Date: Wed, 8 Feb 2012 00:21:56 -0800 From: Norm Matloff To: Norm Matloff Subject: Obama still insists we have a tech labor shortage To: H-1B/L-1/offshoring e-newsletter Superb letter from Sen. Grassley to Pres. Obama: http://www.grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=38933 The basic theme is, Mr. President, how can you still insist we have a tech labor shortage, in view of the Darin Wedel case? Note that in spite of the Wedel case, the president recently went ahead with USCIS plans to take executive action to liberalize regs on tech immigration. (As with past such actions, many of us view these changes as actually being end runs around Congress, rather than simply adjustments to regulations.) In the same vein, when a question about Wedel was asked during a recent White House press conference, Obama's spokesperson Jay Carney did not back down at all, insisting that we need the foreign tech workers. See http://www.whitehouse.gov/the-press-office/2012/01/31/press-briefing-press-secretary-jay-carney-13112 http://www.breitbart.tv/carney-cornered-on-obamas-send-me-your-resume-offer/ Nevertheless, Carney hemmed and hawed through that statement (clear in the video, not in the transcript), clearly nervous that he was in effect denying Wedel's claims (his denial-denial notwithstanding). I must say that I'm even more concerned about the reporter, David, whose surname is not given, but who I'm told is David Nakamura of the Washington Post. He suggested that Mrs. Wedel's points about H-1B in her exchange with Obama were "xenophobic." There is an ethos common in younger educated professionals today, especially among minorities, that any concern of any kind that even some aspects of immigration might be too liberal is xenophobic, if not downright racist. The reporter's phrasing, "xenophobia going on when the economy is tight," is right out of standard Asian-American Studies courses, Jennifer Wedel portrayed as the new Dennis Kearney. (For the record: I strongly support the notion of ethnic studies curricula, but as academic disciplines, not as ideology masquerading as scholarship.) Gimme a break, David! The poor woman's husband has not had steady employment for three years now. It's a safe bet that David hasn't ever gone three years without a job, so what does he know? Given that many H-1Bs in fact ARE engineers, and given that many American engineers ARE being laid off, is Mrs. Wedel's reasoning so preposterous, David? In fact, there's plenty of evidence of various kinds to support her. Presumably the White House press corps is the elite among journalists. If so, how can this reporter be so simplistic, indeed so dogmatic, in his reasoning? Recently Beryl Benderly, a writer for the prestigious Science magazine Web site, published a fine piece in the Columbia Journalism Review, taking the press to task for blindly swallowing the "tech labor shortage" claims put out by the industry's PR machine. See http://www.cjr.org/reports/what_scientist_shortage.php?page=all Excellent account, but unfortunately Benderly did not address a fundamental question: WHY is the press so ignorant? There are exceptions of course (see a link to a nice USAToday article in the reader comments section in the above link), but generally the level of sophistication has been disappointing. Is it due to bias? Laziness? "Physics envy" (blind respect for STEM by the non-STEM people, thus making them view the industry as heroic)? Back to the USCIS: I don't think I've ever seen an administration, under either party, in which USCIS/INS has been so openly political. They recently ran a short piece on the Lofstrom study, http://www.homelandsecuritynewswire.com/bull20120203-h1b-workers-are-better-paid-more-educated (which I've reviewed here), portraying H-1B in a positive light. To my knowledge, they've never highlighted research on the other side. And the USCIS Web site has the phrase, "our broken immigration policy," standard among those who wish to liberalize policy, on various pages. Maybe policy SHOULD be liberalized in some responsects, and certainly H-1B policy is broken, but USCIS should stick to it mission, in my view, rather than proselitizing. Norm