Why America Needs Immigrants () By JONAH LEHRER | Wall Street Journal But prudence demands that I hedge my bets and I will have to relocate to friendlier shores. I am of course thankful to the US taxpayer who has paid for my graduate school tuition and board, to the US-companies that have given me opportunities that are equal to native-born Americans, and to my American friends for their friendship and hospitality. I've had enough of paying taxes, creating $$ & jobs for US-based companies - I've been waiting since 1999. They are beholden to too many populist groups and will make the immigration issue a class-based fight. I will definitely be moving out of the US when the Dems get elected as I do not think that they capable of making the politically tough but necessary decisions on immigration. We design computer-chips that enable about 50% of the world cellular phones. I am an Electrical Engineer by training and I manage and lead an R&D group at an American semiconductor company. These issues are more important to me than tax cuts or getting a green card sooner. Neither do i want my child to read about "creationism" in school (despite paying for all that private school fees!). I do not want that to be funded through my tax money. with a Republican win, the chances of "collateral damage" (deaths of innocent abroad) increase tremendously. I know that chances of passing of a bill favorable to skilled immigrants are greater with Republicans, but there are other issues far more important to me. An Obama win may just restore my faith (which was severely damaged after Bush relection) in the average intelligence of a voter. Had they sincerely promoted balanced skilled immigration reform like tighter enforcement of H1-B provisions that protect US workers along with faster GC process for those meeting those tighter requirements, I would have gladly supported them. Their real agenda is an end to all skilled immigration. those occasional noises about giving GCs instead of H1-Bs is exactly that. They highlight the exploitation part only to promote their agenda. Our grouse with the likes of PG, lou dobbs etc is that they offer a one-sided criticism of the H1-B program full of half-truths, outright lies and insinuations about us "stealing" jobs. that is one of our major reasons for pushing GC reforms. We DO NOT deny the fact that H1-B has loopholes that make us vulnerable for exploitation. in such cases we obviously have to support the broad package of high skilled immigration reform. thanks to corporate lobbying or whatever. However, it often happens that ANY reform to the EB program is clubbed together with H1-B increases. The last thing we want to see is even more gullible H1-B folks with GC mirages being added to our midst. We neither support nor oppose increasing H1-B visas. Whether or not everybody recognizes this is a different story, but it is good to know where the overlapping concern is, and hopefully in long term, get people talking about a solution that really does try to bridge the gap.įor the record, we are neutral on the issue of H1-B visa increases. I really would like to get this right.Īnyway, if I do have it right, it seems to me that the AFL-CIO position (give people green cards instead of H1B visas) bridges the core concerns of members of Immigration Voice and the Programmers Guild. My understanding is that the only reason that Immigration Voice supports increased H1B visa numbers is because people whose current visas are about to expire, and family members, are counted in these same numbers. My understanding of Immigration Voice's agenda is that this group is really for people who have H1B visas and are in the country already to bring their spouses and children here with full rights to travel and work, make sure renewals of H1Bs happen so you can stay in the country, and, even better, to convert H1B visas to green cards. I've kind of lived though both sides, and it is really aweful for everyone but the abusive employer.
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