There's two issues here -- one is that there's a brain drain in the United States. The best and the brightest are leaving. They can't stay, because we won't let them. The fix is letting them, by reforming H1B policies.
Second is H1B abuse by large corporations. This is a legit problem -- some IT firms bring in people they shouldn't (sometimes thousands at a time), and this takes up H1B's from talented people who should get them. Again, the fix requires the government to figure out who is abusing it, and changing the policies to prevent them from doing so.
> there's a brain drain in the United States. The best
> and the brightest are leaving.
I suppose those like myself (CA-born holder of a [20 year old] lowly BSEE from a Cal State uni, veteran of Silicon Valley for the same duration) that remain are the second echelon (of dimwits) who are somehow managing to hold things together as the true geniuses are booted out? Somehow I didn't notice, but clearly collapse is nigh (the sky is falling!) and I'm too blind^H^H^H^H^Hxenophobic to see it coming.
And OBTW if this is true, isn't it merely "fair"? After all, aren't the home countries that these [exploited] individuals are returning to going be benefiting enormously from the returnees brightness? I mean, it's really the [evil U.S.] corporations, at whose request the H1B system was created by the [corrupt] U.S. government in the first place, who are harmed, and that harm is merely "chickens coming home to roost", right?
And once the geniuses return to their home countries, they'll start spawning off startups left and right, further uplifting the surging economies of India, Taiwan, China, Russia, Belarus, etc. A net benefit to the world will result! It seems selfish to view this thru a U.S. centric lens.
Summary: oh happy day!
> the fix requires the government to figure out who
> is abusing it
Cool. "There ought to be a law." Congress oughta "do something"! Full employment for [immigration] lawyers! Hurrah! I'm sure the [evil] corporations will step aside and let the right laws be written this time around. Uh huh.
Instead, why not abolish the H1B system entirely? Stop the U.S. (evil corporations) plunder of the rest of the world's "best and brightest"! A level playing field across the globe! Justice at last! (Another round of "oh happy day!")
Whew. Clearly I'm an out of touch [ranting] xenophobe.
i don't buy the brain drain issue, sure there are probably some geniuses in the millions of H1B people, but majority are not that much better than the average American worker. So out of those few geniuses, what tiny percentage leaves?
They aren't leaving for the sake of leaving, they are leaving to exploit the opportunities in their home countries
The emigration of even a "tiny percentage" of geniuses is a great loss -- they're geniuses!
And if the "majority" are "not that much better than the average American worker" -- but still just a little better -- why can't they stay? Everyone above average brings up the average -- why not have them producing great stuff here rather than elsewhere?
because if they are at the same level, then the same level job goes to the Indian, because he can get paid half as much. When there is economic prosperity, noone really cares about immigrants because there are jobs aplenty for everyone, but when there is a down turn, people start wondering...why should we import 100,000 people who are not better than the thousands of our own unemployed people.
The geniuses are welcome, it's the lesser skilled people, who are imported solely to drive down wages and take jobs away from Americans that people have problems with.
Who said they are more skilled? You ever read code written by someone on an H1B?
Because they aren't producing great stuff, most programming jobs aren't at Google, they are at places where you maintain some crappy code written 10 years ago. This mundane crap can be worked on by the thousands of American programmers that are unemployed, because they aren't willing to work for $40K/yr like their H1B counterparts
Second is H1B abuse by large corporations. This is a legit problem -- some IT firms bring in people they shouldn't (sometimes thousands at a time), and this takes up H1B's from talented people who should get them. Again, the fix requires the government to figure out who is abusing it, and changing the policies to prevent them from doing so.