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News Updates - 29 April 2001 Workers and bosses in visa maze - New York Times India meets software export targets - Reuters Norway rolls out red-carpet for Indian IT - Times of India Conseco transfers 2000 jobs to India - The Chicago Tribune
ISELIN, N.J. - At the Delhi Darbar restaurant , gathered around the table are four computer programmers, born in India and educated at top schools there, who now work in high-technology jobs in the New York area. Along with their wives and children, they came here nearly six years ago, on the promise of a job paying 10 times more than they could earn back home and the expectation of pursuing the American dream.The four - and up to 420,000 others like them - are caught up in a labyrinth of immigration laws, Congressional politics, the competing forces of the high-tech industry and organized labor and a tortuous, dysfunctional process of gaining "green cards" that allow permanent residency here. As a result, while they write the Java computer programs or manage the C++ computer projects that American business needs, they are never quite sure which end of the earth - the United States or India - they should call home. Programmer, Bhushan Sethi, said: "We are migrating through legal ways. We are here when the country needed us. But when we need this country, it is not there"The companies that hire these workers, called H-1B's for the visa that lets them work for six years while seeking green cards, say much the same. From Microsoft to Intel, from Goldman Sachs to Merrill Lynch, from Deloitte Consulting to Ernst & Young, H-1B's are being hired by the planeload to fill a gap in computer skills, especially at higher levels, because Americans have been cool to the computer science and engineering education that foreign students embrace. The H-1B visa program has its champions. High-tech superstars like Bill Gates, Andy Grove and Scott McNealy have lobbied Congress to expand it. And holders of H-1B's, besides many faceless programmers, have included Linus Torvalds, 31, the Finnish inventor of the Linux operating system, a software rival to Microsoft's Windows, who recently traded his visa for a green card. "The H-1B system needs to work for everybody and now it works for no one," said Jenifer Eisen Verdery, manager of education and work- force policy at Intel, the fifth-largest employer of H-1B's. "It doesn't work for the immigrant who has it. It doesn't work for the employers who hire them. It doesn't work for agencies that run it." The H-1B program has its roots in temporary visa programs begun in the 1950's. But it took off in the 1980's and, again, in the late 1990's, as high- tech industries blossomed. Late last year, with hefty campaign contributions and a lobbying juggernaut, employers persuaded Congress to increase the number of H-1B visas granted annually to 195,000. And estimates show that the total number of H-1B's here could reach a high of 710,000 over the next three years. Compared with a national work force of 140 million, that number is minuscule. But it is a sizable and growing minority in information technology, where up to 20 percent of the five million high-tech workers are foreign-born, with about half of those coming from the H-1B program. It is too early to tell what impact, if any, the current economic downturn will have on the numbers. High-tech companies say they have no choice but to hire H-1B's. "Of course, we make every effort to find skills within U.S. workers," said Zoanne Hennigan, director of immigration at Intel, which hires H-1B's as software, network and component design engineers. "But when there is a skill shortage, H-1B has been absolutely instrumental to making sure our business goals are met. The H-1B program is critical to the success of our company." Whether a shortage of high-tech workers truly exists — statistics are inconclusive — H-1B visa holders are largely highly educated, government reports show. Many are educated at India's well-established engineering schools and, increasingly, at American universities. Government data from 1998, the most recent available, shows that 35 percent of all high-tech master's degrees at American universities went to foreign nationals, as did about half of all high-tech doctorates.Almost 98 percent of them have bachelor's degrees or higher, and 41.5 percent have master's degrees or higher. The jobs generally pay $45,000 to $150,000 — versus a more typical $6,000 for similar jobs in India, the biggest source of supply. (While the vast majority of H-1B's are in high-tech industries, a small number of the visas are issued for teachers, medical personnel, artists, fashion models and others.) In Silicon Valley, many companies recruit these foreign students — many of whom would otherwise have to leave — right after graduation. Corporations also send recruiters to India, find workers through Internet job postings or bring them here from previous projects overseas. And some companies, both in high technology and on Wall Street, hire H- 1B's from consulting firms working as subcontractors on specific technical projects. The wait for green cards results not only from delays at the immigration service, which now has 900,000 people in its green-card backlog, but also from supply-and-demand imbalances. At a time when the United States is admitting up to 195,000 new H-1B's annually, there are only 140,000 employment-based green cards available annually for H-1B's — and their spouses, who are usually admitted on a different visa, an H-4. The squeeze is tightest for citizens of India and China, who represent 57 percent of all H-1B's. Until recently, those two nations were each allotted 9,800 green cards, the same number set aside for citizens of any other country — for instance, Iceland or Belgium. Late last year, Congress lifted those quotas, allowing for the transfer of unused allocations from small countries to larger ones. But regulations to put the changed law into effect are still in the works. By contrast, other countries, particularly Canada, are actively wooing these same workers. Starting in 1998, Canada began to speed up its processing of high-tech workers, allowing them to gain permanent residency in a matter of months if they score enough points on a ranking that considers their education and the needs of the country. Australia and New Zealand have adopted similar changes, and England, Ireland, Germany and Austria are relaxing their