Today's Rush Limbaugh radio rant about the need for more H-1B visas

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

Heard it on today's radio show, so no link. But help me with this:

He's framing his argument by saying that H-1B Visas allow employers to "petition" for foreign workers based on "specialized skills."

Then he starts naming some of the positions that require that require importing a foreign worker with said skills.

One of them was Web Designer. WEB DESIGNER!!!

First, I AM a Web Designer...it's a component of what I do, which is Graphic Design. By default, I know MANY UNEMPLOYED WEB DESIGNERS. The United States DOES NOT have a SHORTAGE of Web Designers.

Seriously...could someone explain to me why we need more H-1B Visas to import more foreign Web Designers? (Limbaugh's argument is we want to open America to immigrants lacking the equivalent of a high school education but we want to "keep out the best and brightest" by setting a cap on H-1B Visas. He does not mention the "best and brightest" unemployed U.S. citizens who are FULLY qualified to fill these "special" jobs).

From Lawyers.com:

http://www.lawyers.com/lawyers/A~1001908~LDS/H-1B+VISA.html#two

Q: What is an H-1B visa?
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A: The H-1B is a nonimmigrant classification used by an alien who will be employed temporarily in a specialty occupation or as a fashion model of distinguished merit and ability.

Q: What is a specialty occupation?
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A: A specialty occupation requires theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge, along with at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent. For example, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, business specialties, accounting, law, theology and the arts are specialty occupations.

[bmxeroftruth]

1. hi

hi new to DU good luck with your thread trying to get enough comments so i can post :woohoo:

[acmejack]

2. But there is a severe shortage of good web designers who will work for

minimum wage. You know, it's one of those "Jobs Americans won't do" you've heard so much about lately.

[Bush_Eats_Beef]

5. Exactly..."best, brightest, will work for minimum wage & no benefits"

Unbelievable.

:grr:

[Warpy]

3. Maybe they can find a foreign Nazi gasbag who's not an addict

and replace Lamebawl.

[BlueEyedSon]

4. "Cheap Labor Conservatives", bringing back feudalism....

[ngant17]

6. electronic immigration is a problem here

If Rush said this, his ignorance on labor matters has hit a new low.

In the first place, there is very little need for giving out work visas to bring in foreign workers to work on 'web page designing'. It makes no sense at all from a greedy capitalist perspective in the first place.
This is a form of 'electronic immigration', as I understand it. There is no need to import workers to do data processing tasks when they can simply work overseas and send the results to whoever wants it, in the USA.

The outsourcing of IT jobs has long been a problem that local unions have tried to addressed. With little success to my knowledge. Because the Internet has no borders or immigration laws to slow it down, this sort of thing is commonplace these days. I don't see anyway it can be prevented outside of bad publicity that it might give the big corps. like Microsoft, ect.

[KatyaR]

7. I worked at a small medical research institute for 2 years.

My boss was a Chinese immigrant who did research in an area so unfamiliar in the US that there were less than half a dozen researchers in the country specializing in this field. He had 7 or 8 research assistants that he brought in from China and Taiwan mainly, on the H-1B visas because they had experience in this area (it is very common research and treatment in China). These were PhDs, not PhD candidates, who were paid $20,000 a year salary--$20,000! One of our assistants had taught school back in China and made $636 a year--yes, that's right, her salary here in the US was amost 32 times what she made at home.

My boss never considered hiring anyone else, because he got people with the knowledge he needed and didn't spend all his grant money on salaries. I was the only US citizen in the lab, and I made $9.50 an hour--when I had to change my hours to take a second job, he couldn't understand why my salary was enough.

There are some areas of the work world where this will always be the case.

One thing I thought was very interesting--the same form is used for highly specialized scientists as well as entertainers. Basically, they all fall under the same consideration.

[FloridaPat]

8. Lots of unemployed computer programmers. I've had 8 months

work in the last 2 years. Yes, the corporations just want to pay minimum wage for programmers. Besides, getting rid of those manufacturing jobs and computer jobs cuts money going to Democrats. The manufacturing jobs were mostly union and the computer jobs were at least half Democratic for Democratic leaning.

[rock]

9. "Short on workers in a given area" code for

"Short on cheap workers in a given area"