Slashdot Mirror

According to the US code:

https://www.nafsa.org/_/file/_...

"Based on the current version of the Handbook, the fact that a person may be employed as a computer programmer and may use information technology skills and knowledge to help an enterprise achieve its goals in the course of his or her job is not sufficient to establish the position as a specialty occupation. Thus, a petitioner may not rely solely on the Handbook to meet its burden when seeking to sponsor a beneficiary for a computer programmer position. Instead, a petitioner must provide other evidence to establish that the particular position is one in a specialty occupation as defined by 8 CFR 214.2(h)(4)(ii) that also meets one of the criteria
  at 8 CFR 214.2(h)(4)(iii). Section 214(i)(1) of the INA; see also Royal Siam Corp. v. Chertoff, 484 F.3d 139, 147 (1st Cir. 2007).8."

Now you must offer more than a 2 year degree and no experience. You must somehow substantiate that you possess expertise. You should be "prominent", or a "recognized authority", or expert (as demonstrated by referreed publications or a thesis).

Your occupation must "require theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in fields of human endeavor including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, law, theology, and the arts, and which requires the attainment of a bachelor's degree or higher in a specific specialty, or its equivalent, as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States."

And here we go again. If you check the US history, you will see that US "greatness" is strongly correlated with immigration:

- Most of the great scientist in US were and still are immigrants. So many running away from war, persecution, ... How Many went to US because its openness? Many went there because there are the best scientist from all around the world. Read Immigrant Scientists - Invaluable to the United States.
- Most of your great companies were founded by immigrant or their children

Close your frontier. US will never be great again. US worker first, let me laugh. It was never about work but about wealth. And it does not matter if the wealth comes from immigrants.

US was great for its values (openness, freedom, ...) but that seems now to be the past.

The article itself actually links to a report that confirms this:
http://www.nafsa.org/_/File/_/eis2012/USA.pdf

The article claims this is a report of the US spending billions on international students, but the first line of the linked report reads:

"NAFSA: Association of International Educators estimates that international
students and their dependents contributed approximately $21.81 billion to the U.S.
economy during the 2011-2012 academic year."

International students do not attend US universities at taxpayer expense. They instead pay much higher fees, effectively subsidising the fees of domestic students - that's why universities like them. Living expenses also contribute billions each year to the US economy.

http://www.nafsa.org/_/file/_/eis09/usa.pdf

Apart from the money, they also make important scientific contributions, frequently choosing to stay. Look through google scholar, and you'll see the increasing numbers of chinese names. They aren't there to steal research - they are *doing* the research, and the fact that they are choosing to do it in the US and publishing it means the US gets to benefit from both the results themselves and the reputation of having ground breaking research done there instead of in Asia or Europe.

I suppose you're now going to try and say that the programs aren't underpopulated but that the US still can't produce enough graduates.

You didn't read it carefully enough. "The US" hasn't been able to produce enough CS graduates, which is why it has been bringing in foreigners to fill its CS programs. So, CS programs are full, but only because 50% of its graduates are foreigners, foreigners that need H1B visas in order to work in the US computer industry when they graduate.

Note that even with foreign students, the number of CS graduates in the US is ridiculously small; the total number of grad students in CS is similar to each the total number in psychology or political science, fields which don't exactly have thriving commercial industries.

So, for the third time, according to whom?

Since you seem to be incapable of doing a Google search, here are the NSF numbers:

http://www.nsf.gov/statistics/infbrief/nsf06321/

In 2004, total new CS grad students are made up of 3651 US residents and 4243 foreigners. CS enrollment declined 6.3% that year alone, a trend that's been going on for several years, and I suspect the figures for 2005, 2006, and 2007 are worse.

Here's a nice graph:

http://www.nafsa.org/_/Image/_/presidents_graph.gi f

Here's a comparison with other nations:

http://mwhodges.home.att.net/science_undergrad_int l.gif

Here is undergraduate CS majors over time:

http://www.computer.org/portal/cms_docs_computer/c omputer/homepage/0306/r3dive01.jpg

There is no shortage of qualified native born American scientists and technology workers--no matter how much you might wish it to be so.

Well, that's an unsupported assertion by you that flies in the fact of facts.

But even if you were right, so what? What economic, social, or moral imperative do these companies have to hire you instead of someone in India or China?