US techies Alarmed

Date: Saturday, February 15, 2003 3:04 PM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Except for the spelling of ZaZona, this article isn't half bad.

The article implies that ZaZona is a parent organization for a
coalition of US professionals that "urged the US Congress to take a
serious look at the existing provisions of the Immigration Act which
grants visas to foreign citizens every year into the limited job market
of US scientists, engineers and computer programmers."

Subhash Mohanti incorrectly states that ZaZona is a group or a
coalition when it's actually just a website. The IEEE and Wastech are
are the ones that formally asked Congress to investigate H-1B and
outsourcing. ZaZona isn't affiliated with either organization.

I wasn't contacted for this article and that might explain some of the
factual erros.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?artid=34494105&sType=1

The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com >Economy >Indicators

Foreign dominance in job market alarms US techies

SUBHASH MOHANTI

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ THURSDAY, JANUARY 16, 2003 04:43:57 AM ]
KOLKATA: American scientists, engineers, computer programmers and other
techies are getting worried about the overseas dominance in field
of science and technology in the US job markets.

Already the proliferating numbers from foreign lands, especially India,
China and other South-East Asian countries under the H-IB and L-I visa
programmes are reportedly easing out local Americans from the S&T job
markets.

Even if these are early days of panic, the Americans have begun
protesting. An association of scientists, engineering and computer
professionals have recently petitioned the US Congress to abolish the
H-IB and L-I visa programmes and take a fresh look at the Immigration
Act of 1990.

These US professionals who have grouped under a website called
ZanZona.com have urged the US Congress to take a serious look at the
existing provisions of the Immigration Act which grants visas to
foreign citizens every year into the limited job market of US
scientists, engineers and computer programmers.

According to Zanzona.com, which is based in Chandler, Arizona, the US
authorities dispense as many as six hundred thousand H-IB and L-I visas
to foreigners seeking employment in the US. Zanzona has also
pooh-poohed claims of the US technology sector, which hires overseas
techies, that there is a serious crunch of technology workers
among the Americans and hence the decision to bring professionals from
abroad.

The Zanzona site reports that even Microsoft, one of the largest
employers of software and other computer professionals, hires roughly
2% of its requirement from overseas countries. This, they say, is the
general pattern of hiring.

However, Zanzona points out, the huge number of foreign knowledge
workers has resulted in a gross imbalance of supply and demand. Infact
this has caused massive lay-offs of US workers in a growing industry.

Analysts in India feel that the next attack from US professionals may
come on the BPO sector which has gained in recent times.

US companies have begun outsourcing substantial portions of their
requirements from countries like India, largely due to cost
considerations. This also is resulting in huge job losses in the US,
where the cost of labour is substantially higher compared to countries
like India, China and some of the South-East Asian countries like
Malaysia and Thailand.

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