10 Articles Worth Reading
10 Articles Worth Reading
Date: Wednesday, November 30, 2005 2:35 AM
JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER
November 30, 2005 No. 1376
COMMENT FROM ROB: The sob story of the week has to be article #3. It's
another one of those tear-jerkers about wives of H-1B and L-1 visa holders
who want employment based Green Cards so that they can take our jobs, and
of course get permanent residency for their husbands and kids. There is
plenty of whining and moaning about our harsh immigration laws. In typical
fashion, the fact that these wives will put tens of thousands of Americans
into the unemployment lines is never mentioned.
Article 2 is by far the best, although my opinion might be slightly biased!
Article 1:
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/11/prweb314309.htm
Some H1B Visa Holders Finding the USA 'Welcome Mat' Torn and Frayed
Employers have found that when you can hire a foreign worker just by
sponsoring a work visa and then pay them at 50% or less of the generally
acceptable wage rate, significantly expansion of corporate profits can
occur. Generally speaking, they would not consider hiring an American
worker to whom they would have to pay much higher wages with additional,
added benefits. Hence, the employer thus takes advantage of the situation
and the H1B Visa holder keeps his silence since he either does not know any
better or he must worry about his work Visa sponsorship.
Article 2:
http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty102.htm
COMMON SENSE ON MASS IMMIGRATION
This little book acquaints all Americans as to the deadly onslaught of
illegal aliens invading America. "Common Sense on Mass Immigration"
published by thesocialcontract.com is a must read by every American. This
book features top experts on this crisis and gives solutions. "Employers
also want cheap labor and are using foreign professionals to get it," said
Rob Sanchez of www.ZaZona.com.
Article 3:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645309_visabacklog25m.html
Salma Saifee's husband currently works at Microsoft, but the HR specialist
has been waiting since 2002 to gain a work permit in the United States. A
backlog of visa requests may require her to wait still years longer.
Article 4:
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/international/asia/27filip.html
Warnings Raised About Exodus of Philippine Doctors and Nurses
The Philippines has become one of the world's biggest suppliers of health
care workers, but the exodus of nurses and doctors in the past five years
for higher-paying jobs overseas has left the country's own health system in
a state of near collapse. About 100,000 nurses had left the Philippines to
work abroad since 1994.
Article 5:
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1309881.cms
GM to raise India workforce by 30%
America's loss is turning out to be India's gain. Within days of announcing
30,000 job-cuts in the US, automobile giant General Motors Corp will this
week unveil plans to increase its workforce in India by nearly 30%.
Article 6:
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10235577/
Visa squeeze adds to labor shortage
As Hawaii broadens its reach into high-technology industries, employers are
finding the federal limits on immigration restricting their ability to hire
computer engineers and other technical workers from overseas. With few
Americans available to do the work, companies are turning to applicants
from other countries. "They cannot find U.S. workers who are able to do the
job," Dye-Chiew said. "They are seeing the need to hire foreign workers."
Article 7:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10206250/site/newsweek/
The World Is Tilted
The popular idea that America is one step smarter and more sophisticated
than its rivals is a dangerous myth, and a threat to the global economy.
For most of the last 50 years, globalization has been a win-win
proposition, making America richer while lifting hundreds of millions in
the developing world out of poverty and despair. Recently, however, it has
begun to operate differently, undermining U.S. welfare while creating
imbalances likely to end in a global economic crisis.
Article 8:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112905-offshoring-legislation.html
Anti-offshoring legislation heats up
Bills related to offshoring or outsourcing, some of which would severely
limit or outright stop those practices, were introduced this year in nearly
all 50 states as well as in the U.S. Congress and there is no indication
that legislative trend will stop. "If total U.S. GDP [gross domestic
product] is raised by offshoring, but American workers lose at the expense
of corporate profits, then workers are wholly justified in resisting
offshoring, at least until they receive some compensation for their
losses." Whether any such compensation is in the offing, attempts to limit
offshoring are expected to persist as a new year arrives. Equally muddy at
times is the related issue of visas for non-U.S. workers employed in the
U.S. in highly skilled areas where job openings are bountiful.
Article 9:
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s01-wmgn.html
Outsourcing moves closer to home
With the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) scheduled to take
effect Jan. 1, interest in Central America is increasing, The leader in
Central America in terms of attracting outsourcing business is Costa Rica,
where 24,500 call-center and information-technology (IT) jobs have been
created in the past few years. That number is expected to double in the
next two years, according to the nonprofit Costa Rican Chamber of
Information and Communication Technology.
Article 10: (Text not provided, click link)
http://www.vdare.com/roberts/051128_immigration.htm
The Problem of Virtual Immigration
By Paul Craig Roberts
Americans dont see virtual immigrants as they are working offshore in
their home countries and communicating with their US employers via the
Internet. Americans do not experience virtual immigration until their jobs
are outsourced.
Moreover, virtual immigrants have massive sources of American support:
corporations that maximize profits by arbitraging labor and the politicians
that they control, libertarians and "free traders" who see freedom and the
invisible hand of the market working through virtual immigration, and "one
world" globalists.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.prweb.com/releases/2005/11/prweb314309.htm
Some H1B Visa Holders Finding the USA 'Welcome Mat' Torn and Frayed
GCG Worldwide, an internationally known Consulting group, shares insight in
a recent White Paper about the road frequently traveled by H1B Visa
Holders, who come to the USA at the request and support of an employer, but
find the road is not paved with gold...or even paved, in some cases.
Bristol, TN (PRWEB) November 25, 2005 -- Recent surveys and anecdotal
stories shared by clients paint a somber story; H1B Visa Holders, brought
to the USA and promised both equal treatment and equal opportunity are
finding it more and more difficult to live happily in a land where, quite
honestly, the natives are getting more and more restless. With recent major
announcements of major corporate layoffs in the thousands and another round
of downsizings appearing just around the corner, the proverbial "Give me
your tired huddled masses" may seem to be pie in the sky for H1B Visa
Immigrants here in the USA.
"With the world heading more and more toward "one world" development,
production and consumption, its not surprising that some group will find
itself left out in the cold," says Alan Guinn, Managing Director and CEO of
GCG. "What were finding so surprising is the fact that this is not
happening just in one area, or in one industry, but is happening in so many
different areas and industries."
