Saturday, May 19, 2012

New Senate bills are slap in the face to recent college grads

From: Dave R.
Sent: May 19, 2012
To: undisclosed recipients
Subject: Fw: New Senate bills are slap in the face to recent college grads
Den, I got this email in a newsletter from www.numbersusa.com. With all of our young people looking for work in a very bad economy I think our government would reconsider giving jobs to foreigners. Anyway thought you might share this and help get the word out. Thanks Dave.
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With 54% of recent American college graduates jobless or not in a degree job, Senators of both parties were falling all over themselves this week to push legislation that would add more foreign competitors in their job markets. Two separate bills -- the STAR Act introduced by Sen. John Cornyn of Texas and the SMART Jobs Act introduced by Sen. Lamar Alexander of Tennessee and Sen. Chris Coons of Delaware -- would increase the number of green cards issued to foreign students who graduate from U.S. colleges and universities with degrees in science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM).


The STAR Act would eliminate the Visa Lottery (which goes to foreign workers of all skill s) and transfer the 55,000 annual green cards to foreign students who graduate with advanced degrees in a STEM discipline. Should any of the new green cards go unused, they roll over to the next year - a provision that doesn't currently exist in the Visa Lottery program.

The STAR Act not only allows foreign graduates to compete directly with U.S. graduates for tech jobs, but it allows U.S. employers to discriminate against American graduates. Unlike the H-1B temporary visa program, employers are free to hire a foreign worker even if a willing and able American worker is available for the job.

The SMART Jobs Act is even worse. The proposal by Sens. Alexander and Coons has all the bad features of the STAR Act but it allows the Visa Lottery to continue to give out 55,000 permanent work permits to foreign workers each year. And the bill exempts green cards awarded to foreign students from other employer-based numerical limits. The sky's the limit with this bill!

Sen. Alexander claims to have wide bi-partisan support for this attack on American college graduates. According to an Associated Press analysis of labor data, recent college graduates (under the age of 25) are having a terrible time finding a job that is associated with a college degree. The AP reports that 54% of recent college grads either have no job at all or are underemployed (as in bar-tending, pizza delivery, etc.).

We've put new faxes up on your Action Board urging your two U.S. Senators not to add extra competition in the job market for college graduates. Also, watch our weekly webcast that discusses these two bills.


Video streaming by Ustream
CHRIS CHMIELENSKI
FRI, MAY 18th

1 comment:

  1. Thanks Dave for sending this email. I'm all for student exchange and work programs to bring cultures together but I like you would think that our government would limit the number while our economy is so bad. Thanks again.

    ReplyDelete

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