IP: Re: Another view on New Quota Weighed for Immigrant Technology

[Dave Farber <farber@cis.upenn.edu>]

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


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Charlie Harris    Footloose Films
charlie@harris.u-net.com


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