WTF.....here in this great country we have many lay offs, the banks get billions for support and they have the BALLS to hire overseas people to come and work here....FUCK MAN! There ought to be a law that you have to be a US Citizen or a at least a resident to work here but no one with visas! Just my two cents AP Investigation: Banks sought foreign workers By FRANK BASS and RITA BEAMISH, Associated Press Writers Frank Bass And Rita Beamish, Associated Press Writers 2 hrs 20 mins ago SANTA CLARA, Calif. â Banks collecting billions of dollars in federal bailout money sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers to the U.S. for high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications. The dozen banks receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households. The figures are significant because they show that the bailed-out banks, being kept afloat with U.S. taxpayer money, actively sought to hire foreign workers instead of American workers. As the economic collapse worsened last year â with huge numbers of bank employees laid off â the numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP's analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in fiscal 2007 to 4,163 in fiscal 2008. The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions. It is unclear how many foreign workers the banks actually hired; the government does not release those details. The actual number is likely a fraction of the 21,800 foreign workers the banks sought to hire because the government limits the number of visas it grants to 85,000 each year among all U.S. employers. During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. The number of foreign workers included among those laid off is unknown. Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers. ___ Frank Bass reported from East Dover, Vt. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090201/ap_on_bi_ge/bailout_foreign_workers
ceo's from fedx and google were on the tube today spouting that trying to stop this kind of crap as welll as trade imbalance would lead to a backlash that would have dire effects for america. No more fedx for me and can you recommend a new browser?
Immigrants typically are ambitious people, they had enough ambition to leave their country for better opportunities elsewhere. Ambitious people tend to be savers or investors so they can get ahead. A saver should be more valuable to America as opposed to a consumer. Someone who consumes more than they produce, will just end up increasing the foreign deficit in the balance of trade or they are basically selling off the country's assets. The foreign worker might directly displace a native born person from the job that they take, but as their income gets reinvested, it will create more jobs. I've applied twice myself many years ago for an American visa and was turned down both times for silly bureaucratic reasons. I've since worked in Canada and reinvested a lot of my income here. There is no exact figure how much investment it takes to create a job but I would guess that my investments in Canada have created about a dozen jobs. http://www.diverseeducation.com/artman/publish/article_7422.shtml http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/south_asia/383266.stm http://news.duke.edu/2007/01/engineerstudy.html
This AP report is a complete red-herring, pandering to sheeple's gut reactions to current news without any historical perspective (even recent historical perspective). 1. This country's strength has come from the waves of immigrants that come to this country which are bright, ambitious and (particularly recently) well-educated. These recent immigrants are among the most productive workers in our society (i.e. creating GDP, paying taxes, earning and spending money, and thus creating jobs). We would be stronger if we let MORE of them in, not less. 2. This report tracks immigrant visas for the past 6 years. How quickly we forget how low unemployment was until just the last 12 months, and banks, technology companies, etc. could not fill jobs they had which required advanced degrees. 3. Do you really think that the majority of people being laid off can do the type of work that these immigrants with advanced degrees are capable of doing? And I make these valid points not from being a recent immigrant myself (far, far from it). I make these points from having worked with first generation immigrants in various capacities over the years, and having a high degree of respect for those with ambition and a strong work ethic, having put enough effort into achieving an advanced education - attributes too many Americans have lost.
Not a word anywhere on the tube about restoring trade balance and that is half of our problem. Perhaps that should include jobs as well. When if ever will anyone get around to that. Corporate hypocracy instead of democracy is in charge.
They come from countries that spend a lot on education so they can send people to the West to earn and send money back.... anyhow I'm prejudiced, I was sidelined from having a great engineering job all my life by H1b's.. corporations love them here because they have them on the hook, they can't quit their jobs, therefore they have no wage leverage. I see H1b's as scabs really... at least there is a lot more money in trading than technical work!! I can recall whole departments of Iranians for example, all H1b's, all Iranian, and they would not deal with another department unless it had an Iranian to send to the meeting... they saw it as a big education = take the money and takeover game, probably the guys back home that paid for their schooling did as well... of course there were lesbian departments that would not share info unless you sent a woman... corporate politics = aaarrrrrgggghhhhh!!! In fact I can recall sending the good looking Iranian woman to the lesbian department to get a piece of info before.... people wonder why we just quit what we're doing for trading...
Immigrants have solved the problem of inflation, which is more than any political policy ever could have done.
Efficiency issues aside, when the government uses its biggest bailout in history and the american taxpayer singlehandedly saves the american banking sector, the least you could do is not hire 20,000 foreign workers. This is sickening. Also immigrants today do not want to be americans, they send all their money back home. Being an immigrant before meant swearing by the american flag and the constitution, these days it's just a money grab.
This is a story with legs. But talking to people, the BAC conference on breaking unions while taking tax money has people pissed. But the people I know are middle class so... it is biased.