They work harder: Bloomberg's bottom-line immigration reform advocacy
Miller, Bloomberg, Salinas and Lopez. Dana Rubinstein
2:44 pm May. 22, 20128
Mayor Michael Bloomberg and Latin American business mogul Ricardo Salinas agree: immigrants work harder than native-born Americans.
“I don’t think there’s any question, it’s the immigrants who are willing to work harder, on average,” said the mayor of New York City, whose population is more than a third foreign-born. “Plenty of native-born Americans, tenth-generation here, that work very hard. So I’m not dissing everybody. But on balance, it’s no question that people come here, and they come here because they want to live the great American dream, and they don’t think it’s just going to be given to them or that they deserve it. They come with the ethic of wanting to work for it.”
“The immigrants are usually the most motivated, the most hardworking, the most risk-taking,” Salinas, a Mexican billionaire, agreed a few minutes later. “They’re the best of the human capital, by definition, because they’re the first movers.”
Bloomberg, in a pinstriped suit and tassled loafers and Salinas, also in businessman dress, were speaking on a panel about immigration and the economy hosted by the New York Forum, an organization whose mission is to faciliate discussion of issues affecting the economy. It was founded by Richard Attias, whose website describes him as “the world's top community builder for the ‘thinking elite.’”
Washington Post columnist Matt Miller moderated the panel, which also featured Danny Lopez, the British Consul-General in New York.
The panel was scheduled to coincide with the release of a report called “Not coming to America: Why the U.S. is falling behind in the global race for talent,” underwritten by the Partnership for a New American Economy, a bipartisan coalition of mayors and business leaders that supports immigration reform and is co-chaired by Bloomberg, and the Partnership for New York City, New York City's principle business lobby.
The report argues that immigrants at all education levels are a vital component of a struggling American economy whose workforce is shrinking and ever less suited to meet changing demands.
In Singapore, 33.9 percent of undergraduates study engineering, compared to 31.2 percent in China, 6.1 percent in the U.K. and a mere 4.4 percent here.
The United States remains the top destination for immigrants, who comprise 26 percent of U.S.-based Nobel Prize recipients and, together with their children, have founded more than 40 percent of the country’s Fortune 500 companies.
Republican governor Haley Barbour credited "Spanish speakers" with rebuilding Mississippi after Hurricane Katrina.
But while other countries are fast updating their immigration laws to reflect the needs of today’s more globalized economy, U.S. law lags, and in Washington, efforts to reform immigration law remain basically dead.
The United States allocates only 7 percent of its permanent residency visas in response to economic needs, in contrast to 25 percent in Canada and 42 percent in Australia.
The cap on H-1B visas for American professionals is set at 65,000 which the report argues is way too low.
One Canadian law firm has even gone so far as to advertise on the basis of the inadequacy of the H-1B.
“Currently on an H1B Visa or otherwise working or studying in the United States?” Canadian Immigration Lawyers asks, on its website. “You may be able to qualify for fast-track Canadian immigration under one of the Provincial Nomination Programs (PNP) or under the Federal Skilled Worker category of Canadian immigration.”
And the U.S. has no program dedicated to helping immigrant students who have attained graduate degrees here remain in the U.S., while China and Israel have programs aimed at luring their expat scientists home.
Bloomberg and Salinas attributed the morass of American immigration law to a lack of political leadership.
“There are no heroes here,” said the mayor, who frequently talks about the need for immigration reform. “You show me anybody that’s really stood up. At one point I think it was Huckabee, Bush and McCain, three unlikely people who stood up, this was about five years ago, for immigration.”
Since then, noted the mayor, “Bush is no longer in office, and McCain’s sort of gone back and forth, and I don’t know what Huckabee’s doing these days.”
Obama, he added, hasn’t done much better.
“In fact today, with a liberal Democratic administration in Pennsylvania Avenue, we are deporting more people than the last four or five presidents put together,” he said.
Miller, the moderator, pointed out that during the Republican primary debates, Texas governor Rick Perry and Romney tried to out-do each other in their tough-on-immigration stances.
“Yeah, and I would have thought Romney would be very pro-immigration given his religion, that really does reach out around the world,” said Bloomberg, who abhors partisanship and considers himself a centrist.
