Politics, h-1b, john mccain, meg whitman, wonkette

John McCain: There will be an increase in H-1B visas in our time

Is former eBay CEO Meg Whitman impacting John McCain's immigration policy? Currently, the U.S. government refuses to raise the cap on H-1Bs, the visas which allow foreign engineers to work at American companies. This despite the fact that By 2010, Asians will account for 90 percent of the world's engineers. In this clip McCain says he'll fix that problem. Though not without due concern for the terrorists, of course.

7:30 AM on Wed Mar 26 2008
By Nicholas Carlson
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5 comments

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bugz321 at 08:05 AM on 03/26/08
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This statement that Asians will make up 90% of the world's engineers keeps getting thrown out like it's the gospel. Plus, since Asians make up about 3/5 of the world's populations, it's not even all that spectacular.
But it is a good sound byte to make it more palatable to throw Americans out of work.
URNotMe at 08:52 AM on 03/26/08
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Let's call it what it is. This whole H-1B visa issue is not about a lack of engineering talent as much as it is about finding cheaper labor. Anyone who believes otherwise, needs to open their eyes. I work for a large software company and there are postings all the times for positions that are for H-1B candidates, even though I could refer plenty of people for the positions. Someone from another country will gladly come here to work for less money, because the get the benefits of living in the USA and a quality of life and basic public infrastructure that is better than where they came from. This is worth something to them, but it's something that a natural born citizen expects and perhaps takes for granted.
badco/LoJ at 09:09 AM on 03/26/08
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Meanwhile, American students are labeled as dumb and lazy for refusing a career that would relegate them to domestic software sweatshops.
MikeL at 10:24 AM on 03/26/08
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McCain thinks fruit pickers should get H-1B visas. It's easier to say "H-1B" than "Indentured Servant."
gildorn at 12:10 PM on 03/26/08
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@URNotMe: "large software company" being the key. A lot of smaller companies don't want to dish out for an H1-B and will magically find reasons not to hire potential H1-B candidates.

As for "coming here to work for less money", I'm much more concerned about the students that come here for an education at our world-class-top-tier schools and then don't (or can't easily) stay. Even if they do find H1-B-backed positions, it's a lottery as to whether or not they'll actually get the H1-B in the end. H1-Bs only encourage the students to stay temporarily and gain even more experience before bringing their education and experience back to their home countries.

I don't understand why all the focus is on getting more H1-Bs and not on, you know, making it easier for very-well-educated people to get Green Cards.

But hey, if this country wants to continue to educate the best and brightest and then show them the door, it's free to do so.