Communication Breakdown
Communications from the world of, er, communications. And other stuff.
Thursday 7 June 2007, 4:07 PM
Google vs US immigration policy
"Immigrants from countries like Canada, Iran, and Switzerland now lead our business operations, global marketing, global business development, and data infrastructure operations," writes Chavez. "Without these talented employees and many others, Google would not be where it is today... Over the last year alone, the artificially low cap on H-1B visas has prevented more than 70 Google candidates from receiving H-1B visas."
Sergey Brin himself, of course, is an emigree of what was the Soviet Union, and Laszlo Bock - Google's vice-president of people operations - fled communist Romania as a child. That's Bock in the clip below, testifying to the House Judiciary Subcommittee on Immigration "about the practical impact that the US immigration system has on Google". Apparently his mum was there too, and received a standing ovation from everyone present.
PreviousComments on this post
Lazlo Block, a good talking head, but my first hand experience shows that Google uses h-1b body shop to find workers.
I have interviewed several candidates coming to my company from Google, at least three claimed to be Unix gurus but couldn't use (some not even aware) the Unix "ps" command or similar simple Unix commands.
It took while for me to piece this together, but you really have to know someone at Google to get hired into Google. Of the 4 people I have know who have gone to Google, all had contacts inside the company that they said landed them an interview.
I have also know several people who have applied to Google, and were never even considered for a phone interview, some with more than 10 years of experience, earning well into six figures at their company. These are excellent workers, top-notch people, and Google wouldn't consider them. Google's a nice company, but you need contacts to be hired their. That is the reason for the big h-1b push at Google. Indian nationals stick together (can you blame them), they hire eachother into positions, Google works for them.
Additionally, it's clear that Google uses h-1b body-shops right and left. Of the Google candidates 3 were working for a 3rd party recruitment agency and were here on an h-1b.
As for success, well Google is Wall Streets darling. And I attribute much of their success to basically this:
- Very thin and quick load time
- Exploiting Usenet posts to get 60-minutes (and other news org-time) focused on them. (Reminds me a lot of the early body-part sales on Ebay)
- Now moving into the exploitation of copyrighted material (which could be a big mistake if content-provider lawsuits are successful)
You cannot discriminate in the hiring by race, creed, or NATIONALITY.
When Indian companies only consider h-1b candidates (and then only from from India), for jobs based in the United States, it is a clear case of discrimination.
Prejudice in hiring decisions is a crime in the United States, it violates Federal Civil Rights laws. When companies are found to have violated such laws the punishment can include criminal sentences.
The main question is, if there is a job in the United States, do Indian IT companies (that are h-1b dependent) even consider a non-Indian candidate?
So far all evidence, and all the numbers point to a the startling fact, U.S. engineering candidates are barred from applying for U.S. jobs created by Indian IT companies. Some of these Indian IT companies have U.S. staff that is 90% or more Indian, and almost all here on h-1b visas.
In open testimony before congress, a U.S. Citizen and job applicant tried to get an interview with for an open position in the United States. She was told that she could not apply for the job, just (and only because) because she could not be hired under an h-1b Visa.
Congress is merely asking questions, and India is protesting way-to-loudly. Something aweful (a complete disregard for Civil Rights) is being coverd up by the whole Indian IT industry and the Indian government. There is no equality in the hiring practices of these h-1b dependent Indian IT companies, either you are Indian
or you are not, that is the hiring criteria for an Engineer at an h-1b dependent Indian IT company for a job based in the United States.
This clearly is discrimination, this is prejudice, this is wrong, and against U.S. law.
The american people have the right to know when companies are destroying the very fabric of our society, by planting the seeds of racism, prejudice, and discrimination.
India threatens us with trade sanctions unless allow their companies to continue to discrimate. Call their bluff, India needs trade with the U.S. more than the reverse. Further what good is trade, if it leads to riots, protest, and civil unrest. Discrimination, more than any other, is something that we all agree needs to be eliminated.
The Senators are merely asking questions. Clearly though, we need to subpoena these companies. This is the biggest case of open-discrimination, bigotry, and prejudice in the United States today.
Karmal Nath (the Indian Commerce Minister) and NASSCOM (the Indian Service Companies group) knows Indian IT companies discriminate against U.S. citizens. They know that that Indian IT companies practice discrimination in the United States. And they are trying to black-mail the U.S. into letting it continue.
TO Jake
You have interviewed "several" candidates with bloated resumes, and who cliamed to have worked for google, but now looking for jobs somewhere else.
Wow, that is a real good sample to represent the workforce of GOOGLE.