“No party is willing to compromise or say that the other party is in agreement with them,” the mayor said. “And Dick Lugar is a perfect example. This country was really hurt by—no matter what you think about Lugar’s politics—the message there was, ‘If you cross the aisle, if you come to an agreement on anything, we’re gonna get you.'”
Bloomberg argued that all of these politics reflect a number of serious misapprehensions about immigrants and about American exceptionalism.
“We have this, 'We are better than everybody else' attitude that has every day lost more and more credibility,” he said.
He added, “We have this myth that they use services and don’t pay for them. The truth of the matter is most immigrants are young, so they don’t use medical services ... They don’t use schools, because most of them just go and send remittances back. They don’t bring their kids.
“They all pay taxes, or virtually all, I think it’s 75 perecent of all undocumented in this country pay taxes ... They have very low crime rate, because they’re scared to death of the INS, so they don’t. They don’t use public housing.”
Bloomberg also once again resurrected his argument that immigrants are the solution for what ails post-industrial midwestern cities, like Detroit.
When the mayor made that argument last year, Detroit mayor Dave Bing wondered what Bloomberg “was on.”
“We can't provide jobs for the people here,” Bing said.
“I used the example of a midwest city, I won’t make that mistake again of mentioning their name, because the mayor blasted me and he said, 'Oh Bloomberg doesn’t understand, there are no jobs here for immigrants,'” said Bloomberg today. “Yes, there are no jobs and never gonna have any jobs unless they bring in immigrants. But other countries are starting to do that now, give visas for specific locations to try to get in people who will work hard, who will force the schools to get better, who will buy these empty houses and fix them up and create new jobs.”
By way of example, the mayor pointed to New York City’s relative economic success.
“In New York City, we have a much more diverse population than any other city in America, lots of immigrants here. I don’t know that for sure it’s the reason, but there’s a lot of circumstantial evidence that immigrants really help your economy. For example, from the bottom of the recession, New York City has recovered 190 percent of the jobs we lost. Nationwide, we’ve only recovered 40 percent of the jobs we’ve lost. Why? Because people come here, they get off the boat, if you will, and they start businesses and they take jobs. They’ll take two jobs. “
Did Bloomberg mention how his company is at the top of the list for hiring the cheaper h-1b workers? Did he happen to mention that the failed Times Square bomber came here on an h-1b? What a traitor.
This article doesn't mention that H-1B, L-1, H-2B, etc. workers have always come overwhelmingly from the low wage countries (forget Japan or Western Europe). What a surprise! When you go to the impoverished corners of the world you can find people who will work 70 plus hours a week for very low wages. Do we really want to force US workers to become "cost competitive" with the cheapest labor on earth? Maybe immigration is mostly good for US employers, but not very good for the rest of the country. When you consider employment, education and health costs, language issues, use of govt services, population congestion, terrorism, disease, etc. how can you come to any other conclusion?
It's a situation only an employer could love. We let in staggering numbers of foreigners in both high and low income professions under worker visas such as H-1B, L1, OPT, H-2B, etc. Of course these workers "coincidentally" come in very high percentages from the low wage countries such as India (forget higher wage Japan or Western Europe). Anyone think THAT'S an accident? Employers love it because the visa terms make it very difficult to switch employers. They have captive indentured workers for years to come.
And quietly he said, "Cheaper too"
Michael Bloomberg has a lot of nerve taunting, mocking and smearing disenfranchised US STEM workers. Bloomberg, you see, has a closet full of skeletons.
Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of New York was in office during the disastrous CityTime project and managed the disastrous CityTime project, that was staffed with H1B workers from India. The owners of the staffing company fled the country to get back to India before Federal authorities could show up.
Michael Bloomberg managed a software project that was projected to cost $60 million. So far, it has cost the City of New York over $700 million. Mayor Bloomberg issued a "conflict of interests waiver" to SAIC so that SAIC could manage the project. A company called TechnoDyne, owned by "foreign entrepreneurs" from India staffed the company with cheap entry level workers from India. The company was owned by Padma and Reddy Allen, who have escaped back to India only a few steps in front of the law: http://www.nytimes.com/2011/06/21/nyregion/executives-are-charged-in-cit... .
