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DHS Best-and-Brightest STEM Program Under Fire
theodp writes "In mid-May, the Department of Homeland Security quietly expanded a program that allows foreign science, technology, engineering and math grads to work in the U.S. for 29 months without a work visa. 'Attracting the best and brightest international talent to our colleges and universities and enabling them to contribute to their professional growth is an important part of our nation's economic, scientific and technological competitiveness,' explained DHS Chief Janet Napolitano. But last week, Senator Chuck Grassley called on the GAO to 'fully investigate' the student visa program, citing reports of abuse and other concerns in his letter. Now, Computerworld reports that the DHS STEM Visa Extension Program continues to be dominated by Stratford University and the University of Bridgeport (as it was in 2010), prompting some tongues to wag. It is 'obvious to any reasonable person that the schools producing most of the OPT students are not prestigious research universities,' quipped policy analyst Daniel Costa, 'which means that many of the OPT students across the country are not in fact the "best and brightest."' While conceding that top students can come from lesser-known schools, 'those will be the exception to the rule,' argued Costa, who suggested the government should include performance metrics in the OPT program, such as grades and university rankings."
And everyone else too. Full Citizenship Rights for All Immigrants! Down with racism, chauvinism and xenophobia! Workers of the world unite! Mobilize workers power to stop the ICE Gestapo kidnappers! Free all the immigrant prisoners in U.S. concentration camps and tear the camps down!
UNITE with the Campaign for a Free Internet because today, our future begins with tomorrow!
Oh, DHS, is there anything you can't screw up?
They need a cheap work force.
Granted young people from prestigious universities might be helpful doing research at US universities. But for inexperienced people to help the US companies, they need enough of them to depress wages.
Democracy Now! - your daily, uncensored, corporate-free
My school is the best! If you don't go there you suck! You not the best or the brightest.
Public Universities should not be accepting foreign students over U.S. students. They may say they want the "prestige" of having a diverse student body or say that they have some hot shot kid from one of the Stan countries, but no matter. They were created for and their job is to provide a higher education for the American public. Especially since they are largely financed by U.S. Taxpayers.
Private Universities? As long as they are let in under the rules and not given precedence over those who have been in line, fine, go ahead.
It seems that most of the institutions of higher learning have forgotten what their purpose is and instead strive to have the most bling... people or programs or things.
When Fascism comes to America, it will call itself Anti-Fascism, and tell you to give up your guns.
A major expansion of the program occurred in 2008 under Bush and is now expanded again by Obama. Over 400000 OPT Visas from 2006-2010, so this is the same scale at H1B. The DHS press release has the usual, if questionable, justification: this is only for the best of the best of the best and there are no US workers with these skills.
Lies and quiet scheming have replaced honest discussion with US citizens.
You don't think that technology, engineering and bio-engineering companies might be interested being able to hire the smartest people they can find anywhere in the world? Hell, I work in the UK for a top 10 company and even they wanted to ship my boss out Palo Alto for a couple of years, because it would have moved him closer to the management team and been more convenient for the business all around.
"A cheap workforce" and an unnatural obsession with H1-B workers is really just Slashdot groupthink.
Let me rephrase that: "Why would anyone qualified be interested in that?". Sure, 29 months sounds long, but if you have to leave at the end, it is basically wasted time. The "best and brightest" do typically not fall for that kind of scam. In any sane country, you can extend your stay and, after a time, apply for citizenship with good probability of getting it.
Most ACs are not even worth the keystrokes to insult them. Be generically insulted by this and ignored otherwise.
You don't think that technology, engineering and bio-engineering companies might be interested being able to hire the smartest people they can find anywhere in the world?
Why would they want such a thing? All their competitors are in US, so as long as those competitors don't have smart people, it's ok to hire stupid ones.
Contrary to the popular belief, there indeed is no God.
There are Americans that are out of work and our own government is behaving like industry and importing labor!? Really!?
than your average immigrant.
For instance, OPT employers aren't subject to the same rules governing H-1B workers, who must be paid the prevailing wage.
The U.S. has approved about 35,274 OPT extensions and denied only 613 since the program was started.
