10 Articles Worth Reading
10 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Wednesday, April 12, 2006 1:05 AM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
April 12, 2006 No. 1457
<<< COMMENTS FROM ROB >>>
Article #1 The Informationweek writer tries to pin the blame for offshoring
on Lou Dobbs. It's creative journalism like I have never seen before.
Article #2: Did any of you hear about McCain's bet that he would pay $50 an
hour to any American that was willing to work as hard as Mexicans? If you
want to apply for that job use this online form:
http://projectusa.org/db/forms/phpform/forms/lettuce-picking_job_app.php
Article #8: Mortimer Zuckerman asks for sanity, and then goes on to explain
that the U.S. has massive shortages of both skilled and unskilled workers.
That's insane!
Article #9: H-1Bs finally get the credit they deserve - from our credit
unions. Be sure to see the letter by the author of the article - Raksha
Varma. She has a lot to say about the superiority of Indian workers.
<<< END OF COMMENTS >>>
Article 1:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=184417563
Down To Business: Offshorers Coming Out Of The Closet
Whether driven by some extrapolation of the Wal-Mart Effect or even the
Madonna Effect, companies are starting to make noise about the work they're
doing abroad. The single biggest boost to the Indian IT and professional
services trade over the past couple of years, according to a top exec of
one of India's leading IT and professional services firms, is none other
than CNN's Lou Dobbs.
Article 2:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401126.html
Union Leaders Boo McCain on Immigration
Sen. John McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody
else wanted. He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in
Arizona. Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting
McCain's job offer. "I'll take it!" one man shouted.
Article 3:
http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow200604041505.asp
The Economic Truths of Immigration Reform
What are we so afraid of?
The only way to reduce illegal immigration, therefore, is to raise the
unskilled H-2B visa level and bring it in line with job openings in the
United States. Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute estimates that U.S.
labor-market conditions can absorb about 400,000 Mexican immigrants per
year. And by the way, our H-1B visa program for skilled workers, now at
only 65,000, should be unlimited. We need all the scientists and engineers
we can get.
Article 4:
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1475401.cms
Uncle Sam likely to double Green Cards
It is not just the Indian professional with H-1B dreams whose fate hangs in
balance in the US Senate. The Specter proposal, passed by the Senate
Judiciary Committee, holds the key for an increase in the number of EB
visas, or green cards, as well.
Article 5:
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06096/679993-28.stm
Businesses push for high-skilled foreign workers
Last year, Stanford University awarded 88 Ph.D.s in electrical engineering,
49 of which went to foreign-born students. U.S. business would like to hang
on to these kinds of prized graduates and not lose them to the world --
which is one reason why it has a big stake in the immigration bill that is
consuming the Senate. As seen in the current talks, increasing visa limits
for workers at all skill levels is certain to be part of any future
compromise. Business is eager for more low-skilled immigration to keep the
service and construction industries humming, but it's also lobbying hard
for workers for high-tech and science-based industries.
Article 6:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14286391.htm
H-1B visa law criticized
ANALYSIS: PROGRAM GIVES AMERICANS NO PROTECTION, `NEEDS TO BE FIXED'
When a Sunnyvale tech company laid off the manager and most of his
colleagues in its reliability testing group a year and a half ago, the
manager said a few employees were spared -- younger, foreign workers on
H-1B visas. The laid-off manager was infuriated that as an American
citizen, he wasn't given priority over the H-1B employees. The H-1B visa
program allows employers to hire skilled foreign workers when there's a
shortage of available American workers. ``The law does not protect American
workers at all,''
Article 7:
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03062006.html
A Nation Polarized Between Rich and Poor
Business organizations have successfully used pubic relations firms and
bought-and-paid-for "economic studies" to convince policymakers that
American business cannot function without H-1B visas that permit the
importation of indentured employees from abroad who are paid less than the
going US salaries. The so-called shortage is, in fact, a replacement of
American employees with foreign employees, with the soon-to-be-discharged
American employee first required to train his replacement. It is amazing to
see free-market economists rush to the defense of H-1B visas. The visas are
nothing but a subsidy to US companies at the expense of US citizens.
Article 8:
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/060417/17edit.htm
A Little Sanity, Please
The colliding slogans of the immigration debate-"stop illegal aliens"
versus "remember, we are a nation of immigrants"--fail to explain some
complicated truths. The first is that America is a different place from 50
years ago. Then, half of American men didn't finish high school and entered
the workforce as unskilled laborers. Today, over 90 percent finish high
school and shun unskilled, low-wage jobs. Yet our increasingly automated
service economy is driven by low-skilled workers. The Department of Labor
estimates that we will need 7.7 million more in the next decade alone. At
the same time, we are desperately short of skilled professionals in
science, medicine, and technology.
Article 9:
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/04/10/story7.html
Some financial institutions hope for more H-1B visas, too
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal - April 7, 2006by Raksha Varma
Federal lawmakers' recent proposal to increase the number of H-1B visas
annually could result in a boost in business for several financial
institutions that cater to this key customer group in Silicon Valley. "Yes,
H-1Bs usually don't have a credit history, a FICO score," Ms. Litman says.
"But, they are employed by the tech sector's most profitable companies.
They're making good money. They are focused and traditional when it comes
to paying their bills and loans on time. It's the perfect customer base."
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=184417563
Down To Business: Offshorers Coming Out Of The Closet
Whether driven by some extrapolation of the Wal-Mart Effect or even the
Madonna Effect, companies are starting to make noise about the work they're
doing abroad.
By Rob Preston, InformationWeek
April 3, 2006
Technology companies are coming out of the closet. Rather than hide the
fact that they're moving more development and other work offshore,
theyre publicizing it. Bill Gates and Michael Dell are posing for photos
with Indian tech executives. Capgemini, EDS, and IBM are issuing press
releases about the thousands of workers they plan to add abroad. Even big
IT shops are less defensive than they used to be about their overseas
ambitions. It's suddenly OK, if still not quite chic, to talk publicly
about your global workforce.
For a parallel trend, consider Wal-Mart, which single-handedly pushed
thousands of its manufacturer suppliers into low-cost China as part of its
inexorable drive to beat down prices. While critics still portray the giant
retailer as a glorified sweat shop and community wrecker, plenty of others
give it credit for helping to keep U.S. inflation in check--the so-called
Wal-Mart Effect. Rather than have to hide from the fact that cheap offshore
manufacturing is behind its success, Wal-Mart can point to the good it
bestows on consumers and the economy at large.
