In a message dated 4/26/08 3:35:23 P.M. Central Daylight Time, News@JobDestruction.info writes:
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1860 -- 4/26/2008 >>>>>
Article 1:
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042002
135.html
For Visas, The Demand Outstrips The Supply
Firms Say They Rely On Skilled Immigrants
"Welcome to the United Nations!" says Roy Higgs as he ushers visitors into
his architectural design firm in Baltimore, where more than half of the 125
employees are foreign-born.
Article 2:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immiglabor21apr21,0,4195567.story
Lack of skilled workers will lead to fiscal crisis, experts say
"Even if you don't like it, you have to ask the question: Who's going to
fill your jobs, buy your homes and pay the taxes for old-age support
programs?" Myers said.
Article 3:
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004344992_pacificpvisas13.h
tml
On temporary visas, skilled workers are putting down real roots
Take Naresh Bhatt and his wife, Bansri, who moved to the United States from
India 15 years ago under a government visa program for highly skilled and
sought-after workers. Like thousands of Indian immigrants with computer
skills who've taken advantage of the "H-1B" program, they came as temporary
workers in the Seattle area's burgeoning high-tech sector, where companies
like Microsoft were aggressively recruiting foreign nationals to fill
positions in their work forces.
Article 4:
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=48091
EDS says offshoring great for profitability, promises to continue
Ron Rittenmeyer, EDS chairman: "If you can find high-quality talent at a
third of the price, it's not too hard to see why you'd do this," says EDS
chairman Ron Rittenmeyer.
Article 5:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/worldbusiness/24debt.html?em&ex
=1209268800&en=846c4f6967afb6fb&ei=5087%0A
Debt Collection Done From India Appeals to U.S. Agencies
Americans are used to receiving calls from India for insurance claims and
credit card sales. But debt collection represents a growing business for
outsourcing companies, especially as the American economy slows and its
consumers struggle to pay for their purchases. Debt collectors in India
often cost about one-quarter the price of their American counterparts, and
are often better at the job, debt collection company executives say.
1. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/04/20/AR2008042002
135.html
For Visas, The Demand Outstrips The Supply
Firms Say They Rely On Skilled Immigrants
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Staff Writer
Monday, April 21, 2008; B01
"Welcome to the United Nations!" says Roy Higgs as he ushers visitors into
his architectural design firm in Baltimore, where more than half of the 125
employees are foreign-born.
Behind him is a maze of brightly lighted cubicles, each with a plaque
noting the occupant's name and native country: China, Lebanon, Nigeria,
Pakistan, Ukraine, Colombia, the United States.
Higgs's reliance on international talent -- increasingly typical of
high-tech, scientific and educational employers -- helps explain why
immigration officials received a record 163,000 applications for
high-skilled work visas this month.
That number, submitted by employers during a five-day application period,
topped the record set last April, when 140,000 applications for H-1B visas
were received. Despite the high demand, last year Congress authorized just
65,000 of the visas for high-skilled workers.
This year, 20,000 were added for immigrants who have just completed
advanced degrees at U.S. institutions. A total of 85,000 requests will be
chosen randomly by computer and then reviewed to ensure the applicants meet
all eligibility requirements. An immigrant can be on H-1B status for up to
six years in most circumstances.
With so many U.S.-born college graduates and technical workers looking for
jobs, critics ask, why does the number of H-1B visa applications keep
growing?
"It's because we have absolutely no choice," said Higgs, chief executive of
Development Design Group, located in a sleek, remodeled brewery. "Some
people think this is just about bringing in cheap labor, but it's not. We
offer the same salaries and perks whether you're from Baltimore or
Bangladesh . . . but we simply cannot find enough qualified U.S.-born staff
to fuel our growth."
Higgs applied for three H-1B visas this year for temporary employees from
China, Thailand and Spain. He argues that it makes no sense for Congress to
set the annual limits so low, in part because the foreign workers help U.S.
businesses grow.
"I agree we can't just keep importing people. And we have to do something
to increase the supply at home," he said. "But in the meantime, if this
program allows the best and brightest in the world to come here, why keep
the gate closed? I don't get it."
Opponents of expanding the H-1B visa program dismiss such arguments as
self-interested and shortsighted. They say many large employers, especially
in the high-tech field, pay foreign workers lower wages to do basic,
entry-level computer programming or other work that Americans could easily
perform -- and for which the skilled-visa program was not originally
intended.
They also argue that by importing so many foreign workers, businesses are
discouraging young Americans from entering the market. If there were more
competition for high-tech and research jobs, they say, salaries would rise
and more American students would naturally gravitate to them instead of to
more popular disciplines such as law and medicine.
"Lawmakers are often dazzled by the idea that these people are working with
computers, but this is the post-industrial era, and an H-1B worker today is
not much different from a railroad worker of 100 years ago," said Mark
Krikorian, executive director of the Center for Immigration Studies, a
think tank in Washington that generally favors lower immigration levels.
"This is just a cheap-labor program and another example of American
businessmen being against capitalism."
According to surveys cited by Krikorian's center, more than 400,000
Americans lost jobs in the information technology sector between 2001 and
2004, while U.S. high-tech companies sponsored more than 250,000 H-1B
workers. The surveys also found that half of high-tech jobs held by
skilled-visa holders were entry-level or trainee positions.
