You can read a University of California at Davis computer science professor's pro-American IT "viewpoint" on globalization and the American IT worker in the current issue of Queue, an ACM (Association for Computing Machinery) magazine at http://www.acmqueue.com/modules.php?name=Content&pa=showpage&pid=238.
In his summary, Professor Matloff concludes that:
University computer science departments must be honest with students regarding career opportunities in the field. The reduction in programming jobs open to U.S. citizens and green card holders is permanent, not just a dip in the business cycle. Students who want technological work must have less of a mindset on programming and put more effort into understanding computer systems in preparation for jobs not easily offshored (such as system and database administrators). For instance, how many graduates can give a cogent explanation of how an OS boots up?
The advocates of globalization are right about one thing: Globalization is here to stay. But their claims of its benefits are misleading, and their remedies will not work, leading only to frustration and disappointment by U.S. IT workers and missed opportunities by U.S. businesses. Genuinely thoughtful, realistic solutions to the problems are imperative.
Professor Matloff's article also includes several good links, including one to a still relevant 13-page December 2003 white paper by Catherine Mann on "Globalization of IT Services and White Collar Jobs: The Next Wave of Productivity Growth" and another to a description of a July 2004 conference about keeping jobs in NY, "New Jobs for New York:
Outsourcing and Opportunities in New York State" at
http://www.newjobsforny.org/past_events.php?background=C