Likewise, as Fortune 1,000 companies move more of their work offshore and
push their suppliers and partners to do the same, they're opening up about
the overall economic benefits. Dell's public persona is now tied as much to
the efficiencies of its global supply chain as to the quality of its
products and service. IBM, which will employ about 55,000 people in India
by next year, more than double the number it had there last year, talks not
just about lowering its costs and the costs of customers, but also about
accelerating the innovation of entire industries. IBM's huge multinational
customers, by extension, are hoping to promote their own Wal-Mart Effects
by leveraging the software and services developed offshore.
Of course, not every organization is eager to play up its offshoring
exploits. A Government Accountability Office report issued last week shows
that two states--Arizona and New Jersey--still prohibit offshoring as part
of state contracts, while most of the 43 states that offshore work to
administer at least one federal program must justify why they're doing so.
For the most part, the federal government doesn't specify what can and
can't be done offshore, but it's in no hurry to publicize what it's up to
outside the United States.
Regardless of how you view this issue, understand that even negative
publicity is pumping up the market. Call this the Madonna Effect. Want to
draw attention to something? Fan the flames of controversy around it.
The single biggest boost to the Indian IT and professional services trade
over the past couple of years, according to a top exec of one of India's
leading IT and professional services firms, is none other than CNN's Lou
Dobbs. That's right. It seems that the country's pre-eminent offshoring
basher has piqued corporate America's interest in this subject. But instead
of dissuading the Fortune 1,000 from turning abroad for software
development, payroll, business consulting, customer support, HR, legal, and
other services, Dobbs got those companies to investigate what all the fuss
is about--and, to his chagrin, many of them like what they're learning.
Meantime, with U.S. tech unemployment at only 3%, congressional leaders now
are talking openly about allowing more foreign-born professionals to work
in the United States under temporary visas. One proposal would raise the
cap on H-1B visas from 65,000 a year to 115,000, with an option to increase
the cap 20% annually.
Globalization has officially arrived. Even that bastion of progressive
thought leadership, The New York Times, in the person of columnist Thomas
Friedman, now realizes that the "flat" business world in which we live
won't be structured country by country. We can disagree on whether that
trend ultimately serves our long-term economic interests, but there's no
disagreeing on whether it will happen. It's here, to stay.
Rob Preston,
VP/Editor In Chief
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/04/04/AR2006040401126.html
Union Leaders Boo McCain on Immigration
By RON FOURNIER
The Associated Press
Tuesday, April 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- Sen. John McCain threatened on Tuesday to cut short a speech
to union leaders who booed his immigration views and later challenged his
statements on organized labor and the Iraq war.
"If you like, I will leave," McCain told the AFL-CIO's Building and
Construction Trades Department, pivoting briefly from the lectern. He
returned to the microphone after the crowd quieted.
"OK, then please give me the courtesy I would give you."
It was a colorful and contentious session, producing as many laughs as
boos, that tested McCain's commitment to the straight-talking, wisecracking
image he honed during his failed 2000 presidential bid. An underdog six
years ago, the Arizona Republican is expected to seek the 2008 GOP
nomination as a front-runner.
"I loved it. I love mixing it up like that," McCain said after the speech
to a Democratic-leaning crowd of several hundred.
He did seem to enjoy the back and forth that began minutes into his
address, when he mentioned campaigning on behalf of California Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger, a fellow Republican. The crowd booed the reference to
Schwarzenegger but laughed at McCain's self-effacing joke that followed.
He said somebody came up to him at the Schwarzenegger event and said, "Do
people tell you look like John McCain?"
"Yes, they do."
"Doesn't that make you madder than hell?"
Later, the senator outlined his position on the Senate immigration debate,
saying tougher border enforcement must be accompanied by guest-worker
provisions that give illegal immigrants a legal path toward citizenship.
Murmurs from the crowd turned to booing. "Pay a decent wage!" one audience
member shouted.
"I've heard that statement before," McCain said before threatening to
leave.
Afterward, the senator said he offered to cut his speech short "because I
wanted to be heard."
In the speech, McCain also argued that withdrawing U.S. troops prematurely
from Iraq would turn terrorists loose on the United States.
This time, there was no booing _ though one audience member cursed from the
back of the crowd.
McCain got another laugh when he finished the speech and asked whether
anybody had "questions, comments or insults."
The first questioner seemed to challenge his commitment to organized labor.
When McCain started to praise a particular labor group in Arizona, the
crowd booed again.
"Stop!" he said with a smile, drawing laughter from the crowd. "I
surrender."
But he took more questions, including a pointed one on his immigration
plan.
McCain responded by saying immigrants were taking jobs nobody else wanted.
He offered anybody in the crowd $50 an hour to pick lettuce in Arizona.
Shouts of protest rose from the crowd, with some accepting McCain's job
offer.
"I'll take it!" one man shouted.
McCain insisted none of them would do such menial labor for a complete
season. "You can't do it, my friends."
Some in the crowd said they didn't appreciate McCain questioning their work
ethic.
"I was impressed with his comedy routine and ability to tap dance without
music. But I was impressed with nothing else about him," said John
Wasniewski of Milwaukee. "He's supposed to be Mr. Straight Talk?"
Others said McCain showed some moxie, if not the best political judgment.
"Most of us don't agree with him on immigration, but I give him credit for
trying," said Chris Schoenbeck of Milwaukee.
With his profile rising, a growing number of Democrats are accusing McCain
of flip-flopping on issues to court conservative GOP primary voters.
McCain denied that charge later Tuesday _ after addressing the Hispanic
Chamber of Commerce, a GOP-leaning group that backs his immigration views.
There were no boos. Just laughter, and at the end of his remarks, a
standing ovation from the Hispanic leaders.
Yet McCain's mind was still on the labor activists and their prickly
reception.
"I can't tell you how much fun that was," he said.
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nationalreview.com/kudlow/kudlow200604041505.asp
April 04, 2006
The Economic Truths of Immigration Reform
What are we so afraid of?
President George W. Bush just met with Mexican President Vicente Fox in
Cancun, and once again Fox and Mexico got a free pass for their role in the
economics of the U.S. immigration mess. Why is the U.S. so soft on Mexico?
When Fox took Mexicos helm six years ago he promised pro-growth
policies. But it never happened. Right off the bat he sought a higher
value-added tax, and since then has never had the courage to privatize the
oil and gas sector. So, Mexicos vast energy and mineral-wealth base has
never developed into a job-producing machine. Meanwhile, small-business
credit availability is low and inflation tax-bracket creep is high in the
absence of tax reform. No wonder Mexican families seek a better life in
America.
