OvidPerl

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Reddit, what is the most powerful image you have ever seen? by tokerjoker11in AskReddit

[–]OvidPerl 8 points9 points ago

How does a child that young "accept death"?

Woman was on the phone being interviewed for a job and this guy (mayor of Chicago) randomly grabbed her phone to put in a good word. by crapidrawatworkin pics

[–]OvidPerl 0 points1 point ago

I keep hearing people say this, but as I live nowhere near there and don't hear much about it, I'd like to have citations to know if this is actually true.

21 year old US resident looking to move and study elsewhere by AHemlocksliein IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl 0 points1 point ago

Perhaps in the UK, but my wife got her master's in French law for around 2K euro and many European universities offer free or dirt cheap tuition. Which countries are you comparing?

Interest in Czech Republic. Working conditions, what do they need? by cloudx0in IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl 1 point2 points ago

It's also excellent beer. Prague is a gorgeous city and as /u/yourslice mentioned, it's very affordable. I'd be tempted were I not tired of moving so often.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 0 points1 point ago

You're right. Thanks for the correction!

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 1 point2 points ago

Not sure. I think this one renews every three years, but it's contingent on you remaining employed (not surprisingly).

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 0 points1 point ago

Actually, no. He'd have to be in Germany for 8 years and he was there only five.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 2 points3 points ago

I can understand your frustration and it's one of the biggest barriers raised against immigrants and huge political pressures come into play. Part of the issue is that explaining the issue can be complicated, but I'll take a swing at it. I know this is a huge "wall of text", but if you want to understand why governments do this, it's important.

There are several types of unemployment, such as frictional and cyclical unemployment. In the case of highly skilled workers, the government is trying to address structural unemployment, a type of unemployment which is very durable and hard to fix.

Imagine you have a company and it's doing really well and you need to hire a new system administrator, a DBA, two top-notch C++ developers and a front-end developer. Plenty of people apply, but no one has the skills you need. That's structural unemployment: when available workers skills do not match available jobs.

The common rebuttal is "train them!" But this has several problems. First, businesses need these employees now, not after a years of training. So people say "OK, we'll patch the problem now and then invest more in universities to deal with this." Patching the problem now means importing highly skilled workers (or letting your businesses suffer).

But what happens at University? You can't force people to study for these highly skilled professions and, as it turns out, they're generally not doing that. Students aren't going into engineering, maths, physics, and so on ... at least not at the rate they're studying art history or philosophy (I'm not bashing the latter two. If that's what you want to study, fine, but there's still a demand for skilled workers).

And if you could convince them to study those high demand skills, you find out that some don't have the aptitude (there are some studies in my field which unfortunately back this up, but the scope of the problem is unclear) and those with the aptitude may decide they don't like the field no matter how much they are paid (One programmer I worked with in Amsterdam was a medical doctor, but he decided he hated it).

In short, you need willing and qualified workers and the Universities aren't putting out enough of them (and if you decide to beef up your university system, you then have to ask where that money's coming from and you have another political fight on your hands).

Finally, you have the problem with economic growth. When I mentioned the example of your business needing to hire several new skilled workers, imagine a booming economy with thousands of businesses in the same boat. You can't supply the labor as fast as the market demands it. These people don't appear from nowhere. So either you let your economic boom wilt or you import the skilled workers.

TL;DR: countries import skilled workers because domestic workers skills don't match job needs and the time to train them is excessive relative to the needs.

Edit: One thing I forgot to mention: most companies want to hire local labor because the risk if far, far lower. It's not like they're saying "oh, I'll just import someone from another country". That can be very risky and companies know that. I've been told by several employers that they won't sponsor work permits for this very reason.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 1 point2 points ago

That's very kind of you to say. I know that I wanted to live in other countries since I was 14 years old (30 years ago!) and took my first French class. I discovered that it's hard to do move to another when you don't have information on how to do so. It's been so rewarding for me that I want to provide that information for others.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 2 points3 points ago

I don't think you have many options by this route. Germany recognizes jus sanguinus (right of the blood) instead of jus soli (right of the soil) for citizenship purposes. This means you generally acquire German citizenship through your parents and not by being born there.

However, you might want to contact a German immigration lawyer. You have enough (tenuous) ties that there could very well be an option that I'm not aware of.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 3 points4 points ago

Every EU country is allowed to implement the Blue Card the way they want to. Once you have a Blue Card and stay in a country long enough, you can generally live and work in other Blue Card countries, though they're allowed to adopt restrictions.

The UK, Ireland and Denmark have opted out of the Blue Card scheme.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 0 points1 point ago

I can't speak about the specifics of German law as I don't know them, but generally, you need to have permanent residency for a while and then you can apply for citizenship.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 1 point2 points ago

I have no idea because I haven't found the text of the actual bill (waiting for the day that Google uses Google translate to find alternate documents that might be relevant for me).

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 2 points3 points ago

No, I don't feel that way any more, but it depends on the country. Germany is going way beyond what was envisioned for the Blue Card. The original idea, as I read about it, was that someone could get a work permit and then apply for a Blue Card. Some countries are going further by basically using the Blue Card as a substitute Work Permit scheme, but Germany is going further still. I'm quite pleased to see this.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 0 points1 point ago

I know that's how it used to be in Germany, but that was for work permit cases. The Blue Card works differently. Have you found the text of the law? I've German-speaking friends who could give me a full translation.

Larry Wall, primary author of Perl, on productizing Perl 6 by raiphin perl

[–]OvidPerl 2 points3 points ago

Threads often have complicated locking schemes for shared memory. Implementing concurrency via message passing (such as Erlang does) and not shared memory makes locking related bugs go away.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 6 points7 points ago

Exactly. What I recommend, if people have the money, is telling employers that you can leave immediately for Germany, rather than having to wait a few months to "wrap up your affairs" (a common problem with would-be expats).

If they balk on relocation costs, you could always offer to pay them, though obviously this is problematic. When (if) this law passes, you should review my getting a work permit series. It gives lots of tips that will make you an outstanding candidate.

The German Blue Card is almost law and it will be a hell of a lot easier to get into Germany. by OvidPerlin IWantOut

[–]OvidPerl[S] 15 points16 points ago

Actually, they're using a market based approach. The government will not be assessing whether or not you are highly skilled. The assumption is that if you can find a company willing to pay the salary, the company must really need you. There is no work permit process and there will be no review of you aside from the degree. There will still be a "working conditions" review to ensure that you're not being forced to work in conditions that would be illegal for a German to work in.

Looking for (more) expatriates to interview ! by lookingforexpatsin paris

[–]OvidPerl 1 point2 points ago

US expat here in Paris, via Amsterdam, London and Portland.

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