Historically, H1B Visa workers have been focused in the IT industries and
post-Internet and .com meltdown, its been more and more difficult for
them to keep a job from one year to the next. "First found, first hired,
first fired," says Guinn. "The difference is that if they dont have a
job, they may or may not find something else. They generally go back home."
New approaches to dealing with salaries, guarantees and work product of H1B
Visa workers are growing to address their needs. Saga Consulting Services,
of Pittsburgh and Houston, has developed a marketing program specifically
to address the issue. "As a part of our Saga Economy approach, we
strive to surface issues that are evident, and resolve challenges before
they become challenges. Cognizance is our byword," says Kashif Aftab, VP of
Saga. "We help the stakeholder make modifications to his or her
expectations."
Employers have found that when you can hire a foreign worker just by
sponsoring a work visa and then pay them at 50% or less of the generally
acceptable wage rate, significantly expansion of corporate profits can
occur. Generally speaking, they would not consider hiring an American
worker to whom they would have to pay much higher wages with additional,
added benefits. Hence, the employer thus takes advantage of the situation
and the H1B Visa holder keeps his silence since he either does not know any
better or he must worry about his work Visa sponsorship.
Action pending in Congress may address inequities, but for some H1B Visa
holders, it may be too little, too late. "We brought them here on a promise
and a prayer" says Guinn, "but we may send them back with dashed dreams and
broken spirits."
For additional information, contact Alan Guinn, GCG Worldwide at
1.917.224.6782, or Kashif Aftab at 713.840.6302.
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.newswithviews.com/Wooldridge/frosty102.htm
COMMON SENSE ON MASS IMMIGRATION
By Frosty Wooldridge
November 25, 2005
NewsWithViews.com
This little book acquaints all Americans as to the deadly onslaught of
illegal aliens invading America. "Common Sense on Mass Immigration"
published by thesocialcontract.com is a must read by every American. This
book features top experts on this crisis and gives solutions.
"We are a nation of immigrants, but immigrants originally settled every
nation in the world," said former Colorado Governor Lamm. "This clichi
confuses facts with wisdom. It tells nothing about what we want America to
become. We are no longer an empty continent -- we are a crowded 296 million
people--with problems of sprawl, pollution and vanishing open space."
In the following paragraphs, you will read what some of the top experts
have to say about mass immigration, whether legal or illegal. If left
unchecked, immigration of any kind leads to accelerating consequences in
every sector of America. Immigration stands as the greatest threat and the
most destructive nation-destroying phenomenon in the history of the United
States of America.
"When the Statue of Liberty was erected in 1886, there were less than 65
million Americans. What other public policy applicable to the 1880s is
still applicable today?" Lamm asked. "It is said that immigrants take jobs
Americans wont do, but that is probably not true. However, this clichi
has become a job-destroying and wage-lowering philosophy where employers
use both unskilled and skilled immigrants to hold down wages and obtain
cheap labor at the expense of the American worker."
Lamm continues, "One particularly below the belt clichi suggests that all
discussion of immigration is racist. Yet every immigrant-receiving
country in the world has the right and duty to discuss and decide how many
immigrants, which immigrants and by what rules such decisions are to be
made and enforced."
Dr. Diana Hull, president of California for Population Stabilization,
capsweb.org, said, "From 2000 to 2002, 86 percent of U.S. population growth
was a result of immigration and births to immigrants. How densely populated
the U.S. will become in 30 years depends on limiting legal immigration
today."
Hull states, "Chain migration allows relatives to immigrate -- not only a
spouse, children and parents, but siblings and adult children. The entire
family may immigrate ad infinitum. This propels the exponential growth
curve with dangerous momentum."
Peter Gadiel, father of James Gadiel lost in the WTC disaster, 911fsa.org,
said, "On September 11, 2001, the willful negligence of federal, state and
local politicians aided in the murder of 3,000 people. These murders were
the foreseeable, inevitable result of decisions made by presidents and
Congresses beginning in the 1960s. They dismantled procedures that screened
out dangerous aliens attempting to get visas while masquerading as
students, tourists, business travelers; and to open US borders to millions
of illegal aliens."
"Employers such as beef and poultry processors, contractors, etc.,
discovered that the worker protections of the New Deal could be evaded and
profits increased if American labor was replaced by cheap foreign workers,
both legal and illegal," Gadiel said. "Al Qaedas planners knew the U.S.
would grant visas to their agents and that once in the U.S. the terrorists
could blend in with millions of illegals free from discovery; free to get
drivers licenses, open bank accounts; free to finance, plan, rehearse their
mass murder."
"Open borders welcome dangerous criminals," said Brenda Walker of
LimitsToGrowth.org and ImmigrationsHumanCost.org. "Immigrant crime is not
much discussed in polite company, since the subject violates the romantic
fable of the earnest hard-working newcomer. However, millions of illegal
aliens are engaged in identity theft, fraudulent social security numbers,
ID cards, tax evasion, driving without a valid license or insurance."
Walker said, "Ethnic gangs have moved in all over America turning American
communities into mean streets filled with theft and violence. Half of
Californias drunken driving arrests in 2001 were Latino men. Criminal
aliens in jail cost Los Angeles County $150 million annually."
Illegal aliens have killed hundreds of Americans with another cop killing
in Texas of Officer Jackson last week and Denvers Officer Don Young as
well as civilians Justin Goodman and Dale Englerth in Colorado. The list
grows as the numbers of illegal aliens enter our country.
"Employers also want cheap labor and are using foreign professionals to get
it," said Rob Sanchez of ZaZona.com. "Its costing middle income workers
their jobs."
"The number of visas that have been issued for non-immigrant workers is
staggering, over 17 million since 1985," Sanchez said. "Non-immigrants take
professional jobs such as high-tech, education, medical, accounting, and
blue collar jobs in manufacturing. Saving American jobs for American
citizens is as vital to our national security as the war against terrorism
because a strong middle class insures stability."
Peter Brimelow, editor of VDARE.com said, "On the education front, per
pupil expenditure rose from $2,290 in 1980 to $8,745 in 2002. Immigrants
have more children. In 2000, eight million of the total 53 million
school-age kids in the U.S. were offspring of immigrants. Bringing a
student with limited English skills to average performance levels requires
spending an additional $10,000 per student. Bi-lingual education adds $4
billion to educational costs in California alone."
"What is the impact on American children?" asked Brimelow. "There isnt
going to be any research because no one wants to know the answer."
"The histories of bilingual and bicultural societies that do not assimilate
are histories of turmoil, tension and tragedy," said Seymour Lipset.
