Op-ed by the American Electronics Association (AeA)

Date: Wednesday, November 29, 2006 3:23 PM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1597 -- 11/29/2006 >>>>>

The Orange Register recently published an op-ed by a spokesman for the
American Electronics Association (AeA). The AeA is an organization that
represents hundreds of companies, mostly in high-tech.

The first thing to notice about the op-ed is that although they mention who
the author is with, there is no mention to made that the AeA has a
self-interest in promoting H-1B and offshoring.

To get an idea how huge the AeA is, go to this page and search their
membership database:
http://www.aeanet.org/members/MemberListing.cfm

Unlike many newspapers, at least the Orange Register had the decency to
show that this is an op-ed, not an editorial. Therefore I won't call it an
idiotorial despite the fact that it's idiotic!

Kevin McDonald of the AeA put forth a wacky theory on immigration that
seems to be gaining in popularity. I'm seeing it more and more often,
especially in blogs. The theory goes something like this: "Everyone agrees
that illegal immigration is bad because most illegals take low paying jobs,
and everyone agrees that that H-1B is good because they take high paying
jobs."

To summarize the theory:

Illegal immigration: BAD
H-1B: GOOD

If you think that's ridiculous, it gets worse!

The prognosticators of this immigration theory don't just stop there. They
actually admit that illegal immigrants displace American workers and
depress salaries. This is all a setup for their pitch for H-1B because with
the exeption of PhDs in economics most people understand the affects of
illegal immigration on lower income job availability.

It is not my intent to join the debate over immigration by people
with little or no skills or people seeking jobs in the skilled
trades. The sheer number of such immigrants implies that
American citizens might be displaced.

Logically it follows that H-1B would have a similar effect since large
numbers of H-1B visa holders compete for skilled jobs, but simple logic
doesn't deter the H-1B advocates from making the following non sequitur:

Concerns about immigrants pushing down wages in the trades and in
low-skill jobs don't apply to highly skilled H1-B applicants.
These workers command high wages regardless of what country
they come from.

McDonald pushes the education button and threatens that if we don't allow
H-1Bs into the U.S. then companies will offshore the jobs. Since 1989 the
promoters of H-1B have argued that the visa is just temporary until our
education system can produce kids that know how to read, write, and do
math. McDonald and his fellow ilk should be held accountable for this lie
by telling us specifically how long it will take before H-1B is no longer
necessary. He should not be allowed to get away with putting the blame on
our education system and using open-ended timetables like this.

It is true that we must better prepare our citizens, through more
intensive K-12 education and college degree programs, to take
higher-level jobs. But until then, why would we allow these jobs
to be exported to America's fiercest economic competitors?

The hidden truth that the AeA won't dare to admit is that they don't care
if jobs are offshored, and in many cases they promote offshoring. Just
compare their member database (link above) with the Lou Dobbs list of
companies that are outsourcing jobs and you will see what I mean.

http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/lou.dobbs.tonight/popups/exporting.america/content.html

Also be sure to do a cross correlation with the LCA database to confirm
that not only do AeA members offshore jobs, they hire H-1Bs.

http://www.h1b.info/lca.php

Here are just a few examples that I correlated in all three databases. It
doesn't take long and it's sort of fun.

Adobe
Apple
Agilent Technologies
Alliance Semiconductor
BMC Software
Dell
Honeywell
Motorola
National Semiconductor

So what is the AeA really up to, considering they support and endorse
outsourcing, while at the same time warning us that companies will
outsource if we don't increase H-1B? The AeA is using the outsourcing issue
to set up a false choice called a Morton's Fork -- we can only choose
between shipping jobs overseas or keeping them here by importing workers.
The illegal immigration issue is used as a simple smoke screen and a wedge
issue.

H-1B facilitates offshoring, and that of course is what many AeA members
want to do. Truth to be told, the AeA wants unlimited license to import or
export jobs and they don't care what affects it has on American workers.
AeA is the voice of trans-national corporate greed that knows no patriotism
or national boundaries.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.ocregister.com/ocregister/opinion/homepage/article_1366853.php

Tuesday, November 28, 2006
The Orange Grove: The foreign workers we really need

U.S. companies must go outside the country to fill many high-skill jobs

By KEVIN MCDONALD

Vice President, Alvaka Networks in Huntington Beach; Chairman, AeA
Government Affairs for Orange County
I can no longer remain a silent witness to the demagoguery and
opportunistic political rhetoric surrounding immigration. Too many people
are allowing the debate over undocumented immigrants to distort the truth
about the very real need in the United States for highly skilled
foreign-born workers.

I am personally against "mass" immigration, but groups like Carrying
Capacity Network demand a no-growth immigration policy and call attempts at
immigration "reform" a betrayal of the United States. In my opinion they
are spreading untruths and baiting people into over-reacting.

The high-tech industry has fueled much of the growth in the American
economy since the 1990s. Millions of jobs were created in the technology
sector and, indirectly, by the money spent by the workers holding those
jobs. According to the U.S. Labor Department, employment in professional,
scientific and technical services will grow by 28.4 percent and add 1.9
million new jobs by 2014. This growth has already severely outpaced our
ability to fill these jobs.

For now, we must meet this demand for workers by bringing the talent here
before these jobs and the innovation created by the work these immigrants
do are permanently lost to foreign countries.

It is true that we must better prepare our citizens, through more intensive
K-12 education and college degree programs, to take higher-level jobs. But
until then, why would we allow these jobs to be exported to America's
fiercest economic competitors?

Specific visa classifications have been created so that U.S. companies can
attract the world's best and brightest employees. The most common of these
visas are the H-1B and L-1, temporary visas that allow highly skilled
foreign nationals to work in the United States for up to seven years.

While our universities are producing hundreds of thousands of highly
skilled graduates, the truth is many of them are foreigners here on student
visas. After we educate them, the majority are subsequently told they must
leave the U.S.

It is not my intent to join the debate over immigration by people with
little or no skills or people seeking jobs in the skilled trades. The sheer
number of such immigrants implies that American citizens might be
displaced. But it is my intent to ask our elected representatives:
"Wouldn't you prefer that the high-value work be done here? Can we afford
to allow any more innovation to be booted from this country and into the
waiting arms of our foreign competitors?"

Concerns about immigrants pushing down wages in the trades and in low-skill
jobs don't apply to highly skilled H1-B applicants. These workers command
high wages regardless of what country they come from.

The process that companies must follow to bring the best minds to America
is complex, expensive and by no means the employers' first choice. But
either we bring them here, go to them or hire their future employers in
another country.

I have spoken with dozens of executives in the high-tech industry about the
issues of foreign outsourcing and importing H1-B applicants. The
almost-universal response goes something like this: "We need the work done.
We can't wait for the American education system to produce the talent we
need. We would like nothing more than to hire our fellow citizens."

If you doubt the contributions of foreign-born workers to our country, you
simply need to look at the talent that has provided the United States with
a high-technology edge. Sergey Brin, co-founder of Google, is Russian-born;
Intel co-founder Andy Grove is from Hungary; Sabeer Bhatia, co-founder of
Hotmail, is from India; Jerry Yang, originally from Taiwan, brought us
Yahoo; Pierre Omidyar, founder of eBay, is from France; and Vinod Kholsa,
co-founder of Sun Microsystems, is from India.

In exchange for being allowed to come here and work, they have not only
helped America stay at the forefront of international technical leadership,
they have created tens of thousands of good-paying jobs in this country.
Frankly this is an amazing return on investment.

On the other hand, consider that, with the immigration limitations and
political climate we now have, Einstein would have been refused entry.

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