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Before this thing degenerates into one of those nasty ESL discussions, may I
remind folks that the H1B visa category was intended to allow companies to
bring to the U.S. workers who had skills that were unavailable in this
country at that time.
With the current state of the economy, with so many technically skilled U.S.
citizens out of work, it would seem that the H1B visa has outlived its
usefulness. Those who have come here on those visas could, indeed, be left
scrambling or stranded, but that was part of the bargain.
OTOH, companies are already opening tech support call centers in lower-cost
countries such as India, for example. Many of the people working there now
had previous experience in the U.S. It's not too much of a stretch to
imagine the same happening with tech writing, given the prevalence of
telecommuting and global teleconferencing. I am currently working on a
project with tech writers from San Jose to Israel, and I'm in Massachusetts.
Bottom line: it's a global economy, visas notwithstanding. The best defense
for our own careers is to stay current with our skills, tools,
methodologies, and with the needs of our audiences. As long as you enjoy
what you're doing, you're ahead of the game.
A landmark hotel, one of America's most beautiful cities, and
three and a half days of immersion in the state of the art:
IPCC 01, Oct. 24-27 in Santa Fe. http://ieeepcs.org/2001/
+++ Miramo -- Database/XML publishing automation. See us at +++
+++ Seybold SFO, Sept. 25-27, in the Adobe Partners Pavilion +++
+++ More info: http://www.axialinfo.comhttp://www.miramo.com +++
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