The cesspool just got a check and balance.
American companies complaining they can't hire resources in these fields (without mentioning that they want to pay jack shit) perhaps?
Strikes me as a bit of an H1B dodge...
blindly antisocialist = antisocial
Is there actually any real ranking of universities available to the public? I suspect that there is not. Often students find out too late that individual departments need accreditation and often are not accredited even though the University or College as a whole is highly thought of. Then there is the huge issue of exactly who issues accreditation. Private colleges are notorious for having nonsense accrediting bodies that only rate private schools for a healthy fee. In essence your chances of truth in education are worse than from the used car salesman at the local Car Circus.
We already have 320 million people in this country! I'd really, really be interested in knowing what skill set isn't represented here, such that we need to import it. Yes, I understand that we're discussing highly skilled people here. However, highly skilled isn't necessarily interchangeable with highly in demand. We already have plenty of Ph.D level people in STEM fields currently unemployed. What makes the foreign talent so much more attractive?
Progressivism: Parasites helping parasites to help themselves - to other people's stuff.
What makes the foreign talent so much more attractive?
Because when hired under a visa program, they can be strong-armed into lower wages under threat of letting the visa lapse.
Because there's a continued assault on STEM education here in the states, an utter lack of parent involvement and encouragement, and a rather pitiful showing by students' test scores.
Take your pick, but the right answer is "all of the above".
"They that can give up essential liberty to obtain a little temporary safety deserve neither liberty nor safety."
Public Universities should not be accepting foreign students over U.S. students. They may say they want the "prestige" of having a diverse student body or say that they have some hot shot kid from one of the Stan countries, but no matter. They were created for and their job is to provide a higher education for the American public. Especially since they are largely financed by U.S. Taxpayers.
Private Universities? As long as they are let in under the rules and not given precedence over those who have been in line, fine, go ahead.
It seems that most of the institutions of higher learning have forgotten what their purpose is and instead strive to have the most bling... people or programs or things.
Let me stop you right there with three points.
1. No one is saying that US students are passed over foreign ones. Do you have proof that this is what is happening?
2. The truth of the matter is that US students are not going in droves into STEM fields at the 4-year level, let alone the grad level. This is the truth. Suck on it and deal with it. The US STEM intelligentsia is disproportionally composed of foreign-born nationals. US students do not get passed over. They simply chose to study for Marketing or Creative Writing.
3. Why not use tax payers to get the best and brightest from abroad to study here and become US nationals? That's better use of of taxpayers money (my money, your money) than funding yet another graduate in Creative Writing burdened by a $100K loan.
It was a foreign-born citizen who created USB, and another one who helped create google. And many more created a lot more shit while the rest of us were content studying for useless degrees, while complaining why US students get passed over (which is not true.)
A little bit more perspective and a little less of this stupid faux victim look-at-me syndrome is what you need.
I think xenophilia is a mild term - xenomania is a more appropriate description.
Btw, I'm a non-white Asian, and I approve of your message.
Its not about the import, its the imprint the young minds got when they return home. ...just like every other "best of a generation" US grad.
That cute, lazy, rich, poor, gifted 20 something might recall his/her time in the US and buy up big as some CEO, political leader or allow a deal as a lawyer in their 50's/60's.
It cuts past left/right/faith/dictator/nationalism as it was part of their life. The US know to invest in that gift long term.
The US is producing generational 'friends' around the world i.e. foreign talent has potential, another US grad from an elite coast university is just another grad who might do something
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
>> These reforms reflect the Obama administration's ongoing commitment to promote policies that embrace talented students from other countries ...while ensuring talented students and workers in the United States continue to get screwed.
How much longer under November again?
There is a lot of false on this thread. An OPT is crucial for the best and the brightest. A F-1 student is not granted the intent to immigrate. They are considered as visitors. Even during OPT they are F-1 students who are supposed to return home after the OPT. OPT status lets the students move jobs and companies don't have to pay through their nose to get someone who is working elsewhere working on an OPT.
