Thread: H1Bs - Immigrants Learn Jobs, Take Them Back Home

Immigrants Learn Jobs, Take Them Back Home

http://www.courant.com/news/opinion/op_ ... 9094.story

April 17, 2007
FROMA HARROP

The master plan, it seems, is to move perhaps 40 million high-skill American jobs to other countries. U.S. workers have not been consulted.

Princeton economist Alan Blinder predicts that these choice jobs could be lost in a mere decade or two. We speak of computer programming, bookkeeping, graphic design and other careers once thought firmly planted in American soil. For perspective, 40 million is more than twice the total number of people now employed in manufacturing.

Blinder was taken aback when, sitting in at the business summit in Davos, Switzerland, he heard U.S. executives talk enthusiastically about all the professional jobs they could outsource to lower-wage countries. And he's a free trader.

What America can do to stop this is unclear, but it certainly doesn't have to speed up the process through a government program. We refer to the H-1B visa program, which allows educated foreigners to work in the United States, usually for three years. Many in Congress want to nearly double the number of H-1B visas, to 115,000 a year.

To the extent that the program helps talented foreign graduates of U.S. universities stay in this country while they await their green cards, it performs a useful service. But for many companies, the visa has become just a tool for transferring American jobs offshore.

Ron Hira has studied the dark side of the H-1B program. A professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology, he notes that the top applicants for visas are outsourcing companies, such as Wipro Technologies of India and Bermuda-based Accenture.

The companies bring recruits in from, say, India to learn about American business. After three years here, the workers go home better able to interact with their U.S. customers.

In other cases, companies ask their U.S. employees to train H-1B workers who then replace them at lower pay. "This is euphemistically called, `knowledge transfer,'" says Hira. "I call it, `knowledge extraction.'"

Another rap against the program is that it's used to depress the wages of American workers. The program's defenders argue that the law requires companies to pay "the prevailing wage."

But "prevailing wage" is a legalism, Hira says. It does not translate into "market wage."

The median pay for H-1B computing professionals in fiscal 2005 was $50,000, which means half earn less than that. An American information technology worker with a bachelor's degree makes more than $50,000 in an entry-level job.

Businesses bemoan the alleged shortage of Americans trained to do the work. But wait a second - the law of supply and demand states that a shortage of something causes its price to rise. Wages in information technology have been flat.

The companies fret that not enough young Americans are studying science and technology. Well, cutting the pay in those fields isn't much of an incentive, is it?

The threat that they will outsource if they can't bring in foreign temps is a hollow one. "There's nothing stopping those companies from working offshore anyway," Hira says. "They're not patriotic."

This vision for a competitive America seems to be a few rich U.S. executives commandeering armies of foreign workers. They don't have to train their domestic workforce. They don't have to raise pay to American standards.

A provision for revving up the H-1B program is contained in the immigration bill that last year passed the Senate. The co-sponsors, Democrat Ted Kennedy of Massachusetts and Republican John McCain of Arizona have contended that their legislation requires employers to search for U.S. workers first. It does not.

Skilled U.S. workers had better start looking out for their interests. No one else is.

Froma Harrop is a syndicated writer in Rhode Island.

http://www.programmersguild.org/docs/h1 ... l2005.html

There were more suicides than just his. I remember someone announcing on a jobhunting forum, about one guy in his second year of delivering pizzas and stocking shelves, who decided not to wake up to that life any more. Then there were the people who just announced that they were becomming homeless, had to leave the board, didn't know when they'd be back - and disappeared. Several of them.

Hi Betsy. Yeah, I know there are many more examples (too many).
Most people don't though. So, I thought I'd include one that is high profile and has some documentation behind it already.

In fact, I have - oh, excuse me - had a neighbor two houses away, that took his own life after falling into the downward spiral of job loss-unemployment-falling behind on bils/mortgage---<the end>.

He is now history. He is one of the reasons I make sure to remind everyone that globalism, importation of worker units, etc. has a price - and that price is often paid by the people that have little or no say in things.
It's such a shame that these fine people are reduced to nothing but fodder for corporate profits... I think we can do better.

Thank you for sharing that - you are honoring his suffering by helping us remember why we need to fight this fight. It's not just my fight for my job, it is for the entire tier of professions we Americans largely invented and rely upon to feed our families and keep a roof over their heads. I often ask, how many of our jobs and professions will it take to satisfy them, and what will there be left for an American to do for a living once globalism is done with us?

I fall into one of those categories of jobs listed in that article, however the article was stating that in 10-20 years. I have been unemployed for almost 2 years and the crap that I get is that I am too expensive, they want my 20+ years of skills for less than half the salary. It is happening now. That is the reality of the job situation for alot of middle class workers looking for jobs now.

There will no longer be a Middle Class in America if we continually fail to find and elect decent, caring candidates to political office. I know they're scarce as hen's teeth, but there are a few out there.

No, no, no - thank you BR.

Yes, indeed BR, it is an American tradition to look out for the underdog. We must not forget those people sacrificed in the name of [greater] corporate profits. When will the rich have enough $ ?

One tendency which I *think* I have noticed... is a trend where the newly imported workers - mostly the highly skilled H1B folks, but the lesser -skilled as well - often think in terms of 'well, I landed a job here, but I just made the economic "pie" larger' - or 'so I just added another job into the overall economy'. In short, their being here is necessarily a net gain for everyone. But few of these folks recognize that the ratio of foreign worker to native (existing) worker displacement is nearly 1:1 in many fields. As Dobbs correctly claims, it's "War on the Middle Class" plain and simple.

While I know there are several people here that have a good grasp of work/visa worker issues, in particular, you and Kate have demonstrated exceptional knowledge of the topic. I'm glad you're both here and please do keep me 'in line' in case I get my facts mangled or otherwise mess up!
(Thanks.)

Thank you for saying that, and Kate has indeed been championing this issue for some time now. I didn't learn till I got laid off - suddenly there were tons of people from other areas of IT trying to get my sort of jobs. What was going on here? I wondered. Then I learned.

And, when I think about what Azim Premji and his ilk think of our colleagues who fell, it's a wonder I don't have a stroke.

BR: I just call it like I see it (you're welcome!). Yep, you take care of yourself girl (trust me, it's not worth risking a stroke or anything like that...) :)

lsmith: Unfortunately, you aren't the only one. The experience sounds all too familiar. Please hang in there and I hope things only improve for you too.
:)