Thread: Expert says outsourcing 'is all about the money'

Expert says outsourcing 'is all about the money'
Friday, July 18, 2008
By David Guo, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
The debate over how the United States technology sector copes with global competition often comes down to this: Does the hiring of tech-savvy immigrants prime the U.S. economy or merely cost home-grown talent their jobs?

The answer provided by an immigration researcher yesterday ran counter to the conventional wisdom of some of his tech-company hosts.

Vivek Wadhwa, an adjunct professor at the Duke University Pratt School for Engineering, doesn't buy into the noble notion that U.S. companies such as Microsoft go overseas because the American job pool doesn't have the required, high-end skills.

No, he told Pittsburgh Technology Council members, the off-shore trend can be explained with a more straightforward reason. "The companies went there," Mr. Wadhwa said, "because the labor is cheaper. That's the bottom line."

"Lou Dobbs can moan all he wants to, but outsourcing is going to happen, like it or not," he added, referring to the CNN commentator. "It's all about the money."

Unlike many in the U.S. tech industry, Mr. Wadwha doesn't support an easing of quota-based H-1B visa rules. Instead, he would like to see the program scrapped for an expanded green card or permanent visa package.

While some in the audience might have been startled by Mr. Wadhwa's point of view on outsourcing and H-1B visas, the former Harvard Law School fellow held plenty of other positions that were well in line with those of his hosts.

Having made his first trip to Pittsburgh, Mr. Wadhwa was excited by the education, research and tech startup opportunities he saw. "I bet you this can become a thriving hub," he told the breakfast crowd at the Seagate Research Center in the Strip District.

But, he added, the city needs a lot of marketing work -- complemented by wholesale immigration reform that can stop the reverse brain drain of immigrant entrepreneurs.

"The problem is when you train foreign nationals here and they leave, you're just training the competition," he said, noting that the number of foreign nationals who get advanced degrees in the United States, then turn around and go home, is startling -- 42 percent of those with master's degrees and 59 percent with doctorates.

Despite that drain, the vital role of those who stayed was just as apparent.

The New Delhi native and one-time entrepreneur said his Duke team found that one in four engineering/technology companies founded between 1995 and 2005 had at least one immigrant founder. Those entrepreneurs employed nearly 450,000 in 2006 and collectively generated more than $52 billion in revenue.

If the United States wants to remain competitive, it will have to do a better job keeping immigrant entrepreneurs, he said.

"The U.S. has a lot to worry about," he said, as the overhead projector showed a slide titled "How our half-baked national policies could be a competitive blunder and what the U.S. can do to keep its edge."

Still, he said, America holds plenty of aces, including its educational system, pioneering spirit and melting-pot sense of democracy.

"The good news is that the U.S. always does wake up," he said.

David Guo can be reached at 412-263-1413 or dguo@post-gazette.com.
First published on July 18, 2008 at 12:00 am


http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/08200/897726-28.stm

Just hire from within America. Employers need to support America, instead of foreign interest.

The employers are acting as traitors

Originally Posted by FedUpinFarmersBranch

If the United States wants to remain competitive, it will have to do a better job keeping immigrant entrepreneurs, he said.

This is the racist "American can't do these jobs" myth which the crooked George Bush pushes to the hilt. There is a myth that Indians are better than Americans when it comes to computer and engineering jobs.

If that were true, then why do people from India have to come to the United States to get training?

The next time you buy yourself a piece of software, ask yourself if you going to heap praise on the "Indian software industry".

Sounds absurd, doesn't it?

Another way to stop it is other country's citizens need to demand better wages, retirement and insurance...They need to fightm, boycott, protest, strike just as Americans did for better wages....

Look at the Companys that moved to Mexico and are paying those people hardly anything and no benefits, it is time for those countrys people to stand up against these corporations....instead of lowering American wages it would bring up their wages....and put the competition on a level playing field..

Americans are also going to have to stop buying from and supporting these companys.