"Americas linguistic unity is under attack as never before," said K.C.
McAlpin of ProEnglish.org. Making English our official language sends an
important message to new immigrants; that the U.S. intends to protect its
linguistic unity as a nation."
"Freedom requires that Americans share a common loyalty to the principles
of the Constitution," said John Vinson of ImmigrationControl.com. "Free
speech among people with little in common can easily cause someone to take
offense. We can have multiculturalism made inevitable by mass immigration
or we can have freedom. But we cant have both."
"Research shows that immigrants have had an enormous impact on size and
growth of the uninsured 44 million Americans," said Dr. Edwin Rubenstein of
esrresearch.com. "Efforts to resolve the health insurance crisis without
addressing the role of mass immigration are doomed to fail."
"Mass immigration is a threat to our nations health," said Dr. Wayne
Lutton of the TheSocialContract.com. "Diseases that were eradicated are
breaking out again -- Tuberculosis, AIDS, Cholera, Measles, Hepatitis A and
others have made a comeback. Illegal aliens bypass health tests and legal
immigrants are poorly screened for disease. The United States is in danger
of experiencing a public health calamity."
"Immigration brings little to Social Security finances," said Dr. John
Attarian author of "Social Security: False consciousnesses and Crisis."
He said, "Immigration weakens Social Security. Foreign H-1B workers are
recruited and supplied under contract to American firms. As they are
employees of foreign firms, no Social Security taxes are withheld.
Displacing Americans with cheaper immigrant labor means revenue losses for
Social Security."
These experts, all recognized at the national level, bring tremendous
information to every American. The more you learn, the more you must take
action. This booklet, "Common Sense on Mass Immigration," can be obtained
by calling 1 800 352 4843. Bring it to your church groups, civic clubs,
political clubs, friends, neighbors and anyone you meet. Make sure you
carry those numbersusa.com business cards that show the immigration driven
population graph. Join NumbersUSA.com to become faxers. We need five
million faxers! A dozen other immigration experts in this booklet bring
sobering information to our greatest national and internal crisis in the
history of the United States.
It doesnt matter whether you care little or care a lot. You, as an
American, can do something today while you have power to impact this
national crisis or you can wait until impact hits you in dozens of
consequences explained in this book. These writers bring solutions and
its time we create critical mass of Americans who demand our
elected leaders take action for the benefit of Americans in America.
Write for that 28-point action letter to stop this nation-destroying
madness at www.frostywooldridge.com. Check out Mark Edwards' "Wake Up
America" talk show on 50,000 watt KDWN-Am-720 10:00 PM to midnight PT, or
on the worldwide Internet at www.thewakeupamericafoundation.com. Also,
check out www.alipac.us at 1 866 329 3999;
www.theamericanresi stance.com;
www.numbersusa.com;
www.frostywooldridge.com;
www.ccir.net;
www.carryingcapacity.com
www.teamamericapac.org;
www.projectusa.org; www.unitedpatriotsofamerica.com To order my CD report
from the border: ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION -- OUR TROJAN HORSE -- PH.
1-800-248-3061.
www.TiANews.com -- Find out why borders are so important. www.balance.org
Become a part of the "21st Century Paul Revere" bicycle ride across America
coast to coast next summer with Frosty as he and his band of riders carry
this message from the Golden Gate Bridge to the steps of the nation's
capitol in Washington, DC. Inquire at his email address for full details on
how you can participate: frostyw@juno.com
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2002645309_visabacklog25m.html
Friday, November 25, 2005 - 12:00 AM
DEAN RUTZ / THE SEATTLE TIMES
Salma Saifee's husband currently works at Microsoft, but the HR specialist
has been waiting since 2002 to gain a work permit in the United States. A
backlog of visa requests may require her to wait still years longer.
Visa delays hold up jobs, green cards for foreigners
By Lornet Turnbull
Seattle Times staff reporter
Salma Saifee spends much of her days searching the Internet for jobs she
knows she cannot have.
Three years ago, the 27-year-old married her childhood friend and left her
human-resources job in Udaipur, in the Indian state of Rajasthan, to join
him in Washington where he works as a software engineer for Microsoft.
Arif Saifee is in the U.S. on an employment visa, commonly known as the
H-1B, and shortly after he married Salma began the process to get permanent
legal status, or green cards, for them both. As his wife, Salma holds an
H-4 visa, which allows her to live and study in this country -- but not
work.
So while she waited for the time when she could work, she took courses to
sharpen her skills in human resources and earned professional certification
-- all in preparation for a job market she said seems flush with
opportunity.
But a processing delay in the spring held up the work permit that comes as
part of their green-card application and which would have finally allowed
Salma Saifee a chance to work.
And now, like the spouses of other foreign professionals working in this
country, she finds herself in an indefinite holding pattern, the result of
a huge backlog for employment-based visas.
The backlog, which the government first announced in mid-September to be
effective Oct. 1, affects up to an estimated 1 million people and could
extend Saifee's inability to work for another four to six years.
Becoming permanent
From foreign worker to permanent legal resident
The complicated process that takes someone from foreign worker to permanent
resident status involves three main steps.
Labor Certification -- An employer must receive certification from the U.S.
Department of Labor that there are no U.S. workers available for a job the
employer wishes to fill with a foreign worker.
Form I-140 -- A petition filed by the employer on the worker's behalf for
permanent residency in the U.S.
Form -- I-485 -- The worker's application for permanent residence, it may
be filed in conjunction with a work permit for spouses and children in the
household eligible to work.
The backup is especially hard on workers from such countries as India,
China and the Philippines; even their best and brightest, who get first
preference for these employment-based visas, are facing long delays.
"A whole life can change in a span of four to five years; I don't want to
lag behind," said Saifee, who holds a master's degree in human resources
from MLS University in Udaipur. "We knew coming in I would not be able to
work right away but with my qualifications and experience, we were hoping
that would turn around."
Saifee scours the Internet for human-resources jobs, hoping a local
employer would consider sponsoring her for her own H-1B, the kind of visa
that allows her husband to work.
"I see so many jobs opening and call each and every one and they say,
'Sorry, you don't have a work permit,' " she said. "There are jobs; it's
not like this is a tight market. I even offered to volunteer so I can get
some experience and they say, 'We can't employ volunteers and not pay
them.' "
Ran out of visas
The Saifees and others like them who are seeking employment-based green
cards are the apparent victims of federal government efficiency.
