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White House Petition To Let Foreign STEM Grads Work Longer In US Hits 100K Signatures
theodp writes: Computerworld reports that a petition urging the White House to act urgently on a court ruling that could force thousands of recent foreign STEM graduates working in the U.S. on OPT STEM extensions to leave the States early next year reached 100,000 signatures Tuesday, the threshold for an official government response. It could present a political conundrum of sorts for the Obama administration. Because the administration didn't act to protect U.S. workers at Southern California Edison and Disney, explained an attorney in the case, "now that foreign workers will be losing their jobs, how would it look if Obama went into overdrive to protect their jobs?" By the way, using a map to gauge whether support for the petition comes from all over the country (as the White House suggests), indicates that support for the OPT STEM Extension petition is largely concentrated in tech hotspots and universities, including off-the-beaten-path college towns that host large international student populations.
Since it achieves goals for their $upporters.
So, how many of the signers are US Citizens?
If you look at the responses on Whitehouse.gov then you villl see that the responses are all pretty lame and meaningless. This is when they even choose to respond. Many times they simply say they wont bother responding. The petitions simply get a response that you would expect when calling a call center in India for customer service. Nothing ever changes or happens from a petition.
Doctors do Massage in Longview WA now, who knew?
Who the hell would select a map view that pushes the coasts to the edges, makes the mostly empty-of-data-points great plains the biggest US section, and gives us a full frontal close-up of zero-data-point Mexico?
First, this isn't the same as the H-1B issue. This would actually be a better solution if we were facing a shortage of skilled workers, because more trained entry level sorts would directly address that. The problem is, the tech moguls pushing for H-1Bs don't really care about that, they just want cheaper workers. The fact that most H-1Bs are used not to bring in highly paid experts in their field, but instead to bring in contract workers for IT sweatshops, should tell you something. That, and the fact that H-1Bs are largely stuck in their one job, are part of why this solution will likely not have any tech moguls or the like pushing for it.
I do find it disingenuous that the lawyer quoted conflates the two though. Entry level types who happen to be foreign graduates of a US university aren't going to be competing for any jobs that aren't already at risk of being given to any US-born graduates (which is a problem in Tech, but is a rather different one). That said, the Obama administration (and politicians in general) ought to be doing a lot more to crack down on the H-1B fuckery, just in general, nevermind in relation to a broader immigration overhaul.
It could present a political conundrum of sorts for the Obama administration.
How naive... they will respond as they always do with almost all these petitions - with a generic form letter statement that will provide vague reassurances that they are "looking into the issue", give no concrete plan for addressing the core demands while mostly evading the question. Anybody who thinks these petitions are worth the paper they are signed on and that the White House actually pays attention to them is deluded.
If they reduce the number of H-1s, and keep the people here who were educated here, it seems like a reasonable solution.
There's a risk that universities would open to merely subvert the immigration process, so safeguards against that should be taken. Also, why limit it to just STEM? If we train a great philosopher, America will be improved if that philosopher chooses to stay here.
"First they came for the slanderers and i said nothing."
Collectively, immigrants -both legal and illegal- send tens of billions of dollars back to their respective countries every year, removing that currency from US markets. How again is that a "good deal" for the US economy? Besides, according to Pew research, North American nations are already more welcoming than European ones: http://www.pewglobal.org/2007/...
I'd be happy to support visa for these folks, but NOT H-1Bs or similar. If we need them, bring them in and give them full rights. If we don't need them that badly, we don't really need them.
Coming here and working at below-market rates *does* technically "improve our economy*, as the investors get to make a bit more money off of them, but not in a positive way (driving down skilled middle-class labor wages).
Slashdot gets worse every day... Pipedot: News for nerds, without the corporate slant
Anyone who has ever worked with Indian grad students knows that we are not getting anything worthwhile by letting them in.
Never hire Brahmen (top Indian caste). They think they are too good to work.
Lower Indian castes are smart, good workers.
Every Brahmen at IIT had a lower caste 'helper' that did the work for him/her. Find the helper and hire them.
Brahmen will identify themselves in interviews. All you have to do is talk about how 'upper crusty' your family is (doesn't matter if there is any truth to it). They will immediately have to top you.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
The very first headline from your link:
https://www.washingtonpost.com...
I don't think your citation shows what you thought it was going to show.
You are welcome on my lawn.
That's funny
This is my first link
http://dailysignal.com/2015/07...
But hey, I can understand people that think protecting the integrity of the voting system is less important than deciding who can buy cigarettes. /sarcasm
Collectively, immigrants -both legal and illegal- send tens of billions of dollars back to their respective countries every year, removing that currency from US markets. How again is that a "good deal" for the US economy?
Because while they may send $120 billion in remittance per year, they make trillions of dollars working in our economy. They go to US restaurants, US supermarkets, buy US real estate, and start US companies. 40% of Fortune 500 companies were founded by 1st or 2nd generation immigrants, so I'm fine with them sending a fraction of 1% of our GNP overseas each year.
Unlike those who are born here who don't shop or eat at restaurants. What you're saying is that if you live here you buy things here. Great. Let's start making them citizens instead of temporary workers. Note, a temporary worker is not an immigrant. A temporary worker has no interest in improving their host country.
It's sad that we don't consider developing these skills in our own population. The US is a huge country and probably contains the same number of potential STEM workers that we're "taking" from the rest of the world. It just so happens that we don't really want to invest in Americans. Universities, as a whole, tend to like foreign students who pay full tuition. From kindergarten on, we consider most US students to be a burden unless you choose your parents wisely and are able to go to a private school.
