Thread: Economic downturn~yet record immigrant approvals

Originally Posted by PhredE

No argument from me on the issue of L (transfer) visas. I know first-hand of abuses done by large multinationals operating in the US (per close family member).

I am sorry to hear that and hope your family member has come through to better things.

Unfortunately whatever system is put in place there are those who will abuse it for their own ends. Sadly it puts a bitter taste in people's mouths and tars the genuine, honest people in that same light.

I can honestly sit here, hand on heart and say my job was advertised multiple times before I even became aware of it and my university would have much preferred to hire a US citizen, it would have been much simpler and cheaper for them. Every day I am grateful for the opportunity the United States gave me. The chance to do full time research is wonderful and I sincerely hope that the team I work with will be able to alter the prognosis for millions of people with sight threatening diseases in the future. I know that my country of birth could not have given me this chance.

Your situation may be true, but is not typical. In most cases H-1Bs are processed by international bodyshops or giant corporations and are ordered by the batch for jobs that were never advertised to an American. Personnel vendors often set up preferred relationships with companies, who then order workers from them.

They are trying to stop the economic bubbles from collapsing by flooding the country with people. This is what they have been doing throughout the Bush administration. Now they are desperately trying to bring in more!'

Flooding the country with people increases demand for housing, fuel, food, products, etc... While driving wages down to allow companies to maintain profits by paying less in wages.

W

Flooding the country with people increases demand for housing, fuel, food, products, etc... While driving wages down to allow companies to maintain profits by paying less in wages

Didn't slavery operate basically the same way?

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

between the downturn and the rising rupee they are having mass layoffs in Asia now, with all the bitter accusations and insinuations we had to endure. Karma I suppose..

I have had a good chunk of offshore stocks that were trading in nyse for a while. I have a good load of details on the big offshore firms.

Wishful thinking 1. salaries in asia which were expected to rise by 24% is now projected to rise by 16%. This is what they are calling a downturn. IBM did not cut 700 jobs in India. They said their mass hiring lowered hiring standards. IBM is still actively hiring and those who were let go were freshers who were supposed to begin their career with IBM. 4 US MNCs have announced plans to hire 35,000 employees in India the next 6 months. Mass hiring yes. Mass lay offs..u have to be kidding me.

Wishful thinking 2: rise in asian currencies or weakening of dollar is going to get the jobs back here in the short term. With payroll taxes and all benefits included, the cost ratio in offshoring is about 1:3. 3 in offshore for the price of 1. Offshore companies work with tremendous margins. They are groaning about their operating margins dropping from 30-40% to 20- 30 %. Cost cutting is easy too. Satyam another offshore provider provides 3 square meals a day and transportation to employees. They have hotels and food courts within campuses for employees who stay over after an overnight conference with american clients.

They can easily and very easily absorb a currency appreciation.

We are paying the price of overpriced dollar. The problems facing America are linked to just that.

1. Terrorism - We have to keep American forces on the ground in opec nations (breeding resentment) to ensure they are under our control and keep supporting dollar as the only currency accepted to buy oil. Dollar is petro denominated. (itz value supported by petroleum) not gold like other nations.

2. Immigration - Well if frances' currency was 30 times USD . If u can make 20 times the money u can make in US in france in 1 yr. American would have flooded france.

3. Job loss - cost is the only reason for jobs going abroad. Not quality not productivity. Cut the dollar to size u save jobs.

We cannot have it both ways. our overpriced dollar allows us to spend profligately on products produced abroad. However the same makes our jobs fly abroad.

I cannot believe the naivete of tax rebate checks. 300-1200 $ The spending splurge (with everything made in china ) is more for stimulating china's economy.



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But they are hurting in India. Those 700 or so 'freshers' were reserved by IBM and bypassed other offers, now they are hurting (read the comments in the Indian online press). Plus check out this article (and many others: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/c ... l+business

See also: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... 749778.cms. Cutting back the entry level trainee program is not trivial.

No they cannot easily absorb this. They were counting on us. They were counting on our dollar.

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

But they are hurting in India. Those 700 or so 'freshers' were reserved by IBM and bypassed other offers, now they are hurting

http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/c ... l+business

See also: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... 749778.cms. Cutting back the entry level trainee program is not trivial.

No they cannot easily absorb this. They were counting on us. They were counting on our dollar.

im not able to join in ur optimism. reasons as follows

u can rejoice in the hurt of 700 indian engineers but i would advice to wait till jobs come back. if companies like ibm , oracle , motorola, yahoo are squeezed on costs they will move jobs to indian centers which have been running for 8 years.

The last downturn of 2000-2002 grew the outsourcing industry. I have infosys shares since it was 7$. I have seen this industry grow huge and I have made windfall. If u ever get a chance read thru the balance sheet of infosys. The company has cash reserves (money in the bank) of 2.75 billion $$ . In Indian terms this is even huge. They can pay their employees for years without making a single dime. Look for their gross profit margin. it is 44.6 % !!!

Such huge companies dont go down easily. u cant get to this position without having a true value add.

I checked the indian currency. It has appreciated by 11%. If an Indian engineer is asked to take a pay cut of 11% he is not going to leave and work in China. Wages will get readjusted to fit the dollar.

u will see the same pattern in manufacturing. many third world nations like honduras will simply devalue their currency to remain competetive. they dont have another option.

if and when dollar comes to itz real value denominated by american gdp and exports rather than oil , we can have our jobs back. we cannot have a over priced dollar..debt based consumerism and have our jobs.

few more links..i invested in an indian index fund which gave me 65% return in 1 year. I dont just have an opinion, im heavily and profitably invested in offshoring companies which i think will continue to grow.

the offshorers are estimated to grow 28% in 2008
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid= ... efer=india

more n more hiring
http://news.in.msn.com/business/article ... id=1230275

TCS announced 15% hike in salaries
http://www.business-standard.com/common ... tono=33583

cognizant beats estimates and offers better outlook
http://www.forbes.com/markets/2008/02/0 ... ets19.html

With job openings declining so should the number of H1-B and L-1 visas issued. Remember the last recession while americans were unemployed foreigners were pouring in and taking our jobs. How many visa overstayers are out there? Where is ICE?DO THEY ONLY DEPORT BLUE COLLAR ILLEGAL ALIENS? Does your employer use E-verify?

Originally Posted by BetsyRoss

But they are hurting in India. Those 700 or so 'freshers' were reserved by IBM and bypassed other offers, now they are hurting (read the comments in the Indian online press). Plus check out this article (and many others: http://www.businessweek.com/globalbiz/c ... l+business

See also: http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/art ... 749778.cms. Cutting back the entry level trainee program is not trivial.

No they cannot easily absorb this. They were counting on us. They were counting on our dollar.

Dear BetsyRoss,

I clarified my remarks about Catholic Immigration amounting to "Population Replacement" of indigenous America. You seem to have disabled my ability to send PMs (did you realize this ?) so that I could not reply to your concerns directly. So, I did so here. I believe my remarks are as clear as possible on this subject —Â*massive Catholic immigration from Latin America is effectively "replacing" the population of America with "Good Latino Catholics". Moreover, I have cited several historical precedents showing that this type of political warfare is nothing new, "nothing new under the sun" as they say.

Thank you very much for helping me clarify my concerns,

-Y

PS: Have you read this yet ?

I did not disable your ability to send PMs.