Grass looks greener, but welcome cools

Date: Tuesday, March 25, 2003 9:03 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

This article correctly states that "Engineers parading on picket lines
are relatively rare." Jagdish Bhagwati, an economist at Columbia
University, welcomes H-1Bs and describes the borders of the US and
other rich nations as "beyond control." If more engineers understood
that globalists like Bhagwati want to open our borders to flood the
nation with the cheap young blood of immigrant labor there might be
more than just protests.

Dr. Gene Nelson proved that staging protests against H-1B works. His
protest got mainstream media coverage in this article.

Following this article is a short essay by Dr. Nelson on how to state a
protest.

Go to this link to see LeEarl Bryant, the former president of IEEE,
holding a protest sign:
http://www.zazona.com/shameh1b/images/photos/LeEarlBryant.jpg

http://www.csmonitor.com/2003/0320/p13s02-wogi.html

Grass looks greener, but welcome cools

The flow of migrants has doubled since 1970, creating political waves
in rich nations.
By David R. Francis | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor

Border guards earlier this week on the German-Polish boundary stopped a
truck filled with 76 illegal immigrants from Ukraine and Moldova headed
for the Netherlands.

Except for its human implications, the story might inspire a yawn. In
essence, a similar story happens almost daily on some border around the
world. Millions from poor countries are striving desperately to enter
rich nations. International migration has become a hot topic in the US
and in many other countries.

"It is a very big issue," says Joseph Chamie, director of the
Population Division of the United Nations in New York. And he expects
migration to become even more of a political issue in the years ahead.

These migrants are not only the poorly educated, creating job
competition for lower- income workers in industrial nations, some have
postgraduate degrees. Just last month, several American engineers, some
with doctorates, paraded with picket signs outside a convention of
engineers in Dallas to protest H-1B visas given high-tech workers.
"Bill Gates Unfair," one sign read.

Engineers parading on picket lines are relatively rare. However,
Microsoft, headed by Mr. Gates, is one of many United States companies
that bring in foreign engineers to do programming or other mostly
technical jobs under a special visa program that has become highly
controversial.

Today, 175 million people reside outside their country of birth. That's
about 3 percent of world population, and more than double the number in
1970. With the world's population at 6.3 billion and growing by 77
million a year, pressures to migrate, mostly from poor nations, are
increasing.

Kofi Annan, secretary-general of the UN, has made international
migration a "priority issue." Over the next few years, the UN will
likely devote more money, more discussion, and more meetings to
immigration issues. When the General Assembly meets in October, it will
discuss the problem and possible ways of dealing with it.

A new UN report carefully sums up the problem: "The vast majority of
migrants are making meaningful contributions to their host countries.
At the same time, however, international migration entails the loss of
human resources for many countries of origin and may give rise to
political, economic, or social tensions in countries of destination."

Because of their growing numbers, immigrants - legal and illegal -
became an election issue recently in Denmark, France, the Netherlands,
and Austria. Australia was widely condemned last summer for keeping
Afghan, Iranian, Iraqi, and Palestinian asylum seekers in deplorable
conditions.

After the Sept. 11 attacks, US Attorney General John Ashcroft announced
policies rolling back protections enjoyed by immigrants, even those
legally in the US but not yet citizens. Some of those policies were
reversed after protests by civil rights groups and American Muslim and
Arab groups.

In the US, a political battle is shaping up over the current yearly
visa cap of 195,000 visas under the H-1B program. That cap expires
Sept. 30. It then will revert to 65,000 in the absence of further
congressional action. The 235,000-member Institute of Electrical and
Electronic Engineers-USA has called for letting that reversion take
place - "especially in light of record unemployment among US engineers
and computer scientists," president-elect John Steadman stated Feb. 14.

Whether the IEEE-USA will prevail in Congress is an open question.
Picketer Gene Nelson, an out-of-work biophysicist, says the high-tech
firms will make the "false claim" that unless "techies" from places
such as India can be brought to the US, their jobs will be contracted
out abroad, making use of the Internet and other modern, cheap
communications.

Jagdish Bhagwati, an economist at Columbia University in New York and
an immigrant himself, welcomes H-1B visa immigrants. It would be
"crazy" to cut them back, he says. "They provide skilled labor that
easily integrates into the economy."

