Many skilled foreigners leaving U.S.

The Raleigh N.C. News & Observer reported on the current situation for skilled immigration to the U.S.

When the Senate immigration bill fell apart last week, it did more than stymie efforts to deal with illegal immigration.

It derailed efforts to deal with an equally vexing business concern: a backlog in applications for so-called green cards, the coveted cards that are actually pink or white and that offer proof of lawful permanent residency.

When they club legal skilled immigration reforms with controversial illegal immigration issues, you know it's as good as flipping a coin to see if the measures go through. It only increases the frustration level as you see poeple being polarized to side with the bill and illegal immigration or against it. Everyone agrees legal immigration is required and important but they're not willing to separate it out from the illegal immigration reform and fix it.

Lately, this has prompted an exodus of foreign workers who [are] tired of waiting, to return home or go further afield. With the economies in Asia and elsewhere on the rise, they can easily find work in the native countries or in third nations that are more generous with their visas. Mike Plueddeman said he lost three employees (one a senior programmer with a doctorate) at Durham-based DynPro in the past two years because they [were] tired of waiting for their green cards.

As I said earlier, 30,000 Indian IT pros have returned to the booming Indian economy, most of them left after being tired of the hopeless U.S. immigration system. Add to that the numbers that are leaving to countries like Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand, Hong Kong, Dubai (U.A.E.) and you realize the U.S. is loosing it's appeal among global talent pool.

Sarath Chandrand, 44, a software consultant from India, moved with his wife and two young daughters from Raleigh to Toronto in December because he couldn't live with more uncertainty. Canada won him over because its residency process takes only a year and a half and doesn't require sponsorship from an employer.

New Zealand, with a population of 4 million, has received more than 1,900 applications from skilled migrants and their families in the past two years, said Don Badman, the Los Angeles marketing director for that country's immigration agency. Of those, about 17 percent were non-Americans working in the United States.

Any of you folks out there in India, China, Philipines, Brazil, Ireland, Russia or other emerging economies, please consider these developments before you decide to come to U.S. The global economy is truly taking shape and its in your best interest to not blindly follow the throngs of earlier immigrants who chose U.S.

The mess called illegal immigration

The past few weeks have opened up a new pandora's box. The issue here is what to do about illegal immigration, people who cross the border illegally and those who overstay their visa. While the Republican dominated House of Representatives passed a strict enforcement only bill which would instantly criminalize all illegal aliens present in the U.S., the U.S Senate members seem more divided on the issue, sometimes even across party lines. While the illegal immigrants are being called criminals by one side the people who oppose illegal immigration are being called bigots and racists by the other side. This debate for most parts has exposed the ugly underbelly of otherwise rational people.

I am reposting this from HousingPanic where a bunch of folks who otherwise would have been debating about the housing bubble started discussing about illegal immigration. Seeing their sometimes nasty and clueless posts made me write this in reply. Surprisingly no one could come up with a counter argument.

Let me bring a side of economics into this. Being rich and being poor are relative terms. You're only rich when you have more money compared to the poor. These illegals are actually making you richer since you can get the work done at a much lower cost. The average wages for Americans have actually increased because of them. So, there is some benefit to having it the way things have been for so long. However, since everyone is so interested in punishing the illegals, let's look at things that will automatically reduce illegal inflow.

1. Eliminate government healthcare and education for illegals. Make it more expensive for them to stay. Let's see what they do when they have to pay for their healthcare and education.

2. Impose penalties on employers who hire them. Come on they wouldn't be here if they're not able to find work. U.S. has one of the highest cost of living. They need money to survive here. Next time you go to eat at a fancy restaurant ask the Manager if the food was prepared by an illegal or ask your Condo/Co-op to only hire Americans to take out the trash.

3. Increase legal immigration numbers so that they can come in legally. Do you know what's the wait period for let's say a mexican to get an immigrant visa? It's anywhere from 5 years for skill-based to 13 years for family-based. That's because the U.S. only allows about 1 million immigrants per year which is divided equally between all countries. Check it here http://travel.state.gov/visa/frvi/bulletin/bulletin_2868.html
But the demand to migrate is far greater in some countries compared to others. What would you do if you were in their shoes? Wait for 13 years or sneak in through the border and get a job and free healthcare, education?

4. Create a border, enforce laws that protect the border and yes, deport law-breakers.

5. And last but not the least, ask your Senators or Representatives to increase the minimum-wage. It seems Republicans are the first to trash any bill that increase minimum wages. (Walmart link here?). I'm an independent, so I really don't care if you start trashing Dems because of this sentence.