Instead of an Asian or Irish Tiger, Mexico has become a poodle-like
Chihuahua, with economic growth of less than 2 percent a year and
per-capita growth at less than 1 percent. Thats pathetic. In an age when
free-market reforms are sweeping emerging economies worldwide, Mexico
should be growing at 8 to 10 percent each year.
Over the past fifteen years, according to the World Bank, China and India
have surged ahead of Mexico and the gap is widening. Mexico has gone
nowhere. And until Mexicos economic malaise is cured, millions will
continue to seek economic opportunity in the United States. Can you blame
them?
As long as the American boom beckons, Mexicans in search of prosperity will
continue to stream to this country. They have a strong incentive to do so.
The only way to reduce illegal immigration, therefore, is to raise the
unskilled H-2B visa level and bring it in line with job openings in the
United States. This is the only feasible economic solution to the chronic
problem of illegal immigration. The idea worked forty years ago with the
successful Bracero program for farm workers. It can work again.
Todays low visa limit of only 140,000 has caused illegal flows to
skyrocket. This must be changed. Tamar Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute
estimates that U.S. labor-market conditions can absorb about 400,000
Mexican immigrants per year. This would balance labor supply-and-demand
conditions and illegal immigration would plummet.
You can build a fence, but desperate Mexicans in search of economic
opportunity will climb over it or tunnel under it. This is the reality. And
by the way, our H-1B visa program for skilled workers, now at only 65,000,
should be unlimited. We need all the scientists and engineers we can get.
Once these immigrants get here they work hard. According to the U.S. Bureau
of Labor Statistics, Hispanic unemployment is only 5.5 percent, compared to
4.8 percent overall.
As for the claim that illegal workers dont pay taxes, Princeton
professor Douglas Massey estimates that roughly two-thirds of undocumented
immigrants pay the FICA payroll tax. Overall, illegals have fed $7 billion
to Social Security and $1.5 billion to Medicare. They are contributing to
our wealth, not reducing it.
And what do they take from the system? According to Forbes magazine, only
10 percent of illegal Mexicans have sent a child to an American public
school and just 5 percent have received food stamps or unemployment
benefits. A U-Cal Davis study also shows that more immigrant workers leads
to more economic growth. This is standard economics. Multiply an enlarged
workforce times existing productivity and you get more economic growth.
But for some reason, immigration opponents cant make this connection.
They are blinded by fear-mongering, defeatism, and pessimism.
Colorado congressman Tom Tancredo calls illegal immigration "a scourge that
threatens the very future of our nation." Huh? Thats xenophobic
nonsense. In economic terms the U.S. has never had it so good. Statistic
after statistic says were booming, with 175,000 net new jobs created
each month and record levels of Americans working. In fact, since the early
Reagan 1980s, the U.S. economy has been booming almost uninterrupted,
creating 44 million new jobs even during the takeoff of high immigration.
Exactly what are we so afraid of? As Center for Equal Opportunity chairman
Linda Chavez has been pointing out, Hispanics are great entrepreneurs,
small-business owners, and job creators. According to 2002 Census Bureau
data, Hispanics are opening new businesses at a rate thats three-times
faster than the national average.
As a Reagan conservative, I believe in freedom and opportunity.
Globalization is here to stay. Proper reform should combine stronger border
security with higher visa levels and a path to citizenship. Yes, illegals
should pay fines and go to the back of the citizenship line. Yes, employers
must aggressively cooperate with the new rules. But compassion must coexist
with free-economy principles and the rule of law.
Before he passed away, Pope John Paul II quoted Matthew 25:35: "I was a
stranger and you welcomed me." That is precisely the spirit America should
seek when it comes to immigration reform.
Larry Kudlow, NROs Economics Editor, is host of CNBCs Kudlow &
Company and author of the daily web blog, Kudlows Money Politic$.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1475401.cms
Uncle Sam likely to double Green Cards
URMI A GOSWAMI
APRIL 04, 2006
NEW DELHI: It is not just the Indian professional with H-1B dreams whose
fate hangs in balance in the US Senate. The Specter proposal, passed by the
Senate Judiciary Committee, holds the key for an increase in the number of
EB visas, or green cards, as well.
The numerical cap of EB immigrants would increase from 1,40,000 to 2,90,000
annually. Moreover, spouses and children of EB immigrants on or after
October 1, 04, will no longer count against the numerical cap.
The bill proposes that unused EB immigrant visas dont lapse at the end
of the governments fiscal year (September 30).
The bill calls for recapturing the unused immigrant visas from 01. Such
visas can be used over a period of time. If accepted, the country limits
will be increased from 7% to 10% of the worldwide numerical cap to ease
backlogs for highly-skilled workers born in populous countries.
This would benefit India and China. Experts contend that this would be the
most serious improvement to the employment-based immigration system since
the passage of the Immigration Act of 1990.
The bill passed by the Senate Judiciary Committee proposes to re-fashion
the employment-based immigration system to consider the needs of the US
economy.
Experts view that the US immigration system largely ignores the
contribution of prospective immigrants to the US society.
At present, professionals, who fall into the EB-3 category, have to wait
for five years to obtain permanent residency, and persons born in India and
China face long lines even in the EB-1 and EB-2 categories.
This is despite the fact that the US suffers from shortage of scientists,
engineers, computer professionals, healthcare professionals and teachers.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06096/679993-28.stm
Businesses push for high-skilled foreign workers
Thursday, April 06, 2006
By June Kronholz, The Wall Street Journal
Last year, Stanford University awarded 88 Ph.D.s in electrical engineering,
49 of which went to foreign-born students. U.S. business would like to hang
on to these kinds of prized graduates and not lose them to the world --
which is one reason why it has a big stake in the immigration bill that is
consuming the Senate.
The fate of millions of illegal immigrants, most of them low-skilled
workers, dominates that debate. But the future of thousands of high-skilled
foreign workers seeking admission to the country -- scientists,
mathematicians, health-care workers -- may be equally important to the U.S.
economy. Because of the key role many of those workers play in cutting-edge
businesses, industry lobbyists are pushing measures that would more than
double the number of visas available to skilled workers.
But if the years-long effort to overhaul the U.S. immigration system
collapses, the issue of those visas could be buried in the rubble. "Our
biggest fear is that the other issue -- the undocumented workers -- bogs
down and threatens the entire bill," says Ralph Hellman of the Information
Technology Industry Council, a Washington-based trade group.
