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Will Trump Protect America's IT Workers From H-1B Visa Abuses? (cio.com.au)
Monday president-elect Donald Trump sent "the strongest signal yet that the H-1B visa program is going get real scrutiny once he takes office," according to CIO.
Slashdot reader OverTheGeicoE summarizes their report:
President-elect Donald Trump released a video message outlining his policy plans for his first 100 days in office. At 1 minute, 56 seconds into the message, he states that he will direct the Department of Labor to investigate "all abuses of the visa programs that undercut the American worker." During his presidential campaign, Trump was critical of the H-1B visa program that has been widely criticized for displacing U.S. high-technology workers. "Companies are importing low-wage workers on H-1B visas to take jobs from young college-trained Americans," said Trump at an Ohio rally. At other rallies, Trump invited former IT workers from Disney who had been forced to train their H-1B replacements to speak.
"What he didn't say was that he was going to close the door to skilled immigrants," one tech entrepreneur told CNN Money -- although Trump's selection for attorney general has called the shortage of qualified American tech workers "a hoax".
"What he didn't say was that he was going to close the door to skilled immigrants," one tech entrepreneur told CNN Money -- although Trump's selection for attorney general has called the shortage of qualified American tech workers "a hoax".
The most common usage I see in Seattle is through contracting firms. Usually Indian 'mom and pop' ones that already have their green card running several H1B 'spots'. If you are an immigrant, you pay in to them for the opportunity to be hired for a job through their company. So you get to live in the US and go on interviews till someone hires you, then you pay that time off by getting shit pay while they charge 5 or 6 times more than they pay you. Consulting and contract companies should never be allocated H1B.
They would have offshored it to begin with if offshoring was the same as hiring cheap on-shore labor. Even at its most evil, doing H1B involves a bunch over inherent overhead that doesn't exist in pure offshoring.
It's not the same, though, because they gain a bunch of benefits from on-premise H1Bs they wouldn't have with off-shoring -- control over the product, direct management involvement, less travel, an ability to use H1B labor more strategically through partial replacement, and so on.
If they can't use H1B, offshoring isn't a direct replacement. A business may decide that the added costs and risks of total offshoring aren't worth it.
IMHO, part of the goal here is make business incur either the total cost of offshoring or hire American workers. Maybe in some cases they decide for offshoring completely, but I think in many cases the calculus would work out that the incremental cost of losing all on-shore benefits was higher than hiring and paying American workers.
Hard to say for sure since Trump himself probably doesn't know but I found this quote interesting:
...
"Bruce Josten, the chief lobbyist at the United States Chamber of Commerce, said he had already been in communication with members of Mr. Trump's transition team, as the chamber pushes its priorities like securing approval for the Keystone Pipeline, the oil pipeline project blocked by the Obama administration, or reopening more federal lands to oil and gas exploration."
"The chamber already knows there are certain items Mr. Trump has said he will not support, like the current versions of trade deals with Asia or comprehensive changes in the nation's immigration laws, which the chamber pushed during Mr. Obama's tenure. But there are aspects of each of these plans, like increasing the number of visas for highly skilled foreign workers, that Mr. Josten said he expects Mr. Trump to endorse.
Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/11/11/us/politics/lobbyists-trump.html
There are split teams: An American team as well as an Indian team. We've been doing this since the late nineties. And over the years, the ratio of American/Indian work has steadily fell.
It boosts the ROI of the product. And that's what's gonna continue to happen. As companies like mine continue to send more and more work that is getting more and more complicated, the Indians are getting better and better and I dare say that in most instances they are just a good as Americans now.
Don't forget, quite a few who went to school and worked over here went back home and opened up shop. So, my point is that offshoring has come to the point where American work can be off-shored without compromises.
I didn't vote for him but I have to wonder... what if he does a good job? What if he was actually able to do better than previous presidents?
I think the man is very vain. He is 70 years old. But a righteous legacy would be something he might sell his soul for.
He does know business and money. But it's real estate. Which means construction and turnover. Other rich don't necessarily like him because he doesn't care about keeping them rich. He is anti PAC. He has committed that his own cabinet won't be able to turn around and take insider jobs at companies. He is politically and financially not a friend to the rich.
I compare him to Nixon whom was also both very smart and naive about certain things. While Reagan wanted to outspend Russia in the cold war. Nixon wanted to steer China toward a liberal Fascism by marrying them to money and markets. (Kind of similar to how old kingdoms would arrange marriage [hostages] and guests so that there were personal ties of interest to both.) But China isn't spending western money. It's more like they are trying to bankrupt western nations.
Back on topic: Trump seems to support a more protectionist economy with an eye at least toward balancing trade. So it makes sense for him to be anti loop hole H1B. EVERYONE knows it's about cheaper tech workers to keep down tech salaries. I can only wish he would audit American companies and well known brands and show how they cheated the system and for how much. But he will use that instead as bargaining power; maybe shame a couple known companies in the beginning.
I think shamming companies on public TV will be a major theme for him. He does understand the PR game and how that would affect their stock prices in the short run. I expect an across the board minimum tax for businesses at least in the low double digits with phase ins and tax breaks for those that move/build facilities for manufacturing here. So there will definitely be a boom in construction and real estate which is generally good for the middle class.
Here's the trend I'm seeing - unless you have the talent to go to Stanford, MIT or some other top school, you're not going to have much of a career here as an American.
I graduated from the eighth grade with fifth grade math and writing skills, and college-level reading comprehension. I never went to high school. When I entered the community college, it took two years of remedial classes and two years of college classes to graduate with an A.A. degree in General Ed. A decade later I would go back to get an A.S. in Computer Programming and make the college president's list for maintaining a 4.0 GPA in my major. I'm in my 22th year of my technical career.
Once you're in test or support, you're stuck there.
What's wrong with test or support? I've done software testing for six years, help desk support for six years, PC refresh projects and built out data centers on short-term contracts, and I'm currently doing computer security for government IT. These are not glamorous jobs (a.k.a., virtual ditch digging) but someone has to do them.
Absolutely. But I believe Trump will use the "bull pulpit" to greater effect than any President in recent ages. I believe he'd name names and level accusations of bribery against those who opposed him. Right or wrong. Those in Congress will not be able to hide behind closed doors and try to "work deals" to assuage their financiers. That alone will make the following 4 years at least entertaining, if not beneficial (shining the light on the way our Congress is bought-and-paid for by corporations AND unions).
Browsing at +1 - no ACs, I ignore their posts. So refreshing!
I had a 3.9 on my Calculas and Computer Science classes, but because I got a D+ in Chemistry and a D in Middle Eastern History (mostly because I just didn't give a damn about those classes), I had to apply for an excemption and personally argue my case to avoid being removed from Ohio State University's engineering school.
So what do you do about the parts of a programming job that you don't give a damn about? D+ and D-level work?
"You're right," Fisheye says. "I should have set it on 'whip' or 'chop.'"