Governors throw support behind H-1B increase
A congressional push this year for an increase in the H-1B visas coveted by Silicon Valley companies seemingly evaporated with the death of a contentious immigration bill. But 13 state governors say the politicians must revive that effort--and soon, please.
Claiming "a critical shortage of highly skilled professionals in math and science to fill current needs," the band of chief executives on Tuesday sent a letter urging U.S. Senate and House of Representatives leaders to forge ahead with upping the number of the temporary H-1B visas and permanent-resident green cards. Click here to view a copy (PDF).
The signatories represent a number of tech-industry-heavy states, including Govs. Arnold Schwarzenegger of California, Rick Perry of Texas, Deval Patrick of Massachusetts, Chris Gregoire of Washington and Eliot Spitzer of New York. The governors said they recognized there may not be time for comprehensive action on immigration laws during this session of Congress but said quick movement is needed on the skilled visa issue, as evidenced by the rapid speed by which this year's quota was met.
The H-1B program, created in 1990, allows foreigners with at least a bachelor's degree in their area of specialty to be employed in the United States for up to six years. There's currently an annual cap of 65,000 visas, at least on paper, with up to 20,000 extras available for foreigners who earn advanced degrees from U.S. universities. (Various exemptions bump the total allotment to just above 100,000.)
Although the visas are prized by Silicon Valley companies, the idea of allowing more of them has generated disdain from groups representing American tech workers. Several congressional proposals propose expanding the annual cap, but some politicians have voiced concern that the program is being abused in a way that replaces American workers or depresses their wages in comparable positions.
you are simply afraid of competition and scared that someone better qualified than you will beat you to the job. stop being afraid of competition and use your qualifications rather than your fear as a driving force.
How about the governors' spending their time (and money) to create scholarships for students in those areas, and to also provide jobs locally? Have you looked at the cost of an education lately? Pretty much around $15K/year, thats $60K in debt for a lot of students. Take a $30-45K/year job, how many years do you think it will take to pay that off? My brother-in-law is still paying $500/month, and he is 40 years old. Maybe we could create a Peace Corps type program where the student works 2-4 years for the state to pay back a significant part of the debt? Naw, too much trouble, let's just bring in more H1B's, that way we get more political donations from the Corporations who tell us what to think and say.
Outsourcing is a real killer. May be American kids should look for jobs in India. I think the living cost is less and you don't need to worry about the gun culture in schools.
You may also have discovered a dirty secret: corporations are really only whining about the inability to hire someone from the top 20% (or 10%, or 2% depending on the company) of their class with the right set of checkbox skills.
If you go global you're much more likely to get "the top 10%" candidates, because you have so many more schools to choose from.
In the end, corporations are spoiled right now: they really only feel comfortable hiring the cream of a large pool of applicants that are willing to live in a very specific area.
Small companies are less picky, but in the absence of a boom economy they have a much harder time to hire, especially since they usually have more severe pay, benefits, and geographical requirements and offer less security. H1-Bs really are attractive for them, because they have tend to have fewer geographical requirements, so they are most of the available hiring pool in many cases.
My friend in VA 7 years ago was on the front page tech in the wash post because He was traning 5 people to do his job. In either case he was going to be fired. He came here as an immigrant as well and became a USA citizen.
He has multiple degrees.
This is how we treat new americans as well.
So sad. Let this be a warning to any H1b who wants to be a us citizen. You will be chewed up and spat out by the contract industry.
evidence has been presented to support the notion that a skill
shortage could occur within the next decade.
The current excessive limit on H-1B visas is over 85K and over
103K were approved in each recent year.
Meanwhile, executives refuse to interview, let alone hire,
hundreds of thousands of bright, well-educated, and
experienced US citizen science and tech workers.
brightest". Over a hundred H-1B visas are issued each year to
people who lack the equivalent of a US high school diploma.
The vast majority of H-1B visa-holders are classified as being in
the bottom quartile, the entry-level, newbies, without
exceptional knowledge or abilities.
Studies by the GAO, by the US Department of Labor Office of
Inspector General, by several university teams, and by
professional organizations and individuals all found that H-1B
visa holders are commonly paid 7% to 50% below the prevailing
local market compensation for their credentials and the work
being done.
No, the current law does not require that all H-1B visa-holders
be paid the local market compensation. It gives lots of leeway
for employers to re-define the job titles and descriptions, to
conduct their own "salary survey" and play other dishonest
games to pay guest-workers less than local market
compensation.
This was disclosed, again, in the annual Cohen & Grigsby
immigration law seminar that was conducted in May and which
came to light about June 16.
Why the h*ll won't they display more than one comment at a
time. Are they that technically incompetent?
In India there is a lot of subsidy for education where we don't have that here. When an IT major gets out of college, he HAS to make more to pay back his loans and such.
Granted, the employer does not owe the employee a decent wage so that he can grow and prosper, but if he slights him by either not employing him or underpaying him, the employer ultimately will lose his credibility and society at large will suffer over the decades to come because the employer did not fund future opportunity for his community.
Business as well as government is extremely hedonistic and short sighted. They both live like there is no tomorrow. With that kind of thinking, someday there might be one.
With that kind of thinking, someday there might NOT be one.
hire H-1Bs preferentially over American workers (which by the
way, is illegal under the terms of H-1B). Fewer young Americans
are going into science-tech-engineering as a career. The long-
term trend bodes ill for US competitiveness.
Three of the top H-1B and L-1 visa "requesters" are not even US
companies. Wipro, HCL and Infosys have set up "job shop"
operations in the US (placing contingency workers). These
companies blatantly violate US equal opportunity law by "hiring"
mostly foreign workers from India.
I think Congress is doing the right thing for a change. Make
industry support their claim of worker shortages by factual
arguments, in terms of increased wages and job security. Give
unemployed American tech works a direct role in the process, so
that they can "veto" a foreign hire, as long as they are willing to
fill the job at prevailing market wages.
And, change the law so that the L-1 visa (intracompany transfer,
which has no yearly numerical limits), is not applicable for brand
new hires (contingency workers), but only workers who have
been steadily employed by the applicant for at least 3 years.
The original intent of L-1 was to make it easy for managers and
technical leaders to cross-train in the US, and Congress needs to
rework L-1 to close the contingency worker loophole.
Once Congress has repaired badly abused high-tech
immigration law, the process can be brought back under control,
and American companies will have access the workers they
actually cannot find already in the US, AFTER the incentive of
rising wages and multi-year contracts replace "at will". This will
encourage American kids back towards stable careers in science
and engineering.
The issue of long-term US competitiveness is way too important
to be squandered through loopholes in our labor laws.
- H-1B Visa Hogwash
- by NMHUCOWBOY September 17, 2007 9:51 PM PDT
- I earned a Master of Science in Engineering degree in 1977 specializing in Semiconductor Physics and processing technology. With good grades in Grad school I thought I would have been on my way to a good job. Over a period of twenty years I applied for work at Intel and other major high tech companies who said they had an Engineering shortage. Before long it was clear to me there were no shortages and companies like Intel had to be lying about their need. I finally gave up and went to work in the power industry. I laugh now when people like Gates bemoan the fact that students are not going into science and engineering anymore. Why should they when their parents couldn't get a job or the jobs were being outsourced. Based on my experience the H-1B Visa is a bunch of Hogwash and only selling America down the river. I don't support politicians who back this program including Governors.
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