President Bush waded into the fray Wednesday, urging senators to come to a
quick conclusion, and Democrats were invited into what had been
Republican-only meetings to find a compromise that can win the 60 votes
needed to close debate. More talks will be held Thursday between Sens.
Edward Kennedy (D., Mass.) and John McCain (R., Ariz.). But last evening,
Majority Leader Bill Frist (R., Tenn.) was already moving to introduce a
new Republican plan to address the legal status of undocumented workers in
the U.S.
Those who arrived before April 2001 could begin an arduous but clear
11-year path to citizenship similar to that outlined in the Senate
Judiciary Committee bill reported last week. But to appease conservatives,
those who have come in the past five years are promised less.
In fact, anyone who can't prove that he or she was here legally before
January 2004 would risk deportation, while a third, middle group of people
who arrived in the intervening years could enter a temporary worker
program. The annual cap on the number of visas for the program in the
underlying Judiciary bill would be waived for these workers, but a Frist
aide said they would be required within three years to get their paperwork
in order, go to a port of entry of the U.S. and re-enter legally with a
work permit.
As seen in the current talks, increasing visa limits for workers at all
skill levels is certain to be part of any future compromise. Business is
eager for more low-skilled immigration to keep the service and construction
industries humming, but it's also lobbying hard for workers for high-tech
and science-based industries.
Currently, only 65,000 three-year visas are available to skilled workers
each year, and demand for those slots was so strong in the fiscal year that
started in October 2005 that employers, who must sponsor those workers,
snapped up all of them by last August.
The government also gives out 140,000 employment-based visas yearly --
so-called green cards that put immigrants on the track to citizenship. But
those visas are shared equally among all sending countries. That means that
an employer hoping to hire a Chinese- or Indian-born worker now has at
least a five-year wait before the immigration service even reads the
application.
Employers from hospitals to high schools increasingly are reliant on
foreign workers who enter the U.S. through the employment-visa line. But
high-tech employers are particularly dependent, and they say that the
paucity of visas threatens their competitiveness.
Dallas-based Texas Instruments Inc. says about 500 of its 19,000 domestic
employees are waiting for U.S. green cards, and that most of them are
electrical engineers. Those workers are in the U.S. on temporary work
permits, but while their green-card applications are pending, they can't
change work assignments or cities to meet their companies' needs.
Employers are particularly irked by the visa system's treatment of
foreign-born scientists who must leave the country after finishing their
studies if a U.S. company can't secure a visa to hire them. As it is,
U.S.-born students account for only about half the science, math,
technology and engineering advanced-degree holders turned out by American
universities yearly.
When companies run out of U.S.-born workers, and then can't hire
immigrants, "projects get dropped or delayed, so development is slowed
down," says Patrick Duffy, a human-resources lawyer for Intel Corp.
"It's not as if the work won't get done, it's where will the work get
done," adds Sandra Boyd, who heads a National Association of Manufacturers
competitiveness initiative.
In 1999, at the height of the dot-com bubble, high-tech industries
convinced Congress to triple the number of temporary visas available every
year. That largely met the economy's needs, says the Information Technology
council. But the measure expired in 2003, and with the high-tech industry
then ailing, employers didn't push for an extension.
Two years ago, under renewed pressure from employers, Congress made a
modest adjustment. It exempted 20,000 advanced-degree holders who already
were studying at U.S. universities from the cap on temporary visas,
allowing them to take jobs with U.S. employers. But again, demand was so
strong that those slots were filled on Jan. 9 for the fiscal year beginning
in October.
"It doesn't make sense to educate this talent and then send them to our
global competition to compete against us," says Intel's Mr. Duffy.
Lobbyists for the technology industry say they get a sympathetic hearing on
Capitol Hill with that argument. The immigration bill passed by the Senate
Judiciary Committee last week increases the number of green cards to
290,000 and the number of temporary visas to 115,000.
It also exempts U.S.-educated advanced-degree holders in science,
technology, engineering and math from both of those caps, and puts them on
an immediate path to citizenship, if they choose to stay in the U.S. after
finishing their degrees.
An immigration bill passed by the House in December focuses on enforcing
immigration laws on the border and in workplaces.
But the Information Technology council's Mr. Hellman says he expects that
House members who are appointed to the conference committee that reconciles
the House and Senate versions of any immigration bills will support
measures aimed at high-skilled workers.
If that compromise bill does more than just enhance enforcement, he says,
"our (issue) is first in line in terms of support."
But Congress might not get that far. Absent some agreement this morning
between Sens. McCain and Kennedy, the Senate splits over undocumented
workers now appear headed toward two cloture votes -- neither of which will
succeed to cut off debate on the Judiciary bill and Mr. Frist's new
alternative. "I cannot see the end of the tunnel to know if there is a
light there," said Judiciary Chairman Arlen Specter (R., Pa.) Wednesday
night.
If that happens, industry lobbyists say they would try to attach their visa
measures to a spending bill later in the year. That risks further delay and
uncertainty, though, even while competitors, including Britain, are
streamlining their immigration systems to attract high-skilled workers.
"We'll find ourselves playing catch-up," warns the National Association of
Manufacturers' Ms. Boyd.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/business/14286391.htm
Posted on Fri, Apr. 07, 2006
H-1B visa law criticized
ANALYSIS: PROGRAM GIVES AMERICANS NO PROTECTION, `NEEDS TO BE FIXED'
By K. Oanh Ha
When a Sunnyvale tech company laid off the manager and most of his
colleagues in its reliability testing group a year and a half ago, the
manager said a few employees were spared -- younger, foreign workers on
H-1B visas.
The laid-off manager was infuriated that as an American citizen, he wasn't
given priority over the H-1B employees. The H-1B visa program allows
employers to hire skilled foreign workers when there's a shortage of
available American workers.
``The law does not protect American workers at all,'' said Frank, a
45-year-old Chinese-American who was out of work for five months, and who
insisted his last name and the name of his former company not be published
because he fears repercussions from potential employers. ``It only helps
American businesses and technology companies keep their costs low while
sacrificing American workforce. That's not right.''
As Congress debates nearly doubling the number of highly skilled guest
worker visas next year to 115,000, calls are mounting for an overhaul of
Department of Labor's Foreign Labor Certification program. Critics have
long charged that the foreign-worker program doesn't fulfill its primary
mission: protecting American workers. They want stronger laws to preserve
American jobs and argue the current system is prone to abuse and fraud.
Increasingly, the federal government's reviews and audits of its own
foreign-worker programs are highlighting the same shortcomings.
