Should the U.S. Be Training Its Competitors

Date: Wednesday, February 06, 2008 2:16 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1818 -- 2/06/2008 >>>>>

This is a very sneaky article. The way it starts out, you would think that
it's going to make a case for why we shouldn't educate foreign students at our
universities. Instead it concludes that since we are educating them, we would
be foolish not to give every graduate an H-1B visa or a green card so they can
stay here and take our jobs.

There is one tidbit in the article that was quite interesting -- at least 26%
of the tuition for these foreign students is paid for by taxpayers. In a
rather perverse twist American wage earners are paying for the educations of
the foreign students who will eventually compete with them for jobs.

Liz Peek who authored the article asked the rather stupid question: "You may
be wondering who in the world could be opposed to expanding the H1-B visas?"
She didn't however disclose that she has a direct financial interest in
increasing the number of foreign workers. Her husband is Jeff Peek who is CEO
at CIT Financial.

You can find out more about her husband, Jeffrey M. Peek, by clicking this
link:

http://www.cit.com/main/about-cit/corporate-governance/jeffrey-m-peek.htm

To see LCAs for the H-1Bs that CIT hires, search this database:

http://h1b.info/

The article concludes with a quote from Tamar Jacoby. I once confronted her at
a conference, which you can read all about here:

http://www.vdare.com/letters/tl_020606.htm

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.nysun.com/article/70731?access=892598

February 5, 2008

Should the U.S. Be Training Its Competitors?

BY LIZ PEEK
February 5, 2008

Should America educate its competitors? At a time of economic worry, this is a
highly important question.

American universities are the envy of the world, which is why the number of
foreign students they attract is again increasing after a brief slowdown
induced by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. Because even those who
pay full tuition do not actually cover the total cost of their education, will
Americans at some point cry foul?

This may seem an absurd notion, given the obvious good will generated when
America hosts international students. However, in an era where America is
increasingly counting on intellectual capital to compete in world markets, the
notion of exporting that capital -- at a discount, no less -- may strike some
as stupid.

The question is especially pertinent today. In the past, foreign students
attended American colleges and universities and then eagerly accepted jobs in
America. Few foreign countries offered equivalent opportunities to so quickly
benefit from higher learning, so students were easily tempted to set down
roots in the U.S., many eventually becoming American citizens.

That has changed. These days, many if not most foreign students are all too
excited to return home and participate in their own local booming economies
-- economies that are thriving mainly because of the outsourcing of American
jobs or because they are successfully undercutting American manufacturers.
Consider: The top three countries sending students to America are India (no.
1, for the sixth year in a row), China, and South Korea. What do they study?
Business, engineering, and the sciences, in that order.

There is nothing wrong with India and China employing their natural
advantages, which include large work forces, to compete on the basis of lower
production costs. But someone is bound to ask why America isn't using its
advantages, which include higher education, in the same way. Why not restrict
the number of foreign engineering and technology students flowing through our
campuses, and keep America's superior training ground its students? Americans
are the ones who have built the endowments of private institutions that help
pay for those degrees; Americans pay the taxes that bridge the gap between
tuition and the cost of educating all those fertile young minds. Keep in mind
that 26% of the tuition of these foreign students is paid by the schools they
attend.

Okay, so I don't really believe that America should chuck out foreign
students. I do think that exposing young people from around the world to our
great country is extremely positive for international relations. (Even though
the anti-U.S. mindset of many, many university professors does not help the
cause.) Think of King Abdullah II of Jordan, who attended Deerfield Academy
and was so taken with it that he is building a copycat institution in Jordan.
That has to be a good thing.

But, if you believe that these international students should of course be
granted access to America's schools, shouldn't we try to keep them in the
U.S.?

I'm referring to the controversy over H1-B visas, which allow highly skilled
workers to get jobs in America. The immigration debate simply should not
include highly educated workers. Congress has capped the number of H1-B visas
at 65,000, down from 115,000 during the technology boom, when Silicon Valley
was struggling to supply its ranks of software engineers.
There are additional 20,000 visas available to students graduating with
advanced degrees from American schools (compared to about 300,000
international graduate students). Last year, the visas were snapped up in one
day. The government received almost 124,000 petitions before it closed the
window.

Why is this so important? Because the alternative path to hiring skilled
workers, through regular immigration, can take many years. Few employers are
willing to wait around for that long. In 2006, the Senate passed a bill that
would increase the number of H1-B visas to 115,000, and would allow for
greater flexibility going forward. It would have increased the number
available for people with advanced degrees from American universities and
allocated more visas to citizens of countries with whom we establish trade
agreements.

You may be wondering who in the world could be opposed to expanding the H1-B
visas. There are some who argue that employers want to hire foreign nationals
because they can pay them less, and others claim that the visa program reduces
employees to indentured servant status.

The numbers do not support these objections. The National Foundation for
American Policy put out a study in December full of facts and figures that
indicates the abuse of the program is minor. It also shows that thousands of
job searches are under way at the tech companies. During the tech boom, as
salaries for hard-to-find programmers and engineers went through the roof, it
is likely that foreigners were hired at below prevailing rates.
That is now illegal. Further, the founder of Immigration Voice, Aman Kapoor,
says abuses could easily be cleared up by establishing protections for
whistleblowers.

There are, naturally, labor organizations opposing expansion of the H1-B
program. The Programmers Guild and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics
Engineers are two such groups claiming that foreigners drive down wages for
their members. A spokesman for the IEEE, Chris McManes, argues that there are
"no systemic shortages of electrical engineers"
though he acknowledges that "there are shortages in some geographic areas and
in some emerging industries."

In propping up wage scales that are likely a hangover from the tech boom of
the late 1990s, these organizations are of course pushing corporations to
outsource. As the head of the National Foundation for Public Policy, Stuart
Anderson, says, "It makes no sense to not view this as a global labor market."
He says that while America refuses to welcome highly skilled workers, the
European Parliament is currently at work on a provision that aims to attract
such laborers.

At the very least, we should be sure that foreigners who are educated in our
universities are allowed to stay and work in our country. As Tamar Jacoby of
the Manhattan Institute says, "Graduate students should have green cards
stapled to their diplomas." Amen to that.

peek10021@aol.com

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