I work in Silicon Valley in high-tech as a computer scientist. I have been working in the field for over 20 years for companies of all shapes and sizes. I have watched with intense interest as the whole H-1B process has played out over the years and find it interesting the convoluted logic used by the corporations to justify the displacement of jobs from US citizens to overseas workers willing to do it for cheaper and under more corporate control.
Background on H-1B from wikipedia entry:
The H-1B is a non-immigrant visa in the United States under the Immigration & Nationality Act, section 101(a)(15)(H). It allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations.
The regulations define a "specialty occupation" as requiring theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialized knowledge in a field of human endeavor including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business specialities, theology, and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a minimum. Likewise, the foreign worker must possess at least a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent and state licensure, if required to practice in that field. H-1B work-authorization is strictly limited to employment by the sponsoring employer.
So, theoretically H-1B visas are only supposed to be used to temporarily fill skill positions of which there are not enough professionals in this country. This is a joke. In reality, H-1B visas are used by companies to get overseas workers to fill positions at a cheaper wage than a local worker. The other thing the companies like is that once they get an H-1B worker they have a lot of control over the worker since if they let them go, the worker must leave the country. Also, these H-1B workers get the company to sponsor them for a green card and once that process starts, they must stay with the company until it completes or must start all over again if they go to another company.
The big Silicon Valley companies have been lobbying Congress for years to increase the number of H-1B visas. They were lobbying for increases even after the dot-com bust when I had many friends and co-workers who were laid-off and looking for jobs for several months. I bet they are still quietly lobbying Congress to increase the limits even now. It has nothing to do with skilled labor shortages -- believe me it is all about cheaper labor. The other thing is that I have worked with many of these H-1B workers and while most are very friendly Indian men and woman, they are usually not as good as the average laid off US worker looking for a job.
My solutions:
- All companies employing H-1B workers need to have the positions, salary and job requirements posted on the web for all to access.
- Any laid off US worker should have the right to interview for a position held by an H-1B worker.
- Any company doing layoffs, must first get rid of all H-1B workers before laying off any US workers in similar positions.