http://www.computerworld.com/cwi/story/0,1199,NAV47_STO37275,00.html
MARYFRAN JOHNSON


Political arithmetic




E-mail Maryfran Johnson.

(October 18, 1999) What a shame, I thought, as I read last week's Page One
story about the Immigration and Naturalization Service's screwup in granting
visas for foreign-born IT workers ("H-1B Miscount May Alter '00 Quota").
What a shame the INS didn't have a Russian software expert on staff. After
all, Russian programmers rank among the world's leading IT workers on legacy
systems and would easily have spotted the alleged flaw in the INS's
out-of-date program. Perhaps then those bumbling public servants who keep
tabs on that politically bankrupt, inadequate annual immigration quota
wouldn't have miscounted 10,000 or 20,000 beyond this year's cap of 115,000
H-1B visas. I shudder to think how much rampant technical competence invaded
our shores as a result of that blunder.


The timing of this highly politicized gaffe couldn't be worse for IT hiring
managers everywhere. With year 2000 projects winding down, long-delayed
projects are coming to life again. Tens of thousands of technology jobs sit
unfilled now, and similar numbers will be created in the next few years as
e-commerce shapes the business model of our future.


But instead of leadership from Congress, now preparing to debate raising the
visa limit to 200,000, we'll probably hear another round of thinly
disguised, racist arguments from yahoos about "protecting" jobs for American
workers and calls to subtract those extra visas from next year's quota --
arguments the industry should oppose with all its political muscle. It's
abundantly clear to any IT hiring manager that we don't have enough
Americans with the right skills to fill these jobs -- despite bogus
statistics trotted out by groups who oppose granting these six-year work
visas.


Yes, it would be swell if our universities responded more effectively to the
high-tech labor shortage. And yes, Congress should approve generous tax
credits for corporate employee training in IT areas, and blah-blah-blah. But
how dare we consider ourselves citizens of a global economy if we insist
that our best technology talent must have an American face instead of a
Chinese or an Indian or a Russian one?


What a shame, on all of us.