In a message dated 2/6/08 2:16:08 A.M. Central Standard Time, News@JobDestruction.info writes:
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1818 -- 2/06/2008 >>>>>
This is a very sneaky article. The way it starts out, you would think that
it's going to make a case for why we shouldn't educate foreign students at
our universities. Instead it concludes that since we are educating them, we
would be foolish not to give every graduate an H-1B visa or a green card so
they can stay here and take our jobs.
There is one tidbit in the article that was quite interesting -- at least
26% of the tuition for these foreign students is paid for by taxpayers. In
a rather perverse twist American wage earners are paying for the educations
of the foreign students who will eventually compete with them for jobs.
Liz Peek who authored the article asked the rather stupid question: "You
may be wondering who in the world could be opposed to expanding the H1-B
visas?" She didn't however disclose that she has a direct financial
interest in increasing the number of foreign workers. Her husband is Jeff
Peek who is CEO at CIT Financial.
You can find out more about her husband, Jeffrey M. Peek, by clicking this
link:
http://www.cit.com/main/about-cit/corporate-governance/jeffrey-m-peek.htm
To see LCAs for the H-1Bs that CIT hires, search this database:
http://h1b.info/
The article concludes with a quote from Tamar Jacoby. I once confronted her
at a conference, which you can read all about here:
http://www.vdare.com/letters/tl_020606.htm
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nysun.com/article/70731?access=892598
February 5, 2008
Should the U.S. Be Training Its Competitors?
BY LIZ PEEK
February 5, 2008
Should America educate its competitors? At a time of economic worry, this
is a highly important question.
American universities are the envy of the world, which is why the number of
foreign students they attract is again increasing after a brief slowdown
induced by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Because even those
who pay full tuition do not actually cover the total cost of their
education, will Americans at some point cry foul?
This may seem an absurd notion, given the obvious good will generated when
America hosts international students. However, in an era where America is
increasingly counting on intellectual capital to compete in world markets,
the notion of exporting that capital -- at a discount, no less -- may
strike some as stupid.
The question is especially pertinent today. In the past, foreign students
attended American colleges and universities and then eagerly accepted jobs
in America. Few foreign countries offered equivalent opportunities to so
quickly benefit from higher learning, so students were easily tempted to
set down roots in the U.S., many eventually becoming American citizens.
That has changed. These days, many if not most foreign students are all too
excited to return home and participate in their own local booming economies
-- economies that are thriving mainly because of the outsourcing of
American jobs or because they are successfully undercutting American
manufacturers. Consider: The top three countries sending students to
America are India (no. 1, for the sixth year in a row), China, and South
Korea. What do they study? Business, engineering, and the sciences, in that
order.
There is nothing wrong with India and China employing their natural
advantages, which include large work forces, to compete on the basis of
lower production costs. But someone is bound to ask why America isn't using
its advantages, which include higher education, in the same way. Why not
restrict the number of foreign engineering and technology students flowing
through our campuses, and keep America's superior training ground its
students? Americans are the ones who have built the endowments of private
institutions that help pay for those degrees; Americans pay the taxes that
bridge the gap between tuition and the cost of educating all those fertile
young minds. Keep in mind that 26% of the tuition of these foreign students
is paid by the schools they attend.
Okay, so I don't really believe that America should chuck out foreign
students. I do think that exposing young people from around the world to
our great country is extremely positive for international relations. (Even
though the anti-U.S. mindset of many, many university professors does not
help the cause.) Think of King Abdullah II of Jordan, who attended
Deerfield Academy and was so taken with it that he is building a copycat
institution in Jordan. That has to be a good thing.
But, if you believe that these international students should of course be
granted access to America's schools, shouldn't we try to keep them in the
U.S.?
I'm referring to the controversy over H1-B visas, which allow highly
skilled workers to get jobs in America. The immigration debate simply
should not include highly educated workers. Congress has capped the number
of H1-B visas at 65,000, down from 115,000 during the technology boom, when
Silicon Valley was struggling to supply its ranks of software engineers.
There are additional 20,000 visas available to students graduating with
advanced degrees from American schools (compared to about 300,000
international graduate students). Last year, the visas were snapped up in
one day. The government received almost 124,000 petitions before it closed
the window.
Why is this so important? Because the alternative path to hiring skilled
workers, through regular immigration, can take many years. Few employers
are willing to wait around for that long. In 2006, the Senate passed a bill
that would increase the number of H1-B visas to 115,000, and would allow
for greater flexibility going forward. It would have increased the number
available for people with advanced degrees from American universities and
allocated more visas to citizens of countries with whom we establish trade
agreements.
You may be wondering who in the world could be opposed to expanding the
H1-B visas. There are some who argue that employers want to hire foreign
nationals because they can pay them less, and others claim that the visa
program reduces employees to indentured servant status.
The numbers do not support these objections. The National Foundation for
American Policy put out a study in December full of facts and figures that
indicates the abuse of the program is minor. It also shows that thousands
of job searches are under way at the tech companies. During the tech boom,
as salaries for hard-to-find programmers and engineers went through the
roof, it is likely that foreigners were hired at below prevailing rates.
That is now illegal. Further, the founder of Immigration Voice, Aman
Kapoor, says abuses could easily be cleared up by establishing protections
for whistleblowers.
There are, naturally, labor organizations opposing expansion of the H1-B
program. The Programmers Guild and the Institute of Electrical and
Electronics Engineers are two such groups claiming that foreigners drive
down wages for their members. A spokesman for the IEEE, Chris McManes,
argues that there are "no systemic shortages of electrical engineers"
though he acknowledges that "there are shortages in some geographic areas
and in some emerging industries."
In propping up wage scales that are likely a hangover from the tech boom of
the late 1990s, these organizations are of course pushing corporations to
outsource. As the head of the National Foundation for Public Policy, Stuart
Anderson, says, "It makes no sense to not view this as a global labor
market." He says that while America refuses to welcome highly skilled
workers, the European Parliament is currently at work on a provision that
aims to attract such laborers.
At the very least, we should be sure that foreigners who are educated in
our universities are allowed to stay and work in our country. As Tamar
Jacoby of the Manhattan Institute says, "Graduate students should have
green cards stapled to their diplomas." Amen to that.
peek10021@aol.com
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