temporary professional
workers had been
exhausted, nearly two months prior to the start of the fiscal year. This
means that U.S. companies will
lose access for over a year to highly educated foreign professionals vital
to our businesses. This is the
third year in a row that the cap has been reached, and the seventh time
since 1997.
In a parallel phenomenon, highly educated and skilled workers are currently
faced with lengthy "green
card" backlogs that will prevent them from becoming U.S. permanent
residents in the foreseeable
future. These employment-based immigrants already have been found to serve
the U.S. national
interest as a result of their achievements and skills. Our inability to
hire them on a permanent basis as
a result of these backlogs severely hinders our ability to remain
competitive with foreign businesses,
which are actively recruiting these talented professionals to the
disadvantage of the American
economy.
Couple these two crises and you have the makings of a "perfect storm"
confronting American
businesses and educational institutions. The Senate Judiciary Committees
budget reconciliation
package seeks to mitigate the impact of this storm. It would provide for
the modest recapture of both
unused employment-based visas from prior years and unused H-1B numbers
dating back to FY 1991.
Although we believe the annual recapture of 60,000 H-1B visas proposed in
the Chairmans mark
would have more effectively addressed the current shortages, we nonetheless
strongly support the
compromise provision approved by the Committee allowing annual recapture of
30,000 H-1B visas. In
addition to the visa recapture provisions, the proposal would impose new
fees on employment-based
immigrant visas, on the recaptured H-1B nonimmigrant visa numbers, and on
L-1 visas.
While we remain concerned about escalating fees, we believe these increased
fees represent a
measured approach that, while satisfying the reconciliation target, would
be implemented in the
context of increased access to H-1B professionals and green cards for
employment-based immigrants.
We are more concerned about the increased fee on L visas because it is
unaccompanied by any
changes in service or access and we would be particularly concerned about a
reconciliation approach
that rested on steep fees, with no relief from todays crisis-level
shortages.
While these measures are in no way a substitute for comprehensive
solutions, we urge their swift
passage as important first steps toward creating an immigration system that
channels the forces of the
marketplace to Americas competitive advantage.
15. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://toledoblade.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20051205/NEWS08/512050313
Article published December 5, 2005
Highly skilled immigrants confront web of costs, chaos in trying to stay
By KARAMAGI RUJUMBA
BLADE STAFF WRITER
The debate over immigration in the United States, rekindled last week by
President Bush's announcement of proposed reforms, is often a concern to
most Americans only in terms of illegal aliens and possibly terrorists
crossing over porous borders.
In border states like Arizona and Texas - where Mr. Bush announced his
proposals to tighten borders and get rid of illegal immigrants while
allowing temporary guest workers - there is generally much more interest
becauses of economic, social, and even direct family concerns.
Farmers and some other northwest Ohio and southeast Michigan residents also
have economic, social, and family interests in immigration reform
proposals, often as they impact migrant farm workers. These workers pick
tomatoes, cucumbers, and other agricultural crops - usually performing
manual labor most Americans aren't willing to do.
But a category of immigrants often overlooked in talk about reform and how
it impacts American communities is the educated and highly skilled workers
from around the world who compete for H-1B-type visas to live and work in
the United States.
They, too, face the same immigration hurdles as most immigrants in the
lower rungs because legally coming to America is never easy for anyone,
said Gabriel Triculescu, a Detroit-based immigration and business attorney.
A native Romanian, Mr. Triculescu, 36, has seen the intricacies of
immigration law from both sides - as an immigrant and as an attorney
working the system on behalf of other applicants.
Mr. Triculescu came to the United States on a George Soros Open Society
scholarship to take a statistics course at the University of Michigan in
1994.
When his scholarship funding fell through, Mr. Triculescu was stranded with
a nonimmigrant visa and stayed in the United States for a while as an
undocumented worker working at a restaurant in Ann Arbor, Mich.
Fortunately, he got lucky and won a "green card," or permanent resident
visa, through the Diversity Lottery Program, which makes 50,000 immigrant
visas available to people in qualifying countries around the world every
year.
But that was in 1996, before changes in America's immigrations law, many as
a result of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks. Today, a holder of a
nonimmigrant visa who overstays his or her visa cannot apply for a family
based or employment-based immigrant visa, even from within the United
States," he said.
"There have been some changes in immigration procedures in the last few
years, but the process is still very slow and expensive," said Mr.
Triculescu, an attorney with the Detroit law firm of Beals Hubbard.
Navigating immigration procedures takes some patience, money, and a certain
amount of luck because visas are not always available in the needed
categories, Mr. Triculescu said.
