3/31/2008

Protecting our companies or protecting our borders?

The instability of the current economy has left many companies not able to fulfill their demand in hiring employees. Currently the jobs that are most needed (demanded) in our society are not being fulfilled (supplied). Bill Gates found that an estimated 140,000 jobs for Standard & Poor's 500 companies are left vacant. These jobs require high intelligence and the current US population cannot satisfy the demand. Many companies are looking toward the graduates, but many come from other countries and do not have citizenship here. With the lack of visas being given out it makes it difficult for companies to hire employees that are not US born. This lack in being able to fulfill the demand can cause many problems for the economy. Some argue that we should let the demand stay and should not allow the government to give visas to non US citizens. They argue that we must protect the US jobs and must secure our borders. While others argue that since there is a demand we should fulfill it and allow visas to be given out.

4 comments:

TheFindlay said...

If people want a visa they need to get in line. There should be no way around this process because it is set up for a reason. The reasoning behind the current visa process being that order produces better, and when it comes to national security, safer results. Of course those companies want to hire foreigners to work for them because they can work them to death. I know that those S&P companies could also be doing better job at recruiting.

Anonymous said...

It's a tough question whether there is an actual shortage of educated employees in the US or whether companies find it cheaper to hire foreign-born US grads. The article indicates that as we do not give out more visas, we are just encouraging companies to set up shop in other countries and I cannot see how that will help the US economy in the long run. I think we need to take a different stance on visas for workers with advanced degrees.

Isaac said...

I believe that the vacant jobs should be saved for U.S. citizens. They should not provide Visas but instead search within the country for highly educated individuals. I believe that S.U.U provides excellent students to fill these jobs yet we here nothing of them. These top companies need to search harder to find qualified U.S. citizens willing to work.

Dr. Tufte said...

Take a step back: how on Earth can we have dual immigration problems? We have too many at the low end (who, in general, we seem to want less of), and too few people at the top (who, in general, we seem to want more of).

Are you kidding me?

This is the sort of thing that is only possible if humans intentionally screw things up.

Just the mere fact that this dichotomy exists should point out to everyone that the problem of "immigration" is not what most people think it is. Until we agree on that, I'm not even sure it's worth worrying about.