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H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

economist.com

381–390 of 467 posts

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#381
post #336

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's mostly economics and a bit of societal incentives. For an American CS graduate, the opportunity cost of joining grad school is too high. It makes more sense to join the industry immediately and start paying back the massive loans. For an Indian college graduate, it makes more sense to spend 2-5 years in the grad school if it means getting a job in the US later. With little or no loans to pay back, the earning po…

Yes, Indian people tend to value higher education and cheating. Just look at all these articles on cheating in India. http://www.cnn.com/videos/world/2015/03/20/pkg-walker-india-... http://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-india-36431885 http://www.latimes.com/world/great-reads/la-fg-c1-india-test... Let's be honest. Americans cheat too, but not to this level.

"Let's be honest. Americans cheat too, but not to this level."

Citation?

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#382

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Actually the opposite at many public universities. "Out of state" and international students subsidize in state students because they pay far greater tuition.

I have trouble believing students are paying less tuition because there is a greater demand from international students. If anything, the tuition would be higher. That international students are more profitable doesn't change the value of the degree or what everyone else is willing to pay for it.

Foreign students pay full tuition, domestic students rarely do. Simple as that. This applies to public and private schools. Universities deliberately recruit international students for this reason.

I think parent is right, no international students likely means higher tuition for everyone else. If you're in doubt, ask someone who works in admissions, I expect they'll tell you the same thing.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#383
post #376
post #316

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I completely agree that H1B visas drive drives down salaries for US workers. But I cannot see how Indian workers are worse off.

Indian workers are worse off, because they pay the same amount of taxes as an American worker with no salary hikes or promotions. Stuck with the same job for years. No freedom of job portability. Spouses cannot work, always at the edge of relocating based on where the bodyshops deploy them. The H1B visa is for 6 years temporary stay, but the H1B worker pays for SSN which he have no use of.

well, they are "worse off" compared to their non-H1B counterparts here but are way better off being here as opposed to staying in India, which is why they are here in the first place.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#384

I went through the entire comment thread and feel like you guys are missing a lot of the H1B benefits by focusing just on tech and the effect of the Indian consultancies. Most PhDs, specially in STEM, math, stats, econ, etc. are not American. And almost all of them end up with a H1B visa at some point if they remain in the US. It might be lottery based if you go to work at any firm, or quota-free if it is in academia…

... on the flipside though you shouldn't be competing for H1Bs with bodyshops which hopefully will be the case once the dust settles, so in the long run (hopefully) the changes that are being proposed will be beneficial to you.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#385
post #370

H1B as I see it. American corporations want to make profit year over year. (The announcing the quarterly or annual reports ? ) IT jobs has a tradition of being highly paid. When the revenues are less, the course of action is to cut the expenses and hence the salaries. So if a corporation want to make profit, they can hire workers with the minimum lawful wage. Indian bodyshops are catering to that demand. Its that sim…

And by "stop being greedy" you mean overpay people to do work because of qualifications that are not applicable to the job, or because they happen to be American? Why should anyone do that?

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#386

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There are a ton of Americans studying medicine in India. Simply because its cheaper. So it goes both ways. I'm pretty sure these Americans plan on working in America after residency.

Really? I've never heard of people doing that, how many is "a ton" and how realistic is their hope to practice in the US?

A literal metric ton of Americans is about 12 individuals. A short ton is about 11.

I presume that a figurative "ton of Americans" would be many more than that, because it seems like American enrollment in India's medical schools should be more than just 12.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#387
post #370

H1B as I see it. American corporations want to make profit year over year. (The announcing the quarterly or annual reports ? ) IT jobs has a tradition of being highly paid. When the revenues are less, the course of action is to cut the expenses and hence the salaries. So if a corporation want to make profit, they can hire workers with the minimum lawful wage. Indian bodyshops are catering to that demand. Its that sim…

And by "stop being greedy" you mean overpay people to do work because of qualifications that are not applicable to the job, or because they happen to be American? Why should anyone do that?

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Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#388
post #203

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Are these graduates? Are they real developers or people that know html, css and photoshop thinking their front end devs? Have they spent their lives in big companies that are still in xml land? That's all the excuses I can think of. Some of them may be honest, just ignorant.

They generally don't have a clue, or sometimes have had job titles like "Software Engineer" but all they did was basic GUI testing, which is also the case at my company.

Is it possible you aren't offering a wage that attracts talent? You seem to be implying that Indian labor is smarter/more qualified than US labor. In my experience, (hiring in Phoenix) that is simply not the case if you're willing to pay the prevailing wage.

Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#389

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> many of the indian workers are still better off economically than they might otherwise be, even if they are not as well off as their american counterparts. Isn't that exactly the main criticism of current H1B system: driving down salaries and standard of living away from U.S. standards down towards India's? However better off they are economically they would be even better if companies couldn't exploit their status…

> Isn't that exactly the main criticism of current H1B system: driving down salaries and standard of living away from U.S. standards down towards India's? The issue, of course, is that you can have only one of these 2 things : 1) a global market, easy international travel/living 2) Americans making significantly more than the global average (which I might add is $200/month in actual dollars, $1480 in PPP dollars) (th…

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Re: H-1B visas mainly go to Indian outsourcing firms

#390
post #338

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You are misleading people here. Top CS PHD or other PHDs won't go through H1B; they are most likely going through EB1 which is more efficient. You don't need to wait years to get a green card. Also, people from countries like Australia, Canada, Germany, don't need H1B. Only people from Iran, India, and China need H1B. The better solution, as I talked to variety people and many people suggests, is to raise the salary…

Incorrect: people from most all countries do use H1-Bs to work in the US. (Australia is a rare exception, because there's a special visa just for them, thanks to some paid-in-blood Gulf War horse trading.). However, there's a per-country quota, which is why Chinese and Indians have a hard time getting them and most Europeans don't.

Canada is also an exception (TN visa).
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