While tech companies and lobbyists credit the H-1B visas with filling a
crucial shortage of skilled tech labor, workers and their advocates counter
the visas are being used to push Americans out of jobs and depress wages.
A Mercury News examination of little-known government reports and analysis
of H-1B applications supports critics' charges that the program gives U.S.
citizens virtually no protection from being replaced by a foreign worker.
California employers who filed applications seeking to hire H-1B workers
were virtually guaranteed approval. Of nearly 54,000 applications to hire
foreign workers filed by California employers in 2005, only 114 were denied
by the Foreign Labor Certification program. Not all approved applications
resulted in the hiring of a foreign worker or a visa being issued.
Employers are not required to prove that American workers were not
available for those jobs. The Labor Condition Application requires
information about the H-1B position and the wage an employer intends to
pay, which must be at least the prevailing market wage. The law also
doesn't require the labor department to verify that employers actually pay
the wages they stipulate unless there is a complaint.
Of the 3,628 H-1B applications for foreign-worker visas filed last year by
companies in San Jose, only two were denied. In Santa Clara, 3,677
applications brought only three denials.
The Department of Labor ``rubber-stamps the forms that companies send
them,'' said Marcus Courtney, president of WashTech, which represents tech
workers across the country. ``Their hands are tied. They follow the law,
which isn't adequate.''
Officials from the Department of Labor acknowledge that current statute
allows them to reject applications only if there are obvious errors or
omissions.
Feinstein's position
A few legislators acknowledge the issue: ``The problem has been that the
Department of Labor does not really check to see if the company has made
the effort to recruit in the United States,'' wrote Sen. Dianne Feinstein,
D-Calif., in an e-mail. Still, Feinstein supports doubling the number of
visas from the current 65,000. With various exemptions for certain types of
jobs, the actual number of visas would effectively reach nearly 300,000.
``The program needs to be fixed,'' said Ron Hira, a vice president with the
Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers-USA in Washington, D.C.
``We don't think raising the cap should be on the table before that
happens.''
Tech-industry lobbyists counter that current rules sufficiently protect
American workers. More H-1Bs are needed to fill the shortage of
professionals with advanced degrees, they argue. Petitions for the entire
2006 allotment of H-1Bs reached the cap last August.
In 2003, nearly 40 percent of the 217,000 H-1B petitions approved that year
were for computer-related jobs.
``I have many executives saying they would love to hire for those positions
from here,'' said Chris Merida, manager of public policy for the American
Engineering Association. ``But . . . the talent is not here.''
In the last decade, numerous government reports have cited problems, but
they have received scant media attention. A 1996 Department of Labor report
was headlined: ``The Department of Labor's Foreign Labor Certification
Programs: The System is Broken and Needs to Be Fixed.''
In its 2005 annual report, the Department of Labor concluded that
``reducing the susceptibility of DOL Foreign Labor Certification programs
to abuse remains a challenge.'' Recent investigations by the department's
Office of the Inspector General ``revealed corrupt employers, labor brokers
and lawyers who file fraudulent applications. The prevalence of these cases
consistently demonstrates the susceptibility of the program to fraud.''
In 2004, a report by the White House's Office of Management and Budget said
the H-1B program is ``vulnerable to fraud or abuse.'' It recommends adding
anti-fraud and audit functions and ``legislative changes . . . to require
employers to test the labor market'' to recruit American workers before
turning to foreign laborers.
Instances of fraud
It also cited problems with the permanent labor program, which allows
employers to hire foreign workers permanently. Investigators found
instances where applications for permanent workers were filed on behalf of
fictitious employees, and where approval paperwork needed to hire foreign
workers was illegally sold. The priority, the report said, was on
processing applications, not rooting out fraud.
Employers admitted to General Accounting Office investigators in 2003 that
they ``hired H-1B workers in part because these workers would often accept
lower salaries than similarly qualified U.S. workers'' -- but they did not
violate the law because they were paying workers at least the ``prevailing
wage'' approved by the Department of Labor.
``The system is broken, worthless,'' said Norm Matloff, a professor at
University of California-Davis and outspoken opponent of the foreign worker
program who has reviewed many of the reports.
``Companies don't need to violate the laws because of the loopholes,'' he
said. ``They can easily violate the spirit of the law. That's fraud to
me.''
Frank, the laid-off test manager, found work at a tech start-up but is
concerned where the industry is heading. When he became a naturalized
citizen in 1998, ``I thought it would give me more rights,'' he said. ``The
reality is that the opportunities are for the foreigners.''
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.counterpunch.org/roberts03062006.html
March 6, 2006
A Nation Polarized Between Rich and Poor
America's Bleak Jobs Future
By PAUL CRAIG ROBERTS
On February 20 Forbes.com told its readers with a straight face that "the
American job-generation machine rolls on. The economy will create 19
million new payroll jobs in the decade to 2014." Forbes took its
information from the 10-year jobs projections from the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, US Department of Labor, released last December.
If the job growth of the past half-decade is a guide, the forecast of 19
million new jobs is optimistic, to say the least. According to the Bureau
of Labor Statistics payroll jobs data, from January 2001 - January 2006 the
US economy created 1,054,000 net new private sector jobs and 1,039,000 net
new government jobs for a total five-year figure of 2,093,000. How does the
US Department of Labor get from 2 million jobs in five years to 19 million
in ten years?
I cannot answer that question.
However, the jobs record for the past five years tells a clear story. The
BLS payroll jobs data contradict the hype from business organizations, such
as the US Chamber of Commerce, and from "studies" financed by outsourcing
corporations that offshore jobs outsourcing is good for America. Large
corporations, which have individually dismissed thousands of their US
employees and replaced them with foreigners, claim that jobs outsourcing
allows them to save money that can be used to hire more Americans. The
corporations and the business organizations are very successful in placing
this disinformation in the media. The lie is repeated everywhere and has
become a mantra among no-think economists and politicians. However, no sign
of these jobs can be found in the payroll jobs data. But there is abundant
evidence of the lost American jobs.
Information technology workers and computer software engineers have been
especially heavily hit by offshore jobs outsourcing. During the past five
years (Jan 01 - Jan 06), the information sector of the US economy lost
645,000 jobs or 17.4% of its work force. Computer systems design and
related lost 116,000 jobs or 8.7% of its work force. Clearly, jobs
outsourcing is not creating jobs in computer engineering and information
technology. Indeed, jobs outsourcing is not even creating jobs in related
fields.
