Crowdfunding immigration reporting that crowds out American workers

NumbersUSA ^ | Oct 15th 2015 | Jeremy Beck

[ConservingFreedom]

The San Francisco Chronicle and The Nation are headlining a series of crowdfunding campaigns to sponsor new immigration reporting through Beacon, which is offering $3 million in matching grants.

According to Beacon's website: "The most effective way to fund journalism is by pairing small, individual pledges from the crowd with larger pledges from the most passionate people."

The San Francisco Chronicle is seeking $15,000 to fund "The Faces Behind the H-1B Debate," who, according to the crowdfunding page, are "the would-be immigrants who want them and the companies that stand to benefit from a loosening of regulations."

Hmm...anyone missing there? The Chronicle is looking for human interest stories, but only from certain quarters:

"We don’t want to explore the pro/con arguments. We want to bring you the stories of the people affected.

"We know that the H-1B visa matters to our readers in Northern California. Through this project, we’re going to get the resources to do the reporting that’s missing on this issue – a deep look at the lives of workers who successfully get a visa, and what happens to those who miss out.

"Our reporting starts in the Bay Area, but we’ll follow the story abroad, too." 

The H-1B is often used by companies to bring in guest workers who are trained by the Americans they wind up replacing. The most notorious example came earlier this year when Disney laid off 250 American IT workers this summer and had many of them train their incoming replacements.

An internet search didn't produce any hits for SF Chronicle coverage of the Disney layoffs, but the paper but did issue a related story with the headline, "Are H-1Bs getting a bad rep?"

Will the Chronicle include stories about Americans who are impacted by the H-1B program? The crowdfunding page includes one sentence that hints so: 

"We know that families back home are just as affected by the outcome of a visa application, so we’ll work to bring you their stories as well."

But reading further, it isn't clear that by "back home," the Chronicle means the United States:

"With your support, we’ll answer questions like:

• "What’s needed for a successful visa application? How do someone’s career options change – for better or worse – if he or she receives a visa?
• "What happens to those whose visa applications are unsuccessful? What’s the experience of having to leave the U.S. and find a job back home?
• "How do the outcomes of a visa application affect families abroad? What sort of connection do H-1B workers have with their families back home? How does that change if a visa is lost?"

Emphasis added. That doesn't read as if the Chronicle will be speaking the families of U.S. workers displaced or passed over by the program. In an article asking readers for money to fund the project, the Chronicle's editor-in-chief, Audrey Cooper says, "The Chronicle is dedicated to telling the truth about what is happening in Northern California. To do that, we sometimes must look outside our borders."

Cooper adds that "Major funders will be disclosed after the reporting and editing is completed to ensure journalistic integrity."

The Nation is seeking $56,000 to fund "Let's Change the Immigration Debate for 2016," a project that promises to put "immigrants at the center of the story."

Doing so wouldn't be a change for The Nation, which is already doing an excellent job on that front. What The Nation doesn't do well (and it is hardly alone in this) is report on the tradeoffs of U.S. immigration policy, which has accounted for 55% of U.S. population growth since 1965, and will be responsible for 88% of U.S. population growth through 2065 (another 103 million people).

Is the current record rate of one million new immigrants every year the right number? That question is unlikely to be examined by The Nation, which writes about immigration as if it is an unalloyed good that shouldn't be constrained by limits.

The media justifiably covers the impact that immigration policy has on immigrants and would-be immigrants. Those are important perspectives and our national conversation about immigration policy is enriched by them. What's troubling about these campaigns is how they demonstrate the media's general lack of interest about the impact of immigration policy on Americans (U.S.-born and foreign-born alike) for whom these policies are meant to exist. Some Americans benefit from the current levels of immigration; others do not. Those who lose tend to have less political power than those who win, and the news media often doesn't count them among the "faces" of the immigration debate.