And Bloomberg decides to mock and taunt disenfranchised US STEM workers. US STEM workers are aware of the fraud being perpetrated against them in stealing their jobs. Mayor Bloomberg's CityTime project is only the tip of the iceberg. The GAO completed a report in 2011 in which they discovered that these visas are not being issued to highly skilled workers. These visas are being issued to cheap entry level third world workers, REPLACEMENT WORKERS. Please look at the following graph. http://techtalk.dice.com/t5/image/serverpage/image-id/918iBE2B98F5EE29FE... This graph reports that only 6.0% of the H1B visas were issued to "Fully Competent" workers. "Fully Competent" is a much lower standard than "highly skilled". In addition 54% of the visas were issued to "Entry Level" workers. This graph appears in the GAO report on page 58.
People who benefit from this fraud, like Michael Bloomberg, are not satisfied with stealing the jobs of US STEM workers. People who benefit from the fraud, like Michael Bloomberg, feel compelled to add more cruelty on US STEM workers by mocking, taunting, smearing and insulting disenfranchised US STEM workers. Bloomberg should clean up his own house before mocking US STEM workers.
New York recovered because the state was handed over 3 trillion in bailout money.
For a better example of immigration policy, look at California, the most immigrants and H1b outsourcing workers, worst economy.
Shame on Mike Bloomberg.
He is attempting to take away Americans' ability to find work in our own country.
Americas jobs belong to Americans.
Immigrant labor should be use as little as possible, within reason. It should not be used as much as possible, whenever possible, so American business owners can make as much profit as possible and pay as little as in wages as possible.
What this Mexican billinnaire has to do our country is beyond me. How many Americans does he employ?
This whole situation is an outrage. Their demands should be rejected out of hand.
HOW MANY DOLLARS IS YOUR STATE CONTRIBUTING TO ILLEGAL ALIEN WELFARE?
Allow people with the highest credentials and qualifications, but not annual importation of millions of poorly skilled, as so called experienced contenders for jobs covertly? Senator Marco Rubio and bipartisan Senators have drafted a bill to bring more STEM workers (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) workers to the U.S. What the politicians and pressure groups have failed to inform, is that there are qualified, U.S. workers out there to fill these jobs. Within the United States Colleges and Universities are graduating many young people in the past week with degrees and no employment offers in sight. It’s time American voters turned up the heat on politicians, specifically where job visas are concerned. When thousands are seeking work, shouldn’t American labor be a priority? It certainly will be given heightened attention under the growing numbers of TEA PARTY leadership, which are taking the reins of power in the Senate and House.
America should attract people that have the highest qualifications, but what we don't need is more foreign poverty that taxpayers are accountable for?
California is sinking fast under the mushrooming impact of illegal immigration, as more these people pour into this state. How can other states that are hurting badly as Michigan, even believe this brainless argument from Mike Bloomberg Mayor of New York is suggesting import more immigrants, whilst the whole country is overrun with cheap labor, with the majority is soaking the welfare programs? In Michigan uncompensated costs for Illegal Aliens (2009) reported by The Federation of American Immigration Reform (FAIR) identifies at least $928,677,050. This should be a genuine concern throughout every state, excluding states controlled by Democrats with Liberal backing. In the opposite measure thousands of property owners are leaving the Golden State, now tarnished by a gross overload of foreign invaders. Many states are unable to comply with the strain of court ordered unfunded mandates, when taxpayers are hardly able to feed their offspring,
The Federal government enforce court order unfunded mandates that they take out of your taxes for people who are illegal, but do not reimburse any of the 50 states?
Arizona was one of the states that have drawn the line in the sand, when all they want to do is protect the legal population. But are forced by law to educate, treat illegal alien families for the common cold to dialysis for free. Do we personally have to feed, house and medicate every person who knocks on America’s door, when we can hardly feed our own? In Sacramento, California has been indulging these people with welfare programs, in the midst of Obama's government giving out food stamps? The Sanctuary state is under a terrible strain. In just Los Angeles Supervisor Michael D. Antonovich website published that illegal immigration costs were $550 million for public safety and nearly $500 million for healthcare, a total cost to County taxpayers that exceeds $1.6 billion dollars a year and that doesn't include the billions more in education for their children.
