NYT Readers Denounce the Corporate Myth on Work Visas

NumbersUSA ^ | Fri, JUL 24th 2020 | Lisa Venus

[NobleFree]

The New York Times column "Trump Suspends Visas Allowing Hundreds of Thousands of Foreigners to Work in the U.S." covers the Administration's recent order to halt foreign work visas through the end of this year, while the nation suffers massive job losses stemming from the pandemic. Included in the halt are the H-1B program for skilled workers, the H-2B program for seasonal workers and the J-1 cultural exchange program that allows for the hiring of au pairs.

Corporations aligned to oppose this order, as businesses continue the myth that foreign workers are needed to fill crucial gaps in the U.S. labor market. The column reads:

"[T]he directive...is fiercely opposed by business leaders, who say it will block their ability to recruit critically needed workers from countries overseas for jobs that Americans are not willing to do or are not capable of performing."

There is however an abundance of data to prove the corporate myth wrong.

• According to a Government Accountability Office (GAO) report, over half of H-1B visas were approved for the lowest skilled, entry-level positions, while only 6 percent were approved for the highest skilled positions.

• An Economic Policy Institute report explains that foreign visa holders in STEM fields are most often of lesser or equal skill; and that the most talented and skilled U.S. workers are discouraged because they are easily displaced by cheaper foreign workers.

• In his testimony before the Senate Judiciary Committee, Professor Hal Salzman offered that "The U.S. supply of top performing graduates is large and far exceeds the hiring needs of the STEM industries, with only half of new STEM graduates finding jobs in a STEM occupation..."

Some comments by readers follow the false corporate reasoning. For example, one reader suggests that visas are given only for the "best and the brightest." Another reader argues that foreign students "are the foot soldiers of every major breakthrough in STEM" because U.S. students are not interested in STEM education.

Yet, a significant number of comments tell how work visas depress wages and displace workers in the process. Following are a few of those responses.

On Depressed Wages:

No Planet B
Florida
"...Most of the work these visa recipients do is low level...we're not talking genius... With less competition for jobs, the law of supply and demand posits that wages could go up...what a concept."

selinas
Phoenix
"The H1 immigration does need to be stopped or drastically reduced as those are jobs Americans would gladly take if not at the wage of an immigrant..."

On U.S. Unemployment:

Charles
Florida
"...How many people are out of work due to the pandemic? Why bring or allow foreign workers into the country, I don't see this as holding back progress but possibly fostering growth, employment and retraining of the unemployed. If America is so great then let's use great Americans. The article leads one to believe we don't have any qualified technical workers or that foreign talent is better than what's available here which frankly is malarkey..."

On Skilled H-1B Visas:

Dan
Europe
"...it's easy enough to manipulate the system... I've held an H1B for 6 years and my employer's immigration attorney told them exactly how to word my job description and title so we would meet that requirement without having me get too expensive as an employee... I certainly didn't have the same power to negotiate my salary the way a citizen would have and basically stayed at the same salary for 6 years."

Daphne Sanitz
Texas
"Do H1-B visa employees get the same pay as an American employee? No, they work for less. Therefore it is corporate greed that motivates the company to replace tech people with H1-B visa employees. Most of us all know someone in tech (American) that has been forced out of their jobs to only have to train their H1-B visa replacement."

Bobotheclown
Pennsylvania
"In a country of 330 million born engineers, there is no reason for the H1B visa program to exist. It is just another way to exploit American workers with the support of the law. No other country does this. All other industrial countries value and help train their technical workers because they know that home grown expertise is critical for a vibrant economy. We are the only country that stabs our own engineering work force in the back with layoffs, high turnover, age discrimination, and foreign worker programs."

[Vigilanteman]

Simple solution is to just require companies to pay foreign nationals a 10% premium (or more) versus a native doing similar work. That's what they do in Japan.

I loved my 14 years working there and my daughter is working there now. If you have skillsets which are better than the locals working there, they shouldn't be afraid to pay you the premium. The Japanese certainly don't mind paying the premium.

A weird little side effect is that industries with a lot of foreign workers don't stay that way forever because the rising wage premium brings more locals into the industry and grows the middle class. What a concept!

[freedumb2003]

Any developer who has opened Indian (Apu not Redskin) code knows the truth of how underskilled they are as develoors.

To work with one as Project Manager is pure hell unless you like dictatorial lead-from-rote-not-thought management style.

And yes, they make about half of what US workers in equivilant roles, which makes them richer than Shiva by Indian standards.

[RideForever]

This should be part of a Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement bill, missing since 1986 ONE TIME amnesty. Since that amnesty was granted already, a second amnesty is off the table. What remains is the enforcement the Democrats have disallowed since then.

The List of Comprehensive Immigration Enforcement, missing since 1986 goes like this -
1) southern barrier;
2) require eVerify to hire;
3) end all chain migration;
4) birthright per Minor v. Happersett (plural parents);
5) end work visas;
6) 10-year moratorium on all new applications for citizenship (40 years to allow workplace automation effects on downsizing population);
7) Set up an illegal aliens’ victim restitution fund.