It is and should be entirely possible for the press to take a hard look at the trade offs of the current immigration system while making would-be immigrants AND Americans the center of the story. Here is an excerpt from "The Progressive Case for Reducing Immigration" by Philip Cafaro in the Chronicle of Higher Education:

"If we enforce our immigration laws, then good people like Javier and his family will have their lives turned upside down. And if we reduce the numbers of legal immigrants -- contrary to popular belief, most immigration into the United States is legal immigration, under Congressionally mandated levels, currently 1.1 million annually -- then good people in Mexico (and Guatemala, and Vietnam, and the Philippines … ) will have to forgo opportunities to create better lives here.

"On the other hand, if we fail to enforce our laws or repeatedly grant amnesty to people who, like Javier, are in the country illegally, then we forfeit the ability to set limits on immigration. And if we increase immigration, then many hard-working men and women, like Tom and his wife and children, will continue to see their economic fortunes decline.

"Neither of those options is appealing, particularly when you talk to the people most directly affected by our immigration policies. Still, they appear to be the options we have: Enforce our immigration laws, or don’t enforce them; reduce immigration levels, increase them, or hold them about where they are. How should we choose?

"Acknowledging trade-offs -- economic, environmental, social -- is the beginning of wisdom. We should not exaggerate conflicts or imagine them where they don’t exist, but neither can we ignore them.

"There are a number of other choices that we must confront: Cheaper prices for new houses versus good wages for construction workers. Faster economic growth and growing economic inequality versus slower growth and a more egalitarian society. Increasing ethnic diversity in America versus stabilizing our population. Accommodating more people versus preserving wildlife habitat and productive farmlands. Creating more opportunities for foreigners to work in the United States versus pressuring foreign elites to share wealth and opportunities with their fellow citizens in their own countries.

"The best approaches to immigration policy would make such trade-offs explicit, minimize them where possible, and choose fairly between them when necessary."

Sadly, the reporting that results from these crowdfunding campaigns is unlikely to acknowledge any trade offs to the current immigration rate, which will make the debate about what future limits should be all the more difficult to have. For some of the funders, that might be the point.

[ConservingFreedom]

H-1B ping. Let me know if you're not on the list and want to be added (or are and want to be removed).

[central_va]

America first. H-1B kill it!

[BuffaloJack]

Kill the H1Bprogram and send the foreigners, who, by the way, don’t want to become Americans, back to where they came from.
The work billet they leave behind can then be filled by US citizens.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“The H-1B is often used by companies to bring in guest workers who are trained by the Americans they wind up replacing. The most notorious example came earlier this year when Disney laid off 250 American IT workers this summer and had many of them train their incoming replacements.”

Laura Ingraham interviewed several of these Disney employees. Many were highly skilled and well paid employees, with children and high (California) mortgages to deal with. Many must have lost their homes. I hate these Disney TRAITORS with a passion. Record profits declared right before they did this too!

[caww]

Here’s some info caught along the way.....

The problem isn’t H-1B workers stealing jobs from Americans, ... it’s the third-party consulting firms that are ‘stockpiling visas’ and outsourcing H-1B workers to large companies for low wages. Re-classifying them as “contractors” rather than pay the prevailing wage...

Tech giants like Microsoft, Facebook and Google repeatedly press for increases in the annual quotas, saying there are not enough Americans with the skills they need.....there are a limited number of the visas, 85,000, are granted each year, and they are in high demand.

Then there are three major ‘consulting companies’ that get a ton of H-1B visa workers and outsources them to companies at lower rates,” he said.

The US government grants 85,000 H-1Bs each year, setting aside 20,000 for people with advanced degrees.

“These firms are likely mis-classifying their workers’ prevailing wages by classifying them as low-level workers and paying them the lowest wage possible...They are ‘required to pay H-1B workers the ‘prevailing wage’ pay based on their job classification....... If the H-1Bs are being handled coreectly there isn’t a problem, it’s when they classify the hibs as “contractors”, then that changes the equation entirely to a lower wage.

