H1B – the super secret weapon
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> How come the scientific establishment of the United States doesn’t collapse? Let me tell you something. Some of you may not know this. America has a secret weapon.
> That secret weapon is the H1B.
> Without the H1B, the scientific establishment of this country would collapse. Forget about Google! Forget about Silicon Valley! There would be no Silicon Valley without the H1B.
Compare this to the analysis posted yesterday here on HN, at https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9125193 . (I chose this because it was very recent, and indicative of the ongoing discussion about the H1B.)
> H-1B is not about skills or skills gap
> [Proponents of the H-1B] claim the H-1B is used: 1) to recruit and hire the “best and brightest” workers from around the world; 2) to fill skills gaps in the U.S. workforce; and 3) as a way to retain talented foreign students with advanced degrees who received their education and training in the United States (this is a favorite canard of President Obama). H-1B data and the SCE case show that none of these arguments are even remotely true.
> If American workers are training their foreign replacements before they get laid off, then it is quite obvious that it’s the American trainers—not the H-1B trainees—who have the superior skills. Are H-1B workers being brought in because they have extensive formal training, like an advanced degree? The answer to that is a definitive no.
FWIW, the term "Silicon Valley" was coined in 1971, and the H1B program didn't start until 1990, so all evidence shows that SV was created and existed for decades without the H1B. It's not clear to me that the absence of the H1B would have killed it during the dot com era or later.