One Dozen Turkeys
One Dozen Turkeys
Date: Thursday, November 23, 2006 12:41 AM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1594 -- 11/23/2006 >>>>>
A blitzkrieg of articles were published as part of the orchestrated media
campaign to pressure Congress for the SKIL bill in order to ncrease the
yearly cap for H-1B.
These turkeys are hard to swallow!
One theme seems to be in common with most of these articles - the claim
that immigrants have been critical to starting high-tech companies in the
U.S. They all imply that without immigrants we wouldn't have had search
engines, the internet, and even computers. Without question, lots of
immigrants have helped to start high-tech companies, but so what? Even more
U.S. citizens have started successful companies, like Bill Gates for
instance. These fallacious arguments for loosening visa limits conveniently
fail to mention that most of the immigrants mentioned didn't come here on
H-1B visas -- they typically came here on green cards and then become
naturalized citizens.
The worst article is first on the list. I will have more to say about the
sham study by Stuart Anderson that is used as the argument for the SKIL
bill later, but for now I think it's important to point out a few things
about the author. Constance Loizos violated the ethics policy of the
Mercury News because she used her position of journalist to shill for her
other employer -- a journal for venture capitalists that has obvious
interests in promoting H-1B.
The Mercury ethics policy can be viewed at this link:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/contact_us/about/9723906.htm
This section of the ethics policy makes very clear what types of conflicts
of interest aren't allowed.
The business and commercial activities of newsroom employees
and their families shall not influence news decisions. Employees
shall not benefit financially from news decisions they make or
information they obtain, nor shall they make news decisions with
the intention of creating a financial gain or loss for someone
else.
This link reveals that Loizos is an employee of the Venture Capital
Journal.
http://www.vcjnews.com/contacts.asp?navcode=1000118
Senior Editor
Constance Loizos
E-mail: constance.loizos@thomson.com
Tel:(415) 344-3999
The Mercury is very specific about what types of paid positions are
automatic conflicts of interest. The fact that she is a senior editor at
the VCJ is a clear violation.
Those jobs presenting an automatic conflict of interest include,
but are not limited to, the Executive Editor, the Managing Editor,
the Assistant Managing Editor/Business, the Executive Business
Editor, editors who regularly make 1A decisions, the tech stock
columnist and the gossip columnist. The same principle applies
to other industries. For example, the television writer shouldn't
own any Disney stock.
If you would like to contact the Mercury about this blatant breech of
ethics, click this link for contact info:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/contact_us/
Article #4 is the only one that has a semblance of journalistic integrity.
This statement in article #5 really hits home about what is going on. Halla
is telling the 109th Congress to raise H-1B so that the 110th Congress
doesn't have to do the dirty deed. This is a rare acknowledgement from big
business that they understand that raising H-1B is a rotten thing to do
that will anger the public. It's also a confirmation that public pressure
against H-1B is being heard by our Congress.
In the first session of the morning, during a roundtable
discussion with Rose, National Semiconductor's Halla took the same
H-1B issue and drove home the point, saying, "The 109th Congress
just needs to get this done so the 110th Congress can start with a
clean slate."
The Informationweek articles are the worst in terms of promoting the SKIL
bill, but at least they allow the public to post comments without having to
sign up. Just click the links and scroll down to see the comments.
Articles Used for Newsletter
Article 1:
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/16012713.htm
Study touts role of immigrants in tech
Article 2:
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=194700008
Tech Industry Urges Congress To Pass Immigration, Other Reforms Before
Adjournment
Article 3:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/008912.html
The SKIL Bill and Your Local Elementary School
Article 4:
http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/008958.html
IT services group picks the winners and losers in IT job growth
Article 5:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/16/BUG51MDGE219.DTL
Over 1,000 hear Gates speak
Article 6:
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/54303.html
America: Wake Up on Immigration
Article 7:
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/11/over_thanksgivi.html
Over Thanksgiving Feasts, Frustrated Immigrants Will Mull Pilgrimages To
More Welcoming Shores
Article 8:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19782&hed=Study+Shows+U.S.+Immigrants+Driving+Tech
Study Shows U.S. Immigrants Driving Tech
Article 9:
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061115-9999-1b15venture.html
Firms' foreign-born founders
Article 10:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/business/15visa.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
A New Push to Raise Cap on H-1B Visa
Article 11:
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/15/BUGPGMCI3G1.DTL&type=business
Tech leaders, immigrants want change
Drive to let companies hire more foreign-born workers
Article 12:
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=270410&intsrc=hm_ts_head
Fishing in the Global Talent Pool
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.mercurynews.com/mld/mercurynews/news/16012713.htm
Posted on Tue, Nov. 14, 2006
Study touts role of immigrants in tech
PART OF A PUSH TO LOOSEN IMMIGRATION LAWS
By Constance Loizos
Mercury News
Illegal immigration has been a hot topic in Washington this year, but in
the wake of last week's elections, the venture capital industry is hoping
to steer the conversation instead to legal immigration.
The reason: they argue that lawmakers who have pushed for tighter
immigration controls risk hampering both the high-tech industry and the
overall economy.
``Roughly 50 percent of our portfolio companies were started by
foreign-born entrepreneurs,'' said venture capitalist Roger Lee of Battery
Ventures on Sand Hill Road, a self-described ``staunch supporter of more
open borders.
``Out of the last five companies that (we've sold or that have gone
public), three have been founded or led by immigrants. That tells you
something,'' he said.
One tool that may help in Silicon Valley's fight for more open borders is a
study published today by the National Venture Capital Association. Among
its findings are that 47 percent of today's venture-backed startups have
immigrant founders, and that over the past 15 years, immigrants have
founded 25 percent of all U.S. public companies that received venture
capital.
Those companies, including Google, eBay, Yahoo, Intel and Sun Microsystems,
represent a market capitalization of more than $500 billion and have
created thousands of jobs, according to the report, which took six months
to compile.
To gather those numbers, the report's authors examined Thomson Financial's
database of all publicly traded, venture-backed companies founded since
1970. It eliminated those that had merged, been purchased or were otherwise
no longer trading on the public markets, and then determined the provenance
of the remaining companies' founders.
Its findings might even underestimate the role of immigrants, said NVCA
president Mark Heesen. ``Our board of 27 directors has told us that in the
Valley in particular, probably closer to 80 percent of privately held,
venture-backed companies were started by people who immigrated to the
U.S.''
One of those founders is Martin Roscheisen, the founder and CEO of solar
cell startup Nanosolar in Palo Alto, who was born and raised in Munich,
Germany, and has gone on to raise $103 million from more than half a dozen
venture capital firms.
