US to hike H1B visas, merit will count for green cards

[cascadiance]

155. I want people who want to move here for a job to be looking to become a citizen here...

... not just come here temporarily to make a buck (and help someone wealthy person save bucks paying less salaries to someone else that's more of a committed citizen to this society.

When did I ever say I want to LIMIT immigration. That is NOT the topic here. The real problem is that our system is DESIGNED now to severely limit REAL immigration, but to encourage this kind of "false" indentured servant immigration that lets employers exploit cheap labor that is temporary, pushes dollars overseas, and builds expertise that goes overseas instead of stays here.

I myself would like to have more of a permanent job like I used to have instead of contract jobs which are now becoming the norm in this market without benefits, commitments, etc. with the high unemployment we have now with too much cheap labor that is in this sector here compared to what our cost of living is.

How am I insulting others talking about cost of living. That is REALITY here. You need to deal with reality when you come here and insult other Americans here as if they should just be willing to work for a 10th of what we made earlier because we should be able to compete globally on what salary we make, but NOT globally on what costs of living we have to deal with, and for that matter the costs of education, health care and other things that are thrown uniquely at us here.

I want to live here, even though I was born elsewhere, albeit by American citizens, and lived a good portion of my younger life overseas as well. The reality is that no other country would pay us $400-$500k to be comparable to what situation they have. Many of them could stay in India and make less than coming over here temporarily and still live a decent life if they are skilled technically as engineers. Many basically are all debating whether they want to get a post graduate degree here in a tech field or there. But they are pretty much guaranteed that their jobs won't ge "outsourced" there to other people coming to work at lower wages in their country, and have the option to make that much more if they come over here. So a high tech degree, either regular (which costs them nothing) or a post graduate is a decent investment for them, compared to an American kid here who has to decide whether they want to take the risk of getting in to huge debt training for a field where a big chunk of the jobs are either being shipped offshore or being shipped "inshore" to H-1B visa workers. Many of them choose to avoid this profession, which is the opposite of what it was when Silicon Valley was starting to boom in the late 70's/early 80's, when I got out of school. Now people will pick careers that are inherently harder to offshore like being a doctor or a lawyer, etc. if they want to get back what they are paying for in terms of huge college tuition in today's marketplace.

I think most foreign citizens, whether they be Indians coming here with H-1B visas, or even more so undocumented workers coming here to work cheap jobs either illegally or through H2B visas would rather have a means to live and work decently in their own countries, which oligarchs here and there prevent from happening with our trade policies now that serve the oligarchs. There are many that do want to truly come here and become American citizens and I welcome them here with open arms. Anyone who knows me personally knows that if anything I'm at the opposite scale of the xenophobes. Most of my closest friends are from other countries, and I know many of their stories trying to become permanent citizens here taking over a decade, and even helped one or two of them get jobs here while they were trying to build that path towards citizenship. THAT is the tradition of this country from its founding, and THAT is what most people feel is the American dream. Not the exploitative GARBAGE systems like H-1B that you seem to worship here that just tries to reward those at the top wanting to exploit the differences of cost of living between our societies.

Cost of living differences doesn't necessarily reflect living standard differences. I do want everyone to be able to live at a living wage everywhere. I'll work hard to promote that. But the reality is that someone in India might be able to live at a very decent living wage paying only $200 a month in rent, where here it would be impossible to do that in most areas and out STANDARD of living working at a living wage over there would be poverty here.

And representation is another reason why the oligarchs like H-1B visa programs. It lets them have more of their work force be here without rights of citizenship (to vote, be a part of a union, have the freedom to move to other jobs, etc.). That also serves their purposes more than helping people who truly want to become IMMIGRANTS here and not just temporary laborers here to make a buck come here.

Most people that come here on H-1B programs have NOT been "kicked out" of their country, but do so by choice to take advantage of getting a bit more money here temporarily to build up their savings back there. Many of them just want the financial gain by a temporary stay here, and want still to be citizens of their native country. That's fine, but don't let them come here temporarily to just make a buck. Either they work to make sure that they can rise up the ladder and make a decent living in India and make it a better place, or if they want to really come here and live the American dream, come here with the idea of moving here and becoming a citizen, not just making a few bucks here working for a few years. And like I said, I'd like to ENCOURAGE the latter, which the oligarchs and who they own in government today DO NOT encourage now.