Information Builders CEO blasts Gates' stand on H-1B visa cap
Don Tennant:
Gerald Cohen, the outspoken founder and CEO of New York-based business intelligence software vendor Information Builders Inc., spoke with Computerworld on Friday about the controversy surrounding offshore outsourcing and the H-1B visa cap. Excerpts from that interview follow:
Bill Gates told an audience in Washington a few days ago that the U.S. needs to get rid of the cap on H-1B visas (see story). What's your position on that?
He's full of it. He says, "I'd hire a lot more American engineers if I could find them -- they're not available, and that's why we're going to China and India." He's full of it. He's going there because it's just cheaper. He can find all the engineers he wants in this country.
Of course this is the real truth about immigration in general. It has nothing to do with jobs that Americans "won't" or "can't" do but with keeping wages as low as possible. By ensuring a constant flow of immigrants into the United States, businesses will be able to keep labor costs down since immigrants will usually work for less than native-born workers.
posted by Adam Lawson @ 11:43 AM
1 comments
1 Comments:
The undertold story of H-1B is that it is primarily a vehicle for age discrimination. Most H-1B recipients are young, often new graduates. And even if they are paid a "prevailing wage", as the law requires, this is still a lot less than an older, say 40+, experienced American would expect. If you could visit cubicle land and were unusually observant, you would later ask: Why are there so few employees over 40? If you are 45+ and happen to get an invitation for an interview (rare in itself), and you walk into a room where two thirds or more of the people waiting to speak with you are 1) foreigners, and 2) half your age or so, you know then that you have zero chance -- the writing is on the wall, and you need to begin planning for a career change. As I personally know many people have been forced to do.
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