``I didn't have any trouble when I (immigrated) to the U.S. 14 years ago,''
he said. ``Today, it's quite an issue. We're facing a real shortage of
talented people as a result.''
While difficult to predict the study's impact, its timing may prove
auspicious. ``We're very much hoping that Congress will take a (renewed)
look at the legal side of immigration, and the woefully inadequate policies
that are currently in place,'' said Heesen.
Still, opposition remains to the NVCA's efforts. ``Many companies have
abused the program by hiring foreigners to replace American engineers,''
said Ira Mehlman, a spokesman for the Federation for Immigration Reform, a
nonprofit that supports immigration enforcement and overall reductions in
immigration levels. More, he said, ``You've seen higher corporate profits
in which workers aren't sharing. The law of supply and demand tells you
that if there was a dearth of skilled people, you'd see wage inflation at a
time when companies have more money.''
As part of its efforts, the NVCA is lobbying to promote the passage of the
SKIL Act of 2006, now before the House Judiciary Committee. The bill,
introduced in late June, would exempt from current visa caps any foreigner
who has earned a master's or higher degree from an accredited U.S.
university or been awarded certification based on his or her post-doctoral
training.
The SKIL Act -- which stands for the Securing Knowledge, Innovation, and
Leadership Act -- would also increase the number of H-1B visas awarded
every year, from 65,000 to 125,000, with a 20 percent increase in visas the
following year if the previous year's quota is reached. H-1B visas,
reserved for highly skilled guest workers, were first awarded in 1990, but
the number of the visas was capped in 2004 at 65,000 by lawmakers alarmed
by how big the program had grown. (From 2001 through 2003, roughly 195,000
H-1B visas were awarded annually.)
Contact Constance Loizos at cloizos@mercurynews.com or (408) 920-5920.
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.informationweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=194700008
Tech Industry Urges Congress To Pass Immigration, Other Reforms Before
Adjournment
The Information Technology Association of America says lawmakers in the
109th Congress need to act on a number of issues the group says are
critical to the United States' global competitiveness.
By Paul McDougall, InformationWeek
Nov. 20, 2006
A lobby group backed by IBM, Microsoft, Intel, and other tech industry
giants is urging Congress to pass a new research and development tax credit
and increase the supply of H1-B immigrant visas before the current session
adjourns.
The Information Technology Association of America says lawmakers in the
109th Congress also need to act on a number of other issues the group says
are critical to the country's global competitiveness. "Our leaders need to
foster an environment that encourages new ideas and new technologies," said
ITAA president Phil Bond, in a statement released Monday.
Patent laws and international trade are also on the group's reform agenda.
In its statement, the ITAA noted that the federal research and development
tax credit expired almost a year ago and has not been renewed. "Until it's
extended, companies cannot accurately plan to finance new or continued
research and development initiatives within America's borders," according
to the ITAA.
On immigration reform, the group wants Congress to increase the number of
H-1B visas issued to skilled workers. "The best and the brightest are
taking their skills elsewhere, often to global competitors of
American-based companies," the ITAA said. Federal law currently caps the
H-1B visa program at 65,000 workers annually. An additional 20,000 are set
aside for foreign workers who hold graduate degrees from American
universities. A bill currently in the Senate, known as the SKIL act, would
raise the H-1B cap to 115,000 workers.
The tech industry also wants to see legislators take action to staunch what
the ITAA says is a flood of "opportunistic lawsuits" by patent trolls. The
ITAA wants Congress to pass the Hatch-Leahy patent reform proposal, which
would grant patent protection to those inventors who are first to file
their claims. Under the current system, patent holders can be sued by
individuals who claim they invented a product before the patent was issued.
The ITAA said Congress needs to step up efforts to establish free trade
agreements with what it has identified as hot new growth markets for the
tech industry. Specifically, the group said lawmakers need to pass
legislation that would support more open trade with Vietnam and Peru. "If
our companies are to grow, they need to be able to compete in those and
other markets unhindered," said the ITAA.
The ITAA has drawn criticism in the past from groups representing
programmers and other tech industry workers who claim the organization puts
the needs of its big corporate members ahead of the rights of American
workers and small businesses, who in many cases are opposed to increased
immigration and changes to the patent system.
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/008912.html
The SKIL Bill and Your Local Elementary School
More than half of the kids polled in a local third grade class picked
"Athlete, Actress, or Musician" as their desired career. Are H-1B visa's
really the problem?
By Paul Roberts
November 15, 2006
The Republican lame duck Congress is toying with passing the SKIL (Securing
Knowledge Innovation and Leadership) Bill, a top priority for the tech
industry and its lobbyists that would raise caps on H-1B Visas by 20 % and
exempt highly skilled workers (Master's Degree or higher from a U.S.
institution) from the cap altogether. While tech executives may be keen on
the law, many, many U.S. born IT workers are none too keen about this law,
which they see as a backdoor way to keep wages low in the U.S. by importing
cheap labor from India, China, Eastern Europe, or any other low wage
country with a surfeit of engineers.
Nobody knows this better than my colleague Ephraim Schwartz, who had the
temerity to raise the issue of the SKIL Bill's future in a TechWatch blog
post last week.
Ephraim, who has covered the H-1B and outsourcing issues as closely as
anyone over the years wasn't taking a stand on SKIL, but he got an earful
from you folks, especially after a heartfelt post by Toni Chester, who
described herself as "a 42 year old female American technical worker with
one son who I have raised alone" and "over 17 years of technical industry
experience... a Bachelor of Science degree in Applied Mathematics (and)
Statistics."
Toni talked about her experiences with the H-1B program: training what she
considered under skilled workers from India who could barely speak English,
required lots of oversight and hand holding, but made 30 percent less than
she did.
"Many times, I was put in a position to mentor or train my H-1B peers. At
the time, I had no idea that they were in my country to be my replacements.
Nor did I realize that the program afforded corporations a means to rapidly
escalate the off-shore outsourcing process."
Other comments were more visceral:
"I want you to know that the H-1B program has devastated my life and my
career. The government should NOT meddle in the Engineering business and
just let natural 'supply and demand' take effect," wrote a contributor
using the handle "Displaced American Engineer."
"Let's just change our name to: The United Corporations of America," wrote
"Ex-Engineer."
Some were tough on Toni. James wrote: "I'm in the software industry and I
hardly believe the story that you portray. Get a grip and move somewhere
that has jobs. In Orlando my company can't get enough people to submit
resumes and spends mucho bucks running ads in the paper to attract
candidates."
