PRI: Public Radio International

H-1B visas leave immigrant workers at disadvantage, while some critics fume

Thu, 07 Mar 2013 14:03:00 -0600

Skilled tech workers who aren't Americans but want to work in the United States have one real choice: get an H-1B visa through their employers. But they're competitive and come with a pair of proverbial handcuffs that can put immigrants at a disadvantage. And critics say they take jobs from Americans.

jgo

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 08:05:51 -0600

H-1B visas have no minimum skill requirement. The vast majority of H-1B recipients are low-skilled, or mediocre, according to reports from the US Labor Dept. And 9 weeks, for someone who doesn't already know severa programming languages certainly suggests a low level of knowledge and zero experience.

Touch screens have been used in the USA since at least the early 1970s, notably in combination with 512 x 512 orange on black plasma displays with rear-screen slide and video projection as part of the PLATO computer-based education systems.

The United States currently issues nearly 130,000 H-1B visas per year via consular offices and more via other processes, according to State Department reports available on-line.

Yes, sponsors take advantage of the fact that it's tricky to change sponsors while one has a pending green card application, hence the symbolic "hand-cuffs" chaining them to a particular sponsor/employer.

Yes, after April 1, Bajaj will become an illegal alien; her status will toggle. Many people toggle status multiple times. She's known this deadline for some time. I take that back, she may already be an illegal alien, abusing a tourist visa instead of obtaining a student visa.

The USA has been graduating between 2 and 3 times as many US citizen STEM professionals per year as we've been employing to do STEM work. The citizen STEM talent pool is in the range of 11 to 15 million (NSF says 12M). Many bright US citizens, who took the tough classes, studied hard, did the research and programming projects have seen their dreams of careers in STEM fields evaporate over the last quarter-century. Many -- even those getting constant kudos from managers and co-workers on their achievements -- have been dumped within 15 years of graduation despite contiuous learning.

There was no STEM talent shortage, is no shortage, and no evidence of shortage has ever been produced.

Dolores

Fri, 08 Mar 2013 11:16:23 -0600

The sense of entitlement that prevails among foreign workers never ceases to amaze me. So, they want a good paying job in America? So do millions of Americans who are still unemployed or underemployed.

Researcher

Sat, 09 Mar 2013 12:28:50 -0600

"early half of the H-1B visas went to companies like Infosys and Wipro"

Wrong. Way more than half of the H-1b visa went to outsourcing companies. Please do some research on the subject. I'll help you out with a link.

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9237038/Top_users_of_H_1B_visas_are_offshore_outsourcers_Computerworld_study_finds

gm

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 15:59:03 -0500

This visa program is another sham perpetrated by congress and the whitehouse. This is a disguised attempt to offer visas for sale !!!

More disturbingly, this is part of a policy by government to get "something for nothing" or get something from people with the resources to play in their sandbox.

This current policy and practice was encouraged and promoted by the last CIO and CTO of the whitehouse OSTP.

Unfortunately, the policy continues to disenfranchise the majority of the voters and partly puts a system in place to unfairly reward the largest of companies with existing government contracts.

This policy and bill directly abandons US citizens in favor of the wealthiest foreigners. In fact, it sets the monetary standard of what the US government considers a productive and contributing member of society.

This is a sign of a broken government that cannot fix its own corruption due to collusion with the financial industry.

Instead complaining about it, vote the Democratic and Republican parties out of office in the midterm elections. The midterm elections are more important than the presidential election. Vote for anyone else other than Democratic and Republican party members. It doesn't matter who gets elected, as long as they are not a member of a political party that has abandoned your interests.

Even Carl Rove has just said many of the Republican candidates are "too stupid" to win an election.

garym

Wed, 13 Mar 2013 16:12:01 -0500

Please delete my last post, it was for another article on entrepreneur visas

filthyLiberalDOTcom

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:43:53 -0500

I have PERSONAL experience with this and it is a FACT that H1B visas TAKE MONEY AWAY from American workers (lowered salaries and wages for IT), and TAKE JOBS AWAY from American workers. This is FACT. I live this FACT every day. END H1B VISAS NOW. www.filthyliberal.com

filthyLiberalDOTcom

Fri, 29 Mar 2013 09:45:29 -0500

Seconded only by the sense of privilige that companies display when they scream they must have the ability to hire a low-paid workforce.