The backlog that traps them resulted when the U.S. Departments of Labor and
Homeland Security sped up the process that transforms foreign workers in
this country into legal permanent residents.
So many applicants were processed so quickly, U.S. Citizenship and
Immigration Services within DHS ran out of visas to issue from among the
140,000 allocated each year.
Further exacerbating the problem, experts believe a huge bubble was created
seven years ago when Congress -- in response to a high-tech industry worker
shortage -- raised to 198,000 from 65,000 the number of H-1B visas it
allots. While the cap reverted to 65,000 in 2003, many of those workers are
now seeking permanent residence in the U.S.
"I guess we're victims of our own success," said Bill Strassberger,
Washington, D.C.-based spokesman with Citizenship and Immigration Services.
"We were doing all we could to process these faster, and as a result we're
oversubscribed" -- governmentspeak for too many applicants for available
visas.
While the delay means the workers must wait longer for their green cards,
sometimes stuck with the same employer while they wait, the real impact is
felt by spouses like Salma Saifee. "Everything in our lives is so dependent
on this," she said.
She's enrolled in classes at Bellevue Community College, but says, "I can't
keep taking classes forever."
The delay puts everything on hold, she said. "If things remain like this, I
may want to take a step back and consider moving back to my country, where
I can get employment."
Employer sponsorship
Employer sponsorship is one of only a few ways foreigners can obtain
permanent legal status in the U.S.
Many are skilled workers holding employment visas that allow them to work
at such high-tech giants as Microsoft, Real Networks and to a lesser extent
at universities and research centers nationwide.
If employers decide they want to keep the workers permanently, they begin a
process to get them permanent status, available not just to the person on
the payroll but to spouses and dependent children as well.
Each year, the government makes 140,000 of these visas available, dividing
them up based roughly on skill and in such a way that citizens from any one
country receive no more than 7 percent of available visas.
While employers don't need to prove that no U.S. workers are available for
jobs given to H1-B visa holders, if they decide to sponsor an individual
for permanent residency they must receive certification from the U.S.
Department of Labor that the job that person would take cannot be filled by
a U.S. resident.
Once certified, the employer files a petition with the Citizenship and
Immigration Services on the foreign worker's behalf for permanent
residency.
For many years, the Labor Department was slow in getting jobs certified,
and once they were certified, immigration officials were equally as slow in
processing permanent residency petitions.
So for years many of the 140,000 employment-based green cards the
government made available each year went unused, explained Seattle
immigration attorney Cletus Weber.
The current backlog occurred when both agencies began speeding up the
process and overshot the number of visas available.
Citizenship and Immigration Services isn't allowed to issue more visas than
Congress has allotted, and it won't accept an application for a visa for
which there's no available visa number.
That means that applicants like the Saifees, who had already been waiting
three years to be able to apply for a green card, found the date for which
a visa would be available pushed back even further.
"The overall impact is that for employers who are seeking to hire some of
the very best individuals -- outstanding researchers or those with advanced
degrees -- it may be years before they get permission to permanently hire
such workers," said Seattle immigration attorney Steven Miller.
"For those who can go anywhere in the world, the U.S. is an increasingly
difficult place to come -- especially if you have a family."
For those caught in the backlog, the only relief in sight are controversial
provisions in the U.S. budget bill that would make available about 90,000
additional employment-based visas by recapturing unused quotas from past
years and amending the rules so that family members do not count against
the annual cap.
Congress could vote on the bill as early as next month.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/27/international/asia/27filip.html
November 27, 2005
Warnings Raised About Exodus of Philippine Doctors and Nurses
By AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE
MANILA, Nov. 26 (Agence France-Presse) - The Philippines has become one of
the world's biggest suppliers of health care workers, but the exodus of
nurses and doctors in the past five years for higher-paying jobs overseas
has left the country's own health system in a state of near collapse.
At a meeting of health care professionals called recently by the Philippine
Medical Association, one conference paper said: "The crisis in medical
human resources is now upon us. The delivery of health services is being
compromised. We have to address the problem before the health system
completely collapses."
A former health secretary, Jaime Galvez Tan, who has been studying the
exodus of doctors over the past five years, said in an interview, "We are
facing a serious problem, and we need to address it now before it is too
late."
"Doctors are leaving for a variety of reasons: political instability, low
pay, corruption, poor working conditions and the threat of malpractice," he
said. "But above all, they don't see much hope for the future and the
future of their children."
Mr. Tan's study estimated that about 100,000 nurses had left the
Philippines to work abroad since 1994.
About 50,000 left in the last five years, but nursing schools, which have
mushroomed in recent years, have managed to produce only 33,370 nurses over
the same period.
The study found Britain and the United States offered the best working
conditions for Filipino nurses with visas for spouses and children and in
some cases subsidized housing.
But above all, the study found, salaries were a major factor, averaging
$3,000 to $4,000 a month, compared with $180 to $220 a month in the
Philippines.
Because the standards in developed countries for foreign nurses are easier
to meet than those for foreign doctors, more than 3,500 doctors have
retrained as nurses and emigrated since 2000, Mr. Tan said.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/1309881.cms
GM to raise India workforce by 30%
Byas Anand
[ Sunday, November 27, 2005 11:50:54 pmTIMES NEWS NETWORK ]
Citibank NRI Offer
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NEW DELHI: America's loss is turning out to be India's gain. Within days of
announcing 30,000 job-cuts in the US, automobile giant General Motors Corp
will this week unveil plans to increase its workforce in India by nearly
30%.
The carmaker has decided to add 450 jobs at its existing plant in Halol
(Gujarat) as part of plans to expand presence in India - the emerging
low-cost automobile hub in the east.
"GM is going on a hiring spree in India, and it's add jobs both on the
factory shop-floor as well in the executive cadre. GM will this week start
the process to hire 450 additional people for its India venture," a senior
head-hunter told The Times of India.
While it will increase its floor-worker force by 400, another 50 are being
added in its executive cadre. "This is in line with the company's plans to
expand its presence in India, which GM feels will drive future growth," the
source said.
...
...
GM India today has close to 1,600 people on its rolls, including nearly
1,300 on the shop-floor. With GM now preparing to drive into the volume car
market in January 2006, the firm is working towards expanding its workforce
in the country.
The car maker plans to roll out the premium hatchback Aveo in India in
January next year, followed by an entry-level mid-sized sedan version of
the car. It will also introduce a hatchback version of its hot-seller
Chevrolet Optra in India by mid-2006.