Still others pointed to GAO reports about corruption in the H-1B program.
Of course, the debate over H-1B is a multi-factor problem. Sure, technology
companies are interested in keeping wages low. But that doesn't mean that
claims of an insufficient supply of domestic IT workers aren't also true.
Let's face it: given an ample supply of U.S. born tech workers coming out
of the country's many colleges and universities, companies could still keep
wages low enough to be competitive and not have to pay for the cost of
immigration lawyers and other middlemen who help them bring H-1B workers to
the country and keep them legal while they're here. And there's certainly
evidence that at least part of the blame lies with the moribund U.S.
education system, not (just) rapacious corporations.
The National Science Foundation's Science and Engineering Indicators report
for 2006 raises a number of red flags on issues that indirectly contribute
to the problems addressed by SKIL. The NSF reported that most 4th, 8th, and
12th graders did not demonstrate proficiency in math and science knowledge
and skills taught at their grade level. And... "Despite showing some
improvement in mathematics and science performance in recent years, U.S.
students continued to lag behind their peers in many other developed
countries."
That problem filters up to higher grade levels. As NSF points out, while
students on temporary visas in the United States earned a small share (4%)
of Science and Engineering degrees at the bachelor's level they earned
double that number (8%) of bachelor's degrees in computer sciences in 2002
and 7% of those engineering.
Go higher up and the trend is even more pronounced:
Science and Engineering master's degrees awarded to students on temporary
visas more than doubled in between 1983 and 2002, to 27,600 and are now 28%
of all such degrees awarded. "Foreign students make up a much higher
proportion of S&E master's degree recipients than they do of bachelor's or
associate's degree recipients," with degrees are "heavily concentrated in
computer sciences and engineering, where they earned 46% and 41%,
respectively, of master's degrees in 2002."
Ph.Ds? Fuhgedaboudit. NSF reports that in 2003 foreign students on
temporary visas earned 43% to 44% of doctoral degrees awarded in
mathematics, computer sciences, and agricultural sciences, along with 55%
of those awarded in engineering. To quote the Estimate "Noncitizens,
primarily those with temporary visas, account for the bulk of the growth in
S&E doctorates awarded by U.S. universities from 1983 through 2003..."
More data points: in the 20 years between 1983 and 2003, the number of S&E
doctorates earned by U.S. citizens fluctuated from approximately 14,000 to
about 17,000, and the number earned by temporary residents rose from 3,500
to a peak of 8,700 in 2003. The share of S&E doctorates going to temporary
visa holders rose from 18% in 1983 to 32% in 2003, as S&E doctorates earned
by U.S. permanent residents decreased from a peak of 3,614 in 1995 to about
1,200 in 2003 (appendix table 2-32 Excel table.) Yes, dear readers, only
1/3 as many U.S. citizens earned doctorates in Science and Engineering in
2003 compared with 1995. And nobody had a gun to their head forcing them to
take a business or marketing/communications major instead of something
demanding like CS.
Sadly, the real figures may be even darker. NSF notes that "in the
mid-1990s, the number of doctorates awarded to U.S. permanent residents
showed a steep increase when a large number of Chinese doctoral degree
students on temporary visas shifted to permanent resident status under the
1992 Chinese Student Protection Act."
In other words, we can thank the Tiananamen Square Massacre in 1989 for
that spike in U.S. S&E doctorates in the mid 90s. GO USA!!!
Hey, these are just the facts, folks.
Let's fess up to it: the U.S. has to change the way it educates its kids:
improving science and math education, erasing the gross inequalities
between schools in rich and poor communities and eliminating the poverty
and violence that curtails the dreams of many future U.S. Nobel winners who
happen to be born into the wrong neighborhoods. Most of all, our society
has to start honoring educators and celebrating the accomplishments of
scientists, mathematicians and computer scientists at least as much as it
celebrates the accomplishments of athletes and obsesses over the
misadventures of crass celebrities. There is, sadly, no ESPN or
Entertainment Tonight for science and engineering.
These were thoughts that came home to me the other day when I was dropping
my daughter off in kindergarten. Room 207, the third grade class next door
has been working on graphing and, as an exercise, the teacher took a poll
of the kids career aspirations, then made a bar graph of the results. I'll
attach it below for your consideration. That big bar on the left, that's
"Athlete." Roughly 35 percent of the class picked that as their career of
choice. Next is the grab-bag "Other" with around 25 percent of the class.
Third? "Actor/Actress" with around 20 percent. Teacher/Doctor is next with
around 10 percent. Fireman, Policeman and Veterinarian (my first choice at
that age) didn't register. Something to think about as the debate over
SKIL, H-1B and immigration heat up.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://weblog.infoworld.com/techwatch/archives/008958.html
IT services group picks the winners and losers in IT job growth
By Ephraim Schwartz
November 17, 2006
The National Association of Computer Consultant Businesses [NACCB] whose
members are those in the IT services business, released a report on IT
employment prospects this week.
Too lengthy, 53 pages, to summarize here, the upshot is that despite a
retreat in IT employment in October, the NACCB says the future trend points
toward growth in the IT employment sector but not for all job titles.
Kim Berry, president of the Programmers Guild, is skeptical.
Quoting from the NACCB press release Berry had this to say in an email to
me:
"The press release says, 'Economist Alan Beaulieu predicted continued
strength in the market for IT services through the middle of 2008.' "
"We don't believe it is possible to accurately project job growth nearly
two years into the future: The dot-com bust caught most analysts by
surprise."
However, Berry also found areas of agreement with the NACCB.
"We see in their data at least the signs of a cooling trend: According to
their data, only 10k IT jobs have been added since June 2006 (3,659k to
3,669k in the Index Release doc). Combine that with the 85,000 H-1bs that
entered the job market in October, and we are concerned that qualified U.S.
IT workers will be squeezed out of the job market," said Berry.
Whether or not you agree with NACCB or Berry, the NACCB's evaluation of
long term employment trends, by job title, is worth looking at.
Long-term Employment Trends
Growth areas include occupations that keep systems and structures running
and that can handle system integration.
NACCB categorizes those occupations as "computer scientists and system
analysts as well as network systems and data communications analysts."
Also NACCB says there will be a call for computer and IS systems managers
and network and computer systems administrators.
Finally, computer support specialists as "the business community continues
to infuse computer technology deeper into more elements of the business
process."
On the downside
NACCB sees computer software engineers, a title that makes up almost
one-quarter of all IT professionals, facing a declining job market.
