Senator Pushes For Tougher H-1B Enforcement

mk1004 writes "Computerworld says that the industry lobbying group TechNet is calling on Congress to eliminate the per-country cap on H-1B workers. Last year a bill was passed in the house, 389-to-15, to remove the cap. Grassley put a hold on the bill in the Senate, indicating that he would be willing to lift the cap if companies faced an annual audit. The US currently allows 140K H-1B workers, but allows only 7% of those to come from any one country."

Comments

I'm for it.

[PerlPunk]

It would be a big incentive to attraact the best of the best from around the world to the United States. It would go hand-in-hand with smart immigration policies that tried to retain that talent.

Re:I'm for it.

[Anonymous Coward]

It's wonderful until the job market is flooded with 140k h1b workers working for absurdly low wages

And who are these H1B workers on absurdly low wages? It costs Microsoft 30% more to hire foreigners on H1Bs because there aren't enough Americans graduating with master's and PhDs in STEM fields. MSFT would gladly hire Americans to do these jobs, if they could. I'm quite confident this generalizes to other tech companies.

Re:I'm for it.

[Thanshin]

It would be a big incentive to attraact the best of the best from around the world to the United States. It would go hand-in-hand with smart immigration policies that tried to retain that talent.

The problem is that a fraction of what the immigrant earns is sent out of the country. Thus only part of the benefit to the corporation stays.

Deeper still, the problem is that the corporation's interests aren't aligned with the country, nor has it any pressure to make them so.

Deeper still, the problem is that the corporation is just a product of the economical system. Society cannot specify how to create businesses following a certain set of rules and then claim that the resulting corporation is bad.

A solution would be to have the state control the corporate behaviours that harm the country, however that doesn't work because the state is not the country, just a subset of individuals who are vulnerable to corporation power, which was given by the rules decided by society.

A solution to that would be society removing that power from the corporation, but the corporation was made following rules that society itself imposed, so its the rules that would have to be changed first.

And we don't know what other set of rules works better than the current one, nor whether the new corporate-like entity crerated by them would have even stronger power over the state.

Re:I'm for it.

[BVis]

And there's the problem...what is the definition of "qualified"?

Said elsewhere but bears repetition:

Listed qualifications: 5 years blah blah 4 years blah blah good team player etc.

Actual qualifications: Willingness to work insane hours. Willingness to ruin health to help the company make a buck. Willingness to put employer ahead of all other priorities, including financial security and family. Willingness to work at 20% below the industry average for the area. Ability to say "how high" when some pinhead over-promoted manager with an IQ of 70 says "Jump." Ability to refrain from using begrudgingly given PTO. Ability to not get sick or in an accident or have a loved one die.

Re:Article is wrong

[hooeezit]

As parent says, the article is utterly wrong. There are no per-country caps on H1B. The caps are on Green Cards (permanent residence) issued under certain categories, EB2 (Employment Based 2nd) being the most affected. The problem is that all countries, irrespective of their population, get a fixed ceiling of 7% of the total allocation of 140000 GCs issued per year. So, H1B workers from China and India have to wait at least 5 years, sometimes 10 years depending on the whims of USCIS, to get their Green Card. During that time, they have to continue being employed by the same company that originally filed the GC application, and in a materially similar position as at the time of filing. A major change in job description requires refiling. If you don't realize what that means, it makes those workers subservient to their employers. This has quite the opposite effect that you think it does - it doesn't help US workers any since these foreigners are already employed, but it gives the employers a position of power from which they can dictate terms on pay raises and promotions since they have the workers by the leash.

This is definitely hurting US tech companies because many excellent techies getting good salaries are leaving the US and setting up their own companies either in their home countries or in some other immigration-friendly country, Canada and Singapore being the top destinations. They would rather spend 2 years setting up their own company and getting permanent residence and a path to citizenship there than toil for 6+ years in fear with no certain timeline on when they'll become a permanent resident, much less a citizen of the US.

I myself am an example of a person who left the US after being there for 11 years. I was on H1B and making $120k/yr, so definitely not an underpaid worker. But I'm loathe to serve 6 years in a big corporation doing the same job day in and day out. So, I moved back to India, and I'm using my contacts in the industry to provide embedded software and hardware development services to small companies in the US. At the same time, I'm providing Industrial Automation consulting services to Indian companies and am currently working on a new data logging product for the South African market. So, the US lost the tax revenue it would have received. It lost a bunch of local jobs due to US companies outsourcing work to me in India. And it lost the new jobs I'd have created there if I'd continued building new products in the US.

So, you decide what works in US's national interests? Keeping people like me away from that country, or giving us an incentive to set up companies of our own? And if you claim that I'm a minority, that's an irrelevant argument. A very useful minority is still being alienated. I loved being in the US, and would happily go back if the immigration situation becomes easier and more deterministic. But I seriously don't see current US politics being conducive to ANYTHING that's of real value to the country.

Re:Article is wrong

[toejam13]

It's a thinly veiled substitute for the Chinese Exclusion Act.

India and China have no natural right to dominate the US immigration system simple because each country alone has a greater population than the entire US.

To have a true melting pot, you need a diverse population. When you have a huge immigrant influx from a single region of the world, your melting pot will start to form lumps. That gives rise to a number of socioeconomic issues.

Re:Article is wrong

[Anonymous Coward]

...than toil for 6+ years in fear with no certain timeline on when they'll become a permanent resident, much less a citizen of the US.

I'm an American (born and raised) scientist currently living and working in Asia and, after the way my non-American wife and her family have been treated by USCIS, I'm not at all eager to go back to the USA, either.

In my wife's case, we spent years waiting for all the various paperwork to clear - during which times my wife wasn't allowed to work, or go to school or even leave the USA. And it's totally arbitrary: even now that my wife has permanent residence (a "green card") USCIS could take it away for no reason and, at best, we'd have to start all over again.

And then her sister, who had a five year multiple entry visa, essentially applied for a renewal to do some traveling with us - and was denied - again totally arbitrary and with no due process or rule of law or possibility to appeal.

But I seriously don't see current US politics being conducive to ANYTHING that's of real value to the country.

Yeah, I voted for Obama hoping things might improve - but from what I've seen they've actually gotten worse. I sure won't be voting Democratic this year.

Well, anyway, I can always hope that some other country will invade and occupy the USA and straighten it out. :)

Re:Simply Solution, High Minimum Salary for H1B's

[roman_mir]

There is no such thing as a 'wage slave'. Everybody is free to attempt their own business or live on charity.