"Our over-reliance on guest workers is becoming a vicious cycle," said
Jessica Vaughn, a Boston-based researcher. In skilled nursing, she said,
there are long waiting lists for U.S. college programs, even as hospitals
and other employers keep hiring foreign nurses on skilled visas. "It has
become easier to hire trained, English-speaking foreigners than to educate
and train Americans," she said.
While employers, experts and legislators continue to wrangle over the H-1B
program, thousands of applicants such as Wei Wen Yang remain in limbo,
uncertain whether to put down more roots in the United States or keep their
bags packed.
Yang, 40, a financial manager from China whose wife and young son still
live in Northern Virginia, said that because the H-1B visas ran out so
quickly last year, he could not find a sponsor in the Washington area this
year. So he relocated to a firm in California.
"It is hard for us to be apart," Yang said in a telephone interview from
Los Angeles. "If I get the visa, at least it will allow my family to be
together. If I don't get it, we will have to make some hard decisions. If
we have to go back to China, we will, but here there is more chance for
professional development, and it is a much better place to educate our
son."
At Development Design Group, conversations in multiple languages flow
around drafting boards as teams assemble models of condominiums and office
buildings. The atmosphere is one of intellectual energy, punctuated by
bursts of youthful laughter.
"We look for talent wherever we can find it," said Ahsin Rasheed, one of
the firm's managers and a native of Pakistan. "We don't hire based on where
you come from, but we can say proudly that our staff speaks 24 languages.
Our only frustration is that we can't hire more."
For employees awaiting word on their H-1B's, enthusiasm is mixed with
anxiety. Thapana Sakulisariyporn, an immigrant from Thailand with a
master's degree in architecture from the University of Michigan, said the
Baltimore firm has allowed him to work on much more elaborate projects than
he had expected.
"This may be the best chance in my whole life," he said, sipping green tea
next to an acrylic model of a large shopping center. "If I can't stay, it
would be tragic."
Marti Broquetas, 28, another visa applicant from Barcelona, suggested that
foreign-born professional workers, in addition to benefiting from the
advantages the United States offers, have something to give back.
"So many people in Europe have a bad image of America now, but we come here
and we see another side," Broquetas said. "In America, everyone comes from
somewhere else, and we all want to learn something new. The experience is
enriching to all of us."
2. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-immiglabor21apr21,0,4195567.story
Lack of skilled workers will lead to fiscal crisis, experts say
Demographers, economists and employers are advocating more investment in
training and education for the immigrants needed to replace the huge
outgoing crop of baby boomers.
By Teresa Watanabe
Los Angeles Times Staff Writer
April 21, 2008
With baby boomers preparing to retire as the best educated and most skilled
workforce in U.S. history, a growing chorus of demographers and labor
experts is raising concerns that workers in California and the nation lack
the critical skills needed to replace them.
In particular, experts say, the immigrant workers needed to fill many of
the boomer jobs lack the English-language skills and basic educational
levels to do so. Many immigrants are ill-equipped to fill California's
fastest-growing positions, including computer software engineers,
registered nurses and customer service representatives, a new study by the
Washington-based Migration Policy Institute found.
Immigrants -- legal and illegal -- already constitute almost half of the
workers in Los Angeles County and are expected to account for nearly all of
the growth in the nation's working-age population by 2025 because
native-born Americans are having fewer children. But the study, based
largely on U.S. Census data, noted that 60% of the county's immigrant
workers struggle with English and one-third lack high school diplomas.
The looming mismatch in the skills employers need and those workers offer
could jeopardize the future economic vitality of California and the nation,
experts say. Los Angeles County, the largest immigrant metropolis with
about 3.5 million foreign-born residents, is at the forefront of this
demographic trend.
"The question is, are we going to be a 21st century city with shared
prosperity, or a Third World city with an elite group on top and the
majority at poverty or near poverty wages?" asked Ernesto Cortes Jr.,
Southwest regional director of the Industrial Areas Foundation, a
leadership development organization. "Right now we're headed toward
becoming a Third World city. But we can change that."
How to respond to the inexorable demographic trends is a question sparking
a flurry of studies, conferences and new programs. This week, a USC
conference featuring Cortes, former federal housing secretary Henry
Cisneros and other community leaders will explore ways to help immigrants
better integrate into career-oriented jobs and civic life.
The Los Angeles Community College District has launched a workforce
development committee of city officials and community leaders to figure out
how to better prepare students for skills needed in the region.
Last week, more than 500 people gathered at Crenshaw High School at a
conference sponsored by One LA-IAF, a network of more than 100 churches,
unions and community groups. The network has launched a collaboration with
community colleges and employers to recruit low-wage workers, many of them
immigrants, and train them for jobs as nursing assistants and solar-panel
installers.
"Our vision is to create a seamless program that takes undereducated,
underemployed and underskilled workers and puts them into education and job
training that will connect them to career ladders that pay well and offer
benefits," said Yvonne Mariajimenez, a One LA leader. "It's really
rebuilding the middle class."
One of the current trainees is Wendy Estrada, a 30-year-old Honduras native
and naturalized U.S. citizen who aspires to move from her current work as a
house cleaner to a certified nursing assistant and ultimately to work as a
licensed vocational nurse.
Estrada first learned about the program at her parish, St. Thomas the
Apostle Catholic Church in Los Angeles. One LA organizers came to recruit
members for the pilot program, funded by the state community college
system, offering free classes to upgrade English and math skills to levels
required for a certified nursing assistant course.