The same decline in opportunities will be faced by programmers and hardware
engineers.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/16/BUG51MDGE219.DTL
Over 1,000 hear Gates speak
- Tom Abate, Chronicle Staff Writer
Thursday, November 16, 2006
Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates charmed an audience of more than a thousand
students at Stanford University's Memorial Auditorium Wednesday as the
headline speaker at an unusual event called the TechNet Innovation Summit.
While the software magnate addressed his company's growing rivalry with
Google, as well as its long-standing battle with Apple Computer, he also
used the platform to push his growing involvement in philanthropy.
Organized by TechNet, the lobbying group formed in 1997 to boost the
industry's political clout on Capitol Hill, the four-hour event was staged
as a live taping of "The Charlie Rose Show." A version of the discussions
will air in coming weeks.
Following Gates, who spoke one-on-one with Rose at noon, Gov. Arnold
Schwarzenegger used the hall and assembled audience as a forum to signal
his support for innovation.
Attendance at the auditorium had ebbed and flowed throughout the morning
events, featuring other Silicon Valley leaders such as National
Semiconductor chief executive Brian Halla and venture capitalist John
Doerr.
But at noon, as Gates took the stage opposite Rose on the set familiar to
viewers of his high-brow talk show, the auditorium filled to near capacity
with students who had received free tickets leaning forward in their seats,
some vainly trying to snap pictures with cell phone cameras of the
legendary software leader.
The interview itself was unrevealing, except perhaps as a character study
of the maturing Gates, who is trying to change his business roles and his
reputation from the aggressive competitor of the past to the efficient
philanthropist he appears to be in the process of becoming.
Rose threw one soft question after another, including inquiring as to
whether Gates' parents were worried when he left Harvard to found what
would become Microsoft. "To be clear, I didn't leave. I went on leave,"
Gates replied in a quip that sent a ripple of laughter through the hall.
Rose asked Gates about the Google-Microsoft rivalry and his company's new
effort to popularize the Zune music player as a rival of Apple's iPod.
The competition with Google, he said, "is a fun one for both companies."
As for the Zune-iPod contest, Gates said that it's a growing market and
that if Microsoft can get some of the new users, that would be good.
He showed more passion in talking about his philanthropic efforts to
support research into such things as a vaccine for malaria and the effect
that it has upon him as a person to come face to face with the sick
children whose lives lie behind the statistics.
"We're allowed to go along thinking that the world at large is like the
situation we're in,'' Gates said, in the course of lamenting that news
stories will focus on the death toll from a train crash but ignore the
millions who die unnoticed through disease.
Gates had been expected to use his appearance to support one of the
high-tech industry's current hot issues -- the attempt to persuade Congress
to increase the number of skilled foreign workers they can hire under H-1B
visas.
Gates took a swipe at the issue, but in a bland way. In response to a
question from Rose about threats to the U.S. position vis a vis
up-and-coming innovators like China and India, Gates said:
"One of our edges has been that smart people around the world want to come
here. We get the cream of the crop. We're making that tougher with our
immigration policies."
In the first session of the morning, during a roundtable discussion with
Rose, National Semiconductor's Halla took the same H-1B issue and drove
home the point, saying, "The 109th Congress just needs to get this done so
the 110th Congress can start with a clean slate."
Venture capitalist Doerr, one of the valley's most energetic idea salesmen,
opened his morning session with Rose on green technologies by saying: "It's
almost a perfect storm. Green matters to everyone from environmentalists to
evangelicals."
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.technewsworld.com/story/54303.html
America: Wake Up on Immigration
By Sonia Arrison
TechNewsWorld
11/17/06 4:00 AM PT
It would be stupid to let some other country take the planet's best and
brightest so that they can compete with the United States. Indeed, one of
the core strengths of America has been the willingness to accept others
with open arms. That's not to say there are not talented people who were
born here -- only that it is foolish to barricade ourselves from those who
can help the country prosper.
This week the National Venture Capital Association (NVCA) released
"American Made: The Impact of Immigrant Entrepreneurs and Professionals on
U.S. Competitiveness," a new study that reveals something that Silicon
Valley netizens already know but scream for others to recognize: The
immigration debate affects America's economy in a big way.
When most Americans think of immigration, illegal workers from Mexico
usually spring to mind. In Brad Pitt's new movie "Babel," for instance, the
housekeeper who endangers his character's kids is sent back to Mexico after
being caught by border control.
Adding fuel to the fire, various politicians have hired illegal workers.
Not all immigrants are illegal or a burden, however.
Vital to Economy
Indeed, apparently unknown to Hollywood and many in the political fray, a
bunch of hardworking immigrants have been creating huge numbers of jobs and
wealth for the very Americans that want to keep them out.
Immigrant-founded, venture-backed public companies today employ an
estimated 220,000 people in the United States and more than 400,000 people
globally, according to American Made. That's a lot of people -- and a lot
of future voters who wouldn't be happy if they were unemployed.
The study also found that companies started by immigrants and initially
backed by venture capital account for more than US$500 billion of total
U.S. market capitalization. That's a lot of hard work and capital going
toward making American lives better. Consider the immigrant influence on
some of the companies everyone already knows.
PayPal was cofounded by Peter Thiel and Max Levchin, both of whom were born
outside the United States. Google's (Nasdaq: GOOG) Sergey Brin, Yahoo's
(Nasdaq: YHOO) Jerry Yang, and eBay's (Nasdaq: EBAY) Pierre Omidyar were
immigrants too. In fact, it turns out that almost half -- 47 percent -- of
America's current venture-backed companies have at least one immigrant
founder. What if none of these people had come to the United States and
instead had taken their ideas and skills elsewhere?
The answer is that the tech companies we know and love might have been
created elsewhere, with all the benefits going to the people of the other
country. Immigrants create jobs, wealth and economic growth. So why do
their contributions seem to go unrecognized? Perhaps it is because it's
easier for the news media to focus on problems.
Making It Difficult
Unmanned private spy planes on the border make for better headlines than
Sun Microsystems' (Nasdaq: SUNW) immigrant founders, Vinod Khosla from
India and Andreas von Bechtolsheim from Germany. This ignorance is not
bliss, though, especially if it leads to poor policy decisions like cutting
H-1B (work visa) quotas and making it tougher for skilled workers to enter
the country.
More than two-thirds of survey respondents to the NVCA agreed that "U.S.
immigration policy has made it more difficult than in the past to start a
business in America," and "one-third of the respondents indicated that the
lack of H-1B visas had influenced their firm's decision to place more
personnel in facilities abroad."
