<p>Well, I was pretty worried when I read the papers this morning and read about President Obama’s new found resolve to discourage the outsourcing of US jobs to international students.</p>
<p>I am an international prospective grad (CS) student, and I am really concerned as to how this would affect the chances of my getting a job after my education is done. Granted, I still have two years to complete my undergrad, but the fact is that for me, doing my master’s is pretty meaningless if I have to return to my country - that is something I do not really relish doing. In other words, my going to grad school depends entirely on getting a job in the US after I am done.</p>
<p>So, what is the opinion of the CC community on this? Will companies really start cutting jobs for internationals? Or is this just going to die down?</p>
<p>I’m not entirely sure where you got that interpretation of Obama’s speech from, but based on what I heard, that was not what he was saying. What he was saying is that he wanted to encourage more hiring and job creation in the US contrasted with outsourcing jobs to other nations. If you plan on working in the United States, there isn’t an issue, even theoretically.</p>
<p>I live in India, and maybe the press skewed his speech a bit to say the Indian IT industry is going to be “hit hard”. I may, of course, have been grossly wrong.</p>
<p>maybe it’ll help NRI’s realize that india’s IT industry needs to be based on homegrown innovation as opposed to merely piggybacking off the success of american corporations.</p>
<p>From what I heard, getting a job in industry in the US is very difficult for internationals, since companies have to prove that they can’t find any American to do the job.</p>
<p>Yes and no. With an advanced degree, particularly a PhD, you become specialized, and the above becomes less of a factor because there are indeed fewer people, and not just Americans, qualified for positions. When my husband was in industry, he wrote several such letters attesting to the fact that the international in question was the best person for the job. We know Chinese, Indian, Swiss, Malaysian, Canadian, Bulgarian, and French researchers who work in the U.S. Although I don’t pretend to be an expert on government policy, I do know that my husband has never encountered a work visa denial after a job offer has been extended. The more highly educated the individual and the more specialized the position, the less nationality seems to matter. </p>
<p>Just to clarify: Obama’s speech outlined ways to strengthen the US economy, and giving companies incentives to create jobs in the US was one of them. To understand what this means, you must understand a little how the American government works. We have three branches of power – the executive (the president and his staff), the legislative (Congress – the House of Representatives and the Senate), and the judicial (the Supreme Court) that must work together in what is called the “checks and balances of power.” The President can want certain policies to go into effect, and he may campaign for them, but, for most things, he must have the backing of Congress through passed legislation. He cannot implement those changes, only push for them. So what you hear in a State of the Union speech may not necessarily happen. </p>
<p>But even if Obama gets exactly what he asks for (I don’t think this has ever happened to a president!), I don’t think it will affect international students. Obama is not an isolationist or a xenophobe.</p>