Biological sciences and/or pharma next?

The story "Tech Recruiting Clashes with Immigration Rules" by Matt Richtel in the NYT clearly writes about a problem on the horizon (or something that is already here rather...). “Jobs for nonimmigrants only” [my own title of the main problem]. In pressed times more than others. And no, it is not only in the States this is happening. My own native country is probably doing the same thing (although the government actually made it easier to get a visa if you have a job now…. Then again, getting a job at the moment is not really possible with unemployment up to 10% over all. And more than 30% in the sector people aged 19-28 yrs….)

“While it could be said that Mr. Mavinkurve’s case is one of a self-entitled immigrant refusing to live in the United States because his wife would not be able to work, he exemplifies how immigration policies can chase away a potential entrepreneur who aspires to create wealth and jobs here. His case highlights the technology industry’s argument that the United States will struggle to compete if it cannot more easily hire foreign-born engineers.”

*this guy, Mavinkurve, did high school and all his uni studies in US. At Harvard and has a master. But of course, he was here on a student visa so he is not a citizen.

From the article again in regards to H1B visas (skilled peoples’ visa): “The limit was raised twice as the technology sector boomed, to 115,000 in 1999 and to 195,000 in 2001. But those temporary increases were not renewed for 2004, and the number of H-1B visas reverted to 65,000. (There are an additional 20,000 H1-B’s for people with graduate degrees from American universities.) Since 2004, there has been a growing gap between the number of H-1B visas sought and those granted, through a lottery. In 2008, companies made 163,000 applications for the 65,000 slots. Google applied for 300 of them; 90 were denied. “

And people wonder why I am nervous when my present visa runs out?!

“Many innovators in Silicon Valley come from overseas; 42 percent of engineers with master’s degrees and 60 percent of those with engineering Ph.D.’s in the United States are foreign-born.”

I guess it isn’t until page four I get my “you are an immigrant in my country scare” by the interview with Mr Berry.

“Mr. Mavinkurve and his wife get little sympathy from Mr. Berry of the Programmers Guild, a nonprofit group with a volunteer staff that lobbies Congress on behalf of American-born high-tech workers. To Mr. Berry, 50 — who lives in Sacramento, where he was born — it is unfathomable that Google, which receives one million résumés a year, cannot find enough qualified Americans. Further, he says immigrants depress wages. By law, H-1B workers must be paid prevailing wages, but there are conflicting studies on whether some employers actually pay less when they control the fate of the sponsored workers. Even some of the supporters of allowing in more skilled immigrants say the H-1B system is flawed because it gives employers so much power over employees.”

And from there we move into the real issue here. Mr Berry’s fear about his children, because as we all know… in the darkest hour we turn to ourselves and look out for us, not them or you. And, not to forget, we need to go with the generalization that “they” wouldn’t be as good as “we” at doing our job. When in reality, maybe there are more things to it than “they” and “we”, and nothing good will come out of debating us vs them, imho.

“Mr. Berry says his skills and education are denigrated by an industry that asserts that the best talent comes from overseas, via Ivy League schools[Personally I wonder if Mr Berry thinks these unis take on useless students out of the goodness in their hearts?? See, I thought they sifted out the best ones? I might be naïve but seriously....]. He worries about the employability of his children, who are studying engineering at top colleges, the University of Southern California and California Polytechnic State University. ...//… He does not believe that skilled immigrants are essential to innovation. In fact, he argues the opposite. “In my experience,” he said, “foreign software programmers are less likely to step out of the box and present alternatives to management.”

And of course the Republican Senator Jeff Sessions, from Alabama agrees with him and is opposing temporary work visas (H1B for example). I might need to state the Sessions agree with broader immigrant allowances, with aptitude test etc, but he still disagrees with the temporary visas. “….he argues have incentive to work for less and return to their countries to share what they have learned. This puts him at odds with tech companies.”

I don’t know if there is any stats about the post doc community, citizenship and salary… I have my thoughts on the matter but I might be wrong. Anyone knows any study? And it will be interesting the next couple of years when I think we will see what happens with the graduate students and post docs (and the work they/we are doing) when the visas get even fewer and harder to pass… I really hope all the American students will rush to fill the void since we evil foreigners are filling their places and taking their money. Or maybe we were actually doing something good?!?!

With that, I need to go back to my “cushion job where I just gush in money and don’t spend any time in lab at all” . Duh.