Estrada used to dream of becoming a doctor in Honduras before marriage,
motherhood and work struggles in Los Angeles waylaid those plans. She
learned English soon after legally arriving in Los Angeles to join her
mother in 1998, so determined to master the language that she went to
classes morning and night, five hours a day, for a year.
When the recruiters came to her parish, Estrada immediately applied.
"I loved the slogan, 'Building a bridge to a new and brighter future,' "
she said. "I knew that education can improve your life, but it was like I
fell asleep having to work, pay the rent and just survive. This program has
reawakened my dreams."
For four months, she received training at Los Angeles Valley College in
basic math and English skills geared toward healthcare work -- calculating
a baby's head measurement, for instance -- along with skills in time
management, meeting goals, interviewing and job hunting.
In February, Estrada began her certified nursing assistant course, where
she has gained both practical skills and academic knowledge. On a recent
afternoon, she huddled over another student posing as a patient while
trying to figure out which way to turn him to remove a protective bed pad.
Instructor Dory Higgins strode over, took a quick glance and showed Estrada
the right technique.
"You change the soiled pad immediately, before you do anything else,
because of skin damage," Higgins said as students took notes.
The growing import of immigrant workers is reflected in Higgins' class.
Among 21 students in class that day, 17 were immigrants from a range of
countries: Mexico, India, Guatemala, Egypt, Honduras, Indonesia, Cuba,
Congo, Ukraine and the tiny West African nation of Burkina Faso.
One of them was Maria Reyes, 30, a Guatemala native who signed up for the
program through her church. Reyes, who came to Los Angeles at age 5,
graduated from high school and got pregnant at 18; she began working as a
waitress to bring in money for her new family. Her minimum-wage job,
however, was leading nowhere.
"I wanted to keep doing something better," Reyes said. "This way I'm
helping my family and other people with needs too."
The class practices with mentors at the Center at Park West nursing home in
Reseda. On a recent Sunday, Estrada showed up at 7 a.m. to make the rounds
with Beatrice Bustamante, a veteran nursing assistant from Colombia. The
pair chatted and joked with the elderly residents as they helped them with
massages and shaves, bathing and denture care.
The job isn't easy. On her first day, Estrada cried at the shock of seeing
residents coughing up their food, suffering loneliness and isolation. But
she said she loved helping the residents -- and they seemed to enjoy her as
well.
"They're the best," said Edna Berry, an octogenarian who is bedridden with
a gangrenous leg. "These people are as much family to me as my own family."
Park West administrator Carrie Marks estimated that 90% of her 110 staff
positions are filled by immigrants, who she said make up the "vast
majority" of job applicants.
"It's in the self-interest of the older generation to have immigrants
here," said Dowell Myers, a USC urban planning and demography professor and
author of the 2007 book "Immigrants and Boomers: Forging a New Social
Contract for the Future of America."
"Even if you don't like it, you have to ask the question: Who's going to
fill your jobs, buy your homes and pay the taxes for old-age support
programs?" Myers said.
Nearly one-third of all Americans -- 76 million people -- were born between
1946 and 1964. Boomer retirements are projected to open up nearly 1 million
jobs in Los Angeles County and 3 million in California in the next decade.
The ratio of seniors to workers is expected to double in the next 20 years
in Los Angeles -- a more rapid pace than is expected for the state or
nation, Myers said.
The new Migration Policy Institute report, however, noted promising
opportunities in Los Angeles for better integrating immigrants into
mainstream economic and civic life. The region has a more settled immigrant
population; new immigration to Los Angeles is at its lowest level in more
than 30 years.
An expanding and more culturally integrated population of immigrants'
children and increasing naturalization rates among immigrants could also
help ease the transition, said Michael Fix, vice president of the institute
and co-author of the study.
"L.A. is probably better equipped than in the past to deal with this, but
still faces pretty big obstacles," Fix said.
The challenge of filling boomer jobs has prompted several firms and public
agencies to start their own training programs. The Los Angeles Department
of Water and Power projects that one-third of its 8,300 workers will be
eligible for retirement in the next five years. It is teaming up with
unions to recruit new apprentices for such jobs as electrical distribution
mechanics and help them learn the trade. Entry-level meter readers earn
about $12 an hour, but electrical distribution mechanics can earn $48,000 a
year with health benefits.
Susana Reyes, who works with the joint training institute run by the
utility and electrical workers union, said she did not know how many new
recruits were immigrants, but that a recent class included 40% Latinos and
40% African Americans.
"We are anxious to make sure a pipeline of workers is out there and of the
quality we need," she said.
Ultimately, experts say, greater investments in public education, a renewed
focus on vocational education and better job training are critical to
California's continued prosperity. Stephen Levy of the Center for the
Continuing Study of the California Economy said the foundation for the
state's robust economy was laid by farsighted politicians and voters from
both parties. They supported the GI Bill, Pell grants and the vast
expansion of the state university system, Levy said, producing the best
educated workforce in U.S. and California history.
The investments more than paid off: Every dollar invested in public
education produces $8 in added tax revenues, according to Myers. He and
others worry that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger's proposed cuts in the
education budget could cripple efforts to produce the well-educated and
skilled workers California urgently needs.
Even some groups that advocate a reduction in legal immigration as a way to
preserve U.S. jobs agree with the idea of better training for the existing
workforce.
