New Book Sold Out Offers a Look At the H-1B Debate

theodp writes: The New York Post has published an excerpt from Sold Out: How High-Tech Billionaires and Bipartisan Beltway Crapweasels Are Screwing America's Best and Brightest Workers, a new book on the H-1B debate from conservative syndicated columnist Michelle Malkin and programmer-turned-attorney John Miano. "Sold Out," notes a Computerworld review, "clearly has a point a view about the program (crapweasels, for instance), but it backs up its assertions and gives H-1B supporters a high threshold to cross. A serious argument in defense of the visa program requires explaining how America gains when a U.S. worker is replaced by a foreign visa holder hired to do the exact same job. If you are going to justify the H-1B program, then you have to defend firms that force their employees (no severance otherwise) to train their replacements. That may be the point here. This book lays bare the replacement process, the broad use of the H-1B visa by the IT offshore outsourcing industry, and the lobbying effort in Washington to minimalize the visa's use in displacing U.S. workers." With anecdotes like "how Microsoft wined and dined the Bush administration to expand the foreign worker supply through administrative fiat to circumvent public disclosure and congressional debate," the book seeks out a broader audience than just those already familiar with the H-1B issue.

Comments

Not all H1B positions are equal

[Anonymous Coward]

As a former hiring manager for a lager fortune 500 company, whose ass is on the line to finish projects on time, I can assure you, I was not looking for the cheapest hire, but, the most qualified hire. I desperately looked for software engineers with experience in the area of embedded systems and some amount of networking knowledge, but, who are excellent C programmers. For the several positions I recruited for, I could not get a single qualified resume. The good ones don't want to do any C/Linux/Unix programming and are more interested in App or web development for startups. We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley. I completely open to hiring anyone regardless of age, sex, nationality, diability, etc. Being myself an immigrant, I felt bad that I was much more harsh in reviewing the applicants who required H1B and put them at the end of the pile. Believe, me it is much more work for the hiring manager and the company has to spend a lot more to hire a H1B candidate.

What people generally confuse is the abuses perpetuated by the so called body shopping companies, whose primary intent is to get people with some random degree from overseas and try to place them in a position in the US. In contrast, the people who are directly recruited by the large companies as their full time employees, are no different than any other full time employee in that company.

In my opinion, what should happen is, the US congress should close the "body shopping" loophole in the H1B and allow for skill based immigration, instead of H1B.

Re:Not all H1B positions are equal

[hawguy]

For the several positions I recruited for, I could not get a single qualified resume. We were paying competitive market rates, with excellent benefits, but, I did not have much luck hiring any good candidates in the Silicon Valley.

Then by definition you were not paying competitive rates. If you were, you wouldn't have had any trouble poaching the available talent from another organization or paying to bring them in from outside the area. The H1-B program is not for local worker shortages "No good candidates in Silicon Valley", it's for NATIONAL shortages as in "No qualified workers in the United States". If you saying that are no qualified embedded programmers in the US with the skillset you need, then I'm going to want so extraordinary levels of proof because that seems highly unlikely.

H1-B doesn't require you to go door to door across the USA to find candidates, you advertise the position and see if you can attract interest. It's becoming harder and harder to find qualified candidates willing to move to the Bay Area because no matter how much you pay them, you can't give them the same lifestyle they had at home. In many areas of the USA, you can have a nice 2000 sq ft house with large yard and a 30 minute drive to work for both spouses and good schools for your kids. In the SF Bay Area, even if you have a million dollars (or more) to spend on a house, there are very few options places where you can have that. And the good candidates already have good jobs, so it's really hard to entice them to move with more money. We had one candidate move across the country who left after 2 months because he couldn't find suitable housing for his family within a reasonable commute. He repaid his moving expenses and signing bonus yet still felt he was better off back in the East Coast town he moved from.

Nicely balanced versus clear point

[Okian Warrior]

That title definitely makes this book sound like it takes a balanced and objective viewpoint of the situation, with both sides of the argument covered.

There seems to be a cultural shift in recent decades where you can't make a clear argument any more.

This starts with journalism, where "balanced reporting" initially meant that news organizations couldn't show only one side of a controversial issue (abortion, roughly 50% of Americans on one side or the other), and has progressed to where "balanced" journalism includes giving equal air time to climate change deniers (less than 3% of scientists), ESP and paranormal believers, and other completely fringe views.

To be completely fair, about 40% of Americans believe in Creationism, so it's probably OK that this gets equal billing. The point isn't about the beliefs per-se, it's about journalists unwilling to choose a side. Equal billing tends to prop up failing modes of thought.

I've read numerous books and papers that posit a claim and then cite evidence to support that claim... I *thought* that's how science debate worked. For example, The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind does precisely this: establish a point, then bolster it with reams and reams (well, one ream - 512 pages) of evidence.

Why does someone with a position to argue need to lay out both sides of an argument?

That's not how human perception works. We rely on experts to sort through the information we don't have time or expertise to deal with.

What's wrong with making a clear point in a book tagline?

Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!!

[blue9steel]

(as if *any* USian is going to pick fruit for less than minimum wage!)

Of course they won't, and it's illegal for anyone else to do so. The correct response would be a massive crackdown on employers who violate the labor laws. Daily raids, random inspections and audits, harsh prison sentences for executives and severe financial penalties for the businesses involved. Failure to do so is class warfare.

Re:Just Moral Panic: They're taking our jobs!!!

[BarbaraHudson]

I'm a Canadian and I call BS.

First off, Canada doesn't have an H1-B program. We have the Temporary Foreign Worker Program.

If you had watched the news, you would have known about RBC bringing in workers to replace Canadian IT workers under the Temporary Foreign Worker Program. They only backed down - this time - because of all the negative publicity exposing the illegal practice in this one instance.

Dozens of employees at Canada’s largest bank are losing their jobs to temporary foreign workers, who are in Canada to take over the work of their department.

"They are being brought in from India, and I am wondering how they got work visas," said Dave Moreau, one of the employees affected by the move. "The new people are in our offices and we are training them to do our jobs. That adds insult to injury."

When you write: "WHERE in the hell are all the unemployed, competent, software developers this would create? Their absence is suspicious - they just don't seem to be out there", maybe it's because after decades of BS working for smug, self-satisfied people who don't even know what's going on around them, who can't even tell the difference between Canada and the US, we get completely out of the field. Change career paths. Retire. Whatever. Any way we can to give a big F*CK YOU to the people "managing" the industry, because what goes around eventually comes around, and it's their turn.

This problem has been going on for years in Canada.

And if you're getting people who think that knowing Dreamweaver and Photoshop makes them qualified, then you (or your HR department) obviously have a problem spelling out minimum requirements, or the recruiting companies you deal with are just sh*t monkeys throwing sh*t at the wall and hoping some of it sticks. Either way, the problem is on your end of the line.