Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: Re: Another view on New Quota Weighed for Immigrant Technology
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 13:02:42 -0500
Date: Tue, 24 Feb 1998 11:26:32 +0000 To: farber () cis upenn edu From: Charlie Harris <charlie () harris u-net com> At 08:56 23/02/98 -0500, DF wrote:
Prediction: this , if it happens will result in a decline of enrollment in the US Computer Science departments as it has the result of keeping the salaries for cs people down.
When I recently made a film for BBC, I met people who argued the opposite. The traditional belief is that strong immigration controls keep up wages (in the richer countries) and weak controls bring them down. However, there are those who point out that it's in the interests of multinationals to keep strong immigration controls. Restrictions on migration keep wages low in the poorer countries, as workers are unable to trade freely - ie: they can't leave the areas of low pay and go to find higher waged jobs. However, as skills levels rise in these countries, more work is outsourced to these locations, enabling the multinationals to pick and choose regions of the world with low wages. Modern telecommunications makes this even easier. For example, British Airways now has all its day-to-day computerised ticketing work processed in Bombay. I can't imagine that they do this out of sheer altruism. This continual movement of jobs from the higher-wage countries leads to a shortage of work here, and enables those same multinationals to hold down wage levels here too. However, because there is still a wage differential, the unions continue to lobby for strong immigration controls - believing that they are keeping their wages high. Ironic, eh? This has been the case in other industries, I see no reason why it shouldn't be the same in computing. Best wishes, Charlie Harris ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Charlie Harris Footloose Films charlie () harris u-net com Internet Research FAQ: http://www.purefiction.com/pages/res1.htm ------------------------------------------------------------------------------ ******************************** See you at INET'98, Geneva 21-24, July 98 <http://www.isoc.org/inet98/>
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- IP: Re: Another view on New Quota Weighed for Immigrant Technology Dave Farber (Feb 24)