[extropy-chat] Researchers and students in America

[Amara Graps]

I wrote:  Fri, 26 Nov 2004
>Some of this is old and already discussed (here in the past), but I
>think it is useful to see it presented in one place by a foreign
>(nonUS) newspaper, and for another perspective.

>http://www.corriere.it/english/editoriali/Gaggi/23_11_04.shtml

and, responding to Mike Lorrey Fri, 26 Nov 2004, I wrote:

>>Mike Lorrey:
>>If there is such a visa clamp down, why is it that the pre-existing
>>H1-B quota was exhausted on the first day of the fiscal year?

(me)
>Backlog from waiting for one or two years?

>I don't know if you are questioning the basic premise of the article,
>but for me it is old news, the visa restrictions have been written
>about in the last years in all of the periodicals to which I subscribe.
>For example,  Physics Today was printing a new report on the visa
>restrictions every few months. Nature and  Science and The Economist
>have printed  articles once in a while on this topic too. You should
>be able to find more information on the web.
>Amara

to which Mike Lorrey replied Fri, 26 Nov 2004:

>I find the claims of corporations to be specious when there are many
>thousands of highly trained Americans out of work because their jobs
>have been offshored, downsized, reengineered, etc.

>I have my own experience with the H1-B program and know that many
>companies abuse the system. Many get bought by foreign interests that
>want to ship their own people into the country, while in other
>instances, professionals deliberately write job descriptions so
>narrowly that they exclude any local people who are completely capable
>of doing the work, so they can justify giving a person they are friends
>with the job and get them into the US on an H1-B, or get a job for the
>unmarried significant other of a person they are already bringing into
>the country. This especially occurs quite frequently in academia. I
>have seen it occuring frequently at Dartmouth, for instance.



(So now, my response to the above.)

 From what you wrote, Mike, It looks to me like you don't know these
sources. I will Ignore for the moment that the visa that I was
describing is not the H1-B visa. Your criticism of 'corporation' is a
pretty strange criticism to level against a loose organization of
hundreds of thousands of scientists and technology oriented people.

---------------------------------------------------------------
The publication "Physics Today"

http://www.aip.org/pt/

is one of several published by the American Institute of Physics. If
you're a associate member of one of the ten organizations below (I'm a
member of the Amercan Astronomical Society), then you receive the
magazine for free with your membership fee. I don't know exactly the
circulation of Physics Today, but my guess is one or two hundred
thousand.

American Institute of Physics
http://aip.org/aip/

The American Institute of Physics (AIP) is a 501(c)(3) membership
corporation chartered in New York State in 1931 for the purpose of
promoting the advancement and diffusion of the knowledge of physics
and its application to human welfare.

[Tax information for Charitable Organizations
http://www.irs.gov/charities/charitable/article/0,,id=96099,00.html]

It is the mission of the Institute to serve physics, astronomy, and
related fields of science and technology by serving its Member
Societies and their associates, individual scientists, educators, R&D
leaders, and the general public with programs, services and
publications - Information that matters®.

http://aip.org/aip/societies.html

About AIP
AIP is a federation of ten Member Societies representing the spectrum
of the physical sciences. AIP supports their efforts with print and
e-publishing services, as well as a range of membership services and
physics-related resources. In these ways AIP is able to amplify its
Member Societies' common activities and create a united front to
achieve shared goals.

AIP also supports Affiliate status for other not-for-profit
organizations interested in physics.

American Physical Society
Optical Society of America
Acoustical Society of America
Society of Rheology
American Association of Physics Teachers
American Crystallographic Association
American Astronomical Society
American Association of Physicists in Medicine
AVS The Science & Technology Society
American Geophysical Union

---------------------------------------------------------------
Here's some information for you to learn about the other journals
in which I read visa articles in the last years.

Science News : http://www.sciencenews.org/

Science : http://www.sciencemag.org/

and Nature:   http://www.nature.com/

I think that their journalists are very responsible, and I trust
that they can back up their information properly.

The Economist: http://www.economist.com/

When they wrote their latest visa story, the science and technology
correspondent was querying the physics research usenet group, asking
for people's experiences with visas. Usenet is invaluable for me for a
source of science information, and I was happy to see one of The
Economist editor utilizing that resource too.

http://groups.google.com/groups?q=Konstantin+Kakaes&hl=en&lr=&ie=UTF-8&as_drrb=b&as_mind=12&as_minm=1&as_miny=2004&as_maxd=3&as_maxm=12&as_maxy=2004&selm=c07cf44b.0405030625.508d9955%40posting.google.com&rnum=1


These are the journals in which I saw articles about the visa problem.
If you dig further in the mathematical, chemical, signal processing,
etc. fields, I'm sure you will find my small sample multiplied in
their professional societies and journals. Friends and colleagues at
universities and research institutions have told me their stories as
well. Go to a university or research institution and ask questions if
you don't trust any of these sources I've given, and learn for yourself.

Amara

-- 

Amara Graps, PhD
Istituto di Fisica dello Spazio Interplanetario (IFSI)
Istituto Nazionale di Astrofisica (INAF),
Adjunct Assistant Professor Astronomy, AUR,
Roma, ITALIA     Amara.Graps at ifsi.rm.cnr.it