For the past five years US job growth was limited to these four areas:
education and health services, state and local government, leisure and
hospitality, financial services. There was no US job growth outside these
four areas of domestic nontradable services.
Oracle, for example, which has been handing out thousands of pink slips,
has recently announced two thousand more jobs being moved to India. How is
Oracle's move of US jobs to India creating jobs in the US for waitresses
and bartenders, hospital orderlies, state and local government and credit
agencies, the only areas of job growth?
Engineering jobs in general are in decline, because the manufacturing
sectors that employ engineers are in decline. During the last five years,
the US work force lost 1.2 million jobs in the manufacture of machinery,
computers, electronics, semiconductors, communication equipment, electrical
equipment, motor vehicles and transportation equipment. The BLS payroll job
numbers show a total of 70,000 jobs created in all fields of architecture
and engineering, including clerical personal, over the past five years.
That comes to a mere 14,000 jobs per year (including clerical workers).
What is the annual graduating class in engineering and architecture? How is
there a shortage of engineers when more graduate than can be employed?
Of course, many new graduates take jobs opened by retirements. We would
have to know the retirement rates to get a solid handle on the fate of new
graduates. But it cannot be very pleasant, with declining employment in the
manufacturing sectors that employ engineers and a minimum of 65,000 H-1B
visas annually for foreigners plus an indeterminate number of L-1 visas.
It is not only the Bush regime that bases its policies on lies. Not content
with outsourcing Americans' jobs, corporations want to fill the remaining
jobs in America with foreigners on work visas. Business organizations lie
about a shortage of engineers, scientists and even nurses. Business
organizations have successfully used pubic relations firms and
bought-and-paid-for "economic studies" to convince policymakers that
American business cannot function without H-1B visas that permit the
importation of indentured employees from abroad who are paid less than the
going US salaries. The so-called shortage is, in fact, a replacement of
American employees with foreign employees, with the soon-to-be-discharged
American employee first required to train his replacement.
It is amazing to see free-market economists rush to the defense of H-1B
visas. The visas are nothing but a subsidy to US companies at the expense
of US citizens.
Keep in mind this subsidy to US corporations for employing foreign workers
in place of Americans as we examine the Labor Department's projections of
the ten fastest growing US occupations over the 2004-2014 decade.
All of the occupations with the largest projected employment growth (in
terms of the number of jobs) over the next decade are in nontradable
domestic services. The top ten sources of the most jobs in "superpower"
America are: retail salespersons, registered nurses, postsecondary
teachers, customer service representatives, janitors and cleaners, waiters
and waitresses, food preparation (includes fast food), home health aides,
nursing aides, orderlies and attendants, general and operations managers.
Note than none of this projected employment growth will contribute one
nickel toward producing goods and services that could be exported to help
close the massive US trade deficit. Note, also, that few of these jobs
classifications require a college education.
Among the fastest growing occupations (in terms of rate of growth), seven
of the ten are in health care and social assistance. The three remaining
fields are: network systems and data analysis with 126,000 jobs projected
or 12,600 per year; computer software engineering applications with 222,000
jobs projected or 22,200 per year, and computer software engineering
systems software with 146,000 jobs projected or 14,600 per year.
Assuming these projections are realized, how many of the computer
engineering and network systems jobs will go to Americans? Not many,
considering the 65,000 H-1B visas each year (650,000 over the decade) and
the loss during the past five years of 761,000 jobs in the information
sector and computer systems design and related.
Judging from its ten-year jobs projections, the US Department of Labor does
not expect to see any significant high-tech job growth in the US. The
knowledge jobs are being outsourced even more rapidly than the
manufacturing jobs were. The so-called "new economy" was just another hoax
perpetrated on the American people.
If offshore jobs outsourcing is good for US employment, why won't the US
Department of Commerce release the 200-page, $335,000 study of the impact
of the offshoring of US high-tech jobs? Republican political appointees
reduced the 200-page report to 12 pages of public relations hype and refuse
to allow the Technology Administration experts who wrote the report to
testify before Congress. Democrats on the House Science Committee are
unable to pry the study out of the hands of Commerce Secretary Carlos
Gutierrez. Obviously, the facts don't fit the Bush regime's globalization
hype.
The only thing America has left is finance, and now that is moving abroad.
On February 22 CNNMoney.com reported that America's large financial
institutions are moving "large portions of their investment banking
operations abroad." No longer limited to back-office work, offshoring is
now killing American jobs in research and analytic operations, foreign
exchange trades and highly complicated credit derivatives contracts.
Deal-making responsibility itself may eventually move abroad. Deloitte
Touche says that the financial services industry will move 20 percent of
its total costs base offshore by the end of 2010. As the costs are lower in
India, that will represent more than 20 percent of the business. A job on
Wall St is a declining option for bright young persons with high stress
tolerance.
The BLS payroll data that we have been examining tracks employment by
industry classification. This is not the same thing as occupational
classification. For example, companies in almost every industry and area of
business employ people in computer-related occupations. A recent study from
the Association for Computing Machinery claims:
"Despite all the publicity in the United States about jobs being lost to
India and China, the size of the IT employment market in the United States
today is higher than it was at the height of the dot.com boom. Information
technology appears as though it will be a
growth area at least for the coming decade."
We can check this claim by turning to the BLS Occupational Employment
Statistics. We will look at "computer and mathematical employment" and
"architecture and engineering employment."
Computer and mathematical employment includes such fields as "software
engineers applications," "software engineers systems software," "computer
programers," "network systems and data communications," and
"mathematicians." Has this occupation been a source of job growth?
In November of 2000 this occupation employed 2,932,810 people. In November
of 2004 (the latest data available), this occupation employed 2,932,790, or
20 people fewer. Employment in this field has been stagnant for the past
four years.
During these four years, there have been employment shifts within the
various fields of this occupation. For example, employment of computer
programmers declined by 134,630, while employment of software engineers
applications rose by 65,080, and employment of software engineers systems
software rose by 59,600. (These shifts might merely reflect change in job
or occupation title from programmer to software engineer.)
These figures do not tell us whether any gain in software engineering jobs
went to Americans. According to Professor Norm Matloff, in 2002 there were
463,000 computer-related H-1B visa holders in the US.
Similarly, the 134,630 lost computer programming jobs (if not merely a job
title change) may have been outsourced offshore to foreign affiliates.
Architecture and engineering employment includes all the architecture and
engineering fields except software engineering. The total employment of
architects and engineers in the US declined by 120,700 between November
1999 and November 2004. Employment declined by 189,940 between November
2000 and November 2004, and by 103,390 between November 2001 and November
2004.