GO TO FAIR WEBSITE TO LEARN HOW MUCH MONEY FROM THE PUBLIC COFFERS IN YOUR STATE IS SPENT ON “FOOTHOLD” BABIES AND THEIR PARENTS? IT’S THE DOLLAR FIGURE THE DEMOCRATS DON’T WANT YOU TO BE AWARE OF?
These billions are being spent to subsidize the lives of families who sneak their children into America, as these people are aware that the majority Democratic states will support them. Governor Jerry Brown, a ‘Tax and Spend’ liberal is once again pleading for more tax revenue, to pay for everything including the largest population of illegal aliens in the country. California should put an end to the states incessant need for more money to balance their $16 Billion dollar deficit. California the embodiment of Sanctuary States is withering under the constant bombardment of foreigners with their palms outstretched and with so much on the line for people; they have nothing really to lose by fraudulently voting in the upcoming elections. Democrats don’t care and even stealthily approving of this illegal act.
ILLEGAL ALIENS, NON-CITIZENS, FELONS AND A MIXTURE OF ILLEGAL VOTERS ARE VOTING IN OUR ELECTIONS. THIS IS WHY OBAMA ADMINISTRATION DOESN’T WANT TO CHANGE THE CURRENT ELECTORAL LAWS? IT IS ESSENTIAL THAT EVERY STATE IMPLEMENTS NEW RULES, THAT EVERY PERSON HEADING TO THE VOTING STATION POSSESS A GOVERNMENTAL PICTURE ID.
California’s legislative body, Nevada of all states should be required to use E-Verify? Not voluntary but all mandated? The Legal Workforce Act will usher in a new period of restrictive practices of business owners, using labor with stolen Social Security numbers and other ID. It should be the business of ICE to enforce E-Verify, so American jobs go to U.S. workers who have that legal right. Businesses that don’t play by rules, should be heavily fined, assets seized and in some severe cases, go to jail? Those who haven’t heard of the ‘Birthright citizenship Act’ should tell their elected officials from blocking this law from reaching the house chambers. The ‘Birthright citizenship Act’ laws when enacted stop around 400.000 illegal alien mothers gaining citizenship for their smuggled fetus into the United States. That citizenship for a baby will only be apparent, when one of either parent is a U.S. citizen?
Brown stated huge cuts can be anticipated in schools through K-12, when the schools are crammed with the children of illegal aliens, then so be it; you cannot get blood from a stone anymore? No more taxes, no more money to encourage any longer illegal immigrants. It is simply rewarding the parents’ in law-breaking and just encourages more to cross borders of fly in by international flight. The federal government has failed to secure the U.S. borders and it’s become too costly to provide schooling, hospital care, low cost housing and other public services to non-citizens. So far only Arizona has had the backbone to fight back, with Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Utah closing the ranks. No more taxes for Jerry Brown’s state government specifically for illegal alien support. Join a local TEA PARTY and throw out all the politicians that are giving our country away.
New York Mayor Bloomberg yesterday suggested that the Obama administration import my workers, but not just the echelon of the most favored occupation, but less skilled that we don’t need.
Sadly, the H-1B is less about bringing the highest skills than it is about bringing the cheapest. Microsoft recruited foreign workers in British Columbia and then told them to go to Redmond, whether they wanted to or not. It was an offshore H-1B/L1 visa mill.
In a specific instance, they then violated H-1B laws forcing a British PhD to work without pay, because he would not sign over rights to work done for government entities, according to this government ruling:
http://tinyurl.com/7lhq6yc
Accordingly, Mr Bloomberg seems mistaken. Google was founded by people who could take risks without fear of having to leave the country if their ideas or ethics were not to the liking of their sponsor.
The H-1B is creating a generation of immigrants conditioned to be indentured, not risk-taking. Had Tesla worked for Edison under H-1B, we would not have alternating current, since Edison would have sent him back to his country of origin as soon as he suggested DC could be bettered, or forced him into a job as an electrician, at the same time as he was laying off native born electricians who charge more per hour.