The message entrepreneurs are collectively sending was summed up nicely by
Sun Microsystems' cofounder Scott McNealy earlier this year. There are many
talented people, he said, "who want to come here and live the American
dream, and be part of the American economy. If they can't get in, they're
still smart, and they are still going to set up shop somewhere else."
It would be stupid to let some other country take the planet's best and
brightest so that they can compete with the United States. Indeed, one of
the core strengths of America has been the willingness to accept others
with open arms. That's not to say there are not talented people who were
born here -- only that it is foolish to barricade ourselves from those who
can help the country prosper.
The next time immigration comes up -- and it will, because Congress has not
settled the issue -- policy makers and those who support them should look
closer at the facts. There are many immigrants who create American jobs and
wealth. U.S. policy should reflect that truth if Americans want to stay on
top of the world's economic scene in the future.
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.informationweek.com/blog/main/archives/2006/11/over_thanksgivi.html
Over Thanksgiving Feasts, Frustrated Immigrants Will Mull Pilgrimages To
More Welcoming Shores
By Paul McDougall
Nov 21, 2006 at 03:24 PM ET
It's the most American of holiday seasons, and Biju Alex is living the
American dream. On Thursday, the 37-year-old chemist will dine with his
family on turkey and all the fixings at their expensive home in an idyllic
suburb north of Cincinnati. But Alex isn't an American--he's from India.
And he says a broken immigration system has him on the verge of packing
up--hi-tech skills and all--and leaving the U.S. for good.
Alex has for the past seven years worked at Eurand, a Vandalia, OH-based
maker of drug delivery technologies--gel caps, tablets and the like. Alex
helps Eurand develop taste masking systems for pills that don't go down so
well. In fact, he holds a patent on a particularly effective technique.
"This company brought me here, they wanted my technology," he says.
But some other company, in some other country, may soon be the beneficiary
of Alex's knowledge and years of study at the prestigious Indian Institute
of Technology. You see, Alex is in the U.S. on an H-1B visa that's well
into overtime. His originally allotted six years have expired and he's now
living year to year on temporary extensions. "It is too uncertain, I can't
make plans to invest or start my own business," says Alex.
Alex has applied for a permanent green card, but with no relatives in the
country he says the process could take years. "It's a painful situation, I
have no advantage despite my education and experience," he says.
As a result of all this, Alex says he's considering job offers in Italy and
Australia. Perhaps he'll end up working for a competitor of his current
employer. "If the U.S. doesn't reform immigration so that skilled people
can come here and work freely then American competitiveness is going to
sink. Innovation here will suffer," says the native of Mumbai.
Alex isn't the only one who feels this way. "There is a flight of skilled
immigrants to friendly shores," says Amit Gupta, of Immigration Voice. The
lobby group is seeking a number of reforms to U.S. immigration rules,
including expedited green card processing for skilled workers. Gupta notes
that 80% of green cards issued by the U.S. are the result of family-based
applications. "The current system is not rewarding skilled, legal
immigrants," says Gupta.
In other words, a Romanian trash collector with a brother in Peoria will
get a green card faster than a Mexican citizen with a Ph.D.
Such arguments from groups like Immigration Voice are hotly contested by
organizations like the Programmers Guild, which represents American-born
computer industry professionals. The Programmers Guild maintains that the
H-1B program represents a way for U.S. companies to hire talent on the
cheap, and kick American workers to the curb.
Alex's response: "I'm one of the highest paid individuals at my company."
Come next Thanksgiving, Alex and his family might be spending that money
elsewhere.
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=19782&hed=Study+Shows+U.S.+Immigrants+Driving+Tech
Study Shows U.S. Immigrants Driving Tech
U.S. immigrants have consistently propelled the tech industry ahead,
according to a new study. So why the visa shortage?
November 15, 2006
Homeland security -- particularly with regard to harsher immigration rules
-- may be weakening the U.S. high-tech economy. Thats the gist of a new
study, released Wednesday, which finds that over the past 15 years,
immigrants have started 25 percent of U.S. public companies that were
venture-backed, and boast a market capitalization of more than $500
billion.
By way of examples, the largest U.S. venture-backed high-tech companies,
now publicly-traded, include a number of familiar names. Those include
search giant Google, co-founded by Russian-born Sergey Mikhailovich Brin,
now the 12th richest person in the U.S. with an estimated net worth in
excess of $14 billion; Yahoo, co-founded by Jerry Chih-Yuan Yang of Taiwan;
eBay, founded by Pierre Omidyar, born in Paris to Iranian parents; Sun
Microsystems, co-founded by Andy (Andreas) von Bechtolsheim, of Germany,
and Indian born entrepreneur and venture capitalist Vinod Khosla. Finally,
and perhaps most notably, theres Intel -- founded by Andy Grove, who
came to the U.S. from Hungary, and whose venture arm has invested heavily
in new high-tech firms.
The public policy study, entitled American Made, and authored by Stuart
Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for American Policy
and Michaela Platzer, president of Content First, attempts to make a case
for making H1-B visas more available to entrepreneurs and engineers. To
create the report, authors surveyed immigrant entrepreneurs, and found that
two-thirds of those responding agreed that U.S. immigration policy has made
it increasingly difficult than in the past to start a business in America,
with a nearly-equal percentage felt that the visa policies, particularly
the limited number of H1-B visas allotted to companies "harm American
competitiveness."
The report notes that in nine of the past 11 years, employers use up their
entire quota of H1-B visas prior to the end of the fiscal year --
indicating strong demand for engineering and other talents. But in the
post-9/11 universe, with supply of H1-B visas constricted, demand has gone
out the roof. In the past three years, the report noted, company visa
quotas were exhausted prior to the start of the fiscal year.
Much of this phenomenon has its roots prior to 2001. Prior to 1990,
Congress placed no numerical limitations on the number of skilled foreign
nationals employers could hire using the visas. The Immigration Act of 1990
changed all that, when Congress selected an annual cap of 65,000 and
established new requirements in a new H-1B category. Even the recently
added 20,000 exemptions from the H-1B cap for those who graduated with an
advanced degree from a U.S. university were exhausted before the start of
fiscal year 2007, the study noted.
Thats exacerbated by the smaller number of engineers graduating in the
U.S. domestically. The latest statistics -- 2004 numbers- -- put together
by the National Science Foundation show the change in first time enrollment
of graduate students in engineering falling 21 percent between 2000 and
2004, falling from 13,573 in 2001 to just 10,756 in 2004.
The study arrives at a time when the Democrats have recovered a majority in
Congress for the first time in 12 years. In the pre-midterm election
Congress, despite presidential advocacy for a guest worker program, and a
path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, the only reform passed by the
Republican-dominated Congress was a 700-mile-long fence on the U.S.-Mexico
border.
