[ILUG-Social] Goodbye

[Rick Moen]

begin Justin Mason quotation:

> hmm.  I don't think the difficulties Sean had were due to this kind of
> cultural thing; IMHO it's more down to the european employment laws, where
> preference must be given to EEA applicants.  It's pretty similar to the US
> H1B visa situation, as far as I can see.

For those who don't know, the USA's H1B non-immigrant visa category is
one available to "professionals" (bachelor's degree or equivalent
experience) wishing to come to the USA to work in their fields.  It's 
good for three years with renewal for three more.  Applications must
be filed by (and are tied to) the sponsoring employer.

During the economic boom, many workers came here to Silicon Valley on
H1Bs.  Since the crash, many have been forced to return to their native
lands, after losing their jobs and being unable to find a substitute
sponsoring employer.  Doing so, they then suffer the stigma of assumed
failure, on top of their other troubles.

Somewhat inevitably, I _have_ lately seen (abstract, not
individual-specific) resentment against the remaining H1B workers from
the locally-born, and especially from those who themselves are
unemployed.  And, of course, continuation of the H1B program is being
fought over in Congress.

-- 
Cheers,
Rick Moen                     Emacs is a decent operating system,
rick at linuxmafia.com           but it still lacks a good text editor.