Its very simple. SUPPLY & DEMAND. Lots of pilots believe that airlines OWE them a job because they have done the training. Airlines are a BUSINESS not a CLUB! There are no fair rules. They take experianced FAA guys who have thousands of hrs because they speak english, have the experiance, and dont need to be trained. It makes PERFECT sense from a business point of view if you happen to own an airline. ANY JAA country can validate an ICAO license, its not just FAA, Transport Canada, CASA...its any recognised (mainly english speaking ICAO country). The icleandics do it constantly for Air Atlanta, they are JAA too. By the way JAA is toss because the non-english EU countries will not hires brits/paddies unless they are fluent in their language (even though ICAO language is english) and even then it is rare! SO, lets face it, UK hires everyone from the EU because they like to be politically correct, while the french and germans laugh at them. We irish would rather see a paddy in the cockpit of course, but a yank, cannuck, saffir, auzzie, kiwi is more than acceptable if he/she has the airline experiance and doesnt need to be trainned. Is it fair on johnny local...no, but life is not fair. By the way, I got a job in the States first time round and NOBODY said a thing that i was taking a job away from the locals! Its just not an issue. Im not a citizen, merely a greencard holder.
I wonder if you would be so uppity if a hong kong citizen who flew for cathay or dragon air got or say a local from dubai who flew for emirites got a contract/validation...doubt it! I know they take plenty of forgeiners, so why shouldnt we????? Or could it be that deep down you just dont like americans?
The FAA does not need to validate ICAO licenses because there are thousands of pilots here from all over the world. The SUPPLY far exceeds the Demand, therefore no need to change anything...its really very simple. Although there is a new rule with transport canada where each side (US or Canada) need only do the Air Law portion of their respective countries ATP/L and a new one is issued, based on that (an faa atp or a transpot canada ATPL).