> <http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/businesstechnology/2002255491_gatesvisa28.html>
>
> Thursday, April 28, 2005, 12:00 a.m. Pacific
> Gates urges an end to limit on foreign hires
> By Ted Bridis
> The Associated Press
>
> WASHINGTON — Microsoft Chairman Bill Gates urged the Bush
> administration and lawmakers yesterday to abolish immigration limits
> on foreign engineers who can be hired by U.S. companies, a sensitive
> subject among U.S. technology workers watching their own jobs
> increasingly move overseas.
>
> During an infrequent visit to lobby personally for changes in federal
> policy, the world's richest executive said the government should
> eliminate the limit of 65,000 for overseas workers who can be hired
> each year by U.S. firms under specialty H1-B visas aimed at drawing
> engineers, scientists, architects and doctors to the United States.
>
> "The whole idea of the H1-B visa thing is, don't let too many smart
> people come into the country," Gates said during an invitation-only
> panel discussion at the Library of Congress. "The thing basically
> doesn't make sense."
>
> Responding to a question about policy changes that Gates would make if
> he were king, Gates said he "probably will get myself in trouble on
> this one." He endorsed more intensive study of nuclear power,
> improvements to U.S. schools and higher research spending by
> government.
>
> "I'd certainly get rid of the H1-B visa cap," Gates added. "That's one
> of the easiest decisions."
>
> Gates and other leading technology executives have pressed Congress
> aggressively to let them hire more foreign employees by raising visa
> limits, but Gates hasn't previously campaigned to abolish the
> immigration law entirely. Technology executives have argued they are
> unable to find qualified U.S. workers, a contention disputed by U.S.
> labor groups and unemployed computer engineers.
>
There's another type of visa that became popular after the clampdown on H1-Bs. I forget it's designation, bit it allows US companies to hire contract employees, workers for over- seas subsidiaries, or outsourced agency workers and bring them into the US to work.
Larry Ellison, Bill Gates et al can hire anyone they want and bring them into the country. It never stopped... never even slowed down, relative to the demand.
The last batch (in my area) appeared to be middle class C.I.S expats. Families with children, not world travellers with carry-on luggage and contracts in hand.
They are so much like the average middle class American that you'd wonder how the two "opposing" political systems created "classes" so similar as to be indistinguishable from each other.
Leigh