A H1-b on the other hand has a dual intent. Every single time an employee leaves a company and switches to another the company has to pay $2000 to $5000 in H1b fees and there is almost a doubling of that as the lawyers fees. So it's $10,000 for a transfer. This means these employees don't switch jobs. They will work with increasing workloads at a lower pay scale. The H1-b program helps companies to lock down talent. The lower end jobs are all filled with this now. They will stay lower end forever on a H1b unless a green card is filed for. Guess what? The green cards take donkeys years for some countries. 10 or 15 in some cases. They can't really do anything but be slave labor during that time. Some of these people did come here on merit scholarships. They have to retard their careers to stay on. Many choose not to stay on to get a green card. A H1-b needs to be paid way way more than the prevailing wages now. There is a labor certification and the wages cited are ridiculous. It's double the current actual wages in some cases. So the H1-b program is the least useful for the best and the brightest. They are the best and the brightest but you don't pay that to someone based on one interview. You want to see them work. It's not possible through a resume screening or through an interview.
H1-b fee increases are horrible to say the least. The OPT extension is only on three areas. The OPT students are the least of the problem. They compete as equal entry level workers. A H-1b out of his job for even a day is out of status. He won't even have time to sell his furniture. There is an off the books grace period of 30 days. Yep off the books 30 days to ship out after selling all they paid for at fire sale prices. The H1-b makes them neo-slave labor. This is the reality. This comment will probably be modded down.
The solution is to either do away with the H1-B and F-1 visas or to make it easy for H1-B's to switch jobs. An automatic entitlement to file for a green card after 5 years on H1-B as opposed to the company sponsoring H1-B. It's no more harmful than lottery visas. In fact if someone has been on a H1-b for five years now they are possibly better than their equivalent American worker. They earn less and do more work due to the difficulty of switching now. So why do away with excellent workers.
The other problem is F-1 and H1-B are related. If foreign students don't feel they have a shot at permanent visa many of them won't come to US. It's probably horribly expensive for some of them from countries where the income levels are 1/50th of American levels. They spend everything they have to get here. If there is no OPT the American university system will crumble. Some countries have already started opening up their doors to joint degrees in their countries. Singapore is an example. This will prevent the outflow of foreign exchange. The American professors will still be paid but fewer returns for the university ecosystem in US. Students spend money to live in US, if they earn they pay their taxes. All of that is gone. It's a big deal. So in real economic terms the US has been stupid and regressive with the H1-B fee hikes. The OPT trick is a gimmick. The admissions in non stem programs with 12 months OPT has gone down drastically. That's thousands of dollars which the universities are not making. It's thousands the American students have to cough up. Most of the foreign graduates are taking up just a few additional seats which will now be vacant.
What's necessary isn't the reaction of companies are cheating on H1-b filings. The xenophobia has to end. It's liberalization of the regime with H1-b po
It's not just the PhDs their bringing in (and unemployment in high tech fields requiring advanced degrees is a good deal lower than the rest.) Still, FTFA:
"With youth unemployment being as high as it is, the Obama administration should be focusing on attracting the smartest immigrants that will add value and complement the workforce," said Costa.
"Adding workers with ordinary skills from vocational schools that few people have ever heard of - just because they hold STEM degrees - does nothing to further that goal," he added.
Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori...
Oh, the beautiful gloss of greality!
It is not as if the US is suffering it's highest long-term unemployment since the great depression, or anything like that.
The truth is: 93% of visa workers are ordinary people, doing ordinary jobs. The GAO has proved this.
Visa programs are not designed to let in the "best and brightest" they are designed to replace US workers with cheaper foreign workers.
The GAO has proved that 93% of visa workers do not work at the advanced level, and 54% of visa workers are entry level.
These visa programs are designed to replace US workers with cheaper offshore workers.
Don't you think US employers prefer this slave labor? If so, then it's hardly "xenophobic" to realize that US workers are being replaced by such "slave labor" - your own words.
Visa workers are not "immigrants" they are temporary labor. An immigrant is somebody who leave his/her home country and permenantly settles in another country.
These visa workers are far from the "best and brightest" they are ordinary workers, taking ordinary jobs. This while the US suffers it worst long-term unemployment since the great depression.
