Give us your talented, your athletic, your drop-dead gorgeous ...
Immigration reform may be down and out, but it doesn't mean Congress can't agree on important immigration issues — such as ensuring that supermodels, singers and athletes have an easier time getting into the United States. From Sunday's L.A. Times:
Even in polarized Washington, Democrats and Republicans can appreciate immigrants who throw a fast pitch, have a beautiful face or sing a catchy song. Bills to make it easier for athletes, fashion models and performers, such as British singer Amy Winehouse, to work in the United States have enthusiastic support, even from some of the most hard-nosed immigration critics.
Yep, this is what immigration legislation has been reduced to in the name of progress. Not that I'm complaining — a little reform is better than none at all, right?
The legislation does deal with a more pressing problem: Many models have to apply for an H-1B skilled worker visa. This further limits the number of those priceless documents available to tech companies, which face a desperate annual scramble for international talent. But there is a solution in the making:
Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-N.Y.) proposed a solution that could address Silicon Valley's hunger for skilled foreigners and benefit his city's fashion industry. His bill would create a new category for those models, probably limited to about 1,000 five-year visas, and would free up H-1B visas for more engineers.
Ranking subcommittee member Lamar Smith (R-Texas) had something to say about that:
He said he could picture Weiner (who is single, handsome and 43) "in a posh downtown New York City hotel celebrating the passage of this bill surrounded by hundreds of energized, wildly ecstatic fashion models. And you know for a fact he's going to have an annual celebration. It's almost too much to bear."
Smith paused. "But not too much to oppose the bill."
H1-Bs are not whiz kids, they are average technical workers. Companies like them because they are a way of undercuting the market and having an employee under their control for 3 to 6 years. Moreover, there seems to be a bit of ethnic favoritism going on, how else to explain the extreme overrepresentation of Indian based companies among H1-B usersM (scrol downl to H1-B demographics). Really, just ask yourself, were we swimming in H1-Bs when Hewlitt and Packard, or Gates, or Jobs, started? No, you say... Why then do we need them now?
Maybe when we start importing H1-B newspaper editors and lawyers those who influence opinion and policy will start changing their tune.
As for letting in a few really specially talented people -- Linus Torvalds, Tim Berners-Lee, Posh and Becks, Mel B-- I suppose its okay. The real thing need is true immigration reform, to put the entire system (lower numbers of course!) on a basis of merit and compatibility, rather than the nepotistic system we have now.
Posted by: Mitchell Young | April 29, 2008 at 07:13 AM
"were we swimming in H1-Bs when Hewlitt and Packard, or Gates, or Jobs, started? No, you say... Why then do we need them now?"
We need them now because our educational system is currently not - and hasn't been for half a generation - preparing enough skilled technical workers to keep our tech companies globally competitive.
To maintain our standard of living in the U.S., we've got to constantly change to keep up with global trends. "Why do need XYZ now when we didn't need it before" is not going to cut it...
Posted by: Justin | April 30, 2008 at 07:44 AM