In addition, the firm plans to add another 4,000 jobs in India when it sets
up its second greenfield car plant.
The car maker has already shortlisted Andhra Pradesh, tamil Nadu and
Maharashtra as the probable sites for its second plant, which will produce
the Chevrolet Spark (a rebadged Daewoo Matiz), an all-new SUV and a sedan.
6. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://msnbc.msn.com/id/10235577/
Visa squeeze adds to labor shortage
By Harold Nedd
Pacific Business News (Honolulu)
Updated: 7:00 p.m. ET Nov. 27, 2005
As Hawaii broadens its reach into high-technology industries, employers are
finding the federal limits on immigration restricting their ability to hire
computer engineers and other technical workers from overseas.
With few technical experts available locally, Hawaii is now running into
the same problems experienced in recent years by companies in Silicon
Valley, Seattle, Boston and other technology hotbeds. With few Americans
available to do the work, companies are turning to applicants from other
countries.
Before 2000, U.S. employers were allowed to hire 195,000 foreign nationals
a year. That number has since been cut to 65,000.
The policy change is seen as a threat to foreign student enrollment at
schools such as Hawaii Pacific University and employers who say they can't
find enough skilled people such as computer science engineers in Hawaii.
"It's a major issue," said Mike Fitzgerald, president and CEO of Enterprise
Honolulu.
"We're seeing a shortage of talent in the science technology and
engineering realm. We have about 1,500 companies in the innovation
category, and about two-thirds of them have technology positions they
aren't able to find people to fill. It hurts our economic competitiveness
if we don't let more smart people in here from wherever they want to come."
KahBo Dye-Chiew, president of the Hawaii Chapter of the American
Immigration Lawyers Association, said she represents several high-tech
employers who also are struggling to find the right people for openings.
"They cannot find U.S. workers who are able to do the job," Dye-Chiew said.
"They are seeing the need to hire foreign workers."
On the other side are those who believe companies want to hire foreign
experts because they're willing to work more cheaply than American workers.
But Dye-Chiew and others say restrictive U.S. immigration laws prevent
employers from casually hiring foreign nationals for white-collar jobs.
For one thing, the employer must show there is a definite talent shortage.
Plus, the process can be a big expense for employers. The filing fee alone
is $1,500. Employers also must pay a $1,500 training fee and a $500 fraud
prevention fee. Most usually hire an immigration lawyer to oversee the
paperwork.
"Employers are not going to go through all that trouble unless there is
justification for it," said Ruth K. Oh, an immigration lawyer in Honolulu.
Michael T. Rota, associate vice president of academic affairs for the
University of Hawaii community colleges, said the fact remains that Hawaii
high schools are graduating between 14,000 and 15,000 students a year for a
job market that requires about 30,000 people a year.
"Then, only 35 percent of them go on to higher education, cutting that
15,000 to less than half," Rota said. "So, right off the bat, we've got a
major deficit. The government's visa program has been an attempt to respond
to that issue."
Under the federal government's H-1B temporary worker visa program, Hawaii
employers are allowed to hire foreign nationals with knowledge and skills
figured to be in short supply. The visas are valid for up to six years.
Demand for those visas have been steadily rising in Hawaii.
Employers hired 315 foreign nationals in the 12 months ended Sept. 30,
2002. By a comparable period in 2004, that had grown to 546, about a 73
percent climb in two years.
But in fiscal year 2005, the number of foreign nationals hired for
white-collar jobs in Hawaii fell 2.4 percent to 533, according to the U.S.
Citizenship & Immigration Services in Washington, D.C.
"The problem is that the cap on visas was cut in half," said Maile Hirota,
an immigration lawyer in Honolulu. "And in the long run, this might
discourage foreign students from coming to the U.S. or Hawaii if they know
they can't get hired after they graduate."
Already, Hawaii Pacific University has seen a 5 percent drop this year in
its foreign student enrollment. Fall enrollment dropped to 1,356 foreign
students this year, down from 1,429 last year, said Scott Stensrud, vice
president for enrollment management.
Nationally, the effect of immigration policy is showing up in the reduced
number of foreign students studying computer science at American
universities.
But some local observers point to statistics that suggest Hawaii has enough
graduates with a computer-science background to fill the local need.
The number of University of Hawaii students graduating with a bachelor of
science degree rose 69 percent from 1999 to 2004, according to the school's
Institutional Research Office. And the number of students enrolled in the
university's Information and Computer Sciences Department rose to 749 in
2004 from 697 in 2000.
"There are a lot of qualified people with a computer background in Hawaii,"
said Stephen Itoga, a computer science professor at UH. "But the best will
look for the best opportunities. Sometimes that's in Hawaii; sometimes it's
on the Mainland. Local companies just have to be competitive with
salaries."
Patrick Sullivan, chairman of Oceanit, said his company has been actively
hiring 20 to 30 technical people.
"It isn't easy," Sullivan said. "There is a lack of qualified graduates
coming out of the universities. The demand is greater than the supply.
We've had to be a lot more aggressive about identifying people inside and
outside of Hawaii. With the government now making it more difficult for
foreign nationals to go to school or stay here and work, we're just
shooting ourselves in the foot with that policy."
7. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/10206250/site/newsweek/
The World Is Tilted
The popular idea that America is one step smarter and more sophisticated
than its rivals is a dangerous myth, and a threat to the global economy.
By Clyde Prestowitz
Newsweek
Issues 2006 - For most of the last 50 years, globalization has been a
win-win proposition, making America richer while lifting hundreds of
millions in the developing world out of poverty and despair. Recently,
however, it has begun to operate differently, undermining U.S. welfare
while creating imbalances likely to end in a global economic crisis.
In this new mode, globalization is tilting the world like a giant sliding
board game on which the "flattening" of old barriers is accelerating the
transfer of the supply side of the U.S. economy to the rest of the world,
especially Asia. Take Boeing as an example. Long America's leading
exporter, it symbolizes the kind of high-tech leadership on which the
future of the U.S. economy is widely said to depend. After
losing market share to the European Airbus in recent years, Boeing
responded by developing the new 787 Dreamliner, which is gathering record
orders. Yet these sales may not add a lot to the U.S. economy because much
of the work -- including production of the critical carbon-fiber wings that
Boeing always insisted would be kept at home -- will be done in Japan.