rules, too. The I.N.S. is aware of the competition: "Canada has made it a national policy to increase their market share of high-tech workers," said Jacquelyn Bednarz, a special policy assistant at the I.N.S. "They are courting them with attractive ads. They are welcoming them and aggressively pursuing them." As a practical matter, it is impossible for H-1B's to become high-tech entrepreneurs, no matter how much brain power and drive they may have, because they would lose their green-card sponsors. "I have great business ideas, but I cannot start a company," said Mr. Sethi, one of those dining at the Delhi Darbar restaurant. "The environment in the U.S. makes you think about becoming an entrepreneur. But this process cuts you down."The paperwork for this H1B application has grown; the regulations for it now run to 150 pages. At a minimum, an employer must show he has advertised the job to the local work force, is not paying an H-1B any more or any less than comparable workers, is not using H-1B's as strikebreakers and has sought to hire an American citizen first. As a result, the hiring of an H-1B can take months. This mountain of paperwork also discourages companies from promoting H-1B workers or transferring them to another job site.So does money. Last December, Congress increased H-1B visa fees from $500 to $1,000, to pay for government-sponsored job training programs for high-tech workers. In the current fiscal year, the Department of Labor estimates that it will receive $180 million for these training programs and $213 million next year. But will this money go toward training United States citizens to take the highly-skilled jobs now filled by H-1B's? It is hard to say. The training program is still in its infancy. So far, a large portion of the money is going into basic programs to train disadvantaged youths, single parents and the unemployed in entry-level computer jobs — jobs not filled by H-1B's, but largely by American workers. Top of the pageIndia's
software exports at $6.2 billion in year-ended March NEW DELHI: India's leading software industry body said on Tuesday that software exports met its target of $6.2 billion last year but warned of lower growth this year due to a slowdown in the key U.S. market. The industry is confident of 40 to 45 percent export growth in 2001/02 (April-March) which would mean exports would total $8.5 billion to $9 billion, the National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) said in a statement."We have polled the top 25 companies who account for 60 percent of exports...our analysis is based on their feedback," NASSCOM chairman Phiroz Vandrewala told a news conference. "With a little bit of luck and if the U.S. economy looks up in the third or the fourth quarter, we may still achieve $9.4 billion (in exports)," he added. Bounce
back Kumar said 40 to 45 percent growth was higher than needed to reach exports of $50 billion in 2008, a target set last year by NASSCOM. He said Indian software firms were devising strategies to expand their client base and enter new markets in Europe and Japan to offset the U.S. slump. "NASSCOM will facilitate that there is expansion into other geographies...we're talking to various partners," he said, adding the association would conduct a road show to promote Indian tech firms in Europe soon. Top of the pageNorway rolls out red carpet for Indian IT firms BANGALORE: Norway, one of the richest European economies, has offered to outsource its IT requirements to India in a big way. Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg, who is leading the 30-member trade delegation to India, said opportunities for cooperation between the two countries in the IT field are tremendous. He was delivering the key-note address at a symposium on 'A smart partnership in information technology' between India and Norway, organized by National Association of Software and Services Companies (NASSCOM), here on Monday. His government has launched a special programme 'e-Norway' that aims to accelerate the growth of theinfotech industry. "We need to encourage entrepreneurship, innovation and new technologies," Stoltenberg said, adding, "We must grab new technologies to build a global knowledge society." The e-Norway's main objective is to safeguard the country's strong public sector and enhance the pace of development with extensive use of IT, he said. Som Mittal, member of Nasscom Executive Council, said that though the Indian IT exports to Norway today are not more than $ 10 million, they are expected to grow tenfold by 2004-5 and touch $250 million by the end of 2005. According to him, there are tremendous opportunities for cooperation in the fields of software outsourcing, e-com, Internet services, venture capital funding, technology transfer, offshore development centres, joint ventures and selling of IT products and packages. Nasscom has already identified mobile Internet, banking and finance, maritime IT as the key focus areas. Norwegian deputy minister of IT Tore Sandvik said that Norway offers test bed for the Indian companies to test their IT prowess and products. The traditional mode is not sufficient to build the economy, he said, adding, "We need more innovative partners." And this is the area India and Norway could come together, he said. As part of the visit, the University of Oslo, signed an agreement with Indian Institute of Management, Bangalore for cooperation in the area of information management. The Nasscom provided interactive sessions for about 80 Indian IT companies with the visiting Norwegian companies. Top of the pageCONSECO INC.: Insurer to cut 2,000 jobs, transfer services to INDIA 24 April 2001, The Chicago Tribune NEW YORK - Carmel, Ind iana-based Life insurance and loan group Conseco Inc. said Monday it would cut 2,000 jobs, or 14 percent of its overall work force, over the next 21 months as it farms out some back-office services to India. At the same time, Conseco said it would buy the firm providing the services in India, ExlService, for $52.6 million in stock.The board-approved transaction is expected to save more than $30 million in annual costs, and should produce about 11 cents a share in pre-tax profits as early as next year, Conseco said. Labor costs in India are far cheaper than in the United States. As part of a drive to shore up Conseco's finances, Wendt is in the process of selling off $2 billion in the firm's assets and cutting debt. |
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