Mommy...! He's Got My Job
Mommy...! He's Got My Job
Date: Monday, August 18, 2003 12:38 AM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
www.ZaZona.com
The first article featured from the Indian press compares Americans
that lose their jobs to cheap foreign labor with crybabies. Oh well, so
much for international brotherhood!
The second one doesn't show much respect for our immigration laws but
it does give some interesting information about how easy it is to
defraud our system in order to get fake H-1B visas.
In case you are not familiar with Indian currencies, here is how to
calculate the dollar amounts required for fake visas:
l lakh = 100,000
1 rupee = 2.2 cents
typical rates for fake visas = 4.5 to 20 Rs lakh, exchange rates
convert to $9,900 to $44,000
I wasn't going to use the second article because it didn't seem
credible that Indians would have that kind of money to spend for
fraudulent visas. I asked two immigrants from Singapore for their
opinions. They changed my mind and here is why:
Opinion 1 is from an Ethnic-Indian Singaporean who came here on an H-1B
visa and eventually obtained Permanent Resident status, and then became
a naturalized citizen:
"They will beg, borrow and steal - if necessary."
Opinion 2 is from an Ethnic-Chinese Singaporean who came here on a
student visa, then obtained Permanent Resident status via a Green Card,
and then became a naturalized citizen:
"People will pay even more than that to come here - even in poor
countries like India. For a male of military age to leave Singapore, he
must pay $100,000 SGD bond ($50k USD) to the Singapore government.
People in India and China will pay upwards of $50k or even $100k to
circumvent our immigration laws and come here."
http://www.naukri.com/careerh/edit.htm
August 11, 2003
Mommy...! He's Got My Job
It is time the American worker grew up and faced some of the ground
realities. The cries of 'foreigners-a-taking-away-our-jobs' in the US
are getting louder. First it was the bill by the state of New Jersey,
banning government outsourcing to India-based companies. Next came the
outcry against the number of H-1B visas being given to foreign
professionals. And now it is the turn of the L-1 visa holders to be the
target of local ire. Unfortunately the mainstream media in the US seems
to be joining the politicians and displaced workers in blaming foreign
professionals (namely the Indians, filipinos and Chinese) for
'snatching' their jobs.
A recent story in a leading American business weekly cried foul against
the leading Indian IT companies; Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), Wipro
and Infosys. The story blamed Indian companies for exploiting loopholes
in the L-1 (or the managerial transfer) visa, to 'export' Indians
techies to US, rendering American workers jobless.
However, the specifics of the situation are irrelevant. What is
important is that the American public has failed to comprehend the
process of globalisation fully. Nor have they understaood the long-term
economic impact growing xenophobia will have on both global and
American economies.
Americans (and other 'son of the soil' activists of the first world)
need to understand that this situation is an inevitable by-product of
globalisation and free competition. Today, Indians buy Chinese
bicycles, sport Italian designer wear, eat McBurgers. American
companies sing paeans to about the forces of globalisation that have
opened the huge Indian middle class market to them. American decision
makers have to realise that they cannot have everything their way. They
cannot insist on access to emerging economies such as India without
reciprocating. After all, with globalisation of products, can
globalisation of services be far behind?
If it does not make economic sense for any consumer to buy a product of
inferior quality at a higher price when he can avail of a superior
cost-effective alternative, then why should it make more sense to hire
an inferior professional for a higher salary, just because he is a
domicile?
American companies are just following the Laws of Economics. India and
China have an 'unbeatable' product; a huge pool of brilliant, technical
workforce who are more than competent and ready to work for less.
Hiring such workers naturally lowers the company's costs, which in turn
lowers price of its product in the market. Thus obviously American
companies prefer to hire foreigners with better skills. The same
argument holds true for outsourcing to other countries.
The fundamental point is that if it makes business sense for companies
in America to hire the Indian Techie they will do so. If they are
denied this right they will either become cost uncompetitive or to
retain their competitiveness they will shift entire development centres
and back ends to India thus resulting in an even greater loss of jobs
for Americans.