Even more telling is the example of the semiconductor king, Intel. When
economists and political leaders say American industry should concentrate
on producing very-high-technology products where it has a clear comparative
advantage, Intel's chips are what they have in mind. Yet company executives
recently told a presidential advisory panel that under present
circumstances they must consider building more of their new factories
abroad. Over the next 10 years, they explained, the cost of running a
semiconductor factory in the United States could be $1 billion more than
that of running it abroad.
That there is something odd here is not yet widely acknowledged. Indeed,
most business, academic, media and political leaders continue to insist
that globalization is proceeding smoothly, making the world rich, more
democratic and more peaceful. President Bill Clinton called globalization
America's strategy, and President George W. Bush describes the American
economy as the "envy of the world." Nor is this view entirely unjustified.
U.S. GDP and productivity growth are the highest in the developed
economies, while inflation, unemployment and interest rates are among the
lowest.
Nevertheless, a closer look reveals a dark side. The U.S. trade deficit is
now more than $800 billion, or 7 percent of GDP, and grows inexorably as
Americans continue to consume more than they produce. The trade imbalance
is of unprecedented size and breadth. Economists typically expect the
United States to import commodities and cheap manufactured goods while
exporting high-tech products, sophisticated services and agricultural
goods, for which its land and climate are well suited. In reality, the U.S.
high-tech trade surplus of $30 billion in 1998 has collapsed to a deficit
of about $40 billion. Agricultural trade is now also in deficit for the
first time in memory, and the modest surplus in services is declining as
global deployment of the high-speed Internet has made it possible for
services to move offshore as easily as manufacturing. In short, U.S.
exports are declining versus imports across the board, while its growth
depends on foreign lenders (primarily in Japan and China) to finance the
excess consumption.
Two factors explain these unexpected trends. The first has been at work for
a long time. It is the gradual construction of the global economy in an
asymmetrical form. For the United States, globali-zation has meant building
its economy into a giant consumption machine. Easy consumer credit,
home-equity loans with tax-deductible interest payments, markets largely
open to imports, policies that emphasize growth through demand management
and accommodative monetary policy, and myriad other incentives have led
Americans to save nothing while both households and government borrow at
record rates. This is often justly criticized as excessive. But it is
important to understand that American buying drives most of the world's
growth because the United States is virtually the only net consuming
country in the world.
Globalization for most others has meant export-led growth. Particularly in
Asia, "catch-up" development policies have focused on creating production
and export machines. There are many flavors, but most Asian economies are
characterized by relatively low consumption, savings rates of 30 to 50
percent of GDP, government intervention in markets, managed exchange rates,
promotion of investment in "strategic" industries, incentives for exports
and accumulation of chronic trade surpluses along with large reserves of
dollars.
Indeed, the dollar is the key to this whole lopsided global structure. The
dollar, of course, is not only America's money, but also the world's
primary reserve currency. As long as others will accept it in payment,
America can buy and borrow without concern for saving, investment or
production. Thus, deficits -- whether trade or budgetary -- really don't
matter and America can get away with fiscal irresponsibility. Oddly, the
rest of the world can be just as irresponsible. By managing exchange rates
to keep the dollar overvalued and their export prices low, other countries
can oversave and overinvest because the excess production can be exported
to the U.S. market.
This structure has grown for so long because it has great benefits for both
sides. America gets to live above its means, as cheap imports and foreign
capital keep inflation and interest rates down and home values rising. The
rest of the world, especially Asia, gets to climb the ladder of technology
faster than it would otherwise. By accumulating dollars, Asia also gains
strategic leverage over the lone superpower -- which, by outsourcing
management of the dollar, has ceded a degree of control over its own
long-term interest rates.
There is a downside, however. By keeping the dollar chronically overvalued
and providing investment subsidies to attract strategic industries out of
the United States, the Asian export-led-growth approach has long tended to
shrink U.S. productive capacity. For some time, this was true mostly of
commodity manufacturing, and the significance of the trend was discounted
with the rationale that the U.S. economy was moving to the "higher ground"
of high-tech and sophisticated services.
This argument was never entirely satisfactory because of the exchange-rate
management and the investment subsidies used by export-led-growth countries
to attract high-tech production to their shores. For instance, Boeing is
outsourcing much of the 787's construction to Japan in part because an
overly strong dollar reduces yen-based costs, and in part because the
Japanese government will provide production subsidies unavailable in the
United States while "encouraging" Japanese airlines to buy the planes if
the work is done in Japanese factories. For Boeing, this is all of critical
importance as a way to offset the launch subsidies provided by the EU to
archrival Airbus.
But if it was always flawed, the argument is now in tatters in the face of
the second aforementioned factor: the entrance into the global economy of
China and India. Not only do they offer low costs, which the strong dollar
further reduces, but -- contrary to common assumptions about developing
countries -- significant portions of their populations are highly skilled.
They can thus be competitive across the entire range of manufactured goods
and services. The negation of time and distance by the Internet and
air-express services makes this all the more true.
Further, the potential size of these markets attracts investment in
anticipation of growth, even if the initial production cost is not fully
competitive. This is particularly true of China, where national pride and
an authoritarian government willing to offer large investment incentives
create an environment in which foreign companies are encouraged to engender
"trust" by transferring factories and technology to China, regardless of
the fact that the comparative cost advantage lies elsewhere.
This, combined with the asymmetric global economic structure, is why the
U.S. trade balance is collapsing even in advanced-technology products and
serv-ices. The growing trade imbalance, in turn, makes the current mode of
globalization unsustainable. To finance the deficit, the United States is
already absorbing about 80 percent of available world savings. The value of
U.S. imports is now more than double that of exports. To merely stabilize
the deficit at its current rate would require that exports grow more than
twice as fast as imports.
But this cannot happen if the supply side continues to move offshore. If it
doesn't happen and the deficit keeps growing, world savings will eventually
be insufficient and a financial crash will be inevitable. Of course, U.S.
consumption and imports could be cut, but if that were to occur without a
commensurate increase in consumption elsewhere, the whole world economy
would suffer recession, if not depression.
Some economists speak bravely of a "soft landing." In this scenario, the
United States reduces its budget deficit and excess consumption, while a
gradually falling dollar results in rising exports to foreign markets where
governments are stimulating consumption. While desirable, this will not
occur automatically. Interest groups in all the key nations will defend the
status quo.