All these things are tied and if you believe you can have one thing without the other you are grossly mistaken and you are being reined in by hate-radio rhetoric so that they can pull in the listeners and make money off the ads. Have you noticed how talk-radio hosts also do their own ads. What's up with that? It reminds you that they're only doing business.

The current U.S. immigration system is broken, the 11-20 million illegal aliens here are proof of that. The entire blame for that cannot rest solely on the illegals themselves and they should not be the only ones punished either.

IBM Eyes 50,000-Plus Indian Employees

Excellent article on InformationWeek about IBM expanding R&D in India.

Two of IBM's biggest bets are --Indian talent and software built around service-oriented architectures. IBM is on a hiring binge in India. The company employs about 39,000 people in the country, up 70% from 23,000 a year ago. That rate of growth should continue "for quite some time," says Amitabh Ray, who heads IBM's global delivery operations in India. At that clip, IBM will have at least 55,000 workers in India by next year. And the figure could easily pass 60,000--or 20% of its current worldwide workforce of 300,000.

When IBM decides that it's time for Indian talent to develop it's next generation of products, you know it's time to stop and listen. This is not your Patni type projects that no one else is willing to do but state-of-the-art SOA based software that IBM is betting on as a big part of it's future.

The first customer is shipping company Maersk Logistics. The system features wireless container-level tracking devices developed by IBM researchers in Zurich, Switzerland. It's a sensor network that transmits data from the devices to databases that can be accessed by numerous parties, such as shipping managers, customers, and port authorities, using a variety of front-end applications. Purohit's challenge was to identify and assemble the technologies required for such a system, develop software components where needed, and assemble everything into a working whole.

Another example: Teams at the Bangalore center are designing a system that uses telemetry devices, embedded processors, and mathematical algorithms to help automakers predict and manage costs from warranty claims.

We're definitely going to see U.S. graduates finding work in IBM Bangalore soon. This is the kind of work that attracts people over to the U.S and also why they spend thousands of dollars on U.S. University degrees. To get hired by the likes of IBM. If these jobs are not going to be in U.S, what's the point of coming to the U.S?

I believe one of the biggest reasons for IBM to move this out of the U.S is because they can't bring in the really bright graduates from IIT, VJTI and the likes to U.S. in the numbers they would like to, thanks to the highly restrictive and painfully slow U.S. immigration system. Even if U.S. increases the number of H1B visas allowed per year, what happens when the visas expire? Do they let these employees go back home? IBM needs them permanently, not just for 6 years. Meanwhile you have folks at WashTech who are hell bent on reducing the number of H1B visas down to 65,000 from the proposed 115,000 that is in the Senate Judiciary Committee bill being debated in Congress right now.

When will groups like them get it? Their main argument is that U.S. companies use these visas to hire cheap labour. That's like comparing high-tech product development at IBM to doing some clerical work in an office. You mean, can they find a body to sit in that chair from the entire U.S. population of 295 million? Sure, but will that person be of the same calibre as the IIT graduate? Or even if they do, will they be able to hire in the numbers they like to? For example, Microsoft has 3,500 to 4,500 open positions at anytime in the U.S. that go unfilled due to a shortage of qualified candidates. Those IIT graduates are going to be hired by someone for sure and if not by IBM then by their competition until there is no IBM, because IBM can't compete with the other companies who always grab the most brilliant engineers they can find and come out with products that beat theirs in the market.

Do some companies abuse H1Bs? May be. But reducing the numbers isn't the solution. Rather reform the H1B law so that it cannot be abused. There are a number of things that can be done, but I'm not going into that right now. Also, make sure legal immigration is increased as just hiring on H1B is not enough, some H1B are needed permanently by the companies and the U.S. economy.

Brain drain can be good in the long run

Found this analysis on PhilipineNews.Com about how brain drain can be a good thing. He noted that when the atmosphere in the home country improves the same best and brightest that left earlier sense the need to come back for good.

The New York Times discussed this in detail in a recent piece called, “Indians find they can, indeed, go home again.” Amazingly, professionals, mostly in the technology sector, were moving from places in the United States and Europe and settling into gated communities in India. From executives to engineers, many of whom have lived in places such as Forest City to Cupertino, Calif. for over 20 years, were packing up not only themselves but also their families to live in the growing communities of Hyderabad and Bangalore causing real estate in those areas to triple in value.

I've taken out important paragraphs from the NY Times article and posted them here

Nasscom, a trade group of Indian outsourcing companies, estimates that 30,000 technology professionals have moved back in the last 18 months. Bangalore, Hyderabad and the suburbs of Delhi are becoming magnets for an influx of Indians, who are the top-earning ethnic group in the United States. These cities, with their Western-style work environment, generous paychecks and quick career jumps, offer the returnees what, until now, they could only get in places like Palo Alto and Boston.