The American economy will be the biggest loser if restrictions are
imposed on foreign professionals and services. Such curbs will not
control the escalating rate of unemployment in the US. They will only
raise the price American products in the domestic market.
American workers need to realise they cannot stop the juggernaut of
service globalisation. In fact access to high quality international
labour will only work to their advantage in the long run. It will
decrease the cost of their products, make their own professionals more
competitive and raise the standards of their tech force. So, somebody
should tell the American employee: Its time to wake up, the party is
over.
http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/uncomp/articleshow?msid=133817
H1B visa without a job? Money gives it all
TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, AUGUST 17, 2003 05:40:52 AM ]
AHMEDABAD: An H1B visa without a job in the US! Sounds incredible? Not
if you are in Gujarat, ready to take the risk and pay an astronomical
sum to be on a foreign shore.
Taking wings was perhaps never so easy before as a swarm of
"consultants" out there are providing a populace hung up on immigrating
a ticket to their El Dorado. As New York and London beckon, the murky
world of fake passports and forged visas, false marriages and deals in
lakhs, attract the youth.
For this consultant sitting in his posh office on Gurukul Cross-roads,
checks imposed by US immigration authorities matter little. "Entry is
extremely difficult now. But, one may go on an H1B visa," he says. But,
an H1B visa without an offer letter? Leave it to this "cool guy". For,
he has worked out his plan well. "We have tie-ups with some companies
in California and New York who would issue an offer letter at a
commission. Once the client reaches the US, he is on his own. While the
company will put him on stand-by to fox authorities, he will be free to
search for a job. Once he finds one, the company will give him a no
objection certificate," he explains. The "operation" would cost Rs 4.5
lakh, this correspondent is told.
In the prosperous tobacco-growing area of Anand and Kheda, known as the
Charotar, where settling in the US or the UK is the stuff dreams are
made of, a "mysterious lady" leads the charge, arranging for visa,
getting passports.
"Here we form groups of six to seven people who wish to immigrate.
Alkaben then takes the groups to Mumbai where she has her "contacts".
"She has never failed," says one Hiteshbhai. And, marriages among
relatives are providing the people of Anand a cover to settle in the US
as "fake" marital vows are opening up new avenues to get a visa. So,
when 24-year-old Ramesh "married" his niece Pinky, 19, nobody raised an
eyebrow. "Pinky is a Green Card holder and she just helped Ramesh
realise a dream after he was denied visa twice. They later filed for a
divorce," says Ramesh's grandfather Jayanti Patel.
The clandestine marriage was held in a village temple with the pundit
being called from Rajkot and photographs developed in a studio in
Ahmedabad. In Mehsana in north Gujarat, "business" is flourishing as
passports fetch as much as Rs 25 lakh and anyone ready to lend a school
leaving certificate to people from a particular community can get rich
overnight. "People from a community here have become so marked for
taking help of illegal means to immigrate that they pay a fortune to
get a certificate from a person with the same name but from another
community. The rate can go as high as Rs 20 lakh," informs an agent in
Mehsana.
"The humshakal (lookalike) business is on the high too. If your
lookalike has a passport with multiple entry, buy it from him and ask
him to file an FIR. Such lookalikes may earn upto Rs 25 lakh," he
informs. "These documents are prepared in Mumbai, Hyderabad and Delhi
for anything between Rs 20 and Rs 25 lakh. Called the photo-cut
technique, the photograph of the passport-holder is replaced with that
of our client," says an Ahmedabad-based consultant Dhirubhai Shah.
And, failure leaves them undaunted. For Mahesh Patel of Mehsana, losing
Rs 12 lakh to an agent may have come as a shock but he is determined to
carry on. Ferrying passengers in his jeep between Nandasan and Kadi, he
wants to make up the loss in two years. For, his dream -- of a life in
a foreign land -- never dies.
(With inputs from Tina Parekh in Ahmedabad, Kiran Mathur in Mehsana and
Prashant Rupera in Anand)
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