Slashdot Mirror
H-1Bs Reduced Computer Programmer Employment By Up To 11%, Study Finds (marketwatch.com)
An anonymous reader quotes a report from MarketWatch: There would have been up to 11% more computer science jobs at wages up to 5% higher were it not for the immigration program that brings in foreign high-skilled employees, a new study finds. The paper -- by John Bound and Nicolas Morales of the University of Michigan and Gaurav Khanna of the University of California, San Diego -- was conducted by studying the economy between 1994 and 2001, during the internet boom. It was also a period where the recruitment of so-called H-1B labor was at or close to the cap and largely before the onset of the vibrant IT sector in India. In 2001, the number of U.S. computer scientists was between 6.1%-10.8% lower and wages were between 2.6% and 5.1% lower. Of course, there also were beneficiaries -- namely consumers and employers. Immigration lowered prices by between 1.9% and 2.4%, and profits increased as did the total number of IT firms.
Low to mid skill as compared to what? Compared to PhDs sure but compared to the majority of US jobs - drivers , checkout clerks and waiters these are very highly skilled jobs. And it takes a certain amount of education which unfortunately most US k-12 schools do not provide and the defeicit cannot be covered up in college for everyone. Get out of your Bubble. There are 120 million jobs in the US. Out of those only 2 million are in IT (maybe 500K of those are visas). And many of those 120 million depend on the spending of the 500K visa folks. Every H1 job here in the US generate 2-3 jobs in the local economy. And no kicking out the H1s will not mean the jobs will be filled by American citizens- they will go offshore along with the 2-3 unskilled jobs generated.
**Life is too short to be serious**
If H1Bs are bad, why are illegal immigrants from Mexico good?
1. H1Bs are not "bad", but with some minor reforms they could be a lot better for both America and the visa holders.
2. Illegal immigration from Mexico is neither good nor bad because it is NOT HAPPENING. Net immigration from Mexico was a problem a decade ago, but is now around zero.
The "solution" to illegal immigration is solid economic growth in Mexico. The best that America can do to achieve that is through free movement of goods and services across the border in both directions. This, of course, is exactly the opposite of the direction we are heading.