Wadhwa vs Hira debate on Bank of America

Date: Tuesday, March 10, 2009 4:08 AM

<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1988 -- 3/10/2009 >>>>>

CNBC hosted a debate over the Sanders/Grassley "Employ American Workers Act"
(SA306) amendment to the Stimulus Bill. The video is almost 5 minutes and the
two combatants were Vivek Wadhwa and Ron Hira. Use the link below to watch the
debate.

An article appearing in an Indian publication called FT spurred the debate
with a claim that the Bank of America withdrew job offers (and H-1B visas) to
foreign MBA students graduating from US business schools. The reason given for
BofA not seeking the visas was because they were concerned about restrictions
in SA306. This kind of talk is pure hysteria but articles like the one in FT
are appearing all over the world.

As I have explained in several previous newsletters, SA306 won't stop a single
H-1B visa from being issued, although it will require a few employers in the
financial service sector to fill out additional paperwork to get the visa
approved (or to hire a shameless law firm like Cohen&Grigsby to do the dirty
work). If it's true that BofA withdrew offers to 50 foreign students it was
more likely due to poor economic conditions, not SA306. In other words, BofA
wasn't going to hire these students anyway!

Ron Hira's main point is that BofA does replace Americans with H-1Bs, so they
may have to jump extra hoops to hire H-1Bs in order to avoid violating the H-
1B dependency requirements.

The debate was quite a spectacle to watch because Ron Hira was calm and
scholarly, while Vivek Wadhwa was like a mad dog on meth. The interviewers
were very obnoxious and condescending towards Hira but he kept his cool. In
the middle of the discussion Wadwha took the low road by accusing Hira and
everyone like him of being mean-spirited xenophobes. I have witnessed Wadwha
accusing people of xenophobia in the past, and it was always when he was
losing an argument.

To find out more about Ron Hira and Vivek Wadhwa just google on their names.
There is plenty out there and this newsletter has mentioned their names many
times.

For this abysmal performance I nominate Vivek Wadhwa as a candidate for "Jerk
of the year, 2009 Award"!

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

IMPORTANT NOTE ABOUT THE VIDEO: The videos on the CNBC web site are somewhat
buggy. If you can't watch the video on one browser try another. I got it to
play on one computer but only intermittantly on another. IE and Firefox were
both problematic.

To discuss the debate, and to try another link to the video go here:

http://blog.noslaves.com/when-up-against-the-wall-on-factsplay-the-race-card/

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.cnbc.com//id/29592885

BofA Rescinds Job Offers to Foreign MBA Grads: Report BANK OF AMERICA, BOFA,
VISA, FOREIGN, WORKERS, MBA, TARP, BUSINESS SCHOOLS CNBC.com | 09 Mar 2009 |
12:05 PM ET Bank of America is starting to withdraw offers to some MBA
students that graduate from US business schools this year, the Financial Times
reported Monday.

The $787 billion stimulus package makes it more difficult for financial
institutions like Bank of America that receive money from the government's
Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, to apply for H-1B visas for
highly-skilled immigrants if they have recently laid off US workers, the
paper said.

If a bank receives TARP money it must jump through more hoops to hire a
foreign worker under the program, including making attempts to hire US
workers first. The number of H-1B visas allowed is currently capped at
65,000.

Bank of America was "allowed to have the employees -- the problem was Bank
of America did not recruit American workers first and/or were going to
replace American workers with those MBAs," Ron Hira, assistant professor of
public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, told CNBC.

"And we know Bank of America has policy in place to replace American
workers with H-1Bs," Hira said, adding that the highly-skilled visa program
is basically just a "cheap labor" program for companies.

But Vivek Wadhwa, professor at Duke University, said the move is "is just
mean-spirited xenophobia."

"We have a mass exodus of skilled immigrants who are fed up of these
xenophobic ways and the ways we're treating foreigners here," Wadhwa said.
"What if all the immigrants decided to pull their money out of Bank of
America and Citibank? You'd have a run on the banks and the economy would
collapse."

The move should affect no more than 50 graduates, but is worrying business
schools, the FT said.

"There might be an inclination for people from around the world to vote
with their feet (and avoid US business schools)," David Schmittlein, dean
of MIT s Sloan school of management in Boston, told the paper.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/7bc3f3fa-0c4a-11de-b87d-0000779fd2ac.html

Bank of America rescinds job offers to foreign MBAs
By Della Bradshaw in London

Published: March 9 2009 02:00 | Last updated: March 9 2009 02:00

Bank of America has become the first US bank to withdraw job offers made to
MBA students graduating from US business schools this summer, citing
conditions laid out in its bail-out deal as the reason.

The passed $787bn stimulus bill in effect prevents financial institutions
that have received money from the government's troubled asset relief
programme from applying for H1-B visas for highly skilled immigrants if
they have made US workers redundant.

BofA, which has received a total of $45bn (36bn, #32bn) in Tarp funds, is
in the process of digesting two large acquisitions - Countrywide, the
mortgage broker, and Merrill Lynch - which will see thousands of jobs lost.
A spokesman for the bank said: "Recent changes in legislation made it
necessary for Bank of America to rescind job offers it had made to students
requiring H-1B sponsorship."

The number of international students affected by the BofA move is thought
to be no more than 50 but business schools are concerned that other banks
in receipt of Tarp funds could follow suit.

Traditionally, about a third of MBA students at the leading US schools have
taken up finance and banking jobs on graduation, with about a third of
those MBAs coming from outside the US. But MBA graduates have seen the
number of jobs in the finance sector shrink by about 40 per cent this year.

Some supporters of freer migration have criticised the Tarp measure for
threatening to cut the US off from foreign talent and encouraging
tit-for-tat retaliation by foreign countries.

Business school deans are concerned about the implications and are lobbying
hard for the interpretation of Tarp to be generous in regards to MBAs.

Some fear that students who have traditionally studied in the US to get a
job in North America may go elsewhere. "There might be an inclination for
people from around the world to vote with their feet," says David
Schmittlein, dean of MIT's Sloan school of management in Boston.

That would be a further blow to US business schools, which are trying hard
to internationalise their student body and curriculums. This year the
credit crunch meant that many international students, who do not have
access to US federal loans, were unable to raise the financing to embark on
a two-year US MBA, resulting in a drop of up to a 20 per cent in
applications.

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