Why are so many software engineers in the US of non-US origin?
There's a whole bunch of potential hidden assumptions or accusations in this question. But let's start by taking it at face value.
Software companies hire the best people they can find. And it just so happens that many of those people are foreign nationals.
Software companies certainly don't do it for the "price" since in addition to having to pay a prevailing wage (ie, above average for people doing the same work in the same area) they have to contend with extra costs for relocation, immigration and recruitment, all of which would not be needed for a local hire. Also, the local hire could (legally) be hired in below the average local wages, saving additional money.
So why are there so many great engineers of non US origin? There are a whole lot of factors. Here's one that I sometimes think about:
Back in the 1990s as the whole outsourcing, offshoring, flat world thing was kicking in, the advice in the US was to not pursue jobs in IT or software, since it could be done just as well by people in other countries, for cheaper -- so "everybody knew" that is where the work would go.
Fast forward 15 years, and (presumably) Americans took that advice -- and people in other countries took the flip side of that advice (get software and IT skills and degrees and experience). Then, mix in the fact that we learned that many of these jobs you actually want to keep local, for various human factor reasons. You end up where we are today: If you need software people, many of them will have to come from overseas to fill those positions.
Software companies hire the best people they can find. And it just so happens that many of those people are foreign nationals.
Software companies certainly don't do it for the "price" since in addition to having to pay a prevailing wage (ie, above average for people doing the same work in the same area) they have to contend with extra costs for relocation, immigration and recruitment, all of which would not be needed for a local hire. Also, the local hire could (legally) be hired in below the average local wages, saving additional money.
So why are there so many great engineers of non US origin? There are a whole lot of factors. Here's one that I sometimes think about:
Back in the 1990s as the whole outsourcing, offshoring, flat world thing was kicking in, the advice in the US was to not pursue jobs in IT or software, since it could be done just as well by people in other countries, for cheaper -- so "everybody knew" that is where the work would go.
Fast forward 15 years, and (presumably) Americans took that advice -- and people in other countries took the flip side of that advice (get software and IT skills and degrees and experience). Then, mix in the fact that we learned that many of these jobs you actually want to keep local, for various human factor reasons. You end up where we are today: If you need software people, many of them will have to come from overseas to fill those positions.