"Absolutely we would favor educating and training the labor force of legal
immigrants over bringing in more foreign workers," said Roy Beck, president
of the Virginia-based NumbersUSA.
"Let's invest in people we have here."
teresa.watanabe@
latimes.com
For more on the Migration Policy Institute study, visit
www.migrationpolicy.org
3. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/pacificnw/2004344992_pacificpvisas13.h
tml
On temporary visas, skilled workers are putting down real roots
By Tyrone Beason
The American Dream can sneak up on people.
Take Naresh Bhatt and his wife, Bansri, who moved to the United States from
India 15 years ago under a government visa program for highly skilled and
sought-after workers.
Like thousands of Indian immigrants with computer skills who've taken
advantage of the "H-1B" program, they came as temporary workers in the
Seattle area's burgeoning high-tech sector, where companies like Microsoft
were aggressively recruiting foreign nationals to fill positions in their
work forces.
The visa allows firms to hire such foreign workers and keep them here for
up to six years, longer in some cases.
Naresh was recruited by Paccar, the commercial-vehicle manufacturer, and
Bansri took a job at a Bellevue-based firm that contracted
computer-technology workers to local companies.
"I never had a dream to come to the United States," 39-year-old Naresh says
now, sitting on a floral print couch in the living room of his home in a
Sammamish Plateau subdivision glowingly named Provence.
His two chipper daughters bounce around on the periphery, the way kids do
when parents have strangers in the house.
"Life was good down there -- financially we were very well off," chimes in
Naresh's wife, referring to the upper-middle-class world they left behind
in Mumbai, the teeming port formerly known as Bombay.
Things changed -- and not just for the Bhatts.
As bitter debate swirls over what do to about millions of undocumented
foreign workers who often live in the shadows of American society, it's
easy to forget that we are in the midst of a whole other, legal, mass
migration.
Driven by hiring in high-tech fields, hundreds of thousands of foreign
workers, including a huge influx of young Indians with H-1B visas such as
the Bhatts, are putting down roots in a country that invited them to come
-- sought them out, even.
In the Seattle area, particularly the Eastside, the surge of Indian workers
has been breathtaking. Some 45,000 Indians live in the state, an increase
of more than 70 percent over the population in 2000. Most live in and
around the Puget Sound region's technology corridor.
At Microsoft, fully a third of its 36,000-strong workforce in Washington is
made up of immigrants with H-1B visas and green cards, mostly Indians.
Other local firms, such as Expedia, Amazon, Starbucks and Boeing, also hire
foreign technology workers from India, though in smaller numbers than the
software goliath in Redmond.
Naresh, who moved to information technology for Starbucks, and Bansri, now
at the exercise-equipment maker Precor in Woodinville, are typical of those
who come, not out of economic necessity but for interesting work, career
advancement or simply because they can.
With their two American-born girls and two incomes, their two-story house
and its two-car garage, the Bhatts say they are just as well off in America
as they were in Mumbai.
"We came as explorers," Naresh says of his first years here. "We didn't
know what to expect."
What was meant to be a short-term work experience turned into an
immigration story for the new century.
THE H-1B VISA was not designed to turn temporary foreign workers into
permanent residents, at least not directly.
The visa is reserved for well-educated foreign nationals with specialty
skills like accounting, computer engineering and medicine, and it's
intended for U.S. companies that cannot find citizens of this country to
fill those jobs. The companies recruit and sponsor the foreign workers,
applying for the H-1B visas on their behalf.
Congress limits the number of H-1Bs the government can grant to 65,000 a
year. But this year it expects to receive twice that number of requests.
India, with its growing technology sector, supplies anywhere from a third
to more than half of the workers who are granted visas each year.
But the program, though popular, is not without controversy.
Microsoft's Bill Gates is among those calling for looser restrictions on
recruiting overseas to fill American technology jobs that companies say
can't be filled by native citizens. Just last month, Gates spoke to
Congress, calling on the federal government to let in more workers. Citing
further declines in the number of U.S. science and technology students, he
warned that the nation will lose its global competitiveness if something
isn't done.
Workers' groups, on the other hand, are pushing to protect more jobs for
Americans and keep wages up. They argue American companies are using the
program to shift jobs to foreign nationals who can be easily fired and
replaced, and possibly paid less.
"They don't use the H-1B as a bridge to immigration," says Ron Hira, an
associate professor of economics at Rochester Institute of Technology in
New York, who has studied foreign labor issues. "It's really like a nomadic
experience for contractors."
H-1B workers are, in many ways, at the mercy of their employer-sponsors. If
they are fired or choose to quit, they must return to their native
countries. They can't switch jobs unless the old and new employers agree.
Among the benefits of the visa, however, is that it allows workers to apply
for a green card to gain permanent residency in the United States.
In 1995, the Bhatts decided to apply for green cards. Once they received
them, Naresh and Bansri were able to apply for U.S. citizenship, which both
were granted in 2000.
But if an H-1B worker leaves a job, as many foreign contract workers do,
the green-card process must start all over again if the application is
still pending.
The green card, Hira notes, gives workers leverage when negotiating better
wages and landing new jobs. Salaries top $75,000 a year for Indians who are
permanently certified to work in computer-related fields, about $10,000
higher than for H-1B holders.
Another incentive for H-1B workers to seek a longer-term arrangement is
personal. While the visas are temporary, life -- family, friends, faith,
sports -- has a way of going on. With each passing year the sense of
permanence, and community, grows.
