Save our jobs.

Wed Feb 27 09:56:06 PST 2002

On Wed, 27 Feb 2002, Derek J. Balling wrote:
> But the "condition" on a company being granted permission to get an
> H1 employee is "I can't find US employees to do this job, so I have
> to go outside the country to do it".
>
> If there's two employees, one doing job A who is a US citizen, and
> one doing job B who is on an H1, and job A is being eliminated, then
> - if the US citizen CAN DO job B, he should be moved to Job B, and
> the H1 holder should be the one laid off.

Well - this gets back to my earlier point. IMHO, the company should (and
occassionally does) keep the folks who are best able to keep it running.

While I certainly CAN DO the job of a medical doctor, I'm not trained
to do it - and the process of my learning to be a medical doctor, rather
than a systems/security geek is likely to be problematic to all parties
involved.

> I was recently laid off and (luckily given the market) had a
> "probable new job" lined up inside of 12 hours and confirmed within
> 72, so I didn't really think too much about it at the time, but in
> hindsight, I could definitely see where a US citizen who was laid
> off, while an equally qualified H1-holder was kept could make a good
> argument that the company isn't following the spirit OR the letter of
> the H1 Visa process...

[1]

IMHO, it's a better use of time to worry about illegal immigrants working
in sweat shops, than highly educated, skilled workers, legally present
in the country. Mind you, both categories of "foreign" worker have done
a great deal towards building the US into the country that it is today.

Where would the US be without the influx of immigrants that built the
country?

cheers!

[1] I can also see a moral/ethical arguement to the effect of one is
likely to find it easier to get a job than another...
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