Georgia's H-1B teachers
Georgia's H-1B teachers
Date: Monday, January 20, 2003 3:31 PM
H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
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This article claims that two million U.S. teaching vacancies will need
to be filled in the next decade. Georgia need 20,000 new teachers a
year by 2010. The obvious way to get more teachers is to use H-1B
visas.
There were some interesting examples of how often Georgia hires H-1B
teachers:
* More than 300 Indians teach students from pre-kindergarten through
12th grade
* DeKalb County employs 29 Indian teachers this school year.
* Fulton County hired eight this year
This article also mentions that hospitals are actively recruiting in
Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.
http://hoovnews.hoovers.com/fp.asp?layout=printnews&doc_id=NR200301081180.3_c66b00886af8ea48
Indian Immigrants Heed Atlanta's Workplace Call
January 8, 2003 5:47pm
Jan. 8--Jagan Bhargave rode the first wave of Indian immigration to
Atlanta at a time when spicy pizza was considered exotic and whites
rarely distinguished between black skin and brown.
It was the summer of 1962, and Bhargave was an aerospace engineering
student at Georgia Tech.
"I was kind of lost," he said. "It was very difficult to adjust."
Gaganjot Singh rode the fourth, and latest, wave of Indian immigration
to Atlanta, now home to two dozen Indian restaurants and a phone book
listing four pages of Patels.
It was the summer of 2002. Singh had been hired as a math teacher in
north Fulton County.
"I wasn't scared," she said. "I have had no experience of disrespect of
any kind."
Desperate for math, science and special education teachers, the United
States is again turning to India to fill professional voids. Two
million U.S. teaching vacancies will need to be filled in the next
decade. Georgia alone is expected to need 20,000 new teachers a year by
2010.
Yet the marriage of convenience between English-speaking, well-educated
Indians and undermanned American school districts isn't without
controversy. Students, and their parents, worry they won't be able to
understand the Indians' English. Indian teachers, in turn, fret about
classroom discipline.
Teachers and administrators in the DeKalb, Fulton and Atlanta school
districts, though, insist cultural and linguistic differences disappear
within the first few weeks of classes.
"They are very highly qualified, very good teachers. They're very
patient with the students, and the children respond well to them," said
Pamela Bouie, human resources executive director with DeKalb County
schools. "It has been a very successful experience."
Nurses, like teachers, also are part of the fourth wave of Indian
immigration. Hospitals, eager to hire more than 125,000 nurses
nationwide, are actively recruiting in Mumbai, Bangalore and New Delhi.
Indian immigration, overall, represents one of the more meteoric and
successful U.S. stories.
During the 1950s, for example, fewer than 2,000 Indians legally
migrated to the United States, according to the Immigration and
Naturalization Service. Since then, nearly 875,000 Indians have
immigrated here; 50,000 live in metro Atlanta.
They've done well. Indians' per capita income of roughly $60,000,
according to Jagdish Sheth, a marketing professor at Emory University,
is more than double the average American's.
Indians are beginning to gain political clout commensurate with their
financial power. Angered by what they considered U.S. Rep. Cynthia
McKinney's "India bashing" in Congress, Indian-American citizens
contributed $35,000 to her opponent. Denise Majette defeated McKinney
in last summer's Democratic primary.
Progress, of course, comes with unexpected pain. Racism affects all
darker-than-white-skinned Americans. Many blacks also resent Indians,
especially in inner-city neighborhoods where the newcomers own gas
stations and convenience and liquor stores.
Sheth, Bhargave and others speak of the "glass ceiling" that keeps
qualified Indians from attaining the next professional level. A
faltering economy involuntarily repatriates thousands of tech-savvy
Indians.
As with every immigrant group, fears of cultural and social alienation
--- from Americans, as well as from folks back home --- abound. Parents
worry in particular that their children have lost touch with their
heritage.
Still, few people expect the tidal wave of Indian immigration to crest
anytime soon, especially in Atlanta.
"It's a totally new phase in our community now. It is a very thriving,
prosperous community," said Bhargave, "and we feel very much at home in
Atlanta, very much at home."
Upon independence from Britain in 1947, India embarked on an ambitious
plan to train thousands of doctors and engineers. Students turned from
Britain to America for their graduate and postgraduate engineering
studies. Bhargave was one of a half-dozen Indian students at Georgia
Tech when he arrived in 1962.
Indian students were typically granted F-1 student visas, allowing them
to remain temporarily in the United States after graduation.
"They were good students, hardworking students," recalled Sheth, who
left Chennai in 1961 for the University of Pittsburgh. "Their managers
would say, 'Why do you want to go back to your country? Why don't you
stay here, and we'll help you get your green card?' "
The pay was good. The opportunities bountiful. But it was a sometimes
lonely, sometimes maddening time for Bhargave, who came from the state
of Madhya Pradesh. A vegetarian, he had difficulty finding palatable
food. Other problems proved more serious. An Indian friend was denied
entry to a private beach on Lake Spivey. Another was once told he
couldn't eat in a Georgia Tech dining hall.
"The civil rights movement was really getting pretty warmed up at that
time," Bhargave said. "Most of the immigrant students stayed up north,
in Massachusetts or Michigan or California. Very few of us ventured
south because of the reputation."
Bhargave persevered, graduating from Tech in 1965. Within a year, he
was hired by Delta Air Lines, where he stayed until retirement in 1995.