It's been my experience that these STEM'd grads are smart, and decent folks. But their presence here is based on a lie. And those that stand by them support that lie.
The US is a huge country and probably contains the same number of potential STEM workers that we're "taking" from the rest of the world.
The US has about 5% of the world's population. It is laughable to think we have the same number of potential STEM workers as the rest of the world, especially given that our primary schools rate so poorly compared to other nations.
It just so happens that we don't really want to invest in Americans.
The US spends more per student than any other developed country in the world. (source). Private school tuition does not affect these averages much, so even our public schools are better funded than the rest of the world. We absolutely do invest in Americans, but with only 5% of the population and 22% of the world's GDP, it is impossible to keep up our current advantage without continuing the brain drain we have been doing since the world wars.
I do agree we need massive changes to our school system, but there is even more resistance from the educational industry than there is against immigration.
-- All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing. -- Edmund Burke
Never hire Brahmen (top Indian caste). They think they are too good to work.
Lower Indian castes are smart, good workers.
Every Brahmen at IIT had a lower caste 'helper' that did the work for him/her. Find the helper and hire them.
Brahmen will identify themselves in interviews. All you have to do is talk about how 'upper crusty' your family is (doesn't matter if there is any truth to it). They will immediately have to top you.
This prejudice drivel gets modded "Informative?" Un-fucking-believable Slashdot. One of my best engineers is a Brahmen. Just like every other group of humans on the planet, some people are assholes. Some aren't. Fuck sake. I don't care how many asshole Brahmen's you've worked with, this is plain old confirmation bias and prejudice at work. People don't choose the fucking "caste" they are born into.
Some privacy policy Slashdot.
We spend more, and get less per dollar, typical American idiocy of top down management (see Common Core) while maintaining the industrial education system in a modern information age.
I work in education, and I see tons of wasted money being spent on people who will never recover that lost value("Special Education") while neglecting kids who actually want to succeed (exceptional). We cater to whiny parents of school brats while ignoring the good kids and parents who are there trying to dodge all the crappy raindrops in the system that is rewarding failure in the name of "fairness".
In one example, I know of a teacher, legally required to spend one hour a day dedicated to each one of six kids with "Special needs" (one on one time). The rest of the class can suck it, as there are only 5.5 hours of instruction time. What does the teacher do? Not teach other kids? or break the law by not spending the required amount of time with each kid that "needs it".
In my view, each kid should have equal opportunity, not equal outcome. Each kid deserves the teacher's best, not just those that "need it more". Each kid should be allowed to excel to their own capabilities. We have the technology and ability to do so. So, why aren't we?
Agent K: A *person* is smart. People are dumb, stupid, panicky animals, and you know it.
31/1000000000 is as close to none as any human-designed system can get.
You have a better chance of winning Powerball than being affected in any way by a fraudulent vote.
You're cool with billionaires buying election, but a possible 31 votes out of ONE BILLION is just beyond the pale for you.
Don't be silly.
You are welcome on my lawn.
Slick.
Here we are talking about temporary foreign replacement workers, and you slip 1st and 2nd generation immigrants in, hoping no one would notice. Wrapping it with '40% of Fortune 500' was a nice touch, I'll give you that.
But I noticed. They fall for that bait and switch on the CNN and Fox forums. One should know better around here.
I'd be happy to support visa for these folks, but NOT H-1Bs or similar. If we need them, bring them in and give them full rights. If we don't need them that badly, we don't really need them.
I am not sure whether or not you truly understand the relationship between OPT and H1B. OPT (Optional Practice Training) is limited to those who are holding F1 visa and finished school in the U.S. (Associated Degree or higher) so that they can work temporary (it is now up to 29 months), and these people must work in the field they graduated from. H1B is granted to anyone who want to work in the US (up to 6 years) and have a sponsor.
What you said here looks like that H1B is only for those who are from the outside of the country and not graduated from here, which is not true. Many of those who have given OPT would change their status from F1 to H1B. In other words, OPT is just a transition to H1B. So if you said that you do not support everyone who holds H1B, how do you distinguish those who change from OPT to H1B and other H1B holders when they all now have H1B? Please do not suggest that they should have a status or an extra flag for those who come from OPT. It could be seen as discrimination (selective group) and that would put more work on the INS. You should know what happen when the government agency has to do more work than they want to...
Back to the topic, as I mentioned that OPT is now up to 29 months (extended from 12 months), I do not really support the idea of extension; especially when the push is from a big corporation lobbyist -- Disney. Big corporations always find a way to work around the system. If they can't, they just lobby to change the rules/laws...
And your shit continues. Recent studies have shown there isn't a shortage of workers. Keep it up ass-hole.
Oh, bullshit. That's not even hyperbole, that's just idiocy. On the scale of "important things in our [so-called] democratic representative governance system", completely eliminating every case of voter fraud probably ranks somewhere below protecting mailmen from getting attacked by dogs while delivering the increasingly-obsolete voter information packets. Organized mass voter fraud would absolutely be a problem; I don't think anybody would ever try to argue otherwise. That's not happening, though, and "ONE case" of voter fraud has less impact on an election than three legitimate voters turned away because they don't have current forms of an ID that they don't have any other need for and that costs time (and usually money) to obtain.
If you want to argue for the integrity of the voting system, then you damn well better make sure that your proposed solution increases the accuracy of the vote outcomes. Turning away legitimate voters counts against that accuracy, in case you hadn't figured that out.
There's no place I could be, since I've found Serenity...
There are plenty of people with good resumes. Then you bring them in for interviews, and it becomes apparent that they don't know shit. There are not enough skilled workers to meet demand (foreign + domestic).