'Foreign Tech Workers Are Avoiding Travel To the US' (computerworld.com)
- Reference: 0180489035
- News link: https://news.slashdot.org/story/25/12/30/2341244/foreign-tech-workers-are-avoiding-travel-to-the-us
- Source link: https://www.computerworld.com/article/4110681/foreign-tech-workers-are-avoiding-travel-to-the-us.html
> I go to a lot of tech conferences -- 13 in 2025 -- and many of those I attend are outside the U.S.; several are in London, one is in Amsterdam, another in Paris, and two in Tokyo. Wherever I went this past year, when we weren't talking about AI, Linux, the cloud, or open-source software, the top non-tech topic for non-Americans involved the sweeping changes that have occurred since President Donald J. Trump returned to office last January. The conversations generally ended with something like this: "I'm not taking a job or going to a conference in the United States."
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> Honestly, who can blame them? Under Trump, America now has large "Keep Out!" and "No Trespassing!" signs effectively posted. I've known several top tech people who tried to come to the U.S. for technology shows with proper visas and paperwork, but were still turned away at the border. Who wants to fly for 8+ hours for a conference, only to be refused entry at the last minute, and be forced to fly back? I know many of the leading trade show organizers, and it's not just me who's seeing this. They universally agree that getting people from outside the States to agree to come to the U.S. is increasingly difficult. Many refuse even to try to come. As a result, show managers have begun to close U.S.-based events and are seeking to replace them with shows in Europe, Canada, and Asia. [...]
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> Once upon a time, everyone who was anyone in tech was willing to uproot their lives to come to the U.S. Here, they could make a good living. They could collaborate, publish, and build companies in jurisdictions that welcome them, and meet their peers at conferences. Now, they must run a gauntlet at the U.S. border and neither a green card nor U.S. citizenship guarantees they won't be abused by the federal government. Trump's America seems bound and determined to become a second-rate tech power. His administration can loosen all the restrictions it wants on AI, but without top global talent, U.S. tech prowess will decline. That's not good for America, the tech industry or the larger world.
[1] https://www.computerworld.com/article/4110681/foreign-tech-workers-are-avoiding-travel-to-the-us.html
No kidding... (Score:4, Interesting)
I certainly wouldn't feel safe setting foot in the US. And I definitely don't feel welcomed.
But hey, it's good for Canada. We've already poached quite a few top-talent academics from the US and I suspect more will come.
People here want H1-B reform, right? (Score:4, Interesting)
For years people here on Slashdot have complained about H1-B abuse and the need to fix the program abuses that allowed companies to use it to cut costs and lay off Americans. So are you happy they are tightening the program, focusing it on experienced hires, and raising the cost to employers? Or is it bad because Trump?
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technically it's 'false dichotomy' but that's just a fancy way of saying 'false choice' anyway.
This is for whoever modded you flamebait. I hope they spend their time crying about how nobody will 'debate' them.
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I am not American, but even here where I live it seems that the goal is to get everyone possible in from abroad to replace me. I see myself put last in the country I was born in. What's even worse is that I regularly outperform those who are given jobs with high salaries in every possible aspect, yet I'm treated as an "inconvenience" as I go against the agenda. I've had several times in my career where I clean up the mess left by much more expensive "developers" at a fraction of their pay, and told to just
Re:People here want H1-B reform, right? (Score:5, Informative)
H1-B reform could have been done without blatant human rights abuse at the border, illegal mass deportations without due process by masked federal agents, and threats to the sovereignty of formerly allied nations.
Re: People here want H1-B reform, right? (Score:1)
Immigration enforcement cannot be done without identifying and apprehending illegal immigrants. Often against their will.
Just like arresting other kinds of lawbreakers cannot generally be done on the honor system alone.
Law enforcement is not a human rights violation. Border enforcement is not a human rights violation. There is no natural right to enter and reside in the United States, or for that matter any country, without respecting the immigration laws of that country.
I would like to see H1B replaced who
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What does any of that have to do with the story?
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Replying again because Mar-a-Lago applied for 170 temporary foreign workers this year, a record. [1]https://www.palmbeachpost.com/... [palmbeachpost.com]
G aslight
O bstruct
P roject
Guess they can't find any hard working MAGA fans to mow the lawns and serve well done steaks.
[1] https://www.palmbeachpost.com/story/news/local/2025/09/23/as-mar-a-lago-visa-use-grows-what-is-the-future-of-h-2b-program/86295192007/
Re: People here want H1-B reform, right? (Score:2)
You need an h1b when you speak at a conference?