Mr. Bhagwati sees borders of the US and other rich nations as "beyond
control."

A majority of Americans want tighter management of immigration, opinion
polls show. The same is true in many European nations. But the ability
to control migration has shrunk, Bhagwati maintains.

In the US and elsewhere, ethnic groups that include many voters fight
these restraints, as they want more family members and friends from
their homelands to join them. And since most voters don't usually
choose a candidate on the basis of his or her immigration views, those
groups have political clout.

Moreover, businesses campaign for immigrants, to keep costs down. In
the case of H-1B workers, employers often manage to get a wage bargain.
Various studies find these immigrants earn 15 to 30 percent less than
comparable American workers. Mr. Nelson calls H-1B workers "indentured
labor" because their visas can depend on keeping their jobs.

Another control issue involves simple humanity. Migrants, legal or
illegal, are people. When Mexicans die in the deserts of Texas or
Cubans drown on the way to Florida, it rouses concern. Groups
supporting civil rights or immigration try to protect those making it
across the borders. Judges are often sympathetic when pitiful
immigration cases come before them. It can be hard to sort out migrants
seeking mostly an improved economic life from those genuinely needing
asylum.

Governments, Bhagwati argues, must reorient their policies from trying
to curtail migration to coping and working with it to seek benefits for
all. In the current issue of Foreign Affairs, he proposes creation of a
World Migration Organization under UN auspices, something like the
World Health Organization. He first proposed this idea in a 1992
opinion-page article in the Monitor.

But the US and Europe are reluctant to discuss migration at the UN
headquarters because it is such a sensitive issue politically both at
home and sometimes in foreign relations. They prefer to bring it up in
some regional setting.

The European Union, for instance, has been talking with North African
nations about illegal immigration. Last July, British Prime Minister
Tony Blair and his Spanish counterpart, Josi Maria Aznar, proposed
that the EU withdraw aid from countries not taking effective steps to
stem the flow of illegal immigrants.

The US has been involving Canada, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central
America in talks about migration issues. Mexican President Vicente Fox
has been urging President Bush to create a new guest-worker program for
his countrymen in the US and "regularize" the immigration status of 3
million to 5 million illegal Mexican immigrants. But after Sept. 11,
that idea has been put on hold by the Bush administration, to the
irritation of Mr. Fox.

Japan has decided it doesn't want to become an immigrant country,
despite the prospect of a rapid decline in population.

"It is difficult to predict how this will evolve," says Mr. Chamie, of
the UN's Population Division.

The division has been studying the issue with the intention of
providing "scientific, rigorous, objective reports," as Chamie puts it.
Some findings (see box, below) may be surprising.

Russia, for example, has a large number of migrants because of the
breakup of the Soviet Union. Many born in what are now independent
states are still living in Russia and are thus classified by the UN as
migrants. Several Middle Eastern countries have enough oil wealth to
import a large number of foreign workers. Most of them do the "dirty,
difficult, and dangerous jobs," such as construction, or the menial
jobs, such as household help. But their employers consider them
temporary workers and thus are often less hesitant to send them home to
India or Pakistan or elsewhere than are European nations.

Migration facts
Sixty percent of the world's migrants currently reside in
more-developed regions; 40 percent in developing nations.

Most of the world's migrants live in Europe (56 million), Asia (50
million), and North America (essentially the US and Canada - 41
million). That means almost one person in every 10 living in well-to-do
nations is a migrant.

In contrast, only one in every 70 persons in developing countries
is a migrant.

Between 1990 and 2000, the number of migrants in the world grew by
21 million, or 14 percent. In North America, the number of migrants
rose by 13 million (48 percent). Europe's migrant population grew by 8
million, or 16 percent.

Without immigrants and their children, the population of Germany
would have started falling in 1972, in Italy in 1993, in Greece in
1997, and in Sweden in 1998.

The number of migrants in developing nations fell by 2 million
between 1990 and 2000.

About 9 percent of migrants are refugees. Refugees numbered 16
million at the end of 2000. Most of them - 13 million - live in
developing countries.

In 2001, 44 percent of developed countries had policies to lower
immigration levels. So did 39 percent of developing nations.

Remittances of migrants to their homelands are vital in many
countries. They exceed 10 percent of gross domestic product in Albania,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Cape Verde, El Salvador, Jamaica, Jordan,
Nicaragua, Samoa, and Yemen.

