Cringley: H-1B Visa Abuse Limits Wages and Steals US Jobs

walterbyrd sends this snippet from an article by Robert X. Cringely: "Big tech employers are constantly lobbying for increases in H-1B quotas citing their inability to find qualified US job applicants. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and other leaders from the IT industry have testified about this before Congress. Both major political parties embrace the H-1B program with varying levels of enthusiasm. Bill Gates is wrong. What he said to Congress may have been right for Microsoft but was wrong for America and can only lead to lower wages, lower employment, and a lower standard of living. This is a bigger deal than people understand: it's the rebirth of industrial labor relations circa 1920. Our ignorance about the H-1B visa program is being used to unfairly limit wages and steal — yes, steal — jobs from U.S. citizens."

Comments

Seeking a Better Life

[Baldrson]

The solution to the H-1b abuse problem is to simply evict corporations from the US. Outsource not only IBM's programmers, but their entire executive suite and board of directors. The political zeitgeist of immigration is basically that no nation has a right to its territory when there are people elsewhere -- even if numbering in the billions -- that want to "seek a better life". Why not take the "better life" to them where they live? GIVE them IBM, HP, et al and good riddance.

Re:If Americans cannot compete with non Americans.

[Anonymous Coward]

If this is true why do we have a major influx of foreign students studying in US universities?

They weren't smart enough for IIT so they had to settle for MIT.

Re:Here here! Well said.

[AwesomeMcgee]

compare to 13 + 8 + 12 = 33 millimeters, yes, .7 meters is pretty significant.