Multicolored Lemur

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Atheist / Agnostic
Nov 23, 2021
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“ . . Musk and Ramaswamy, whom Trump has tapped to lead his Department of Government Efficiency, defended companies who use workers on H-1B visas, arguing tech companies — including those owned by Musk — depend on foreign workers to operate. But their message rankled some of Trump’s most loyal defenders who expect his administration to crack down on immigration and promote American labor. . “

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“ . . The H-1B visa program allows 65,000 highly skilled workers to immigrate to the US each year to fill a specific job and grants another 20,000 visas to such workers who have received an advanced degree in the US. . ”

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So, the norm is currently a total of 85,000 such workers each year.
 
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Seems this issue is probably being lumped in with the overall problem with immigration. Plenty of Americans, esp. those on the right, are weary of immigrants, legal or otherwise, taking American jobs.

If that is most of their concerns, then I disagree with that crowd. Sure, we don't want an American workforce that would favor foreigners over Americans, but I thought the 65,000 cap on H-1Bs was the safeguard for that. On the flipside, I just hope there aren't some on Trump's side who are just xenophobic or who think all American jobs should be for Americans alone. That's kinda of what I take from this statement in your article,

“There is nothing wrong with American workers or American culture. All you have to do is look at the border and see how many want what we have. We should be investing and prioritizing in Americans, not foreign workers,” Haley wrote on Thursday.
As if we should only look to Americans alone no matter what.
 
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There's another sentiment i found from reading online posts. Hiring too many foreign workers can also drive down wages. The thinking is that foreign workers would take less money to do the job just so they can live in the US. So if Americans wanted to compete with that, they could only do so by lower their wage expectations.

I think that's a legitimate concern, but I wonder by how much are wages truly effected.
 
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Sure, we don't want an American workforce that would favor foreigners over Americans, but I thought the 65,000 cap on H-1Bs was the safeguard for that.
Reduce it 5,000 the 1st year, another 5,000 the 2nd year, and maybe 3,000 the 3rd year . . . and see when we hit the sweet spot.
 
I tried to go into C++ programming in 2000 at the age of 37. I got three interviews, no job.

From what I saw, it was a flooded job market.
 
I tried to go into C++ programming in 2000 at the age of 37. I got three interviews, no job.

From what I saw, it was a flooded job market.
Yeah, I'm sure computer programming is hard to make it into unless you start at an entry position. With artificial intelligence coming along, I think that will reduce the need for human workers in that field. SO maybe it's good you didn't get into it...

I'm sure H-1B visas thing can be abused. BUt I do think some politics is involved here as well. In the midst of an immigration uproar, making comments about increasing immigration, esp. when it involves potentially giving American jobs away to foreigners, probably won't play well. I can see it having benefits and being needed, but the optics and timing is the bad thing given elections.
 
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On a separate but maybe related issue, I think there is a decline in quality relying on too many foreign workers. I'm speaking from the standpoint of technical support. For instance, my website hosting provider seems to be using a lot more foreigners to handle technical issues. Because English is not their native language, there is often a communication limitation. Also, I notice what would normally take 1 phone call to fix an issue is now taking me 3 or 4 phone calls plus emails.

So while allowing foreign workers to work some American jobs, but attention must also be paid to ensure that there's no decline in quality of service.
 
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Because English is not their native language, there is often a communication limitation. Also, I notice what would normally take 1 phone call to fix an issue is now taking me 3 or 4 phone calls plus emails.
question — the company knows that customers will mind. Are they counting on the fact that they won't mind "that much" ? ?? :p

if so . . .

if the company pushes this one time too many, and it can really erode their reputation
 
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@Multicolored Lemur

I would imagine that they are pushing it to see how far they can get with it. It would be up to the consumer, or in the case of you brought up in post #1 - The American people, to voice their concerns to at least limit this practice where it creates problems w/ quality.

I have plenty other examples I can go into, like a Mexican restaurant that was run by non-Mexicans, and it showed up in the food that they were probably not familiar with the taste and culture, but I'll leave it at that.:whistle: