Sing Tao, News Report, Posted: Oct 03, 2011

Reports that Jack Ma, a former schoolteacher and owner of one of China’s largest on-line portals, has expressed interest in purchasing the Internet giant Yahoo follow on the heels of earlier statements by Silicon Valley’s Chinese workers that President Obama is ignoring the issue of most concern to them -- immigration.

According to the Chinese-language Sing Tao Daily, Chinese immigrant workers in Silicon Valley expressed disappointment following a visit by President Obama to the headquarters of the social media company LinkedIn.

The paper noted that during his town hall-style meeting in mid-September, Obama fielded a number of questions invited beforehand by the professional networking site. Despite their own questions having generated significant support among on-line users, however, Chinese workers told the Sing Tao that Obama steered clear of anything related to immigration. The reason, they claimed, was that as immigrants they do not have the right to vote and that they do not constitute a major source of fundraising for his campaign.

The group also said that the key to America’s economic recover lay in the housing market, and that they would have purchased houses themselves were it not for fear of losing their visa status in the country. The workers, therefore, urged Obama to increase the quota for high-tech migrant workers to the country and to allow them to more easily apply for residency status.