Political upheaval in Britain's former African colonies sent the next
major wave of Indian immigrants toward the United States. Uncertain of
their economic futures in Uganda, Kenya and South Africa, Indian
businessmen plowed their money into motels and fast-food franchises,
such as Baskin-Robbins, Dunkin' Donuts and Dairy Queen.
India itself fueled the entrepreneurial exodus to the United States,
with its socialist, state-controlled industrial policy frustrating many
an ambitious Indian professional.
U.S. immigration policy also shifted during the 1970s from a
country-quota system toward a what-jobs-need-filling system.
Foreign-born U.S. citizens also were allowed to bring their families to
America. Five times as many Indian immigrants --- 164,000 --- arrived
during the 1970s than the previous decade, according to the INS.
Atlanta's Indian population blossomed. Raj Enterprises, the first
Indian grocery store, opened on Peachtree Street in 1971, followed two
years later by the Calcutta Restaurant in Brookhaven.
The India American Cultural Association was formed in 1971. Bhargave
estimates by then at least 1,000 Indian families had settled in
Atlanta, most around Georgia Tech, Emory and Clark Atlanta
universities.
It took nearly 15 years of constant, yet unremarkable, growth until the
next wave hit Atlanta. But it hit with a vengeance. Atlanta was
positioned as a New South high-tech hot spot with an unquenchable
appetite for computer engineers and software designers.
By 1990, 450,000 Indian-born immigrants lived in the United States,
according to the Census Bureau. A decade later, 1 million did. Bhargave
estimates that 25,000 of the Indian newcomers settled in Atlanta.
"Indian companies were just mushrooming in every part of the North
Atlanta area," he said. "The IT [information technology] people were
making, like, $70,000-plus a year. They were very much confident, very
bright and, of course, very, very successful. And they were all very
young."
And they came --- about a half-million strong across the United States
--- on the coveted H-1B temporary visa good for a maximum stay of six
years. The visa, granted for specific jobs, remains a gold-plated entry
card for foreign workers. Even matchmaking services in India list
whether a marriage-minded suitor holds an H-1B.
Thousands of Indian engineers returned home when the tech boom died. It
didn't take long, though, for the next wave to appear.
Gaganjot Singh hails from Shimla, a mountain town in northern India
where the British spent the sweltering summer months. They left behind
fine schools, including the Loretta Convent run by Irish nuns who
taught Singh.
Upon receiving her undergraduate and master's degrees in education from
Punjab University, Singh returned to Shimla to teach high school math.
After a stint at an international school in Thailand, she toured Canada
and the United States while working toward her Ph.D. in education.
Singh decided to learn firsthand how American teenagers perform in the
classroom. She approached a teacher recruitment agency in Atlanta,
which sent her back to India to apply for her H-1B visa.
Thirteen thousand new teachers were hired in Georgia for the 2002-03
school year, not enough to fill the educational void. And with Georgia
colleges turning out increasingly fewer teachers --- only 3,300 last
year --- recruiters have set their sights on India and other
English-speaking countries.
Most Georgia school districts rely on international recruiting firms to
fill their vacancies. More than 300 Indians teach students from
pre-kindergarten through 12th grade in Georgia, according to the state
Department of Education. DeKalb County, for example, employs 29 Indian
teachers this school year. Fulton County hired eight this year,
including Singh.
Back home, she easily passed English and math proficiency exams, as
well as a phone interview conducted by school administrators. She was
hired last summer at $40,000 a year (the recruitment agency takes 10
percent) to teach algebra and geometry at Independence High School in
Roswell.
Singh worried about American kids' reputation for wisecracking --- and
worse --- in class. Independence's administrators wondered whether the
students would respect Singh or even be able to understand her.
All fears proved unwarranted.
"The kids were a little hesitant about having an Asian teacher," said
Singh, 35.
"It was a big challenge to prove to them that I was like everybody
else. It took a little time."
Singh's students were fined 25 cents for transgressions, such as
cursing or speaking out of turn. The fines, which totaled $2, stopped
accumulating after the second day of class.
Students describe Singh as "awesome," "laid back" and "open."
A sign in orange lettering on Singh's blackboard puts the burgeoning
cross-cultural experience in perspective. "Welcome to your future," it
reads, a motto Singh lives by.
"Transition is always required in life because that's how a person
grows," she said.
INDIA:
--Area: 1,269,346 square miles.
--Population: 1.04 billion (July 2002 est.).
--Economy: Traditional village farming, modern agriculture,
handicrafts, modern industries and support services.
--Labor force by occupation: Agriculture 60 percent, services 23
percent, industry 17 percent.
--Language: English holds associate status but is the most important
language for national, political and commercial communication; Hindi is
the national language and primary tongue of 30 percent of the people;
there are 14 other official languages.
--Population below poverty level: 25 percent.
--Infant mortality: 61.47 deaths/1,000 live births (2002 est.).
--Ethnic groups: 72 percent Indo-Aryan, 25 percent Dravidian, 3 percent
Mongoloid and other (2000).
--Religious groups: 81.3 percent Hindu, 12 percent Muslim, 2.3 percent
Christian, 1.9 percent Sikh, 2.5 percent other groups including
Buddhist, Jain, Parsi (2000).
--Government: Federal republic.
--Capital: New Delhi.
Sources: CIA World Factbook, World Book Encyclopedia
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