I moved to the US in 2000 with a Ph.D. in computer science to join a startup that was supposed to become the new Cisco. I had no kid at the time and had an H1B visa so i stayed on for the first paycut, the second paycut, the office downsizing and the third paycut. Had a rough few months when the investors finally pulled the plug and i had to find someone who would transfer my visa in 2005, but by then things were on the rebound.

A lot of the american guys who left around 2003 got in real estate and house remodeling, setting themselves up for another burst. The immigrants went to take on boring jobs maintaining legacy code or installing Oracle solutions for a few years before things warmed up.