Now only 140,000 green cards are issued annually and the number of H-1B
visas - issued to educated, highly skilled workers - has been cut
dramatically from nearly 200,000 three years ago to only 65,000 for the
current fiscal year.
"After the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, legal immigration into this country
became extremely bureaucratic," he said.
"It has since improved slightly, but if politicians want to implement
change, they need to address the technocrats who work within the
immigration system. They are the only ones who can streamline the process."
Demand for skilled workers
With the exception of international students who often change their status
when they are still in-country, most immigrants in the United States go
through consular and employment-based processing, Mr. Triculescu explained.
That can be a "very cumbersome and impersonal process," he said, and there
is no guarantee of being granted a visa at the end of the process.
The key hurdle in employment-based immigration is labor certification.
An American company must prove that it cannot find anyone willing or able
to fill a certain position here before a visa can be granted to a foreigner
to fill that position.
This is what has fueled a somewhat contentious debate between the American
technology industry, the U.S. Department of Labor, and immigration
officials in recent years.
The debate centers on the annual availability of 65,000 H-1B visas. One of
the most competitively sought visas, they are often gone shortly after the
start of each fiscal year's allotment.
In a panel discussion on immigration policy at the Library of Congress in
April, Microsoft founder and Chairman Bill Gates said that Congress ought
to end the visa cap because it ultimately hurts American companies and
competition in technology.
The nation's dependence on computers and other high-tech gadgetry means
there is a heavy demand for skilled Internet technology workers and
engineers, areas not attracting enough American students.
For high-skilled foreigners, however, legally entering the United States in
most cases is not as hard as trying to stay. While many of these highly
educated, skilled workers would like to stay in the United States based on
their ability to earn more here, the lack of opportunities to remain under
the current immigration process means they are more likely to take their
knowledge and skills back to their native lands or other countries willing
to accept them.
They chose Toledo
At 25, Pawel Kalczynski impressed his family when he graduated with
distinction after completing his PhD in economics, concentrating in
business information systems, from Poznan University of Technology, in
Poland. He immediately started interviewing and applying for jobs in the
United States because "this country is the best place to be for someone in
my field. It gives you endless opportunities."
An economics, Web databases, and programing teacher, Mr. Kalczynski
interviewed at a number of American universities before settling in as an
assistant professor at the University of Toledo's College of Business
Administration in 2002.
"We chose Toledo for many reasons but also in part because of its extreme
weather. It is so similar to Poland," Mr. Kalczynski, 28, laughed as he
paced around his fourth-floor office in Stranahan Hall at UT. A father of
two daughters, he and his wife, Gosia, were easily granted H-1B visas to
come to the United States.
But after settling into his new position, Mr. Kalczynski decided he wanted
to stay longer than the restrictions of his temporary nonimmigrant H-1B,
which is only valid for three years at a time and can only be extended
once.
"Poland only truly entered the free-market system 15 years ago. I cannot do
the kind of research I can do here as a principal investigator. I would
have to work three jobs just to support my family in Poland," he said.
So shortly after arriving in Toledo in 2002, Mr. Kalczynski decided to
change his visa status and applied for an immigrant worker visa under the
Outstanding Professor Category.
That is the process for a majority of high-skilled immigrants, said Pam
Mills, director of the International Institute of Toledo. "Most of them
enter the United States on nonimmigrant visas like temporary worker or
student visas and then change their status to immigrant visas once they are
already here," she said.
Time and money critical
The process takes a certain level of affluence, however, for immigrants who
in most cases have to endure what can be a very expensive and
time-consuming transition, said Ms. Mills. The International Institute,
which started in Toledo in 1919, processes about 4,000 clients who end up
settling in northwest Ohio every year, she said.
"People often get frustrated with our immigration system because it can be
so impersonal. They can never get a straight answer and when they do, it
often takes a long time," she said.
As he settled down behind his expansive desk on a Tuesday morning, Mr.
Kalczynski explained just how long the process can be and the toll it wears
on the applicants. After two years of waiting for an answer on his
application, he had just received a rejection notice. His visa will expire
in 2008, after all, and then he and his family will have to leave.
"I don't understand. This must be a procedural mistake," he complained, "I
am very frustrated that it took this long. We could have planned for this,"
Mr. Kalczynski said, noting that his wife, Gosia, who recently was accepted
into a PhD program at UT, may have to drop out. The rejection of his
application, he said, also nullified her work permit and may not qualify
for funding for her program.
"This bureaucracy of the immigration system here is unthinkable. These
decisions are made by one or two people who don't have time to really
consider the applicants," said Mr. Kalczynski, noting that he had already
spent more than $6,000 in immigration fees. He plans on appealing his
failed visa application.
If that fails, "then I'll just look for a job in the United Kingdom," he
said.
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