The full text (PDF-format) of the study can be found on the Web site of the
National Venture Capital Association, here.
http://www.nvca.org/pdf/AmericanMade_study.pdf
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/business/20061115-9999-1b15venture.html
Firms' foreign-born founders
Ease work-visa rules, venture capitalists say, pointing to . . .
By Bruce V. Bigelow
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
November 15, 2006
Injecting itself into a national debate on immigration, the venture capital
industry reports that foreign-born entrepreneurs were crucial to the
success of Intel, Google and scores of other U.S. technology companies.
Greek native Kleanthis Xanthopoulos combined Anatoli with Dysi, Greek words
for the East and West, in naming Anadys Pharmaceuticals, which he heads.
In a study to be released today, the National Venture Capital Association
found that over the past 15 years, immigrants founded one of every four
venture-backed startups that became publicly traded companies.
By releasing the study now, NVCA officials said they hoped to seize a
post-election opportunity to ease restrictions on employment visas that
enable foreign engineers and scientists to work and study in the United
States.
Given the increased rancor of the immigration debate, "we decided we needed
really hard data to make our case, and so we commissioned the study," said
Mark Heesen, president of the Virginia-based trade group.
The group called the 39-page report the first attempt to quantify the
success stories of people such as Andy Grove, the Hungarian-born engineer
who founded Intel, and Russian-born Sergey Brin, who helped start Google.
Immigrant-founded public companies today employ about 220,000 people in the
United States alone, and represent a total market value of more than $500
billion, according to the study.
"Yahoo would not be an American company today if the United States had not
welcomed my family and me almost 30 years ago," said Jerry Yang, who was
born in Taiwan and co-founded Yahoo. "We must do all that we can to ensure
that the door is open for the next generation of top entrepreneurs,
engineers and scientists from around the world to come to the U.S. and
thrive."
About 62 percent of immigrant-founded public companies were based in
California, most likely because of the regional clusters formed by venture
capital firms and technology companies.
Massachusetts ranked second, with 14 percent, followed by New Jersey, with
6 percent. Washington state and Texas each had 3 percent, with the
remaining 12 percent located in other states.
In San Diego, the list of immigrant-founded startups includes Anadys
Pharmaceuticals, Novatel Wireless, Arena Pharmaceuticals and Wireless
Facilities.
The NVCA also said two-thirds of the U.S. companies that rely on H-1B visas
to hire foreign workers agreed that "current U.S. immigration laws
affecting skilled professionals harm American competitiveness."
H-1B refers to a section in the Immigration and Nationality Act that
enables U.S. companies and universities to employ educated foreign workers
with specialized skills in engineering, mathematics, business and other
fields.
By the nature of their journey, people who immigrate to the United States
are more driven and more willing to take risks, said Anadys founder
Kleanthis Xanthopoulos, who was born in Greece.
"It's an extremely short-sighted view to limit H-1B visas," Xanthopoulos
said.
Since the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, the number of H-1B visas
granted to U.S. employers has dropped to 65,000 a year, from 195,000
annually in 2000 and 2001.
Under a so-called skill bill, introduced by Texas Republican Sen. John
Cornyn, the cap on H-1B visas would be raised to 115,000 a year and
would exempt nearly 260,000 foreign students enrolled in U.S. graduate
programs. The NVCA backs the measure, along with technology groups such as
the Semiconductor Industry Association and Microsoft founder Bill Gates.
Proponents distinguished their efforts, however, from the broader U.S.
debate over immigration.
"Skilled immigrants are huge multipliers for the U.S. economy, as the study
has shown," said Vinit Nijhawan, an Indian-born entrepreneur who is a
partner at Key Venture Partners, a venture capital firm in Waltham, Mass.
The broader debate, Nijhawan said, has mainly been about unskilled labor
and the burdens imposed on U.S. health care and social services by illegal
immigrants. But, he added, "the skilled labor debate really has to rise up
in priority because it is extremely important for the future of the U.S."
Although finding solutions to illegal immigration and the H-1B visas are
not mutually exclusive, proponents suggested the H-1B issue might be a
simpler problem for Congress to address.
"It's very worthy of serious debate in these final days of the 109th
Congress," said the NVCA's Heesen. "So we're looking very closely at this
lame-duck session, and hopefully something can be done in this period. If
not, we'll certainly be back in the 110th Congress."
The study was co-written by Stuart Anderson, the executive director of the
National Foundation for American Policy, and Michaela Platzer, the
president of Content First, a research group.
From 1990 to 2005, they found that 88 of 268 venture-funded public
companies were founded by immigrants, or 25 percent. From 1970 to 2005, the
percentage was almost 20 percent, with 144 of 725 venture-funded public
companies started by immigrants.
In a glimpse of the future, the NVCA also reported that a survey found that
immigrants founded almost 47 percent of existing venture-backed companies
that remain privately held.
In other results, the study found the highest number of immigrant
entrepreneurs were from India. Of the 144 ventures, 32 were founded or
co-founded by immigrants from India; 17 were from Israel; and 16 from
Taiwan. None was from Mexico, and only three were from Latin America or
South America, Anderson said.
Slightly more than 90 percent of the 144 companies fell into four general
categories: 60 were high-tech manufacturers, 34 were information technology
companies, 30 were focused on life sciences, and 6 provided professional,
scientific or technical services.
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/15/business/15visa.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
A New Push to Raise Cap on H-1B Visa
By MIGUEL HELFT
Published: November 15, 2006
SAN FRANCISCO, Nov. 14 A coalition of business and education groups is
making a renewed push to persuade Congress to raise the number of skilled
foreign workers allowed into the United States this year.
The coalition, which calls itself Compete America and whose members are
drawn heavily from the technology industry, sent a letter to every member
of
Congress on Monday calling for an increase in both the number of so-called
H-1B visas, which are used by skilled immigrants and the number of
employment-based green cards given to foreign workers.
The first part is to ensure that U.S. companies have the ability to hire
the
best and the brightest, said Jack Krumholtz, managing director for federal
government affairs at Microsoft. The second part is about making sure that
we are able to retain them.
Microsofts chairman, Bill Gates, is one of many technology executives who
have advocated increased flexibility to hire educated foreign workers like
engineers and scientists. He is expected to return to that theme at an
industry conference on Wednesday at Stanford University.
