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----- Original Message -----
From: "Lists2 - TriPointTek" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: "CF-Talk" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 10:33 AM
Subject: Re: CF Salary Range
| Tim Laureska wrote:
|
| > I'm more concerned about what someone mentioned previously... the
| > offshore folk who work for peanuts, but still do decent work..... it
| > seems this type of foreign competition is pervasive throughout our
| > economy anymore ... Can anyone give me a reason to say those fears for
| > the future are unfounded??? Sometimes I feel like we're all just
| > "circlin' the drain", albeit slowly
|
| I was shocked but very happy to see in my local newspaper this past
| weekend that the government is stepping up to the plate, and may help in
| this area. I have pasted the contents of the article below since the
| sun-sentinel.com site requires a free login.
|
| -----------------------------------------------
|
|
| Foreign worker visas to be cut
|
|
| By Joan Fleischer Tamen
| Business Writer
|
| September 27, 2003
|
| Aiming to curb abuses in foreign worker visa programs that critics say
| displace American workers at a time of rising unemployment, U.S.
| legislators from Florida and several New England states are pushing for
| stricter laws on the use of such employment visas.
|
| Barring any last-minute action in Congress -- and there is little sign
| of it -- the annual quota for H-1B visas for skilled foreign workers
| automatically drops from 195,000 to 65,000 on Oct. 1. A $1,000 fee for
| each visa used to fund training programs for U.S. workers and students
| also will expire.
|
| But some worry it's too little, too late.
|
| Many companies skirt U.S. immigration laws and bring over inexpensive
| foreign workers with visas other than the H1-B, such as the L-1.
|
| The L-1 is intended for intra-company transfers but now is routinely
| used by computer consultant companies that lease out temporary foreign
| workers to other employers.
|
| U.S. Rep. Robert Wexler, D-Boca Raton, said he is joining a bipartisan
| group of legislators led by U.S. Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Connecticut, that
| would close loopholes in immigration laws that allow companies to bring
| in foreign workers, pay them less and replace American workers.
|
| "The more I learned about abuses by certain companies and how workers in
| South Florida are affected, I became convinced I should be a part of the
| effort to reform the visa programs," said Wexler, who this week said he
| is co-sponsoring a bill called the "L-1 Non-Immigration Reform Act."
|
| Wexler said he was moved by the personal accounts of displaced South
| Florida technology workers profiled in a South Florida Sun-Sentinel
| story that ran Aug. 10. It reported on potential abuses in the foreign
| worker visa programs and how South Florida workers not only were
| displaced by visa holders but often were required to train their
| replacements.
|
| "In this so-called jobless recovery, with so many Americans still out of
| work and with high-technology workers especially hurting, it doesn't
| make sense to keep lax liberal immigration laws," said Wexler.
|
| Coral Springs resident Phil Marraffini, 47, a senior systems analyst who
| lost his job to visa holders and was profiled in the story, said he was
| gratified when contacted by Wexler.
|
| "I'm hoping that it can help make a difference," said Marraffini, who
| now works as a housepainter. "It is an outrage what has been done to so
| many American technology workers."
|
| *Bill seeks cap
|
| *DeLauro's bill would place an annual cap of 35,000 L-1 visas and
| require L-1 workers to be paid prevailing U.S. wages. The bill would
| also deny L-1s to any company that has laid off an American worker in
| the six months before or after filing an L-1 application.
|
| The cap on H1-B visas at 65,000, Wexler said "is still too high."
|
| "I'd certainly be amenable to a larger drop, and for keeping the $1,000
| training fee," said the Democrat from Boca Raton. "In the past during a
| strong economy, I supported increasing the caps."
|
| In 1998 and again in 2000, Congress increased the numbers on H-1B visas
| -- from 65,000 a year to 115,000 a year for two years beginning in 1999;
| and to 195,000 a year for three years beginning in 2001.
|
| Not all visas issued count toward the cap. Those applying to extend
| their three-year visa for another three years, for example, or those in
| academia or research are not counted.
|
| A just-published report by the Department of Homeland Security's Office
| of Immigration Statistics shows that 197,537 H1-B visas were approved in
| 2002, down 40 percent from 331,206 in 2001.
|
| But at the same time, the number of workers coming in on the much less
| regulated L-1 visa is on the rise.
|
| There are an estimated 325,000 L-1 visa holders currently working in the
| United States. Florida ranks third after California and New York for
| having the largest number of these visa holders.
|
| "We don't believe that Congress intended -- or could have even
| anticipated -- that the L-1 visa program would be used by some companies
| to import substantial numbers of technical workers, IT professionals and
| engineers and then use those employees to provide services under
| contract or lease arrangements with other U.S.-based employers who, in
| turn, lay off many of their U.S. workers," said John Steadman,
| president-elect of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
| Engineers-USA.
|
| *Risks outlined
|
| *"Ultimately at risk is America's ability to innovate and to use
| technology to provide competitive advantage and ensure our national
| economic and military security," Steadman said.
|
| But the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and several high-tech companies such as
| Intel Corp. caution that businesses must still have access to skilled
| foreign workers or risk losing them to competitors elsewhere in the world.
|
| South Florida immigration attorneys already have seen a scramble by
| companies in recent weeks to fill remaining slots early before the 2003
| ceiling was reached.
|
| "Some clients willingly agreed to pay the $1,000 fee rather than risk
| not having a slot after Oct. 1," said Summer McDonald, an immigration
| attorney and H1-B specialist at Hackley & Serrone in Weston.
|
| The Weston law firm said it works with businesses and universities,
| including the University of Miami, that want to hire certain foreign
| professionals with advanced education and specialized research.
|
| "It's not just high-tech," said McDonald. "We place aeronautical
| engineers, medical researchers and entertainers."
|
|
|
|
|
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