Unlike some previous generations of immigrants, the Indian workers riding
this latest incoming wave aren't interested in putting their heritage on
hold, and they resist living as islands unto themselves. They've found that
in the Puget Sound region, at least, they can escape the limbo of living
between nations.
IN PRACTICING the Hindu-derived Krishna faith, the Bhatts keep a
6-foot-high gilded wooden altar in what would be their dining room. In the
upper part, crowned figurines representing the boyish cow herder-god
Krishna and his brother sit in bright-orange and gold robes adorned with
imitation gems. The room is treated as if Krishna and his brother are real
people. Every morning, the Bhatts present a lit candle, water, milk and
fresh flowers to Krishna and pray to him.
Naresh is a leader at the Vedic Temple and Cultural Center, a Krishna
congregation that's been holding services and feasts at a nondescript
office park in Redmond while its $3.7 million domed temple is built on the
plateau, at the site of an old rambler that once served as temple. Bansri
teaches Sunday school there.
The new temple, when completed this spring, will present a bold face of
Indian culture on a strip dotted with Christian churches and public
schools. Even now, the temple's programs aim to incorporate, rather than
avoid, mainstream culture.
"In our temple," Naresh says with pride, "Santa Claus comes every year."
The temple hosts an egg hunt on Easter, too. The eggs are filled with
pictures of Hindu gods as well as candy.
Naresh, who wears an expression of utter joy even when he's saying
something serious, leads the way upstairs to a bedroom where his daughters,
Aditi and Sachi, are playing.
In a corner, there's a small Krishna altar with its own set of well-dressed
figurines. Aditi, 9, regularly feeds them a vegetarian diet and changes
their clothes.
It's the parents' way of passing on Krishna values to their thoroughly
Americanized children. "We don't try to force one thing over the other" for
the girls, Naresh says. He could, however, do without Barbie dolls. In the
girls' play room, he holds up an unkempt Barbie and shakes his head. "I am
so upset with the Barbies -- there are tons," Naresh says, noticing that
this one has a tattoo on her shoulder and pink dye in her hair.
Downstairs in the den, Naresh opens a cabinet door and points to a row of
Disney DVDs, then grabs a couple of Indian children's films, including
"Ramaya: The Legend of the Prince of Rama," that he thinks it's also
important to have for the girls.
It goes on like this. One second the Bhatts chat happily about their love
of America and everything it stands for. The next, they're emphasizing the
importance of Indian religion and culture.
"You don't have to leave what you are to become someone else," Bansri says
while stirring a pan of masala-spiced zucchini in the kitchen.
Naresh flips the sentiment around: "America was like a full cup of milk,
and I added sugar to it. So it's more sweet.
"The notion that immigrants are coming here taking away jobs and diluting
the culture is not true," he goes on, now more forcefully. "If anything,
they have enriched American traditions and customs."
ON A COOL SATURDAY morning, Vishwa Gaddamanugu stands at a ballfield in
Renton as clusters of fit, young Indian men in track suits wait to play
informal rounds of cricket.
The British military brought this game to India in colonial days, chiefly
as a way to pass the time while waiting for ships to arrive. Similar in
some ways to baseball, the game involves a familiar sequence of fast
pitches, wild swings and mad sprints.
Indians are now the colonists introducing natives to their game.
Gaddamanugu, who came to the region on an H-1B visa in 1998, helped launch
the Northwest Cricket League about six years ago and was active in
Microsoft's cricket club. Before that, the 36-year-old Hyderbad native
played with the few cricket fans he knew here.
"We were kind of tired of playing against each other," he says, laughing.
They started an amateur league with 20 people on four teams. By 2005, that
number had grown to more than 60 teams with about 800 mostly Indian players
taking to the field every weekend at parks on the Eastside.
"Cricket is in our blood, like soccer is in the blood of Brazilians," says
Anurag Hardiya, a 28-year-old software-design engineer at Expedia.For most
of America, though, the game is a big unknown.
"The most frequently asked question -- 95 percent of the time -- is,
'What's the goal of this game?' " Gaddamanugu says. "We used to say, 'To
win.' "
Or, he might say, when he's feeling a little indignant, "This is the second
most popular game in the world, and you ask us this question?"
It's just that he wants Americans to love the game, too.
The game, says Gaddamanugu, who lives in Kirkland, "opens up doors for
people to come and talk."
He feels less comfortable talking about Hinduism.
"If somebody asks me a question, I don't hesitate to give them answers," he
says. "But religion is such a delicate thing. I don't want to make people
angry ... I can take more liberties with the game."
Cricket, though, has had deeper effects. Vijay Beniwal, who works at
Microsoft on an H-1B visa, says he found help to open an Indian
supermarket, Apna Bazar, in part through the game.
Beniwal, 30, and co-owners Samir Bhatt and Srini Sanagapalli, come from
different regions of India and speak three different native languages, yet
found a sense of belonging through cricket.
"This is where we really got together as friends," Bhatt says, noting the
irony of coming all the way to America to build cultural ties with other
Indians. "It's so funny."
IN A TYPICAL suburban neighborhood of tidy houses on cul-de-sacs, some 300
people are packed into the main hall of the Hindu Temple and Cultural
Center in Bothell.