Increasing the number of H-1B visas has long been a top legislative
priority
of technology companies, which say they cannot find enough skilled workers
in the United States. After a temporary increase to 195,000 during the
years
of the Internet boom, the annual number of visas issued has been capped at
65,000. An additional 20,000 visas have been granted to foreign workers who
have an advanced degree from an American university.
But in recent years, all the visas allotted for a given year were claimed
on
or before the start of the fiscal year on Oct. 1.
We cant hire people, said Jenifer Verdery, director of work force policy at
Intel.
The notion of allowing more skilled foreign workers in the United States
generally enjoys bipartisan support in Congress. Earlier this year, the
Senate passed a bill that would increase the cap on H-1B visas to 115,000
and would automatically raise the cap by a further 20 percent if all visas
for a given year were claimed. The bill also would raise the number of
employment-based green cards issued to 290,000, from 140,000.
But the bill stalled as the House and Senate deadlocked on broader
immigration reform legislation. And not everyone agrees that raising the
cap
on visas is a good idea.
We think that before raising the H-1B cap there should be reform of the
H-1B
system, said Ronil Hira, vice president for career activities at IEEE-USA,
a
professional organization representing engineers and computer programmers.
The organization, which includes many immigrants among its ranks, is not
opposed to legal immigration. But Mr. Hira said that the H-1B visa program,
which requires companies to pay foreign workers wages comparable to those
they pay American workers, was riddled with loopholes that allow employers
to pay subpar wages to immigrants. That, in turn, depresses the wages of
American workers, Mr. Hira said.
Lynn Shotwell, chairwoman of Compete America, said there was virtually no
chance that Congress would pass the Senate bill this year. But Ms. Shotwell
said the coalition, which includes universities and the Chamber of
Commerce,
was asking Congress to raise the cap on H-1B visas and green cards for the
remainder of the fiscal year.
Members of the coalition are hopeful that legislation modeled after the
Senate bill could be enacted next year, when Democrats will control
Congress. House Democrats have promoted what they are calling an innovation
agenda that includes wide availability of visas for skilled immigrants.
The National Venture Capital Association, which is among those advocating
an
expansion in visas and green cards for skilled workers, is backing that
case
with a study, to be released Wednesday, that highlights the role of
immigrant entrepreneurs in the American economy.
The study found that one in four publicly traded American companies that
were initially financed by venture capitalists in the last 15 years
included
at least one immigrant among their founders. During the 1980s, immigrants
were involved in founding one in five such companies, and prior to 1980
only
7 percent.
The notion of being able to come here and shape your own destiny is
tremendously appealing and, you have to believe, valuable for the economy,
job creation and wealth creation, said Axel Bichara, a partner at Atlas
Venture in Boston. Mr. Bichara came to the United States from Germany in
1986 to study at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. A year later,
he
became co-founder of a software company.
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?file=/chronicle/archive/2006/11/15/BUGPGMCI3G1.DTL&type=business
Tech leaders, immigrants want change
Drive to let companies hire more foreign-born workers
- Jessica Guynn, Chronicle Staff Writer
Wednesday, November 15, 2006
The high-tech industry is touting a new study that showcases the economic
contributions of talented immigrants as part of an orchestrated campaign to
alter the nation's immigration laws to expand the number of highly skilled,
foreign-born professionals allowed to work here.
Making the case that high-tech immigration creates greater economic
opportunity for Americans, the National Venture Capital Association plans
to release a study today that concludes that immigrants had a hand in
starting 1 in 5 venture-backed public companies in the United States during
the past 15 years. These companies have created thousands of jobs and have
a combined market capitalization of $500 billion, the study found.
In high tech, the numbers are even more impressive: Forty percent of
venture-backed public companies, including Intel Corp., Google Inc., Yahoo
Inc., Sun Microsystems Inc. and eBay Inc., claim at least one foreign-born
founder. Foreign-born entrepreneurs are behind nearly half of
venture-backed startups, the study also found. Not surprisingly,
California, with its top engineering schools and high-powered cluster of
investors and entrepreneurs, outranks all other states in percentage of
companies founded by at least one immigrant.
The study also coincides with the technology lobbying group TechNet's
Annual Innovation Summit taking place today at Stanford University.
Expanding the number of immigrants able to work for or start high-tech
companies in the United States will top the agenda.
Critics say the study is just another political maneuver in the industry's
long-running campaign to swing open the nation's gates to more young
foreign-born talent willing to work longer hours for less pay, an influx
that would harm American workers, particularly older ones, and depress
wages. They dispute the study's methods and its conclusion that immigrant
workers drive the high-tech economy, saying the rate of entrepreneurship
among immigrants is no higher -- and, in fact, may be lower -- than among
engineers born in the United States. They also contend that the study's
author, Stuart Anderson, executive director of the National Foundation for
American Policy, is a veteran of conservative think tanks who runs an
organization that claims to be a nonpartisan public policy research outfit
but is instead an industry front group.
"They are pulling out all the stops, and that study is one of the stops,"
said UC Davis computer science Professor Norman Matloff, a longtime H-1B
visa critic. "The conclusion of that study was foregone. They knew what
they were going to come up with before they started."
For decades, Silicon Valley has attracted engineers, computer programmers
and other highly skilled professionals from around the globe, but in recent
years the high-tech industry has complained that it is suffering from a
national brain drain, leading to a divisive debate from Silicon Valley to
Washington. The country's largest technology companies and most-prestigious
research institutions intensified their lobbying efforts this year for
permission to hire more overseas talent. Microsoft Corp. Chairman Bill
Gates even made a rare appearance on Capitol Hill.
Companies say they cannot find enough U.S.-born engineers, computer
scientists and other skilled professionals to fill openings -- a contention
that critics strongly dispute. Each year, the United States issues 65,000
H-1B visas that allow foreign professionals to work here for three to six
years. In 2001 and 2002, that number rose to nearly 200,000. A Senate bill
would have nearly doubled the H-1B quota to 115,000 a year and would have
helped clear a huge backlog of applications for permanent residency, but it
was derailed by a partisan stalemate over border security and illegal
immigration.
Mark Heeson, president of the National Venture Capital Association, says
his organization is pushing the lame-duck Congress to green-light the
so-called Skill Bill as a separate measure. His organization is seeking to
raise the number of visas and exempt from the cap the nearly 600,000
foreign-born students in the United States. Cutting down the wait of five
years or more for green-card holders is also a priority, he said.
Even if those last-minute lobbying efforts fail, pundits say the political
winds have shifted dramatically in high-tech's favor. The 110th Congress
may be the friendlier to the interests of the technology industry with
Nancy Pelosi, the presumptive new speaker of the House, unveiling an
"innovation" agenda after meeting with venture capitalists and
entrepreneurs one year ago.
