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CS Professor Argues Silicon Valley Is Exploiting Both H-1B Visas And Workers (huffingtonpost.com)
schwit1 quotes Norm Matloff, a CS professor at the University of California at Davis, on H-1B visa programs:
The Trump administration has drafted a new executive order that could actually mean higher wages for both foreign workers and Americans working in Silicon Valley. The Silicon Valley companies, of course, will not be happy if it goes into effect... Their lobbyists claim there is a "talent shortage" among Americans and thus that the industry needs more of such work visas. This is patently false. The truth is that they want an expansion of the H-1B work visa program because they want to hire cheap, immobile labor -- i.e., foreign workers.
To see how this works, note that most Silicon Valley firms sponsor their H-1B workers, who hold a temporary visa, for U.S. permanent residency (green card) under the employment-based program in immigration law. EB sponsorship renders the workers de facto indentured servants; though they have the right to move to another employer, they do not dare do so, as it would mean starting the lengthy green card process all over again.
Computerworld also argues this year's annual H-1B visa lottery "may be different, because of President Donald Trump," reporting that the lottery has historically favored the largest firms heavily. "In the 2015 fiscal year, for instance, the top 10 firms received 38% of all the H-1B visas in computer occupations alone. All these firms, except for Amazon and to a partial extent IBM, are outsourcers."
To see how this works, note that most Silicon Valley firms sponsor their H-1B workers, who hold a temporary visa, for U.S. permanent residency (green card) under the employment-based program in immigration law. EB sponsorship renders the workers de facto indentured servants; though they have the right to move to another employer, they do not dare do so, as it would mean starting the lengthy green card process all over again.
Computerworld also argues this year's annual H-1B visa lottery "may be different, because of President Donald Trump," reporting that the lottery has historically favored the largest firms heavily. "In the 2015 fiscal year, for instance, the top 10 firms received 38% of all the H-1B visas in computer occupations alone. All these firms, except for Amazon and to a partial extent IBM, are outsourcers."
Seeings how they are TRAINING their low wage replacements, exactly how low talent are they??
Anyone who doesn't understand that low talent is the new code word for "we make too much money according to you" needs to wake up!
If you want to end exploitation of H1B visa holders, it seems like the easiest step would be to let visa holders change employers without restarting the H1B process. This would reduce the exploitation factor, since employees could walk away from bad jobs. It wouldn't require guessing what a reasonable salary bound would be, but would let the market decide that, instead.
FALSE.
The jobs overseas are *already* much cheaper than what the H1B's are getting paid. If it were possible to have these jobs overseas ---they would already be there---, and that is cold hard fact. The jobs going to H1B are jobs that require face-to-face interaction with people here in the United States.
The 'alternate fact' here is the obvious bluff from tech companies (Let us play by our rules or we'll ship jobs overseas). The only response that has any integrity is "Well, take your goddamn ball and GO home then."
Samsung took back my unlocked bootloader because Google wants me to rent movies. They're both evil.
Companies like Google and Facebook pay their H-1B workers quite well. Their problem has been that the H-1B visas in recent years have been snapped up by low-paying outsourcing and contracting firms who have spammed the H-1B lottery with applications.
Trump's proposed system gives priority to H-1B visa applications based on salary. This is a big win for Silicon Valley companies, because they pay some of the highest salaries. It's a big loss for the outsourcing and contracting firms.
It's not whether they find out or not, the real issue is that most employers have a "waiting window" for new H1B hires. Nothing stops you from moving to a new company but you will have to put in that initial time (which many HR heads blame the legal team for taking a long time, and in many cases the legal team can "lose" your paperwork or it can get rejected on technicality due to a law change). So this has nothing to do with you (as employee), but more to do with profits. While you are in this waiting period you will work hard and I have seen people pretty much live at work. This is pretty much indentured servitude. And if they don't like it they can leave anytime, and start this process again with still no guarantee that they will get a green card. People in charge (usually head of HR and whoever is doing payroll/finance, CFO or CIO depending on company), know that they are getting a good thing, why not get the most of it.
I have worked in this industry for over 3 decades and met many good people who were stuck in this process, some lucky ones got their green cards after 5 years because they were very good (and often had to threaten leaving to "hurry" the legal process) and the company could not afford to lose them. I have worked with people who were on it for over 10 years and some just went back home because they got tired of the hours and low pay and missed their families; QA, support and IT people had it worst, as they were worked for very long hours and I felt that there was no urgency to get them green cards because they could be easily replaced. Software developers (especially good ones) had a significantly easier time.
It's a well intentioned system that as always gets abused for profit.
They can! It's called an H1B transfer. So if you have such a visa and are working for, say, Microsoft, and you want to move to Avanade, you can. It doesn't go against the national H1B cap since it's a visa that's already been issued. Which is why companies are more willing to do H1B transfers as opposed to a brand new H1B, which runs into those limits
The real issue in question is what was mentioned in the summary:
EB sponsorship renders the workers de facto indentured servants; though they have the right to move to another employer, they do not dare do so, as it would mean starting the lengthy green card process all over again.
So the issue workers have is not that an H1B can't be transferred, but rather, that if a worker changes companies, then the company he's quitting would obviously stop applying for his Green Card, and the process would be reset w/ the new company. Also consider the fact that few employers would apply for a Green Card immediately: they'd want the worker to be w/ them from 6 months to a year. So, in the above example, if Srinivas' I-140 has been approved and he decides to leave Microsoft and join Avanade, not only does he lose that I-140 approval and everything, he then loses that time it's taken him, PLUS the time Avanade would like to try him out before deciding whether to file his I-140. So that is what would keep him in that company at least until his Green Card is approved
How does that make you an "indentured servant"? You are free to change jobs while you are on an H-1B (what you erroneously call a "waiting period"); if you think your old employer is too slow applying for a green card for you, switch to a new employer.
Right, Because companies such as Google and Facebook would NEVER collude to prevent H1B holders from changing jobs.
It's almost like Silicon Valley billionaires are slave holders in 1860 South Carolina. The parallels are scary - California is screaming about succeeding from the US, California is attempting to nullify US laws such as those on immigration (need those low-income slaves, err, workers), California is threatening to withhold federal revenues.
The same shit South Carolina did in 1860.