Worshippers chant in front of a stage arrayed with statues of Hindu gods
decked out in glimmering robes and jewels. Priests in robes lead a chorus
of pujas, or prayers, as someone weaves through the hall with a tray of
candles that people wave their hands over -- a way of experiencing the
light of the gods.
It's all part of Diwali, a three-day holiday honoring Lakshmi, the goddess
of wealth. Offerings of aromatically spiced food, sweets and fruit are laid
out on carpets where worshippers kneel. In the coming nights, there will be
more feasting, and fireworks.
Arun Sharma introduces himself as head of the temple's youth group and says
he moved from New Delhi to the United States in 1991 to be with his wife, a
green-card holder who had a job here. The Boeing information technology
specialist considers himself part of the first wave of new Indian
immigrants to this country, back before foreign-worker programs became a
hot-button issue. Now 43, he became a citizen in 1998.
Yet for all the joy he and his family draw from Diwali and other local
cultural events, bridging India and America can be a challenge.
His daughter, Chandi, is 15 now and a leader in the youth league at the
temple, but Sharma says he recalls some tough conversations when she was
younger.
Chandi, who attends public schools and has American-born friends, would ask
questions like, "Dad, why don't we go to church?" and "Dad, when did we
come here?"
"Those can be interesting times," Sharma says of the discussions.
Chandi was born in the United States -- a citizen by birth. But she
sometimes feels like an outsider. Finding a balance between the old and new
worlds is a burden all immigrants share, and hand down to their kids, who
"want the protection of their parents and the freedoms of the mainstream
culture," Sharma says. "Our culture is much more protective," he explains.
"It's not easy for us to allow her to go to parties. We don't allow her to
go to the mall alone -- we have to go with her."
In India, he adds, "the concept of having a boyfriend or girlfriend, when
you're below a certain age, is very much frowned upon."
While these are universal parental worries, in Sharma's case they are
tinged with cultural ambivalence. After more than 15 years, Sharma says he
still has "not evolved" with mainstream American culture. He works extra
hard to preserve and pass on what he knows of India. But he's been away so
long he's missed his homeland's rapid development and Westernization. "I
got frozen in time," Sharma says. The strange thing is, "I can't fit in
there" today, nor is he truly in this culture.
But ultimately, Sharma says, "We made a choice to come here -- we weren't
forced." And so, it follows, "we know we have to embrace this culture."
PERHAPS IN RECOGNITION of their employees' struggle to bridge two worlds,
companies such as Microsoft encourage Indian employees to celebrate their
culture.
Vishwa Gaddamanugu, who is president of the Hindu Temple in Bothell, says
Microsoft offers to match its Indian employees' donations to the temple
dollar for dollar. For workers who volunteer at the temple, the company
also pays $17 an hour to the organization on their behalf, as it does for
all employees. Boeing has similar programs.
It is partly because of this support that the Hindu Temple plans to break
ground soon on its own multimillion-dollar new worship space to serve its
growing membership of some 400 people.
Yet for some recently arrived through the H-1B program, the tug of home
remains too strong. They embrace America, take advantage of its
opportunities and soak up the flowering immigrant scene. But they are set
on returning home.
Anurag Hardiya, who got his H-1B visa after studying at the University of
Southern California, is one. He's the kind of person who will rave about
sampling the Southern food at a Thanksgiving dinner he attended with a
family in Nashville last year, then wax about the central role his own
extended family back home plays in his life here.
Hardiya says his experience at Expedia has been great, and he has no
regrets or worries. But he misses his family deeply. He returned from his
annual visit to Indore in late January.
He and his mom talk by phone every other day, and he sets aside money each
month to pay for the long-distance charges: "She knows when I'm going to
parties, what I'm doing, my health."
While a virtual India has sprung up all around him in the form of social
networks, markets, places of worship and the all-important cricket, Hardiya
insists "I don't want to become too attached. Then I won't want to leave."
Just to be safe, he's set a goal of saving enough money to go home and
start a business in his native country, where technology-venture
opportunities are rapidly expanding -- thanks in part to ties with U.S.
companies.
Hardiya just might find his American Dream in India. In any case, he -- not
his H-1B visa -- will control his destiny.
"One-third of what I make here is huge in India," Hardiya muses. "At least
I have some direction. We'll see what succeeds."
Tyrone Beason is a Pacific Northwest magazine staff writer. Steve Ringman
is a Seattle Times staff photographer.
4. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=48091
EDS says offshoring great for profitability, promises to continue
Ron Rittenmeyer, EDS chairman
"If you can find high-quality talent at a third of the price, it's not too
hard to see why you'd do this," says EDS chairman Ron Rittenmeyer.
4/23/2008 7:51:00 AM
by Brian Jackson
Electronic Data Systems (EDS) Inc. says its outsourcing strategy is saving
it big bucks and announced plans to continue with it through 2008.
The off-shore labour continues to be cheap, and talent available overseas
is now at least on par with North America's, company executives note.
Its off-shoring strategy served the Plano, Texas-based technology services
company well in 2007.
It landed the number 19 spot on Fortune 500's list of 20 most profitable
tech companies by cutting costs. Its revenue grew four per cent, and
profits increased 52 per cent to $716 million for the year.
With EDS set to release its first-quarter numbers, company brass indicate
that the outsourcing trend is only going to grow.
Where $19 billion was spent in 2007, more than $20 billion will be spent
this year, according to EDS chairman Ron Rittenmeyer.