San Francisco Bay Area employs the lion’s share of H-1B workers.
According to a report from the Brookings Institute
Silicon Valley ranks highest in “H-1B intensity,” with a reported 17 foreign workers sought for every 1,000 people in the workforce.....

60 percent of H-1B workers in the San Francisco-East Bay region work in computer occupations. The second largest group are engineers. Financial specialists, scientists and healthcare professionals follow suit.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“The problem isn’t H-1B workers stealing jobs from Americans, ... it’s the third-party consulting firms that are ‘stockpiling visas’ and outsourcing H-1B workers to large companies for low wages. Re-classifying them as “contractors” rather than pay the prevailing wage...”

Correct

There is a very prestigious large law firm that switched to specializing in getting around this law.They have many corporate clients

[A CA Guy]

In California with all due respect the Hispanics are killing the job market for English speaking American citizens.
There are so many people only speaking Spanish here that unless you are bi-lingual in California unless you are the child of the owner it is impossible to get a lower or first job.

All service and food industry jobs are taken by Hispanics because they can speak to other Hispanics.
These beginning type jobs for the young or elderly in the past are dominated in this state by mostly Mexicans and there is no longer opportunity for English speaking Americans to work.

Contrast going to Boston and all English only speakers from the USA of all ages are benefiting from working those jobs, not ONLY bi-lingual Hispanics everywhere.

[A CA Guy]

In California the results are that all the illegals work in the service industry under an number or falls SS. They get paid, then go home and go on the system for food, medical and other cr@p.

Then the American elderly and younger folks do what when they can’t work?
Obviously on some level this situation is making those people also get on some level of the dole.

So all these non English speaking Hispanics are putting everyone on the dole and even they are on the dole at the same time.

It’s all F’d up.

[A CA Guy]

Work under a false SS# or that number you can get when you are illegal.

[PATRIOT1876]

I wonder if they will sponsor a program where the government comes and shoots all natives in the head ala the poster from the 1960’s of the man in Viet Nam.

Surely the media could muster up support to kill us all to make room for the new invaders...

...or they could just slowly kill us by letting the illegal friends steal our jobs and tax us to death as they have been doing.

[PATRIOT1876]

^Viet Nam

[Read Write Repeat]

That’s scratching the surface of the problem.

There’s a bait and switch underbelly no one wants to talk about.

[setha]

Cohen & Grigsby, the firm that thought it was funny to find ways to disqualify citizens?

[stephenjohnbanker]

Yep, just hilarious.

[caww]

.....”That’s scratching the surface of the problem....
There’s a bait and switch underbelly no one wants to talk about”.....

I wouldn't necessarily call that scratching the surface for it's one of the major issues.....and unfortunately those companies mentioned have great political clout as well and behind pushing for more H1B’s.

The underbelly you speak of is known, it's just not done in a major media spread. I know there's a real shortage of nurses, but those they bring in via recruiters are greatly lacking in the skills needed here so the current staff, already overworked, have to train them like it or not......so the staff ends up looking for other work outside hospital settings... which then increases the shortages. There's many other issues which occur we've ssen expressed here on the threads. But until these recruiters and those dog-piling visa's is addressed the problems will continue no matter how many they issue.

[caww]

.....”There is a very prestigious large law firm that switched to specializing in getting around this law.They have many corporate clients”.....

I believe it!....just like Mexico has law offices all over the US to assist illegals etc. retaining their jobs....and some are in conjunction with our government assisting.

[Read Write Repeat]

The US government grants 85,000 H-1Bs each year

Apparently that 85,000 number is the new "there are only 11 million illegal immigrants in the US!"

Must be common core math or something.

[stephenjohnbanker]

“I believe it!....just like Mexico has law offices all over the US to assist illegals etc. retaining their jobs....and some are in conjunction with our government assisting.”

I lived in Los Angeles from 1976 to 2006. IMHO, Mexico is no ally, more like Iran!