Diversity in HIGH TECH

By: TurnVirginiaBlue
Published On: 9/18/2006 2:48:19 PM

Allen is so vulnerable talking about diversity in high tech and this is why, the Skil Bill (S.2691), which Allen is co-sponsoring.

Is anyone aware that the H-1B Visa and this offshore outsourcing and insourcing by manipulation of the US VISA and immigration system has actually DECREASED opportunities for diversity engineers????

The field is already stuck in the 50's in terms of being a hostile environment for diversity candidates.

Just recently we heard about "brain differences" on why women "aren't as good in math and sciences".  That is absolute bullshit.  If that was true, why have women become almost the majority in Chemical engineering?  Is it cooking?  HELL NO!  It's the environment which encourages women, is not hostile to women, which enables women to advance their abilities in that area.
So, Allen, doing Bill Gates bidding, to get even more H-1B Visas, through his Skil Bill (which he was obviously peddling to his lobbyist audience in the debate), and absolutely refusing to fix any of the labor arbitrage aspects of the program, is actually DISCOURAGING diversity engineers of US minority and ethnic backgrounds.  It is also discourging Americans generally for whole is going to study such a difficult topic area, equal to law and Medicine, take on massive debt to pay for college and have their career cut short or never even start, due to insourcing (displacement by bringing to the US cheaper, more controllable labor), offshore outsourcing and age discrimination.

It is now an issue of discrimination based on your national origin.  Anyone who has US citizenship and thus cannot be controlled by corporations through threat of deportation or losing their jobs, thus losing their status in the US.  Anyone who is coming from another nation, who has no clue of what their real rights are in this foreign land, or the fact they are getting royally screwed financially because their PPP of their country is so different than the US's, is preferred by corporations and the reasons are obvious.

Please Look at these statistics.  There is evidence and most assuredly the need for more funded studies to show the number of diversity engineers is decreasing. Another.

I'm sorry this is translated HTML, but read what Karl Mack, Director of the National Society of Black Engineers has to say on H-1B.


Comments



Maybe Allen's plan (Eric - 9/18/2006 5:36:41 PM)
to compete with countries "6 or 7 times our size" is to bring in these workers from other countries and make them American citizens.  Then all us Americans will be competitive.

No, wait.  That's not it.  That doesn't make sense.

Ok, he's going to bring them in and NOT make them American citizens, they'll do the work instead of us, and then go back to their huge countries.  That'll make those domestic high-tech degrees worth more.

No, wait.  On second thought, that won't do it either.

Oh hell, I don't know what he's trying to do...



Why is Allen against hiring blacks and women? (loboforestal - 9/18/2006 5:47:15 PM)
I understand that companies may have to train new workers but I think there are definitely underutilized sectors of the labor pool that Allen seems to be discriminating against.  Another 6 years of Allen and his buddies just doesn't make sense.


oh yeah (TurnVirginiaBlue - 9/18/2006 6:39:00 PM)
One side of his mouth says 5% of engineers are women and so of course, let us be sure to bring in even more workers that are almost exclusively male...because that of course will show American woman there is a solid, stable and rewarding career choice in making contributions in math, science and engineering.

That will do it to be sure.



What planet is Allen from? (Loudoun County Dem - 9/18/2006 6:20:42 PM)
I am still trying to find the countries "6 or 7 times our size".

These figures are from the CIA - The World Factbook, July 2006 estimates.

United States' population:
298,444,215

China's population:
1,313,973,713 (4.4 times our size)

India's population:
1,095,351,995 (3.7 times our size)

European Union's population:
456,953,258 (1.5 times our size)

That is it, all other nations have a smaller population.

I guess math isn't his strong suit...

Reality has a well-known liberal bias. - Steven Colbert



oh wait (TurnVirginiaBlue - 9/18/2006 6:36:55 PM)
I know...he wants to bring in all of those workers from other countries so all of those who study really damn hard and go into massive debt will be just as happy as those new Wal-Mart workers to be coding up the next innovation for $10/hr and no benefits!

That will help create the next wave of innovation to be sure!



Somebody needs to (Arturo - 9/18/2006 7:35:55 PM)
alert Sen. Lambert in Richmond!!  The Senator is probably not aware that the H-1b programs have hurt African American tech workers disproportionately.