The mistake was making a program that
"allows foreign science, technology, engineering and math grads to work in the U.S. for 29 months without a work visa"
It's much better politics to create a special "29 month education investment repayment work visa" to "allow certain foreign science, technology, engineering, and math graduates to use their valuable skills in the United States, thereby improving American industries and the Untied States economy."
Same result, less political opposition.
Knowledge is how to play a game, intelligence is how to win, wisdom is knowing what game to play.
You don't think that technology, engineering and bio-engineering companies might be interested being able to hire the smartest people they can find anywhere in the world? Hell, I work in the UK for a top 10 company and even they wanted to ship my boss out Palo Alto for a couple of years, because it would have moved him closer to the management team and been more convenient for the business all around.
"A cheap workforce" and an unnatural obsession with H1-B workers is really just Slashdot groupthink.
Most people who work "Blue Collar" jobs have neither the desire, motivation, talent, or knack for doing "White Collar" work. Some do, but can't get access to the education they need to get a better job for a variety of reasons. But this idea that 100% of the population is both capable and willing to never do Blue Collar work is not just stupid, it's really fucking arrogant, and defies common sense and nature.
Some people will never be able to do more than sweep the floors. Some people could, but don't want to. That's fine, there's value in doing work of any type. Instead of looking down on those jobs and sneering at the people doing them, you need to understand that they run your entire life. Without them you would have no idea how to stay alive.
People are people, all over the world. You have some who are very intelligent, some who are very dumb, and a lot of average ones in the middle. You have some personalities who can simply not do white collar work even though they are more than intelligent enough. You have some in the same boat in regards to the blue collar jobs.
People hire illegals because they can abuse the shit out of them, pay them next to nothing, and avoid paying taxes. The illegals take the jobs because it's all they can actually get hired to do, they don't have some kind of ingrained racial desire to all do that kind of work anymore than anyone else.
Many immigrants who are here legally will endure a LOT of unfair practices in the workplace, often because they don't understand their rights and/or do not know how to stand up for themselves. When you grow up in a country where talking shit to your boss gets you shot in broad daylight, you tend to not complain when the guy in the US tells you to work a couple hours of unpaid overtime. When you're a woman who comes from a country where you would be taken into Times Square, stripped naked, and beaten while CNN and FOX looked on with applause, just for speaking without permission of your husband, you tend not to say anything when the boss won't stop trying to get you to "check under his desk".
In the early 2000's, I had the pleasure of working for this institution. With literally no requirements for an instructor other than a degree and a little experience, Stratford College offered for-profit technical degrees for WAY too much money, practically ensuring that students wouldn't be able to pay back the degree they got. Richard Shurtz used to sell his college on a local radio program to try to bump up enrollment. Its transition to university I can guarantee you changed nothing - it's a for-profit school that's sucking off of the goverment's teat.
"Because when hired under a visa program, they can be strong-armed into lower wages under threat of letting the visa lapse."
I've seen job postings for experienced PhD'd biochemists and molecular biologists that advertised a pay of $17/hour. When it comes to wage suppression, visa programs are redundant because we have tens of thousands of unemployed scientists desperate for work.
"Attracting the best and brightest international talent to our colleges and universities and enabling them to contribute to their professional growth is an important part of our nation's economic, scientific and technological competitiveness," explained DHS Chief Janet Napolitano.
Going back to original topic of bringing in foreign nationals, I think real problem is universities are getting too used to them paying full tuition and pricing out domestic students. Then once we educate these foreign nationals, we kick them out (then their native country gets benefit of their education).
But on question of spies, other countries don't need to send spies because we export our technology and techniques to other countries.
mfwright@batnet.com
That's about the right amount of time to run them through the espionage training program at Langley. And to teach them how to use a shoe phone, the cone of silence and other equipment.
Have gnu, will travel.
I've seen OPT used properly and effectively for very talented foreign students. I've been around very good universities and I can confirm OPT is critical at keeping top-tier foreign students here in the US. The most common cases are (a) the summer grad school gap when changing schools and (b) a gap between graduation and an employment visa. The former may seem trivial, but it can allow a student to finish up a research project at University A before moving on to University B (e.g., undergrad to grad, MS to PhD, etc). Losing three months of an integrated, talented student has significant impact on a research project. For the latter, I've met numerous students who used OPT as key step towards gaining eventual permanent status.
