This is one of the shining examples of why management is looked down upon.
Chris McMahon
-----Original Message-----
From: Alexander 'Sasha' Chislenko <sasha1@netcom.com>
To: Extropian mailing list <extropians@extropy.org>;
extropians-discussion@MIT.EDU <extropians-discussion@MIT.EDU>
Cc: Michael Bukatin <bukatin@cs.brandeis.edu>; Igor Mendelev
<igor57@hotmail.com>
Date: Tuesday, February 24, 1998 5:17 PM
Subject: FWD/MEDIA: High-tech Firms Seek To End Cap On Foreign Workers
> It's so typical for this so-called planning system to start
>handling the situation after it has developed into a very
>obvious crisis, that I don't even find it funny anymore...
>However, this may be very symptomatic - I suggested this very
>scenario to my friend yesterday, with the hope that the
>quickening progress of technology will destroy justifications
>for at least some restrictions on personal liberty.
>
>Maybe, this is a first step on making highly skilled labor
>a globally privileged elite, as the recognition of their
>importance, scarcity and exterritorial nature of their work.
>(Nature doesn't apply the same territorial restrictions to
>tigers and fungi; the governments, so far, have)
>
>This story is taken from:
>
>http://dailynews.yahoo.com/headlines/technology/story.html?s=n/
>reuters/980224/tech/stories/visas_1.html
>----------------------------------------------------------------
>
> Tuesday February 24 10:23 AM EST
>
> High-tech Firms Seek To End Cap On Foreign Workers
>
> By Deeann Glamser
>
> SEATTLE (Reuters) - Microsoft and other high-tech companies,
> which say they face a critical shortage of programmers and
> engineers, this week will ask Congress to eliminate the hiring
> cap on foreign professionals.
>
> "This has slowly built to a crisis situation this year," Brian
> Raymond, domestic policy manager for the American Electronics
> Association, a trade group representing some 3,000 technology
> companies, said in a recent interview.
>
> At issue are H-1B visas, allowing non-citizen doctors, computer
> programmers and other professionals to work in the United States
> for up to six years. The visas are used to fill shortages of
> skilled workers, or are for people with extraordinary talents.
>
> This year, the annual limit of 65,000 H-1B visas is expected to
> be hit by June, with no more issued until Oct. 1, the start of
> the next federal fiscal year.
>
> Last year, the allotment was gone by September, the first time
> the limit was reached.
>
> The Senate Judiciary Committee has a hearing scheduled for
> Wednesday on H-1B visas for high-tech workers.
>
> Microsoft, Texas Instruments Inc. and Sun Microsystems officials
> will testify in favor of repealing the cap.
>
> The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA, the
>
> leading U.S. professional group for electrical and electronics
> engineers, wants to retain the current limit.
>
> Visa information is sketchy, but 44 percent of pre- application
> certifications -- the requests companies make to the Labor
> Department as a prerequisite for applying for an H-1B visa -- in
> fiscal 1997 were for computer occupations, up from 25 percent in
> fiscal 1995.
>
> The next-largest category in fiscal 1997 was physical therapists,
> at 26 percent of requests.
>
> The Information Technology Association of America, a trade
> association that also opposes the cap, says companies with 100 or
> more employees have 346,000 openings for programmers, systems
> analysts and computer engineers, or 10 percent of the nation's
> 3.3 million information-technology jobs.
>
> Semiconductor maker Texas Instruments hires about 150 H-1B visa
> holders a year, 10 percent to 15 percent of its annual technical
> hires.
>
> Most are graduate students at U.S. universities and become
> residents here. The majority are from Taiwan and India.
>
> "These employees are critical. We depend greatly on electrical
> engineering talent to build our products," said Stephen Leven,
> Texas Instruments director of worldwide human resources.
>
> Intel also wants the cap repealed. It hires 300 to 400 foreign
> design engineers a year, almost a third of the design engineers
> it hires annually and about 4 percent of the slightly more than
> 10,000 people it hired in 1997.
>
> As at Texas Instruments, most are graduate students sponsored by
> the company for residency.
>
> Visa-limit proponents say more U.S. students are enrolling in
> engineering and computer sciences as job prospects surge, and
> older employees can be retrained for the changing job market.
>
> "We really believe there is a sufficient amount of people to
> satisfy needs in the U.S.," said Paul Kostek, a Seattle- based
> consultant and president-elect of the Institute of Electrical and
> Electronics Engineers-USA.
>
> Norman Matloff, a computer science professor at the University of
> California at Davis, said companies exacerbate the worker
> shortage by requiring very specific skills for each job and
> preferring males in their 20s and 30s.
>
> "They want them young, and with the latest, hot technology, "
> Matloff said. "For experienced programmers, learning a new
> language is no big deal."
>
> He said visa workers earn less on average than their U.S. peers
> and are unlikely to leave a company sponsoring them for permanent
> residency.
>
> Microsoft has not released its H-1B figures, but says a mix of
> cultural backgrounds is critical in a global marketplace.
>
> "It's important for us to hire the most appropriate workers to
>
> compete," said Microsoft spokesman Jim Cullinan.
>
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>Alexander Chislenko <http://www.lucifer.com/~sasha/home.html>
>---------------------------------------------------------------
>