While most returnees are first-generation expatriates, second-generation Indians living in the United States are also returning, said Lori Blackman, a recruitment consultant in Dallas. "Among them I sense an altruistic pull to return to India to help build their home country to a greater power than the country had ever hoped to achieve," she said.

But the trend is raising fears among American specialists that it could deplete the United States of scientific talent and blunt its edge in innovation. "The United States will miss the talents of people of Indian origin who return to India," said Brink Lindsey, vice president for research at the Cato Institute in Washington, adding, that the moves could create greater possibilities for trade between the two countries.

For many returnees, the newly challenging work environment in India has tied in neatly with personal reasons for returning, such as raising their children in Indian culture and caring for aging parents.

"When I left India 25 years ago, everybody was headed to the United States," said Mr. Kela, who pursued a Ph.D. at the University of Rochester and stayed two decades, working for companies like General Electric and AutoDesk. For India's best and brightest, a technology or engineering career was an irresistible draw to the United States, even until four or five years ago.

"But now they all want to get on the plane home," said Mr. Kela, who returned with his wife and two children.

The passage back is no longer an ordeal, because much has changed in India. Whereas watching a movie in a dingy hall was once a weekend high point, now fancy multiplexes, bowling alleys and shopping malls offer entertainment, and pizzerias and cafes are ubiquitous at street corners. Indians who once could choose between only two car models and fly a single airline find they have returned to a profusion of choices.

Even as the lifestyle gaps between India and the West have narrowed rapidly, salary differences at top executive levels have virtually disappeared. Annual pay packages of a half-million dollars are common in Bangalore, but even for those taking a pay cut to return home, the lower cost of living balances smaller paychecks. Starting salaries for engineers are about $12,000 in India, versus $60,000 in Silicon Valley.

30,000 software engineers have returned back in the last 18 months. Where are the anti-immigration groups accounting for this in their immigration statistics? Wake up! This trend is only going to increase with time.

It all started with IT patch work for Y2K. I remember most people landed jobs in Y2K related projects when my class graduated in 1998. Once the Y2K effect was over U.S. companies realized that they can count on these people to do some quick and dirty work and started outsourcing other low-end projects. As the pay was really good compared to existing options, most graduating students wanted to enter into the IT field. Only the best could land the jobs though. U.S. companies soon realised that they could actually get their regular work done by these bright folks and soon hired them either on H1B and L1 visas or by transferring the work overseas. The recession in 2002 helped fuel more outsourcing as companies were forced to tighten their budgets. But the work needed to be done and soon more companies started utilising this new found brainpower. Now as more and more of the R&D work is being done in India and other IT hotspots in developing nations, the best and brightest who once left for better careers are coming back. They find they can do the same if not better work right here in their home country without having to face the humiliating U.S. immigration process. As they say Time is the greatest leveler.

Qualified immigrants should be paid for coming to the US?

Yes, that's what someone posting on ImmigrationVoice said. You think that's way over the top? Well, consider this article on BusinessWeek.

And let's not forget about immigrants. The workers who move to the U.S. each year bring with them a mother lode of education and skills -- human capital -- for free. One celebrated example is Jonathan Ive, the man who designed the iPod and iMac. Ive was born in England and educated at Newcastle Polytechnic University of Northumbria before joining Apple Computer Inc. in California in 1992.

Ive is not unique. Most of the workers who immigrate to the U.S. each year have at least a high school diploma, while about a third have a college education or better. Since it costs, on average, roughly $100,000 to provide 12 years of elementary and secondary education, and another $100,000 to pay for a college degree, immigrants are providing a subsidy of at least $50 billion annually to the U.S. economy in free human capital. Alternatively, valuing their contribution to the economy by the total wages they expect to earn during their lifetime would put the value of the human capital of new immigrants closer to $200 billion per year. Either the low or high estimate would make the current account deficit look smaller.

So flash back to when you were in your home country. You were in the top 5% in your high school. You get a scholarship for college (which is ultimately paid for by the tax payers). You graduate with excellent grades and get a job that 95% of the population wish they had. You made all the best decisions and are enjoying the results at a very young age. Then, in some unfortunate moment you take an uncharacteristically bad decision. You decide to migrate to the U.S. You give up your job and your life style and get on that plane, very anxious of your future but with the strong belief that U.S. is the place where your dreams will come true. Surely, they will appreciate someone of your calibre.

I bet there are lot of folks who have had the same emotions when they first landed here in the U.S. While you knew things may not be that easy, you believed atleast they will be reasonable. How wrong we all were....