In a message dated 11/20/07 4:22:25 P.M. Central Standard Time, News@JobDestruction.info writes:

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER  No. 1785 -- 11/20/2007 >>>>>

Presidential candidate Barack Obama recently came out with a technology
platform. The platform is rather vague when it comes to what he intends on
doing about H-1B -- all it says is that he wants "improvement in our visa
programs", whatever that means.

There are some rather weird statements that most H-1Bs earned a bachelor's
degree or its equivalent from abroad, which would tend to support my
argument that H-1Bs aren't the best or the brightest. Obama doesn't seem to
see the contradiction, and he ignores a host of recent studies such as the
one from the Urban Institute that show we are graduating more science and
engineering students than the job market needs.

Obama is far less vague on the issue of fast-track green cards for foreign
students who earn U.S. degrees -- he wants more of them. It's somewhat
semantic to argue over whether we need more green cards or H-1B visas
because either way when foreign workers are brought here the job
opportunities for Americans are reduced. Obama's platform doesn't show any
concern or empathy for the American high-tech workers he will force into
unemployment.

I suspect that Obama's platform was influenced by Wade Randlett, who worked
as a fund raiser for the Obama campaign. Randlett has also been an adviser
for TechNet, a powerful Silicon Valley lobbying group has been a key player
in lobbying efforts for increasing the H-1B cap. This is just one more
sordid example of the revolving doors in today's politics.

This newsletter is the first part of several that focus on Obama. His
position on H-1B will become crystal clear by the time the next two of this
series is published.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.barackobama.com/issues/technology/

5. Improve America's Competitiveness

Reform Immigration:  While highly skilled immigrants have contributed in
beneficial ways to our domestic technology industry, there are plenty of
Americans who could be filling those positions given the proper training.
Barack Obama is committed to investing in communities and people who have
not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as
anything other than consumers.   Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have
earned a bachelor's degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5%).  They are not
all PhDs.  We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor's degrees
that lead to jobs in technology.  A report of the National Science
Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a
whole comprise more that 25% of the population but earn, as a whole, 16% of
the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master's degrees, and 5% of the doctorate
degrees in science and engineering. We can do better than that and go a
long way toward meeting industry's need for skilled workers with Americans.
That being said, we do not want to shut our doors to innovators from
overseas, who have traditionally helped make America strong.  Barack Obama
supports comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our
visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and
temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the
world's most talented people to America.  We should allow immigrants who
earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over
time.  And we should examine our ability to increase the number of
permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers.  Obama will work to
ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their
right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse
the system and their workers.


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