NY city mayor wants more Foreigners to come work in New York. New York: A group of students from IIT Madras(INDIA) have won the inaugural New York City Next Idea contest for a business plan that could help solve New York Cityâs energy problems. The troika of Aashish Dattani, Sriram Kalyanaraman and Vinayshankar Kulkarni â who had never been to New York before the award function - were announced as winners by city Mayor Michael Bloomberg. The winnersâ -who call their venture Greenext Technology Solutions - idea is a system for storing energy in large batteries around the city that would discharge electricity into the power grid to meet demand. The flexible system is to be designed as a backup source to tackle sudden disruptions in the power supply and it will also make the grid more reliable. They beat out Spain business school team that drew up a bike-sharing program for the city and a team from a business school in France who devised a new tool for screening people for infectious diseases. Sponsored by the cityâs Economic Development Corporation, the contest is one of the mayorâs initiatives to improve the cityâs image as a place that is hospitable to entrepreneurs. The boys, besides receiving $20,000 in cash, will get help in setting up their business, including visa clearance, in the city â that if they decide to believe in the American dream. After announcing the winners, Bloomberg made it a point to reiterate his view that the US government should make it easier for foreigners to come to New York to work. âNo one can say for sure whether the finalistsâ ideas will translate into successful job-creating businesses,â the mayor said in a statement. âWhat a shame, though, if they and countless others are denied the opportunity even to try.â Here is the link http://www.zeenews.com/news593725.html
If they are here working at the same place, they should not be treated differently by the employer in any way. The big question is that as a nation, why do we keep importing more and more foreign workers when they are so many jobless Americans able and willing to do the job - at H1-B pay?
Because, even if Americans worked at the low salaries paid to H1-B's, the H1-B's would undercut them further. H1-B's have massive structural advantages. Their upbringing and education was obtained in the 3rd world for a fraction of the cost of an American upbringing. They can borrow large amounts of $$$ in the USA and walk away without consequences if the economy goes bad (the 'foreigner put'). They don't usually have kids because they're single, young men (= no health insurance costs). Last but not least, most H1-B's don't have committments to massive mortgages or housing. So that's another huge advantage. As long as these factors exist, and as long as it remains legal to hire H1-B's, they will continue to displace qualified US workers simply based on the lower rates they charge. Plus, as an added bonus, the H1-B's can also facilitate offshoring of work because of their foreign language and cultural skills.
There is some truth here. I've known people that were hired solely to train foreign workers with America's intellectual property and our skill-sets, then as soon as they downloaded the info, they were laid off and replaced by the very workers they trained at much lower salaries. Reminds me of the supermarket guys that have to monitor the auto pay machines; little do they know their reward for good performance will be downsizing their own job.
There are gazillions of very talented unemployed US engineers and programmers. WTF do you think the entire free software movement is based on? Unemployed engineers and programmers, living in their moms' basements, pushing out software.
Included in the above is one of the greatest minds in the country: Ken Jennings from Jeapordy fame. He didn't even attempt to go back to the software business after his huge winnings. Ask yourself "why not ?". Answer: read this entire thread.
The older generation of engineers/programmers are telling their kids, nephews & nieces to stay away from IT/engineering in college. Soon there will be bigger shortage of Americans who can take these jobs.
India outsourcers hiring staff as US demand grows MUMBAI, India â India's top three outsourcing companies are ramping up hiring and increasing pay as global corporations, mainly from the U.S., send more work offshore to cut costs as they emerge from the downturn. Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, and Wipro expanded their global workforces by an average of 5.1 percent last quarter, together adding 16,701 employees, company documents show â an early sign that the Great Recession may ultimately benefit India as cost-conscious companies outsource more work, just as they did after the dot-com bust. (more at url) http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100120/ap_on_bi_ge/as_india_outsourcing
I live in Scottsdale and at noon and four o'clock it looks like the streets of Bombay. I have rented to several of these visa holders and they are not extremely intelligent and have no conversational skills. In addition they have poor sanitary skills and are hard to understand at meetings. Caremark in Scottsdale must have hired the whole quota for 2010.