Obama's H-1B position is better than McCain's

[I D Shukhov]

http://www.barackobama.co.../#improve-competitiveness

Reform Immigration: While highly skilled immigrants have contributed in beneficial ways to our domestic technology industry, there are   plenty of Americans who could be filling those positions given the proper training. Barack Obama is committed to investing in communities and people who have   not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a   bachelor's degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5%). They are not all PhDs. We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor's degrees that lead   to jobs in technology. A report of the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a whole comprise more that   25% of the population but earn, as a whole, 16% of the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master's degrees, and 5% of the doctorate degrees in science and   engineering. We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry's need for skilled workers with Americans. That being said, we do not   want to shut our doors to innovators from overseas, who have traditionally helped make America strong. Barack Obama supports comprehensive immigration reform   that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to   attract some of the world's most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become   Americans over time. And we should examine our ability to increase the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. Obama will work to   ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the   system and their workers.

[PhilFromNY]

What I don't like about his position:

He accepts the corporate line that there is a shortage of skilled technical labor. If there was a shortage then wages would be rising. They are not. He's pushing the same corporate BS that the McCain is.

He feels the need to add commentary about how certain social groups have lower levels of education than the general population. That is a social condition that is not tied to immigrant high tech labor. He's pandering to his base (God I hate that word!).

[The Gorn]

Obama "gets" that H1Bs are used as Untermenschen labor. I'll buy this as the closest that any candidate for national office is likely to come to stating any general truths about the whole screwed up offshoring situation.

And McCain definitely doesn't know or care or have a clue.

[I D Shukhov]

Agree, there's definitely pandering in Obama's position, but if I read the two positions carefully I come to the conclusion that as far as H-1B goes Obama is closer to our interests.

Obama:

While highly skilled immigrants have contributed in beneficial ways to our domestic technology industry, there are plenty of Americans who could be filling   those positions given the proper training.

 

We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry's need for skilled workers with Americans.

McCain:

However, there is a critical shortage of these workers and American competitiveness is suffering as a result. John McCain will   expand the number of H-1B visas to allow our companies to keep top-notch talent - often trained in our graduate schools - in the United States.

If McCain has his way, American programmers are going to be out of jobs and after another 8 years really will need an underclass "proper training" to get back in.  (But of course that really is B.S.).