Thus, for the sake not only of the United States but of all nations with a
stake in globalization, it is imperative that political leaders change its
current mode. The game cannot continue with one participant playing
consumer while nearly all the others play producer. For the long-term
success of all, everyone must agree to play the same globalization game.
Prestowitz is president of the Economic Strategy Institute and author of
"Three Billion New Capitalists: The Great Shift of Wealth and Power to the
East."
8. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2005/112905-offshoring-legislation.html
Anti-offshoring legislation heats up
By Nancy Weil, IDG News Service, 11/29/05
Bills related to offshoring or outsourcing, some of which would severely
limit or outright stop those practices, were introduced this year in nearly
all 50 states as well as in the U.S. Congress and there is no indication
that legislative trend will stop.
Of the bills that have actually become laws, most seem to lack teeth and in
some cases have had negative consequences by costing states millions of
dollars more to pay for contracts with call centers in the U.S. rather than
in other countries. But lobbying efforts to pass stronger legislation
appear to be intensifying.
"I think on the state level, these efforts will continue," said Stuart
Anderson, executive director for the National Foundation for American
Policy (NFAP) in Arlington, Va. "Once you're a state officeholder and
you've introduced one bill, it doesn't take much to keep introducing
bills."
Groups of service and blue-collar workers have mobilized to support laws
restricting offshoring. Rescue American Jobs, for instance, has a
legislation tracker at its Web site, and has as its mission the task of
"building the largest American workforce mobilization in history" as a
response to outsourcing and offshoring. The group, based in Pittsburgh, and
supported by the United Steelworkers of America, contends that offshoring
is a consequence of "executive greed" and urges its members to action.
On the other side of the spectrum is the Technology CEO Council, a group of
leading IT companies, including Dell, Intel, IBM and Motorola. The group
includes on its Web site "10 common myths about worldwide sourcing,"
including a statistic that even some in the anti-offshoring movement will
acknowledge, which is that the number of U.S. jobs lost to offshoring is a
small percentage of the total workforce.
Forrester Research Inc. has forecast the number of outsourced U.S. jobs to
reach 3.3 million by 2015, which translates to about 250,000 layoffs
annually, according to Lael Brainard and Robert E. Litan of the Brookings
Institution in Washington, D.C.
"How should we think about that number?" they wrote in an analysis of
services offshoring published in June. "It is small relative to total U.S.
employment of 137 million and accounts for less than 2% of the roughly 15
million Americans who involuntarily lose their jobs each year. But to
workers who lose their jobs, and to the far larger number of workers who
worry that they will lose theirs, the foreign outsourcing total, whatever
it is, resonates powerfully."
At the federal level, NFAP's Anderson expects to see continued efforts by
lawmakers to curb offshoring and outsourcing by introducing amendments to
pending legislation. Last year, for example, two amendments that would have
restricted outsourcing of federal government work and the use of federal
funds in states that permit offshoring were passed by the U.S. Senate, but
ultimately were dropped by conference committees that met to hash out
differences between Senate and House versions of the bills.
The amendment of bills is a political tactic: By tacking what is in effect
different legislation onto, say, a budget bill, lawmakers can force the
hands of colleagues who might not want to be seen as voting against the
legislation, even though they may not approve of the amendment. Anderson
expects that legislators will turn to data-privacy and identity-theft
issues in attempts to stem the export of call-center and other jobs.
"I think it really only takes one state to pass a bill, for example on
limiting data being sent overseas, to completely interfere with a whole
range of industries that rely on being able to send data across a border,"
Anderson said.
In cases where state legislation has been approved and taken effect,
negative consequences have sometimes occurred, with two of the most-cited
examples being New Jersey and Indiana. A New Jersey measure to stop Indian
workers from performing unemployment call center services created 12 jobs
in the state but wound up costing $900,000 more than offshoring the center,
according to Anderson in an analysis he wrote called "Creeping
Protectionism." Other policy analysts also note that in Indiana the
cancellation of a state contract for a call center was expected to lead to
unemployed residents having fewer services.
The NFAP tracks bills that have been introduced and counted more than 112
of those in at least 40 states in the first quarter of the year, when a
flurry of proposed legislation tends to occur. Most bills it is tracking
have been referred to committees, some are stalled, some have been killed
and a handful have passed. Numerous states have pending legislation that
would simply set up commissions to study the effects of offshoring.
Added to the mix is a steadily rising analyst outcry that "the promised
benefits of offshoring are far overstated, while the likely economic costs
are not addressed at all," according to a briefing paper by L. Josh Bivens
of the Economic Policy Institute in Washington, D.C.
Assessing statistics is difficult, policy analysts both for and against
offshoring note, because many companies don't say what effect offshoring
has on layoffs or provide a full picture of what jobs are being handled
outside of the U.S.
Equally muddy at times is the related issue of visas for non-U.S. workers
employed in the U.S. in highly skilled areas where job openings are
bountiful. The U.S. Senate recently approved an increase in the number of
H-1B visas available to foreign workers in areas such as IT. At roughly the
same time, a report came out that U.S. companies hire workers with the
visas and pay them less than U.S. employees with the same jobs, which
sparked yet more debate about the merits of H-1B visas.
But it's also the case that when quotas are lower or when the available
H-1B visas are used up, the effect is "to push more work offshore," said
Marc Hebert, a vice president Sierra Atlantic Inc., an application
development and integration firm that has a global services division in
India. Sierra Atlantic client Commendo Software Inc., has been in that
situation.
"It's a big drain" to deal with visa issues, said Reynaldo Gil, Commendo's
chairman and CEO. Because his company is small, he doesn't have the
resources or time to devote to dealing with visas and related issues, so he
seeks out partners like Sierra Atlantic, which can use its global workforce
to help customers like Commendo.
"The more complicated that Congress makes it the more dependent you are on
partners," he said. "It is creating more of a dependency."
Lawmakers, however, will undoubtedly continue to introduce legislation but
avoid what analysts see as the real issues - getting a grasp on the overall
impact of offshoring by better data collection and analysis, the need to
boost U.S. educational and retraining programs and emphasis on helping
employees who lose their jobs.
"Offshoring is likely to grow rapidly in the future and could well have
large effects on the U.S. economy in years go come," Bivens wrote in his
analysis taking to task three commonly cited reports by consultants and
economists that minimize the effect of offshoring on the U.S. economy and
workers. "If total U.S. GDP [gross domestic product] is raised by
offshoring, but American workers lose at the expense of corporate profits,
then workers are wholly justified in resisting offshoring, at least until
they receive some compensation for their losses."