Source: International Migration Report 2002, United Nations Population
Division

Gene Nelson's thoughts on how to organize an IEEE protest

There are many elements that go into a successful protest. You should
budget for at least two weeks of preparation for a small protest, with
greater amounts of time necessary for larger protests. The materials
for the February 12 protest cost slightly more than $100.00. While a
small protest may be organized and implemented by one person, larger
protests should involve a committee, with tasks being delegated.

Advance Preparation Tasks:

These include obtaining permission from the relevant city authorities,
contacting the media, and recruiting protesters. The last steps involve
building, painting, and transporting the picket signs.

1. Obtaining permission.

It required about two hours of telephone calls to locate the office
within the Dallas Police Department (DPD) that
handles protests and parades. Once I contacted the appropriate officer,
I was informed regarding the expected behavior
for the protesters. A plainclothes police officer was assigned to our
protest. She was very helpful and supplied
her cell phone number to me. She watched out for us and kept an eye on
a few "oddballs" that interacted with the
protesters.

2. Contacting the media.

Personalized press releases were sent to every local reporter that I
had worked with over the past few years. I also called
many up to alert them to the protest. Several reporters for national
and international publications were also contacted.
We were successful in having both TV broadcast personnel, reporters,
and photographers cover the event.

3. Recruiting the protesters.

Calling friends, family, and interested professionals is very
important. The WashTech email system was also helpful in bringing in
more protesters. Having a cell phone and a small local map is also very
helpful in case any of the protesters get lost on their way to the
protest site. Since protesting is an activity that makes people
thirsty, it is important to purchase some individual sized bottles of
drinking water for the protesters.

4. Fabricating the signs.

Signs should be lightweight (less than about 2 pounds) since anything
heavier than that will be exhausting to carry for the duration of a
protest. The materials that I chose were "Foam Core" display board and
3/4 inch diameter PVC pipe. Nylon cable ties and clear waterproof
adhesive were used to join the pipe handle to the display board. It is
also very important to avoid the use of heavy weight materials that
might be viewed by the authorities as weapons.

The PVC pipe is supplied in 10 foot lengths, which were cut in three
3.3 foot sections.

The Foam Core was cut into 20 inch by 32 inch pieces with a razor blade
type knife. Four 3/16" holes were drilled through a stack of the
display boards to allow the cable tie to secure the handle to the
display board in two locations along the center line of the sign. The
pipe handles were attached to the signs with about 2 feet of handle
protruding. The adhesive was allowed to dry overnight before the signs
were painted.

Black, blue, and red waterproof inks were selected for most of the
messages. Fluorescent ink was used for color accents.

One - eighth scale pieces of paper (2.5 by 4 inches) were used to
arrange the messages on the signs. 10 of the signs had a
"portrait" orientation and 2 had a "landscape" orientation. Lettering
should be about 4 or more inches in height to
show up well on television or newspapers.

The ink should be applied in thin coats with a brush that makes about a
one inch wide line. Multiple coats may be
necessary. If the ink is applied too thick, it may run down the sign
when it is moved before the ink dries. Any
such errors may be corrected with "White Out" liquid.

After the ink was thoroughly dry, the signs were paired and arranged so
the message text faced the message text
of a second sign. Three of these pairs were bound together with "Twist
Ties" such as are used to hold leafy vegetables
in the supermarket. The grouping of six signs was much easier to move
from my vehicle to the protest site and back, relative to individual
loose signs.

With sufficient advance planning, the biggest headache on protest day
will be locating an inexpensive parking
place near the protest site. Plan to arrive early!

Here is the text of the 12 signs used at the February 12, 2003 IEEE
protest in Dallas, Texas.

TOO MANY H-1Bs

GREEDY EMPLOYERS USE H-1Bs TO STEAL

799,700 JOBS IN 2 YEARS

JOBS NOT H-1Bs (on two signs)

REMEMBER SHUTTLE COLUMBIA

WE'RE NOT DISPOSABLE WORKERS

BILL GATES UNFAIR

HONK TO SUPPORT U.S. CITIZEN WORKERS

0 H-1B LIMIT (very large zero, like speed limit sign)

H-1B Visas Benefit Elites,

Harm All Others!

Gene Nelson's email: c0030180@airmail.net

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