H-1B Visa Winners and Losers

Without major reform, the H-1B visa program will continue to benefit corporate executives and investors over both native and foreign workers.

[jaredb]

It's not just h1-b visas. IT jobs are continually being moved to other countries. The majority of people who do IT work in this country live overseas. Unless it requires a physical presence companies are moving to cheaper countries for the jobs. They also don't pay any taxes for this work as these jobs are now hired through 3rd party companies who also pay their workers as little as possible. Blame all politicians for this mess as this has been happening for decades and it has been a largely ignored issue.

[cirplus]

Sanders on H-1B: "Bottom line. It should never be cheaper for a corporation to hire a guest worker from overseas than an American worker."

[JLocke]

If you want to hire someone with an H-1B visa, you should have to pay them above the current salary of a domestic worker. You should be bringing them in because there is no one else to do your job, not because you want to pay people less.

[jeffreycheng]

The biggest loser is the American Worker.

[tc]

I experienced H-1B workers during Y2K.

IMO, one fatal flaw of the system is that businesses use it as a way to avoid investing in training of domestic workers. The system should require that, for ever H-1B visa issued, the business must hire an America to be trained to replace the foreign worker. And that trainee must be paid the market wage for that field to deter the business from dragging their feet on replacing the foreign worker with the domestic one.

Another problem was, the company I worked for used the promise of a green card as a recruitment tool. While these foreign workers were supposed to be strictly temporary, they instead became permanent residents, causing an eventual glut of workers which depressed wages for everyone and created a sense of desperation among the workers. Many I/T workers at the time were driven out of the field by falling wages and fewer positions, especially since the foreign workers were willing to accept wages well below the market rates because it was so much more than they could ever hope to earn back home.

[sbon]

“ inequality widens” is it. Tech workers are being pushed back into the service jobs we worked in college. Making the literate poor is a great way to keep them too busy to protest.

[KittyS-gggd]

Balance the budget by spending millions on deporting immigrants then replacing them with NEW immigrants??? I damn better not hear about eliminating social security and Medicare which are NOT PART OF THE GENERAL BUDGET!

[gwhiz]

When I was laid off, my next job was in a stable company with deep roots: American President Lines, the 2nd oldest company in North America. While working there, it changed. It adopted a mission statement: prioritize profit for investors. That’s when American programmers were systematically replaced by contractors on H-1B visas. They were paid so little, they lived together in shared apartments. Eventually, American President Lines was sold to Singapore and its name was changed from American President Lines to “APL” because it was no longer American.
Today’s profiteers are no different from pirates of long ago. They’ve traded in their eye patches, peg legs & parrots for business casual attire and their ships are yachts. And we’re all walking their plank.

[TheBeingReal]

My employer is shifting US engineering jobs off to India. No visa issue, but 1/5 the price.

[stephanierobinson-mg]

He touches on some valid points but the situation is much more complicated and nuanced in what defines skilled work for H1-B, who and why pple apply. We also have lower college enrollment rates because there are so many people buried in student loan debt who for one reason or another can't place into the job titles or paygrades of their fields. Who are later scapegoated as lazy under-performing millenials etc. It is really convenient to hire someone (across all sectors) who does not know U.S. laws or regulations, who will take less pay, and tolerate abuse of their labor rights, who will stay silent. It neither serves them nor americans who have college debt and the younger generations know of the trappings of the generations before them and are opting out of college which also does create a deficit. So. We are dumbing-down our own population so to avoid honoring the U.S. regulations, rights and paygrades of U.S. citizens. And even as I state this reality it comes with the weight of the profoundly deep love, respect, and appreciation for my foreign born friends and professionals who are not devoid of intellect, talent, or moral apptitude, who are like extended family. There has to be a better way and likely is. Our defecit in intelligence and integrity is at the higher echelons of the legislative body.

[mr.robert]

Canada already did something extremely similar to H1-B and it was extremely exploitative. It was also used to stagnate wages which has greatly exacerbated the cost-of-living crisis.

[SteveDoll-qt]

Robert and Heather are true American heroes of the first order. Listen to them. They tell the truth.

[patricklippert]

A lot of these companies use H-1B workers as an indentured service class. They can't quit a job because they'll lose their visa and the company can hold sponsoring their citizenship over their head to continue underpaying and overworking them. And the company can always let them go and send them back in the end, so the whole point of immigration bringing the best and brightest doesn't matter much if we're not going to keep them around. Maybe if the tech companies who claim they need visa workers had to sponsor their citizenship or give them the pay and protection of an American worker, we'd see how much they really needed them.

[moniquec]

Same in Australia and all the western countries. All of our doctors especially in rural areas are now foreign trained. It is a short-sighted and lazy policy strategy. It may save money on training our own skilled workers and professionals but makes our own people slip backwards into low paying jobs and poverty. A similar lazy tactic is defunding universities so they rely on foreign students paying full fees who can then stay on with work visas and gain citizenship rather than subsidising enough university places for our local students. Visas can also be gained by investing enough money. Citizenship is up for sale and the locals become poorer and poorer second class citizens. I teach in one of the best schools in Australia in north shore Sydney and now over half of our students are wealthy Chinese. They are lovely but what about our Aussie kids? They are getting second class education at underfunded state schools. Govts need to start looking after their own citizens rather than just importing rich and highly skilled foreigners.

[apafornow]

Let me get this straight. Republicans don't want low skilled immigrant workers that do the jobs that Americans won't do, but they do want immigrants that will compete with Americans for the best, highest paying jobs. Did I get that right?

[patinomaha]

The reason US workers are not getting the skills is many lower level tech jobs where they are learned are offshored.

[enbygilbert]

Careful here. There are plenty of H-1B jobs that are completely legitimate because the talent pool is so small. Some of the ways that corporations are using that visa to their advantage are not legitimate, but let's not throw the whole thing out. Most people won't be able to tell the difference, and we're in danger of creating bias against people who have done things right.

[robertlezama]

Let's make sure we understand the process of the H1-B visa system when making pronouncements. It is not on its own a mode of legal immigration but a work-related temporary residency tool. For one thing, the recipient is restricted to working only for the company under which the visa is granted after the person is offered the job and - the employer must be willing to pay for the processing, the candidate cannot buy his way into that type of temporary residency. Changing employers restarts the processing and this type of visa is only viable for 3 years, renewable once (6 years max) before either applying for US residency or another category of legal non-residency for which you qualify, something other than H1-B. In order to be granted the visa, the employer is required to demonstrate that there is a surplus of openings for that particular job, more than the US workforce can satisfy. The position must be advertised for at least two weeks in a public space. Americans must be offered the opportunity first and failing to place an American into the opening is what clears the way for the visa to be granted. Not all jobs are equally easy to fill. IT jobs typically require at least an undergrad degree. Just sharing my experience to improve understanding.

[lephtovermeet]

This is the reason why wages are so low in Canada. They give their equivalent to H1B visas for something like 300 or 400k people a year. In essence, every Canadian, even well educated ones, are in competition with everyone in the world and there will always be some Bangladeshi or Kazakhstani or Argentina with a degree (on paper at least) willing to work for pennies on the dollar and to be tremendously exploited if it means the opportunity for them to get a visa.

Glad to see progressives like Robert finally getting on board and getting the message. In 2016 being anti H1B was one of Trump's policies that swayed a lot of swing voters. If you have to (no other choice!) go abroad for skilled workers then the minimum salary should be $200k. I'm not terribly opposed to a different visa category that's more lenient for foreign students who studied for 4 years in the US though.

[Serai]

I'm old enough to remember when employers would train workers themselves.