Enactment of these provisions will motivate illegal aliens to SELF-deport, and remove colonizadors from our welfare rolls.

We need to pass these protections in order not to make out Democrats as liars who promised the protection in exchange for a ONE TIME AMNESTY. The Democrats got the amnesty already. Now its past time for the protections we were promised.

[beef]

The tech worker shortage is a myth going back decades. Anyone else remember Irwin Feerst?

[Sgt_Schultze]

“[T]he directive...is fiercely opposed by business leaders, who say it will block their ability to recruit critically needed workers from countries overseas for jobs that Americans are not willing to do or are not capable of performing."

[qaz123]

And yes, they make about half of what US workers in equivilant roles, which makes them richer than Shiva by Indian standards.

---

But, that’s not the game they play, as sad as it is. The game they play is “Take whatever job they can for whatever pay they offer.” Then they get their wife over here on a tourist visa which she’ll overstay because the Fed’s will not implement the Entry/Exit system. She’ll either be pregnant on arrival or get pregnant. She’ll then pop out a citizen and everyone gets to stay. Then, under family reunification, their entire squad comes over and they take over. I’m sure places like cities, north of Atlanta, like Cumming, Alpharetta, and Roswell aren’t the outliers, where entire subdivisions have seen a 100% turnover from folks born and raised in the US to folks, most of whom were born in India, except for the citizens they give birth to. And, for a while, they were sly as f*ck by putting their homes in their elderly parents name, so they could avoid paying school taxes.

[RideForever]

There has been little resistance so far.

https://www.prweb.com/releases/2003/08/prweb77457.htm

https://cwalocal4250.org/article?id=a_1062046800-921690&t=h1b&p=94

[cba123]

Completely agree.

Lost an IT job after 20 years at a large DP operation.

Our situation was a bit different because the company was worldwide, but very similar otherwise.

They were outsourcing for 15 years.

Still are.

[PapaBear3625]

Simple solution is to just require companies to pay foreign nationals a 10% premium (or more) versus a native doing similar work. That's what they do in Japan.

It's too easy to fudge the system that way. Companies would just say "this is a en entry level worker" when hiring somebody with 10 years experience.

Better would be to charge some amount per year per visa. At $50K per visa per year, only the true stars from overseas would be brought over.

[Red6]

For three years I worked for a major IT giant in Dallas Fort Worth.

I saw what they do. These high tech visas are all BS, more abused than legitimate. I would believe the 6% statistic, it corroborates what I saw. These visas are simply a means to bring in cheap labor and to displace American high cost labor. You have off shoring and basically this inshoring used to cut costs on labor. Almost always these firms game the regulations to get what they want (cheap labor) by checking certain blocks that show they can’t find the skilled labor in the US, but it’s all lies.

[FLT-bird]

Yep. Just make it MORE EXPENSIVE to hire foreigners for the same job and corporations will magically discover that they “need” a whole lot fewer foreigners for those jobs.

The major corporations have bought out the establishment in both political parties to support a flood of cheap labor. That is certainly helpful to the corporate bottom line but its terrible for America and it needs to stop.

[Vigilanteman]

It's too easy to fudge the system that way.

s opposed to what we have here in the USA? I don't think so. Every foreign worker submits their resume which includes the experience and the government actually checks them.

[NobleFree]

With a work visa system that was about genuinely unavailable skills, entry-level wouldn’t even come into play. But it’s a LONG way from here to there.

[markman46]

And the parents get social security and medicare too

[spintreebob]

Many H1b work for and/or consult to Federal and State government, including conservative Red State government.

Currently FANNIE MAE (A socialist outfit owned by the Federal government accountable to Treasury Secretary Steve M) has an opening for a QA Analyst/Sr tester.

Is it coincidence that recruiters apparently in India are seeking to fill this position?
Is it coincidence that resumes of qualified Americans (including female minorities) are collected but the interviews are blown off? (Of course all interviews are by phone for this Work-From-Home position. All that is needed is the WORLD-Wide-Web.
Will the recruiters claim that they tried and failed to find qualified Americans to fill the position?

When someone has a specific incident, who do they call?
Is it the purview of the IG at the Department of the Treasury?
Or the purview of DHS?
Does Trump have a person designated for this type of thing?

Or do we just bitch and complain and wring our hands?

[NobleFree]

Anybody have Stephen Miller’s number?

[PapaBear3625]

s opposed to what we have here in the USA? I don't think so. Every foreign worker submits their resume which includes the experience and the government actually checks them.

It's more reliable to just add a $50,000 / year visa fee. It instantly makes hiring anybody but a senior star unprofitable for the employer.

[central_va]

No, it it impossible to enforce any rules. They rules will be skirted. The only solution is to end all LEGAL immigration for decades.

[central_va]

Look, I know you are trying to help but H-1B is about the best paying white collar middle class jobs in the USA, not manual labor.