Beware the plot to increase the H-1B visa program

[Renew Deal]

Tech unemployment is still murderously high, so it's no surprise that it took a nearly 10 months to hand out 65,000 H-1B petitions for 2011. That's the longest wait to fill the quota in about seven years, but that hasn't stopped anti-employee forces from hatching a scheme to allow an additional 55,000 graduates to stay in the country and push even more U.S. workers out the door.

What's more, a new survey of CFOs by accounting and consulting firm BDO USA points to a renewed wave of mergers and acquisitions in the software industry, a trend that always results in heavy job losses as workforces and information systems are consolidated.

I don't blame the foreign-born techies and graduate students who want to work here; after all, everyone dreams of a better life for themselves and their families. But the corporados and right-wing politicians behind the move to open the doors even wider aren't interested in the welfare of the deserving foreign-born.

Ultimately, they want to drive down everyone's pay and make the workforce even more docile and fearful than it is today. Indeed, it's well-known that many H-1B holders wind up working for wages that are significantly lower than those paid to American workers.
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http://www.infoworld.com/d/the-industry-standard/beware-the-plot-increase-h-1b-visas-269

[FreakinDJ]

1. "The H1B Fraud" program

[xchrom]

2. ...

:mad:

[MindPilot]

3. Yet another "not enough qualified applicants" story in my paper today

San Diego tech companies can't fill thousands of jobs

Even though the jobless rate continues to hover in the double digits, there are literally thousands of high-paid job openings in San Diego County just waiting for the applicants with the right skills, according to the leaders of the local high-tech community.

But they say that finding those applicants can be a challenge, partly because of the area’s high cost of living and the lingering perception that San Diego’s more of a beach town than a Silicon Valley South.

A survey of local businesses by the San Diego Software Industry Council indicates there are around 6,000 information-technology job openings in the county. In addition, there are about 2,000 job openings in mechanical and electrical engineering, says Connect, a group formed to support the local high-tech community.

http://www.signonsandiego.com/news/2011/feb/12/why-san-diego-tech-companies-cant-fill-thousands-j/

Check out the median salaries chart at the link...do you know anyone in IT making that kind of money?