Ask Slashdot: Reasonable Immigration Policy For Highly-Trained Workers? 357
davidwr writes "What are a reasonable temporary-worker or immigration-visa rules to apply to workers whose skills would quickly net them a 'top 20th percentile wages' job (about $100,000) in the American workplace, if they were allowed to work in the country? Should the visa length be time-limited? Should it provide for a path to permanent residency? Should the number be limited, and if so, how should we decide what the limit should be? The people affected are already likely eligible for special work-permit programs, but these programs may have quotas, time limits, prior-job-offer-requirements, and other restrictions. I'm asking what Slashdotters think the limits and restrictions, if any, should be. (Let's assume any policy to keep out criminals and spies remains as-is.)"
Are the hars working and honest? (Score:5, Insightful)
let them stay. Educated immigrants are more likely to start their own business. So where do you want that business to be?
A few thoughts (Score:5, Insightful)
We should favor workers who are looking for permanent residency. They are good for the economy and the community.
We should make sure it costs no less to hire a foreign worker to work in the US than it costs to hire an existing resident.
We should not be using foreign worker visas to train people as a prelude to off-shoring.
I'm wondering if an auction system for tech visas would work out.
So Basically What You're Asking Is (Score:5, Insightful)
"Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!"
Should now read:
"Give me your inventors, your geniuses,
Your bored singletons yearning to spur economic growth,
The fertile intellects left from your teeming chaff.
Send these, the able, patent-ers to me,
I lift my GDP beside the golden door!"
Let's face it, work visas are handed out like bouncers controlling admission to a club. You are asking these questions that sound like they treat people with respect and offer them opportunity but what I hear is basically: Are you going to be a net positive for the United States? And how do we accurately measure the Nikola Teslas and Yao Mings from the Dr. Nasser al-Aulaqis (Fullbright Scholar and father of Anwar al-Awlaki).
You know what? It's a dirty business and I don't want any part of it. In my own humble opinion, it's unethical. Your questions sound like "Can we implement a brain drain on the rest of the world with little or no risk?" I think it should be all law-abiding individuals or none and, despite 9/11 and the Mariel Boatlift [wikipedia.org] that consisted of criminals and mental patients, I personally lean toward letting everyone in unless they are known to have committed or been convicted of crimes in their country of origin that are 1) credible sentences and 2) also misdemeanors or higher in the United States.
Opinion != news (Score:5, Insightful)
dude (Score:5, Insightful)
Let 'em all in. If you're going to pull down six digits (and pay taxes on it) then I say: WELCOME TO THE U.S.A.
Here's the thing. We Americans don't actually build stuff, grow stuff or put stuff together anymore. Well, we do, but it's becoming more and more rare. What do we do? We make software and design stuff. Unfortunately, the kind of endeavors one might easily imagining doing somewhere else. We really, really don't want that to happen, since it's this kind of activity we're going to rely on moving forward to support the rest of the economy, which is inwardly focused (medicine, finance, service industry, etc.) That's why we really want all the world's bad-ass scientists, engineers and developers to re-locate their Hindi / Mandarin / who-the-hell-cares-as-long-as-they-also-speak-English selves stateside and get to work building the next Facebook Google.
Re:I wasn't aware it was hard for them getting in (Score:3, Insightful)
Mod parent up. The notion that some people on Slashdot portray of an easy life for H1B workers is a complete falsehood.
Unless you have a masters degree (or equivalent), you will most likely be in the system as H1B status for years. This means that:
* You need somewhat of a life here, but if you lose your job for any reason you need to leave in ~10 days, which may involve selling property (cars), and ending lease agreements. If you take too long to leave you may be barred from re-entry. Technically the 10 days is not legally granted to you, but generally overlooked.
* If you manage to/have to change job and were in the middle of a green card process, you will have to start over again. Changing jobs isn't easy, you have a very limited set of options if you need to do this.
* You probably won't see any family for a while. You're unlikely to get time off any time soon to return home, and when you do you may very well need to spend part of that time traveling to embassies for visa interviews that are not necessarily anywhere near your home, even if your status was fine before your travel.
* Depending on your home country, tax situations can be complex
Re:I wasn't aware it was hard for them getting in (Score:4, Insightful)
"Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof..."
The first thing in the Bill of Rights was preventing establishment of a religion (followed by free exercise thereof). The first thing to do is to ban a state religion. After that, they address the issue of exercising ones personal religion. The reason being that so many of the colonies were explicitly religious, with explicit official religions that having them fight for religious control of the country would cause a civil war.