There are variations among fields. Between November 2000 and November 2004,
for example, US employment of electrical engineers fell by 15,280.
Employment of computer hardware engineers rose by 15,990 (possibly these
are job title reclassifications). Overall, however, over 100,000
engineering jobs were lost. We do not know how many of the lost jobs were
outsourced offshore to foreign affiliates or how many of any increase in
computer hardware jobs went to foreign holders of H-1B or L-1 visas.
Clearly, engineering and computer-related employment in the US has not been
growing, whether measured by industry or by occupation.
Moreover, with a half million or more foreigners in the US on work visas,
the overall employment numbers do not represent employment of Americans.
Perhaps what corporations and "studies" mean when they claim offshore
outsourcing increases US employment is that the contacts companies make
abroad allow them to bring in more foreigners on work visas to displace
their American employees.
American employees have been abandoned by American corporations and by
their representatives in Congress. America remains a land of
opportunity--but for foreigners--not for the native born. A country whose
work force is concentrated in domestic nontradable services has no need for
scientists and engineers and no need for universities.
Even the projected jobs in nursing and school teachers can be filled by
foreigners on H-1B visas.
In the US the myth has been firmly established that the jobs that the US is
outsourcing offshore are being replaced with better jobs.
There is no sign of these jobs in the payroll jobs data or in the
occupational statistics. Myself and others have pointed out that when a
country loses entry level jobs, it has no one to promote to senior level
jobs. We have also pointed out that when manufacturing leaves, so does
engineering, design, research and development, and innovation itself.
On February 16 the New York Times reported on a new study presented to the
National Academies that concludes that outsourcing is climbing the skills
ladder. A survey of 200 multinational corporations representing 15
industries in the US and Europe found that 38 percent planned to change
substantially the worldwide distribution of their research and development
work, sending it to India and China. According to the New York Times, "More
companies in the survey said they planned to decrease research and
development employment in the United States and Europe than planned to
increase employment."
The study and discussion it provoked came to untenable remedies. Many
believe that a primary reason for the shift of R&D to India and China is
the erosion of scientific prowess in the US due to lack of math and science
proficiency of American students and their reluctance to pursue careers in
science and engineering. This belief begs the question why students would
chase after careers that are being outsourced abroad.
The main author of the study, Georgia Tech professor Marie Thursby,
believes that American science and engineering depend on having "an
environment that fosters the development of a high-quality work force and
productive collaboration between corporations and universities."
The Dean of Engineering at the University of California, Berkeley, thinks
the answer is to recruit the top people in China and India and bring them
to Berkeley. No one seems to understand that research, development, design,
and innovation take place in countries where things are made. The loss of
manufacturing means ultimately the loss of engineering and science. The
newest plants embody the latest technology. If these plants are abroad,
that is where the cutting edge resides.
The United States is the first country in history to destroy the prospects
and living standards of its labor force. It is amazing to watch
freedom-loving libertarians and free-market economists serve as full time
apologists for the dismantling of the ladders of upward mobility that made
the America of old an opportunity society.
America has begun a polarization into rich and poor. The resulting
political instability and social strife will be terrible.
Paul Craig Roberts was Assistant Secretary of the Treasury in the Reagan
administration. He was Associate Editor of the Wall Street Journal
editorial page and Contributing Editor of National Review. He is coauthor
of The Tyranny of Good Intentions.He can be reached at:
paulcraigroberts@yahoo.com
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.usnews.com/usnews/opinion/articles/060417/17edit.htm
A Little Sanity, Please
By Mortimer B. Zuckerman
4/17/06
The colliding slogans of the immigration debate-"stop illegal aliens"
versus "remember, we are a nation of immigrants"--fail to explain some
complicated truths. The first is that America is a different place from 50
years ago. Then, half of American men didn't finish high school and entered
the workforce as unskilled laborers. Today, over 90 percent finish high
school and shun unskilled, low-wage jobs. Yet our increasingly automated
service economy is driven by low-skilled workers. The Department of Labor
estimates that we will need 7.7 million more in the next decade alone. At
the same time, we are desperately short of skilled professionals in
science, medicine, and technology. In fact, the U.S. labor force is skewed.
It is predominantly composed of people who possess skills that overqualify
them for the lowest-skilled jobs and underqualify them for the highest.
So there are two imperatives for America to maintain the forward thrust
that has produced a booming economy with an unemployment rate of only 4.7
percent: more unskilled hands and more top professionals. Of course, the
demand for unskilled labor here has been met by millions of illegal
immigrants, who can earn five times the rate in Mexico--the greatest
economic differential of any border in the world. No man-made barrier can
do more than moderate the tide of immigration under this kind of pressure.
That must be remedied, and so must the inequities that border states bear
in providing public services beyond the tax revenues they can hope to reap.
Our current policies force illegal immigrants underground so that we do not
know who they are, what they're doing, and whether they're paying their
fair shares of taxes. At the same time, our political leadership must help
the American public understand that we are simply not going to take on the
moral, political, and financial burden of expelling these millions,
disrupting the lives of otherwise law-abiding, hard-working people--not to
speak of their children born here.
Keep the talent. The paradox of immigration is that while we have been
unable to control the illegal, we have been very good at controlling legal
immigration, and controlling it in a manner contrary to our economic
interest. For nearly 40 years, until 1990, there was no cap on H-1B visas,
which permit foreign-born scientists and engineers to work here. In 2003,
the cap was reduced by two thirds, from 195,000 to 65,000 annually, after
the dot-com bust, when groups representing domestic electrical engineers
and computer technicians successfully pressured Congress by arguing that
foreigners were taking their jobs. Today, there is an acute shortage of
such professional talent--and virtually anybody with these skills can get a
job.
Foreigners play a critical role in the high-tech world, making up nearly
half of our Ph.D.'s in computer science. We need these gifted professionals
to come, to stay, and even to bring their foreign counterparts here, rather
than let them go home and work for our competition. In a competitive global
economy we could not pick a worse time to turn away highly qualified,
value-creating workers with excellent math, engineering, technology, and
science skills that America's educational system is failing to produce in
adequate numbers. We rank only sixth worldwide for graduates with
bachelor's degrees in engineering.
And what is the point of our training the brightest foreign-born talent and
then not letting that talent stay? It makes no sense to send these skilled
professionals back to India or China to start businesses and develop new
technologies for companies that will compete with the United States. Nor
does it help us when American companies, denied their skill, create foreign
subsidiaries and thus compound the problem of outsourced American jobs. One
measure would be to stop counting family dependents against the cap.