"It's not just a passing fancy," he told ITBusiness.ca. "It is a pretty
major change that is going to continue. If you can find high quality talent
at a third of the price, it's not too hard to see why you'd do this."
That sentiment was echoed across EDS executives gathered at the site of
their title-sponsored PGA tournament, the EDS Byron Nelson Championship.
With 43 per cent of their employees now in off-shore locations, the driving
factors behind their out-sourcing practice are North America's rising costs
and shallow talent pools compared to other global markets.
"There's phenomenal amounts of IT talent, it may just not be in our
country," says Charlie Feld, vice president of application services. "When
I talk about the talent shortage, I focus specifically on the Americas and
the U.S."
The American education system doesn't encourage students to pursue math and
science the same way other countries do, Feld adds.
Kids are losing interest in those skills at a young age despite their eager
adoption of technology because they don't make the connection between math
skills and the electronics they've whole-heartedly embraced.
"We don't teach it in a way that is exciting to these kids," he says. "They
picture the drudgery of writing code instead of the excitement of creating
things."
In Canada, the rising dollar has changed the bottom-line equation.
While it used to be cheaper for EDS to operate help-desks and other
services north of the border, that is quickly changing, says Stewart Hair,
managing director of datacenter services.
EDS calls their strategy of housing data in one place and operating it from
another a "best-floor, best-shore" approach, he adds.
With thousands of client IT departments around the world in 50 different
countries and 500 locations, the company is flexible to respond to rising
costs or talent shortages by putting resources elsewhere.
"We're very agnostic about specifically where we operate," says
Rittenmeyer, also the company's president and chief operating officer.
"It depends on what the job is, what the skill level is, what we have in
specific locations, and we watch increasing land costs, increasing building
costs, the stability of the country and the government. You have to balance
all of that."
Their practices won accolades in 2007. The Black Book of Outsourcing pegged
them at the top of their "Top 50 Best Managed Global Outsourcing Vendors"
list.
They were also recognised by Cambridge, Mass.-based analyst firm Forrester
Research as a leader in global IT infrastructure outsourcing.
Perhaps it is no surprise then that their biggest client and former owner,
General Motors (GM), is also described as an "aggressive globalization
customer" by Jeff Kelly, executive vice president for EDS North America.
With the car manufacturer facing recent challenges in Ontario related to
the higher Canadian dollar, it is an example of how cost savings can be
achieved by moving work off-shore.
"We're very much a part of GM and any pain that they're suffering," Kelly
says. GM is an example of having half employees local and half off-shore,
with cost savings pursued by moving work to established EDS areas like
Argentina and China.
"Don't assume that because it is a Canadian customer, our delivery system
is not based in Brazil," he adds.
While the savings to the bottom line remain an incentive, EDS executives
predict those will level out to be on par with North American costs over
the next decade.
As education and the IT skills on offer continue to develop in off-shore
locations, the company will maintain operations there because of the
quality of the employees, not because of their lower wages.
For right now, it's the best of both worlds, according to Rittenmeyer.
"If it costs me $20 an hour to have someone here and $4 an hour to have
someone in China, and the education is pretty close, and the quality level
is the same or better, I'm going to pass along a lot of that savings [to
the client] and my margin is going to be the same," he explains.
Growth areas for off-shoring this year include established EDS markets of
India, China, Latin America, Eastern Europe and Malaysia, the chairman
adds.
5. +++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/24/business/worldbusiness/24debt.html?em&ex
=1209268800&en=846c4f6967afb6fb&ei=5087%0A
April 24, 2008
Debt Collection Done From India Appeals to U.S. Agencies
By HEATHER TIMMONS
GURGAON, India -- In a glass tower on the outskirts of New Delhi, dozens of
young Indians are on the telephone, calling America’s out of work,
forgetful and debt-stricken and asking for cash.
"Are you sure that’s all you can afford?" one operator in a row of
cubicles asks politely. "Well, how do you take care of your everyday
expenses?" presses another.
Americans are used to receiving calls from India for insurance claims and
credit card sales. But debt collection represents a growing business for
outsourcing companies, especially as the American economy slows and its
consumers struggle to pay for their purchases.
Armed with a sophisticated automated system that dials tens of thousands of
Americans every hour, and puts confidential information like Social
Security numbers, addresses and credit history at operators’ fingertips,
this new breed of collectors is chasing down late car payments, overdue
credit card debt and lapsed installment loans. Debt collectors in India
often cost about one-quarter the price of their American counterparts, and
are often better at the job, debt collection company executives say.
"India will be the only place we grow this year," said J. Brandon Black,
the chief executive of the Encore Capital Group, a debt collection company
based in San Diego. India is the company’s largest operating area, with
about half the company’s collection force of more than 300.
Although the stereotype of a collector may be "some guy with chains and a
cut-off shirt," Mr. Black said, collectors in India are "very polite, very
respectful, and they don’t raise their voice." He added, "People respond
to that."
Companies like Encore buy bad loans from banks and credit card issuers for
pennies on the dollar and pocket the cash they collect. The delinquent
borrowers often owe at least a thousand dollars.
So far just a tiny fraction, maybe 5 percent, of American debt collection
is done outside the country, industry executives estimate. But new business
is in the pipeline.