Whether any such compensation is in the offing, attempts to limit
offshoring are expected to persist as a new year arrives.
9. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s01-wmgn.html
from the November 28, 2005 edition -
http://www.csmonitor.com/2005/1128/p13s01-wmgn.html
Outsourcing moves closer to home
A new trade agreement with Central America to take effect Jan. 1 tempts
more US companies to try 'nearsourcing.'
By Danna Harman | Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
MANAGUA, NICARAGUA - A lot has been written about the outsourcing of
high-tech and customer-service jobs to lands overseas. But the latest
threat to job security in the United States, some argue, lies right next
door, south of the border.
Touting Central America as the "new Asia," pro-business and investment
organizations across the region are all talking about the benefits of
"nearsourcing." It's the same thing as outsourcing - that is, sending jobs
to lower cost locations outside the US - but closer to home: It's South
rather than East, near rather than far. And it's increasingly attractive to
US firms.
Lured by the ease of working in the same time zone a mere three or four
hours' flight away from headquarters in the US, such companies as Dell,
Sykes, Sitel, IBM, Proctor & Gamble, and Western Union on the service side
and Sara Lee/Hanes, VF Corp., and Russell Athletic on the manufacturing
side have been moving business into the region.
Central America received just over $2 billion in foreign investment last
year, up from an annual average of $633 million in the first half of the
1990s, according to the UN's Economic Conference on Latin America.
To be sure, the numbers of US jobs - manufacturing and service alike - that
are going to Central America is minuscule when compared with those being
outsourced to Asia. The number of jobs currently outsourced to India alone
ranges between 400,000 and 700,000, says market-research company Forrester
Research in Cambridge, Mass.
But with the Central American Free Trade Agreement (CAFTA) scheduled to
take effect Jan. 1, interest in Central America is increasing, says Eric
Jacobstein, a trade expert at the Inter-American Dialogue in Washington.
"The US private sector will no doubt continue to look to China and India,"
says Mr. Jacobstein. "This is a phenomenon that cannot be stopped." But, he
adds, "geography does matter," and, combined with locked-in trade
preferences via CAFTA, greater nearsourcing "is bound to occur," he says.
Like India and the Philippines before them, CAFTA nations - Nicaragua,
Panama, El Salvador, Honduras, Costa Rica, and the Dominican Republic - are
embracing the trend with business-friendly policies and heavy marketing.
ProNicaragua, a public-private agency working to attract foreign direct
investment to Nicaragua has, for example, put together a database of
English speakers (with more than 4,500 names so far) and is working with
the government to establish programs to upgrade the English skills in the
country.
These workers will fill what Juan Carlos Pereira, executive director of
ProNicaragua, estimates will be approximately 4,000 new call-center and
service-center jobs in the next three to four years.
"Paradoxically, the turmoil of the 1980s has now become one of our great
selling points for the call-center industry," says Mr. Pereira. "Over
400,000 of our people who fled the conflicts of the 1980s moved to the US
and Canada. Many, including myself, have now returned to the country with
good education and English skills."
The leader in Central America in terms of attracting outsourcing business
is Costa Rica, where 24,500 call-center and information-technology (IT)
jobs have been created in the past few years. That number is expected to
double in the next two years, according to the nonprofit Costa Rican
Chamber of Information and Communication Technology.
In Latin America as a whole, the number of call-center workstations will
hit 730,000 in 2008, up from 336,000 in 2004, reports Datamonitor, a
market-research firm.
India still has a far larger pool of educated English speakers as well as a
lower minimum-wage base, and often better infrastructure. But Central
Americans feel they can still capture a growing share of the market,
especially because CAFTA ends most tariffs on more than $33 billion in
goods traded between the US and Central American signatories and protects
investors in the service industry.
"There is a hunger here for having a job, and a highly motivated group of
people," says Leonel Lacayo, a Nicaraguan who lived 23 years in the US
before returning home to Managua and opening the Nicaragua Call Center
(NCC) last month as part of a joint venture with US-based Franklin
Collections Services. Lacayo has 70 English-speaking employees who make
calls to collect debts for clients such as telecom companies, hospitals,
and credit-card companies.
"It would be hard to find people in the US who wanted this job because they
have too many other options," he says. "But here the pay [$400 a month plus
incentives] is triple minimum wage."
By January, he says, he expects to expand to 100 operators.
When it comes to call centers, says Mr. Lacayo, the accents of his
operators - if they exist at all - are a big selling point. The Hispanic
population in the US has risen 50 percent in the past five years to about
38.8 million, according to US Census figures.
"There are millions of Hispanics in the US," Lacayo points out. "And so
even non-Hispanics have gotten used to that accent." Indian accents, by
comparison, he says, "are totally difficult."
Being able to speak both English and Spanish is a plus, says Claudia
Solano, one of the operators at the call center. "The best collections I
make are from Hispanics," she says. "They are not used to being able to
communicate." A few days ago, she says, someone told her she was "the
nicest collector who ever had called."
Ms. Solano's parents fled Nicaragua during the civil war of the '80s and
settled in Las Vegas where she and her older sister, Karen, also an
operator here, grew up. The family moved back to Managua to care for
elderly grandparents three years ago.
"I am overqualified and underpaid," says Karen Solano, speaking over the
din in the large rented hall that serves as the NCC call center. "But it's
really hard to get a good job in Nicaragua."
If, she says, more companies eventually invest in the country, she will be
better off. "I don't want to be a collector all my life, anyway," she
explains, "I want to be a supervisor. So, I am keeping my fingers crossed."
Not everyone sees the growth in nearsourcing in a positive light.
"We are sorry about this phenomenon," says Thea Lee, the AFL-CIO's deputy
director for public policy. "We are sorry anytime we lose good jobs here in
the United States and we are also sorry we did not succeed in yielding
stronger protections for Central American workers in CAFTA."
The AFL-CIO lobbied against the trade agreement, which squeaked by with a
two-vote majority in the House of Representatives and a nine-vote margin in
the Senate.
Ms. Lee disagrees with the argument that sending jobs to Central America
will mean there will be fewer illegal immigrants in the US competing for
jobs.
"It's a common business line, but there is very little truth to it," she
says. "We don't believe that more trade will do much to lift people out of
poverty. It will enrich the rich. We want Central America to be more
stable, but we don't think this nearsourcing will deliver that."
10. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
11. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
12. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
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