Save our jobs.

Wed Feb 27 10:19:58 PST 2002

At 12:56 PM -0500 2/27/02, Gwendolynn ferch Elydyr wrote:
>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.

Right, but we're not talking about "radical career shifts" here. 
We're talking about things like "The C jockey (A) who was working on 
$FOO_PROJECT" who is a US citizen, and "The C jockey (B) working on 
$BAR_PROJECT" who has an H1. When $FOO_PROJECT is downsized, 
CJockey(A) should start working on $BAR_PROJECT and give CJockey(B) 
the layoff notice.

Maybe "capability" was a bad choice of verbiage and "qualifications" 
was a better choice.

>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.

I think you have to worry about both, really. If we're sacrificing 
citizens' jobs in favor of non-citizens' jobs - ever - then we're 
doing something wrong.

It's bad enough when a company decides it can save money by sending 
the jobs overseas. It's worse when the company decides it's going to 
lay YOU off and keep the guy sitting next in the cubicle next to you, 
ESPECIALLY when the only reason that guy has a job in that cube AT 
ALL is because the company said to the government "there's not a 
single US citizen who is qualified to do this job", and as you are 
shown the pink-slip door, you possess those qualifications.

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

The immigrants of yesterday - who forced their kids and themselves to 
learn english, prided themselves on assimilating INTO American 
culture - are not necessarily the immigrants of today. TODAY, it is 
quite common to go through entire neighborhoods and not see a single 
sign written in English.

I don't, in this context, have a problem with immigrants who don't 
assimilate, that's their right, but let's not pretend that the 
19th/20th century immigrant population that "built this country" are 
of the same mindset as those who come here today. Not arguing that 
one is inherently "better" or "worse", mind you, simply that it's not 
fair to pull the "look where immigrants got us!" argument when times 
and people involved have changed.

>[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...

But when you have a rising unemployment rate in the tech sector, as 
we HAVE been having, that argument (which I think is specious to 
begin with) goes out the window completely.

D
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| dredd at megacity.org  | "Thou art the ruins of the noblest man  |
|  Derek J. Balling   |  That ever lived in the tide of times.  |
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