US Senators Question Indian Firms Over H-1Bs

xzvf sends us a link to a BusinessWeek report on the campaign of two US senators to get answers to how H-1B work visas are actually being used. Yesterday Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) sent a letter (PDF) to nine Indian outsourcing firms that, among them, snapped up 30% of the H-1B visas issued last year. The senators want to know, among other things, whether the H-1B program is being used to enable the offshoring of American jobs. "Critics say outsourcing firms, including Infosys Technologies and Wipro, are using the visas to replace US employees with foreign workers, often cycling overseas staff through US training programs before sending them back into jobs at home."

Comments

Re:why indian companies apply for more h1-b

[tomstdenis]

No offense, but there is a reason why people hate tech/call centres. They're fucking idiotic mumbling retards with a phone.

Maybe if they documented why H1-B candidates were better than the local talent people would feel better about it?

Tom

Re:Could We Train Away Their Accents?

[Tuoqui]

Mod Parent Up! This is not really a troll.

Also this is not only a problem with technical support in the computer sector but it is a problem with most big companies today. The lack of LOCALIZED phone support for things is a big problem, if I'm calling a company's 1-800 number I want to speak to someone who understands and speaks the language that I know with at least enough fluency to understand them, I dont really care about accents so much as long as I can understand them. I can imagine that if the situation were reversed and people in India were calling to the US for tech support that they would want people who can speak whatever language is common there.

I mean you would think that if you are going to be answering calls from North America area that the person would be required to speak fluent english? Not some half assed mishmash of english with a super thick accent that you cant understand what they are saying so you have to have them repeat themselves like 4 or 5 times.