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IP: Re: HIGH-TECH WORKERS FROM OVERSEAS
From: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu>
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 05:25:58 -0500
Date: Wed, 21 Feb 1996 00:36:46 -0500 To: Dave Farber <farber () central cis upenn edu> From: crocker () cybercash com (Steve Crocker) Dave, The implication of the story is that 75% of the foreign-born engineers admitted to the U.S. during 1990 to 1994 displaced American citizens in engineering jobs. (I've purposely rephrased and added implications that may not follow absolutely from the facts given, but the intent of the story is to create exactly the impression I've stated.) The question that comes to mind is whether the foreign-born engineers are simply cheaper versions of the Americans, i.e. same training, skill, productivity, etc. or whether they're significantly better. Perhaps the engineers who lost their jobs are, say, older EEs who know a little about analog circuits and don't have a clue what goes on inside a computer, while the foreigners are hot shot programmers skilled in C++ or crackerjack digital circuit designers. (I'm being deliberately a bit imflammatory to make the point.) I suspect the truth is somewhere in the middle: lower wages and different skills. Intel is recruiting heavily in India for engineers to come to the U.S., and the principal reason is lack of comparable talent in sufficient numbers in the U.S. U.S. law prohibits paying lower wages, but even if one discounts that and assumes the wages paid to foreign workers might be somewhat lower, the cost of importing people is quite high and not a cost an employer would choose to bear if it weren't necessary. (The wages paid to foreign engineers in the U.S. cannot be "Third World wages;" the foreign engineers aren't that docile or ill-informed and a discrepancy of that magnitude would invite too easy of a lawsuit.) As presented, the story seems incomplete and more than likely inaccurate and biased. Steve At 11:04 PM 2/20/96, Dave Farber wrote:
HIGH-TECH WORKERS FROM OVERSEAS There is a growing debate over the recruitment of high-tech expertise from abroad. A division of the Institute for Electrical and Electronics Engineers says that more than 146,000 engineers lost their jobs between 1990 and 1994, a period during which more than 200,000 foreign-born engineers were admitted to work in the U.S. The companies hiring professionals from abroad say the practice is necessary in order for them to remain competitive, whereas IEEE-USA chair Joel Snyder argues that such employers "want a high-tech workforce in the United States that will accept Third World wages and working conditions." Snyder says the trend toward lower wages in technical markets will hurt the U.S. educational system, because university students will be discouraged from enrolling in engineering and programming. Support for those programs will therefore drop, along with program quality. (Computer Feb 96 p10)
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