Pervasive in all the debate is the deep fear that America is being divided
into two cultures, with two languages, because of what many see as the
unwillingness of Latinos, especially Mexican immigrants, to assimilate into
American culture. Whereas European immigrants crossed an ocean with no
thought of returning, Mexican and other Latino immigrants, with cellphones
and no dividing ocean, retain ties to the homelands where their language
and customs are rooted. Yet the fact is Hispanics are doing what American
immigrants have always done: learning English, finishing school, opening
their own businesses, and intermarrying with Americans--if anything, at a
faster rate than previous ethnics.
The legislation advanced by Sen. John McCain would give them the
traditional American second chance to play by the rules and become legal--a
chance traditionally given to previous immigrants. This bill deserves
support, for America has always come out ahead when it responds to the
better angels of our being.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://sanjose.bizjournals.com/sanjose/stories/2006/04/10/story7.html
Some financial institutions hope for more H-1B visas, too
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal - April 7, 2006 by Raksha Varma
Federal lawmakers' recent proposal to increase the number of H-1B visas
annually could result in a boost in business for several financial
institutions that cater to this key customer group in Silicon Valley.
"This group is a gold mine," says Kathleen Litman, a spokeswoman for San
Jose-based Technology Credit Union, the fourth-largest credit union in
Silicon Valley.
The Senate Judiciary Committee last month approved a plan to increase the
number of H-1B visas to 115,000 annually beginning in 2007. If approved by
Congress and signed into law, the move would represent a significant jump
from the last few years.
A total of 65,000 H-1Bs are now permitted in the country annually. That
compares with 195,000 from 2001 to 2003, when the high-tech market was
saturated in Silicon Valley. H-1B visa holders are employed at some of the
valley's largest companies, including Hewlett-Packard Co., Cisco Systems
Inc. and Intel Corp.
At Tech CU, H-1Bs account for almost 20 percent of the lending
institution's customer base.
"Yes, H-1Bs usually don't have a credit history, a FICO score," Ms. Litman
says. "But, they are employed by the tech sector's most profitable
companies. They're making good money. They are focused and traditional when
it comes to paying their bills and loans on time. It's the perfect customer
base."
An H-1B holder, who must have a sponsoring U.S. employer, can stay on for a
maximum of six years, until he or she initiates the process for permanent
residence.
Sanjay Dani is one local tech professional and former H-1B visa holder who
was helped by Tech CU.
Mr. Dani, who emigrated from India in the late 1980s to pursue a graduate
degree at UC Santa Barbara, chose to stay on after Santa Clara-based Sun
Microsystems Inc. offered him a job in 1989.
"Sun put me up in a flat, supplied me with a car for a month," says Mr.
Dani, 39. In 1996, he founded Web Professionals, a San Francisco-based Web
company that has a data center in Fremont and operations in Pune, India.
"I had little money. But I really needed a car. Sun helped by referring me
to Tech CU... Although I had no U.S. credit history, Tech CU took my offer
letter from Sun into account."
Without a credit report to rely on, Tech CU placed a stronger emphasis on
Mr. Dani's education and job to grant him an auto loan. Today, Mr. Dani, a
Tech CU customer for 17 years, is a member of the financial institution's
private banking group.
Traditional lenders have also taken notice of the H-1B market segment's
profitability, although in a less focused manner. Charlotte, N.C.-based
Bank of America and San Francisco-based Wells Fargo Bank, touted for their
aggressive consumer lending, do not concentrate on any one group but
instead target their efforts broadly.
"It depends on the situation," Wells Fargo spokesman Chris Hammond says.
"Our bank looks at the total customer picture. The bank caters to all
customer groups."
Some sponsoring companies establish relationships with financial
institutions to make sure their employees, including H-1B workers, are
taken care of.
Star One Credit Union, headquartered in Sunnyvale, was one of the first
players in the sector. Star One is the largest credit union operating in
Silicon Valley.
"About eight years ago, a group of South Korean engineers came to work for
Lockheed," recalls Kevin Collins, vice president of lending for Star One,
which has a relationship with Sunnyvale-based Lockheed Martin Missiles &
Space. "They had no FICO scores, no credit history. But our credit union
looked at the jobs they had and helped them get credit cards. There has not
been a project since 1998 -- but if a different demand came up, Star One
would help. The process was smooth."
"Finances are a major issue when you're going from country to country,"
adds Margaret Toppel of Addison Avenue Federal Credit Union, the
second-largest credit union in the valley. The Palo Alto-based lender,
connected to both Hewlett-Packard Co. and Agilent Technologies Corp., helps
H-1B employees establish their credit history and wire funds back home
cheaply. About 10 percent of the credit union's HP and Agilent customer
base are H-1B visa holders.
"Many people continue to maintain a relationship with us once they return
to their countries of origin," she adds. "In that sense, it's profitable."
Other companies, such as Intel, use less formal tactics to educate their
H-1B employees about the flexible requirements at some financial
institutions. The Santa Clara-based giant's Indian employee group (IINDIA),
one of 20 Intel employee groups, discusses this informally and on Circuit,
Intel's intranet.
"Most companies do not formally instruct their H-1Bs to seek out particular
credit unions," says Seshan Rammohan, executive director of The Indus
Entrepreneurs, a Santa Clara-based global nonprofit of Indian
entrepreneurs. "But people talk. You do what your buddies do."
RAKSHA VARMA covers banking, small business and retail. Reach her at (408)
299-1829.
[email response by Raksha Varma to criticisms of the article]
When companies are asked about the point you raise, they often say that
H-1Bs do not take "American" jobs. These are not quote-on-quote "American"
jobs - These are jobs that should go to the best employees, companies say
to me. You should contact Cisco, Intel, HP, Yahoo (the list is endless,
here) and ask them about their hiring procedures. They tend to hire the
best employees - the most qualified, the most intelligent. Many say that
they recruit H-1Bs and other internationals b/c they are the most qualified
/ possess the best engineering, computer science, etc. skills out there.
And its great that these companies (American companies) can use skills
from abroad to make our U.S. Economy stronger and more profitable.
While I do not agree with your point - Thank you for your comment. Its
great to hear readers fired up!
And yes, I do possess an Indian name, one Im extremely proud of! Thanks
for noticing!
Good luck,
Raksha Varma
Silicon Valley/San Jose Business Journal
96 N. Third Street, Suite 100
San Jose, CA 95112
Tel. 408-299-1829
Raksha@bizjournals.com
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