Can’t speak to IT but this will absolutely destroy the sciences. Americans are generally not interested in STEM and a large number of the scientific workforce in universities and industry are foreigners that have obtained their PhDs in the US and are staying for postdoctoral fellowships or industry positions.
This argument has the same flaw as arguments about Americans “not wanting to work” in other jobs that are majority immigrant like construction and agriculture.
If any of these jobs paid well for the level of profit they generated, Americans would do them. Everywhere you see an immigrant filling a role in America (MAGA would say “talking a job”), you’re looking at a horrifically undercompensated worker being abused by greedy capitalists.
The only bad guys in America are the ultra wealthy, their apologists (paid or no), and their enablers. They should all go up against the wall and get a very stern talking to.
Yeah no joke. STEM research is already ~50% (usually more) foreign; I don’t have the numbers but I would wager that there are more academic H1Bs than industry ones (since academic has no cap) and they are the main victims of this policy
Even before Trump I’ve heard anecdotes of ppl fighting tooth and nails with their uni/institute for H1B sponsorship because it would cost the employers a few thousand extra per year. This ends up with a lot of international postdocs on the highly temporary and sometimes predatory J1/OPT statuses… Slapping a $100k fee on H1B would just kill the field lol. Not that this administration cares about STEM to begin with
Speaking of which… I was the one warning my colleagues that Trump would come for the H1Bs and no one listened. Guess I was right after all…
And before anyone says “but theyre just taking skill out of the country” no they usually work inside the US. As it turns out being taught by and alongside Americans makes you most ready for an american workplace.
I now cannot edit posts (keep getting a 403 returned), but to be clear - I believe the same thing should happen for science as I would like in IT, perhaps even more so - immigration should be relaxed outside the parameters of H-1B, and it should be something fast-tracked as much as possible for this kind of work especially. Last thing we need to do is have even more of a brain-drain.
For IT, it’d be about calling the bluff of many companies saying they cannot find talent here for people to write code - for science, I’m sure it’s actually true that you really want to scour the globe for talent. But it’d also be ideal that they have as much autonomy as anyone else here in the workforce, and not tied down by one entity.
In the abstract I agree with you. The problem is that this administration has implemented this with absolutely no plan, no consultation, no protocols for implementations and no way to transition. To do what you suggest requires years of deliberate planning and funding of sciences so that there is continuity as the nation builds its domestic STEM workforce. Which by the were ALL THINGS NSF was studying and implementing before the administration gutted them.
Yeah, I don’t think Taco just whipping off EOs on a half-baked whim is the best way to go. These kinds of things need to have proper planning and consideration, in my view. Not thinking of the unintended consequences is partly how we got here in the first place when it comes to H-1Bs; people should really think about how to protect American jobs while also thinking about the long view when it comes to scientific research and education, too. Obviously, for industry, something like offshoring would also have to be considered and taxed accordingly.
In addition, if people perceive that this is being done just for Taco and his ilk’s xenophobia - and it probably is - that could wildly backfire on any future efforts for cooler heads to properly address what has been an egregiously abused system.
When it comes to how we handle science and research in this country - ideally we could have shielded all of that from the toddler in chief - he’s doing all kinds of things to wreck any kind of edge we might want to maintain in research. In an ideal world we’d obviously vet students that are here and do everything possible to keep them here, but as free agents so they are not working under distorted and unfair market conditions. We’d obviously want to find and entice the best and brightest people from all over the globe and do everything to repair the ruin that Taco has brought down on our culture so that they feel welcomed and wanted here. Having Taco and the kind of people he surrounds himself with in charge is going to make that very hard. I’m sure quite a few people watched thugs rounding up those Korean workers and are going to nope out on ever coming here.
Can’t speak to IT but this will absolutely destroy the sciences. Americans are generally not interested in STEM and a large number of the scientific workforce in universities and industry are foreigners that have obtained their PhDs in the US and are staying for postdoctoral fellowships or industry positions.
This argument has the same flaw as arguments about Americans “not wanting to work” in other jobs that are majority immigrant like construction and agriculture.
If any of these jobs paid well for the level of profit they generated, Americans would do them. Everywhere you see an immigrant filling a role in America (MAGA would say “talking a job”), you’re looking at a horrifically undercompensated worker being abused by greedy capitalists.
The only bad guys in America are the ultra wealthy, their apologists (paid or no), and their enablers. They should all go up against the wall and get a very stern talking to.
Those abused workers are our comrades.
Yeah no joke. STEM research is already ~50% (usually more) foreign; I don’t have the numbers but I would wager that there are more academic H1Bs than industry ones (since academic has no cap) and they are the main victims of this policy
Even before Trump I’ve heard anecdotes of ppl fighting tooth and nails with their uni/institute for H1B sponsorship because it would cost the employers a few thousand extra per year. This ends up with a lot of international postdocs on the highly temporary and sometimes predatory J1/OPT statuses… Slapping a $100k fee on H1B would just kill the field lol. Not that this administration cares about STEM to begin with
Speaking of which… I was the one warning my colleagues that Trump would come for the H1Bs and no one listened. Guess I was right after all…
And before anyone says “but theyre just taking skill out of the country” no they usually work inside the US. As it turns out being taught by and alongside Americans makes you most ready for an american workplace.
I now cannot edit posts (keep getting a 403 returned), but to be clear - I believe the same thing should happen for science as I would like in IT, perhaps even more so - immigration should be relaxed outside the parameters of H-1B, and it should be something fast-tracked as much as possible for this kind of work especially. Last thing we need to do is have even more of a brain-drain.
For IT, it’d be about calling the bluff of many companies saying they cannot find talent here for people to write code - for science, I’m sure it’s actually true that you really want to scour the globe for talent. But it’d also be ideal that they have as much autonomy as anyone else here in the workforce, and not tied down by one entity.
In the abstract I agree with you. The problem is that this administration has implemented this with absolutely no plan, no consultation, no protocols for implementations and no way to transition. To do what you suggest requires years of deliberate planning and funding of sciences so that there is continuity as the nation builds its domestic STEM workforce. Which by the were ALL THINGS NSF was studying and implementing before the administration gutted them.
Yeah, I don’t think Taco just whipping off EOs on a half-baked whim is the best way to go. These kinds of things need to have proper planning and consideration, in my view. Not thinking of the unintended consequences is partly how we got here in the first place when it comes to H-1Bs; people should really think about how to protect American jobs while also thinking about the long view when it comes to scientific research and education, too. Obviously, for industry, something like offshoring would also have to be considered and taxed accordingly.
In addition, if people perceive that this is being done just for Taco and his ilk’s xenophobia - and it probably is - that could wildly backfire on any future efforts for cooler heads to properly address what has been an egregiously abused system.
When it comes to how we handle science and research in this country - ideally we could have shielded all of that from the toddler in chief - he’s doing all kinds of things to wreck any kind of edge we might want to maintain in research. In an ideal world we’d obviously vet students that are here and do everything possible to keep them here, but as free agents so they are not working under distorted and unfair market conditions. We’d obviously want to find and entice the best and brightest people from all over the globe and do everything to repair the ruin that Taco has brought down on our culture so that they feel welcomed and wanted here. Having Taco and the kind of people he surrounds himself with in charge is going to make that very hard. I’m sure quite a few people watched thugs rounding up those Korean workers and are going to nope out on ever coming here.
You have any numbers? The way the H-1B system is exploited in IT is a shit show.
True, US got Melania, right?
She got an EB-1 visa.
“Got”