The topic of H-1B visa’s has always been a hot one. In the current economic climate there are plenty of American tech workers looking for work and therefore this special visa program is under increasing scrutiny. I have many friends and associates and family members who have either lost jobs or found themselves in positions they would not prefer due to the current economic meltdown and my bias is to side with them on this. We need to rethink the nation’s objectives regarding the H-1B program (you can read more on the H-1B visa program, including criticisms, at wikipedia). But there are some other dimensions of job creation and the high tech ecosystem workforce related to immigration that we should consider. For example, consider the relevance of trends captured by the NSF and presented by the Computing Research Association on PhD degrees by Citizenship: Most computer science PhD’s in the US are being awarded to non-US Citizens. In 1993 about 50% of computer science PhD’s were going to non-US Citizens. By 2005 it was at over 60%. And the trend is towards increasing amounts from overseas. Of those, most possess temporary…
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