Yes, but people who do science are supposed to do it because they love it! Not for the money. So they should be happy to receive a pittance, because the people in management are doing their jobs because they love money, so they deserve to earn more of it, by giving puny salaries to the scientists.
</sarcasm>
"Computer-related H-1Bs have a median age of 27.4; 52% have less than 2 years of experience, and another 41% have 2-5 years."
Only 3% of a typical MSFT H-1B visa intake are US DoL level-four workers -- i.e., do work that requires independent judgment. Most H-1b use "level one" which is 17th percentile of U.S. wages -- $10k to $15k below what average-skilled Americans get paid. The 75th percentile for pay of new H-1B computing professionals was just $60K, below the median, in FY2005. Phiroz Vandrevala admitted that "Our wage per employee is 20%-25% lesser than US wage for a similar employee."
DoL PERM data show that the average H-1B worker sponsored for a green card is paid a tiny fraction of one percent above the median wage for the industry (Matloff found 109%, whle Perelman claimed 121% for the same prominent firm), not the 150% or 200% or 300% one would expect the very "best and brightest" to deserve. DoL is required by law to reject any H-1B or green card application that lists a salary below prevailing wage, so the ratios of actual to prevailing wage should never be below 1.00. Even "Einstein" workers on O-1 visas at MSFT were paid only 140.4% of the median.
Half of the 52,352 H-1B computing professionals admitted in FY2005 earned less than entry-level wages. 56% of the H-1B applications for computing jobs were for the lowest skill level, 'Level 1'.
The "prevailing wage" requirement is a fraud, since the name gives the impression that it requires paying the actual, previously existing market compensation for the same work, done by someone with the same talent, knowledge, credentials, experience, etc., while, in actuality, it allows the guest-worker to be paid significantly less. Census data, the INS/USCIS H-1B data, and the DoL green card (PERM) data all show a pattern of paying the H-1B grantees less than comparable American STEM workers.
"STEM foreign students at U.S. universities tend to be at the less-selective universities [and] Most foreign workers work at or near entry level, described by the Department of Labor in terms akin to apprenticeship."
When Industry wants more cheap H-1B labor these are "highly skilled" workers. When it comes to determining how much they have to pay, they suddenly become "low skilled". DoL ETA has shown several times that it has perverse notion of "state-of-the-art" "highly skilled occupations".
The 3 most-needed reforms to the E-3, H-1B, J, L, and even O visa programs are (1) put in place some reasonable minimal competence/skill standards which applicants need to meet, (2) reduce the numbers of such visas, and (3) run reasonable and proper background investigations on every visa applicant.
1. You must not be in the habit of initiating force or fraud, or advocating such. That's why every applicant ought to pass a proper background investigation.
2. You should expect to have to prove that you're good at something people in the USA want. Do you have an IQ in the top half of a percent? Good. Do you have 5 significant patents (not these feeble "put a camera in a cellular phone" things, something surprising, new, and good) to your name. Good. Are you one of the best 10 brick-layers in your country? Good. Are you one of the best 10 precision machinists in your country; can you set up a part and select the right mill to get within 4 ten-thousandths of an inch tolerance? Good. All such things should count in your favor toward qualifying, but no one of them should suffice.
3. Are you bringing some significant investment capital into the USA with you? Are the funds you're bringing to the USA sufficient to at least build something significantly more than a burger/chicken joint (call it $300K at the very minimum) and do you have at least 3 US citizens who are not relatives or recent (within the last 15 years) immigrants lined up as employees for opening day? Are you able and willing to post a bond of $50K guaranteeing that you will employ at least 10 US citizens (as above) within the first year? Good. You're on your way to qualifying.
The whole equal rights and privileges thing begins when you give up allegiance to foreign governments and rulers, learn about the US founding, Bill of Rights, etc., and swear/affirm with penalties for perjury that you will uphold the US constitution and be honest and peaceful in your dealings with others.