In a recent magnanimous move, Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger wrote a letter to the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives expressing the need for more Green Cards and H1-Bs for foreign Technology workers (techies).
The “Governator” plans to make a trip out to India later this year and is clearly making friends in a not-so-subtle political move. The letter was written by Governors from 12 other states, and is a push aimed to promote immigration reform to protect the current skilled work force so prevalent in those states. California in particular is brimming with foreign techies. The majority of the techies coming from India China, UK and Taiwan.
Currently 65,000 is the base cap for H1-B’s, which was arbitrarily set in 1990 according to EFYtimes.com. It seems that for the fiscal year 2008, the availability of H1-B’s was depleted after the first day of the filing period. The same article quotes Governor Arnold: “Until we are able to address this workforce shortage, we must recognize that foreign talent has a role to play in our ability to keep companies located in our state and country; and, therefore, need to ensure the increased availability of temporary H1-B visas, and permanent resident visas (green cards).”
Clearly the Terminator wants Science, engineering and technology to come back to California. Makes sense to me.
Read more here.