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What on earth does your question have to do with the article? Or did you just feel like promoting Trump for no reason?
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Sure, keep believing that. The world will move on.
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> The biggest and most influential confs are all in the US
Maybe (not true in my area but fair point, it's the case for most areas), but it's actual corridor talk right now in the world outside of the US, people think twice before travelling. I have a collaboration where students can be offered a stay at a top US university and I now see students losing interest and refusing something that used to be a dream offer.
Re:Biggest confs are all in the US..? (Score:4, Informative)
yeah, no. The best conference were always international in tech. Maybe more often in north america, but they always have been rotating international locations.
I attended 3 conference this year. And the foreign attendance was half of what it usually was. Steering committees of conferences I have talked to are looking into non US venues for all but one (which is by designa US based conference.)
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Allow me to help. The summary used words like "gradual" and "long-term". It took decades for America to build its position of leadership in the world. The slide into irrelevance will take years.
Now asking for social media, email, phone numbers? (Score:5, Insightful)
I travelled to conferences in the US early 2000s. I had to fill that paper saying I'm not a Communist so I can enter the country. "First they came for the Communists, and I said nothing, because I am not a Communist." But now my news say that from February 2026, visitors will be asked to provide social media login to check the posts, list of phone numbers used in the past 5 years, list of email addresses. And that's simply no, and absolute and definitive no, whatever the reason for the travel.
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The stasi were at least discrete about this type of thing.
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aah, but of they would come for the communists I would definitely say a few things. Things like: excellent. I really really despise communists and socialists. Also Islamists and ruzzians.
I voted with my wallet (Score:2)
I had been planning to go to CES in 2025 and catch up with people I had worked with in the US in the past. However even back in late 2024 I didn't like the vibes coming out of the USA, so went to Japan instead. In hindsight the best travel decision I made recently. I wonder if I will ever visit the USA again, certainly not at my own expense, and I would probably need a really good reason.
These five words in my head scream, (Score:2)
> The result, he says, is a gradual shift of talent, events, and long-term innovation toward more welcoming regions such as Europe, Canada, and Asia
"Are we finding out yet?"
This isn't good news (Score:2, Informative)
When the damage Trump has caused becomes too obvious and the US starts to really fail, things are going to get very dangerous. Wars start over crap like this.
Wars (Score:1)
> Wars start over crap like this.
I'm not sure who would go to war against the US over its current policies (wars are costly - smart countries would avoid unnecessary wars, instead of fighting the US they would slowly distance themselves from the US), but I can see two classes of wars starting indirectly because of it.
Type 1: Country A wants to go to war with Country B, but Country B has enjoyed the protection of the United States. With a weakened US, Country A is no longer deterred from going to war with Country B.
Type 2: The leader of
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There's also Option 3: Civil war, as the states opposed to MAGA's destruction of the US finally get fed up with states supporting it.
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Civil war is the most likely outcome, sadly I live within 100km of the border and I worry a lot about the spill over. I know I personally won't be heading South anytime soon and I'm a white guy. Mexico is safer than the US at least I can avoid the criminals there, pretty hard to avoid the so criminals in the US since they wear government uniforms.
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The [1]damage [politico.com] is pretty obvious right now.
[1] https://www.politico.com/news/2025/10/26/the-east-wing-of-the-white-house-is-gone-heres-a-look-at-some-of-the-history-made-there-00623458
I'm a professional in Vancouver. (Score:2)
None of my friends have interest in going to America, for at least three years or less ( on the day it finally happens! )
send them all back (Score:2)
yeah we don't need any foreigners, not a single one. we need to send our brightest to our best universities and ban all foreigners from american colleges. we need to develop our own talent instead of sidelining the descendants of people that built this country.
if third worlders can't even fix their own countries how are they going to improve ours? its nonsense. we should be sending out americans to foreign countries to help them improve, not the other way around. we are a nation, not a soulless economic zon
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Right, because sending Americans to third world countries to make them better has worked out so well for us in the past.
The irony (Score:2)
Trump hands over political power to all these 'tech lords', and the outcome is actual tech people are avoiding the country.
Is the US winning yet? (Score:3, Insightful)
Right wing propoganda is a helluva drug...
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In their minds we are winning. This is exactly what they voted for.
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And tech titans don't need to go to conferences, except to keynote at their own vanity-bro love fests held in achingly expensive venues.
The sheer volume of rah-rah overcomes any sanity, and the "business partners" all tote the company line. They remind me of political conventions, except the food might be better.
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Then why do those same tech titans keep sponsoring every conference I go to...?
Are you under the impression that they only sell technology they developed in-house or something?