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VP Biden Briefs US Governors On H-1B Visas, IT, and Coding

theodp writes: Back in 2012, Computerworld blasted Vice President Joe Biden for his ignorance of the H-1B temporary work visa program. But Joe's got his H-1B story and he's sticking to it, characterizing the visa program earlier this month in a speech to the National Governors Association as "apprenticeships" of sorts that companies provide to foreign workers to expand the Information Technology industry only after proving there are no qualified Americans to fill the jobs. Biden said he also learned from his talks with tech's top CEOs that 200,000 of the jobs that companies provide each year to highly-skilled H-1B visa holders could in fact be done by Americans with no more than a two-year community college degree.

6 of 225 comments (clear)

  1. they can't find people who will work 60-80+ hours by Joe_Dragon · · Score: 5, Informative

    they can't find people who will work 60-80+ hours for very low pay and the will to be in a place where they can't quit and will be big suck ups not to get fired.

    It's not about skills it about this

      On average, applications for H-1B workers in computer occupations were for wages $13,000 LESS then what USC get.

    $13000 less and they get 60+ work weeks out of them as well.

  2. 2+2=? by pla · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Biden said he also learned from his talks with tech's top CEOs that 200,000 of the jobs that companies provide each year to highly-skilled H-1B visa holders could in fact be done by Americans with no more than a two-year community college degree

    So perhaps he can reconcile those two concepts and explain why we allow H1Bs when we have MILLIONS of unemployed college grads?

    Mr. Biden, I have a word of advice for you - CEOs lie. And not just a little, but as their primary (and sometimes only) qualification. You might not want to go around repeating the crap they spew to try to sway you to do their bidding. It just, y'know, make you look like a little like a Special Olympics winner, if you get my meaning.

  3. Re:Yay! Hopenchange! by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The jobs could in fact be done by Americans with no degrees at all. This cultural indoctrination that you must have a degree must end. I've been programming for 30 years as a profession and I have never had a degree, and I'll never submit to the immoral status quo by getting one. I have both the theory, the experience, and the necessary practical skills under my belt, and all without a single degree.

  4. Appre by Taco+Cowboy · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Our best employees are the ones that have not been through the debt claiming process of getting a degree

    Biden is insisting that the H-1B program must go on because it provides a sort of "apprenticeships" to foreigners

    Well, I was from China, but am an American and I can speak with the view of a foreigner (the one from China) and that of an American and I can tell you that if America does not stop giving "apprenticeships" to foreigners one day there will be no more jobs for Americans

    The old way of giving "apprenticeships" for "foreigners" was the way I got mine - When I landed on the soil of the USA I was a young refugee without a full secondary school education

    I had my "apprenticeships" inside America because I had no place to go and after I graduated from college (with no debt, since I worked 3 jobs on the side - sometimes more than 3 jobs - while studying) I worked at American technology companies where I got further training.

    After that I started my own companies, sold some of them, and re-invested what I got into other startup and made even more

    In other words, while America provided "apprenticeships" for me this former "apprentice" stayed put in America and started businesses in America and created many job opportunities for other Americans

    On the other hand, the way H-1B visa program works is that it provides "apprenticeships" for foreigners, and they got back to their own country, taking their skills with them, start up their own businesses in their own countries, create job opportunities for their own people, not Americans

    Who loses in this game ?

    The Americans

    Who win ? The foreigners

    Folks, especially you Americans out there --- please top the politicians, no matter from which political party they came from, from destroying America from the inside out

    What Biden is doing is to cut out the innards of America and give it to the foreigners

    --
    Muchas Gracias, Señor Edward Snowden !
    1. Re:Appre by lgw · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The problem isn't people coming here on H1-Bs, but their difficulty in turn that into a green card. The "apprentices" would mostly stay here if they could. And does anyone really want to argue that immigration of well-educated, highly-skilled engineers is bad for America?

      All the focus on the political immigration debate seems to be on low-skilled workers, and the answers aren't so easy there. But anyone who can come here and work a job that pays $100k+? Keep em coming, I say.

      --
      Socialism: a lie told by totalitarians and believed by fools.
  5. too smart to go to college by anyaristow · · Score: 5, Interesting

    This cultural indoctrination that you must have a degree must end. I've been programming for 30 years as a profession and I have never had a degree

    And I've worked with enough people who were so smart at 18 years old that they decided they didn't need to go to college that I've decided the requirement of a degree has some merit.

    Some of these people really are great at syntax and terminology, and a few of them are actually good at coding certain things, but mostly, they do things the hard way, they organize their projects around data when it is process that better defines what they're trying to accomplish, the write overly complex solutions to simple problems, they saddle their employer with unnecessary technology, and there are certain classes of problems that they simply can not solve at all. For one, why do they think it's funny that they don't know math, and that a solution involving guessing, approximation and unreasonable process limitation is an acceptable alternative to algebra?

    In short, they suck at problem solving. That's not a surprise since the first adult problem they faced, they took a shortcut.