Financial services clients are saying, "We want you to collect my debt, to
analyze it and change the way that we sell" the loans, said Tiger
Tyagarajan, executive vice president at Genpact, the business processing
company spun off from General Electric that has roots in India. Genpact,
which works with lenders to get customers to pay, rather than buying loans
directly like Encore, employs thousands of debt collectors in India,
Romania, Mexico and the Philippines, and is hiring in all those locations.
In the past, the prevailing wisdom about wringing money from late payers
has been "if you’re calling the Midwest, you want someone from the
Midwest to twist their arm," said Mark Hughes, an analyst with Sun Trust
Robinson Humphrey who covers the industry. That theory is changing as the
pool of trained phone professionals in India and other locations deepens,
and companies look outside the United States for lower costs.
Telephone debt collection represents new, more aggressive territory for
India. "This is really a sales job," Mr. Hughes said. "It is
commission-intensive, and you’re paid on your ability to collect."
Like many sales teams, Encore’s collectors in India gather for a daily
pep talk before their shift. In one recent session, they were schooled on
the intricacies of American tax policy.
"One hundred thirty million U.S. families will get a tax rebate this
season" as part of the new economic stimulus package, Manu Sharma, the team
leader, explained to a roomful of top-earning collection agents, most in
their 20s. Those who qualify for the rebates will get as much $600 a person
or $1,200 a household, he said, and "the I.R.S. is going to start paying
this money in May."
Start bringing up the rebate during calls, he told them. "This gives you an
advantage so you can increase your wallet share," he went on. "Get them set
up on minimum balance arrangements" based around their tax rebates.
Once the calls start flowing, Encore’s Gurgaon office resembles nothing
less than the headquarters for an enthusiastic fund-raising telethon. Just
minutes after collectors have put on their headsets, a supervisor yells out
"Rajesh, for $35 a month for three months." All employees enthusiastically
respond by clapping three times, and Rajesh is the first on the day’s
sales board.
Companies like Encore often schedule dozens of payments and make dozens of
calls before the loan is paid off.
Encore -- which also operates as Midland Capital Management -- also files
sheaves of lawsuits against customers who do not respond. Sometimes the
debt is so old that the statute of limitations for filing a suit has
passed, and it may already have vanished from a person’s credit report.
If the debtor makes a new payment, though, the statute of limitations
starts all over again.
Credit counselors in the United States say more and more of their clients
are being contacted by debt collectors based in India. Sometimes, it can
cause problems. When clients "run into someone who doesn’t speak English
well or there is a communication gap, it can add to the frustration of the
customer," said Bill Druliner, manager and financial counselor for
GreenPath Debt Solutions in Milwaukee.
Debt collection, no matter who does it, can have "a devastating impact on
people’s lives," Mr. Druliner said, because calls can stress family
relationships and sometimes debtors are pressed into paying late bills
instead of buying necessities like prescriptions. Still, he said, he had
not run into any specific problems with overseas debt collectors. "What
they may lack in authority or ability to handle slang, they do handle the
process very well and are very well spoken," he said.
Mortgage loans, which involve complex state and national laws, are nearly
always handled by collectors in the United States. But credit card, auto
and other debt are prime candidates for collection overseas.
Just over 4.5 percent of all bank credit card accounts were delinquent in
the fourth quarter of 2007, according to the Federal Reserve, up from 3.5
percent two years before. Businesses in the United States put $141 billion
in delinquent consumer debt up for collection in 2005, according to a
PriceWaterhouseCoopers survey commissioned by an industry group, and debt
collection agencies collected $51 billion that year. They kept nearly a
quarter of that in profits.
Collection veterans are seeing an unusual phenomena in this economic
downturn. "People are walking away from their homes and hanging on to their
credit cards, because that is their lifeline," said Rajinder Singh, the
head of global analytic services for Genpact.
Encore hires people with call center experience in India, and then trains
them in unexpected skills like sympathy. Clients "get very abusive, very
emotional, very sad," said Manu Rikhye, vice president at the Encore unit
in Gurgaon. The collector’s job is to "try to empathize with the
consumer," he said and try to figure out, if they’re angry, why. "Maybe
it’s us, maybe it’s someone else," he said. "You have to hear what they
have to say."
Collectors are taught to handle abuse by telling debtors: "This attitude is
not going to get you anywhere. We can either work with you or refer you for
further action," implying a lawsuit. Collectors who raise their voices or
try "tough" tactics are warned, Mr. Rikhye said, and those who misrepresent
facts can be fired.
Manju Muddanna, 27, who uses the name Michelle Green when she is on the
phone, is one of Encore’s best collectors. With laced-up stiletto
sandals, wood bangles and a wad of chewing gum, she wheedles work and
cellphone numbers out of debtors’ relatives to track them down. Like most
Encore collectors, Ms. Muddanna handles several hundred calls a day, but
actually makes contact with only a handful of borrowers.
Ms. Muddanna’s telephone voice veers to the school-marmish, her learned
American accent into Blanche DuBois territory . When people on the other
end of the phone mumble, she upbraids them, politely, "Ahhh just can’t
understand you, ma’am."
Encore pays its collectors in India an average base salary of 17,000 rupees
($425) a month, and they earn bonuses -- sometimes more than $1,000 a month
-- for getting customers to pay. In contrast, collectors in the United
States, make about $6,500 a month. Thanks to the income, a windfall in
India, where the average monthly income is $63, collectors are amassing
some of the status symbols that probably got their clients into trouble in
the first place -- new scooters, iPods, Swatch watches and exotic
vacations.
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