"We are cautiously optimistic that the likelihood has increased that these
issues will be resolved moving forward," said Aman Kapoor, founder and
president of Immigration Voice, a grassroots organization of thousands of
foreign-born professionals lobbying for changes in the immigration system
on Capitol Hill.
Researchers may not be able to place a dollar figure on the economic losses
from stemming the tide of skilled professionals, but the cost to American
innovation is high as would-be entrepreneurs in such vital areas as
high-tech and stem-cell research, frustrated by red tape and long waits,
start their companies elsewhere, Kapoor contends.
Matloff disagrees. "Innovation has been the code word. The idea is that we
are falling behind other countries," he said. "They say, 'Look at what's
happening. They are going to surpass us. The only way to survive is through
innovation. We can't do it but the H-1B visas will innovate for us.' All of
that is total baloney."
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=270410&intsrc=hm_ts_head
Fishing in the Global Talent Pool
Mary Brandel
November 20, 2006 (Computerworld) As a CIO at Royal Dutch Shell PLC, Jay
Crotts knows something about recruiting IT talent on a global scale. The
$26.3 billion company employs 8,000 IT professionals in 145 countries,
including remote areas such as Iceland, Togo and Mauritius, a small country
off the East African coast.
Shells goal is to hire the best IT person for every role, no matter
where in the world that person resides, according to Crotts. And hes a
good example: Almost two years ago, he moved with his family from Texas to
Shells London offices when he accepted the job of CIO of the global
business-to-business and lubricants segments.
A growing number of U.S. companies - whether theyre global or domestic,
small or large - are mimicking Shells approach. They may have job
openings or skill needs in a particular country, but they dont limit
their IT talent searches to that location. And that makes sense.
Think about it: Some areas of the world are experiencing technology talent
shortages - especially in key skill areas. Meanwhile, technology talent
pools are cropping up worldwide, particularly in developing economies. No
wonder many IT executives are casting wider hiring nets that reach into
foreign waters.
New Rules
Hiring foreign labor is no longer just about H-1B visas and offshoring.
Thanks to employee referrals, in-country recruiting firms, global job
boards such as Monster.com and Jobster, sophisticated corporate Web
recruiting sites and online programmer "marketplaces" like RentACoder.com
or oDesk, there are more ways than ever before to communicate and
collaborate with skilled individuals who happen to live overseas.
Some companies are directly contracting or hiring IT professionals with the
understanding that they will continue living in their home countries.
"It doesnt matter whether youre in Singapore, China, the U.S., India
or Australia - its increasingly a global labor market," says Kevin
Wheeler, president of Global Learning Resources Inc., a Fremont,
Calif.-based recruiting consulting firm. "If I can bring the labor to me,
thats good; if I have to take the work to you, thats OK, too."
Wheeler sees all sorts of hybrid hiring models cropping up and notes a
general move away from blanket hiring of full-time employees.
"Smart companies are really looking at a whole mix of options -
contractors, consultants, part-time workers, offshoring - and its being
driven partly by strategy, partly by the ability to find talent and
generally to keep costs lower," he says.
A common setup might include a U.S.-based management and
research-and-development staff working with a few programmers in Ireland, a
couple more in China and maybe a dozen in India, he says.
And while cost is still the No. 1 driver of global hiring efforts, "the
search for talent will surpass low cost in the next few years," says Allan
Schweyer, president and executive director of The Human Capital Institute,
a talent management organization in Washington.
As that happens, Schweyer says, companies will less often ask employees to
move and instead use globally dispersed, remote workforces led by a U.S.
project manager.
But for companies just getting started on their global talent fishing
expeditions, Crotts has some tempering advice: Referring to Thomas
Friedmans oft-cited book The World Is Flat (Farrar, Straus and Giroux,
2005), he says, "The world is flat, but terms and conditions are not."
For instance, compensation packages, the number of hours that employees
expect to work, even the length of the hiring process all differ widely
throughout the world.
Consider that new Shell employees in the Netherlands start with five weeks
of vacation, whereas U.S. staffers might get less time off but command
higher pay.
And although prospective employees in the U.S. might not find it the least
bit strange to be hired on the spot following a single interview, that
would be jarring to someone in Latin America, where the normal hiring
process can take three months.
"Its hard for a global company to get local HR right," Crotts says.
Reflecting Cultural Nuances
Thats why Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu, with two-thirds of its workforce
seated outside the U.S., has overhauled its approach to global recruitment.
Led by Kent Kirch, global director of recruiting at Deloitte, the company
has created a global selection methodology, a global talent management
system, an international internship program and worldwide agreements with
several providers of recruitment-related services.
Kirch also has revamped the recruiting section of Deloittes Web site to
emphasize the companys consistent global hiring practices while
reflecting cultural nuances and the country-specific job opportunities,
benefits and special programs available to employees of its local offices.
The company used to have more than 35 employment sites - one for each
country - and no central job listing. Now it has one global site for job
candidates throughout the world, containing information on more than 500
offices in 90 countries. Almost all of the information is locally managed,
Kirch says.
"We dont want to have a situation where a person in China comes to the
site and sees a photograph of someone who doesnt look like theyre
from China," he says. "The content is very localized so people can relate
to it and are attracted to it."
Even so, Kirch says, positions are advertised on job boards in several
countries with the idea of attracting talent both near and far. "Were
hard-pressed to find talent quickly enough to meet our business needs," he
says. "Our approach for recruitment, even for our local companies, is
global."
In addition to its 5,000-person IT operations in Hyderabad, India, Deloitte
employs a few programmers who work remotely in other countries. "Thats
definitely a trend, and I think it will continue to become more common,"
Kirch says.
Deloitte relies heavily on online job boards and employee referrals in
addition to its own Web site. It is currently establishing a cross-border
employee referral program in which it rewards people who successfully refer
overseas colleagues or friends.
"The workforce is more globally mobile today," Kirch says, "so odds are
greater that you or I might know a potential candidate in another country."
Regional Variations
To recruit successfully, employers have to be wary about regional
differences, such as the need to tailor benefits to the local culture.
For instance, Google Inc.s Web site offers a "cycling plan" to its
employees in Ireland, in which it contributes 200 toward the cost of a
bicycle. And in India, Deloittes Web site offers free company-organized
transportation that shuttles employees in Mumbai and Hyderabad from pickup
points across those cities to its offices.
"Its very difficult to recruit cross-border if you dont have the
right approach and awareness," Crotts says. "I always have the local HR
representative right beside me to make sure Im hitting the
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