Just to play devil's advocate re. the 250hr foreign pilots. Somebody mentioned that they get much more training and are the best of the best etc...

Not necessarily so. I've been looking into several foreign companies that hire these 250hr guys. At a lot of those airlines do not let the new FO fly below 10k, let alone take off and land. When they do fly above 10k, the AP must be on.

I don't know at what point they allow the FO to fly, but how would you feel if you joined your airline and it was over a year before you got to fly?