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Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

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Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#181
post #163

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I’ve been the only US citizen on a team and now I am on a team with exclusively white, remote employees. I’ve watched my current team build the worst systems I’ve ever seen while constantly congregating themselves.

The person you’re replying to didn’t mention performance at all, so I’m not sure what you’re trying to imply.

He's trying to defend immigrants without understanding that that BS political correctness means immigrants get exploited to hell and back while pretending "to care for immigration".

Companies largely don't care about the environment or immigration. They care about the right branding while maximizing profits and they have no qualms exploiting people. Or laying then off if they don't toe the line (RTO being a grand example)

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#182

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is such a tone deaf rosy eyed out of touch with reality comment. Modern slavery exists. See things like Uyghur camps, people sold to work until death on Thai boats or exit visas in Saudi Arabia. Having a choice to work for money or (gasp) return home is not even remotely the same? To put them under the same label is to discount the actually bad stuff.

"Return home" is awfully convenient phrasing to gloss over the fact that to many of the people caught in this system, the US IS their home in practical terms and "returning home" to their country of origin is more like uprooting your entire life within a few weeks and restarting it in a foreign land. Especially with Chinese and Indian H1Bs, the wait for permanent residency can be so long that they may have spent over…

Correct. Now you can maybe read up on those things I mentioned and understand why you are still failing to make H1B even remotely look like actual modern slavery. (Spoiler alert: it might have something to do with pitting "uprooting life" & "no friends" against "no option to leave", "life in confinement" and "work till death")

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#183
post #42

Earlier quoted context omitted.

[flagged]

> H1B at big tech is modern slavery that's putting it too far - they are free to leave or quit as they wish. Unlike the true modern slavery of which is migrant workers (like described here https://www.antislavery.org/world-cup-2022-the-reality-for-m... ), where their passports are confiscated, etc. H1B is exploiting the rules for cheap labour. It does benefit the H1B holder - since they would otherwise not have signe…

They are not really free when renting contracts would leave them bankrupt and they'd have nowhere to go.

It's a very exploitative situation with extra steps where there's little they can do to protect themselves once in the country.

They can just endure until they're out of it.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#184

“Low paid”? I’m an immigrant myself and know how the visa application process works. There are a few mechanisms in place to prevent H-1B holders to receive lower wages than their colleagues, first and foremost the PERM, which guarantees similar wages in the same occupation and area of employment. If Google or anyone else are hiring H-1B visa holders directly, they have to pay them accordingly to their own standards.…

Yes low paid.

I get paid more than every H1B I know who is a level above me in my role.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#185

The trends I’ve seen in the industry are to hire lots of H1b’s who just churn out questionable code, then hire sharp people to fix that code. Rinse and repeat. Soon the H1b’s will be replaced by AI, this might be the last batch, probably using them to fine tune the AI. Unfortunate.

there are many kinds of code, with many kinds of lifecycles.. this comment is too vague to be useful

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#187

I abhor any system that results in second hand citizens, such as the H1B program. It suppresses the general welfare, in service of capital. If I were able to, I'd give everyone in the program an immediate option for citizenship, and then cancel it. We clearly need to reform our immigration system.

Yes, literally everyone but employers is worse off because of the system. It depresses wages for everyone. The limitation of worker supply might even hurt employers enough to make up for their benefits as well. Like tariffs, this hurts everyone involved because of misguided, protectionist instincts.

This is America

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#188
post #36

Generally not supposed to say this out loud, but being the only American on an all H1B team at these companies can be absolutely brutal. Very alienating, always missing out on back channel communications, no sympathy for missteps

Why "not supposed" to say out loud? Sounds simply as a problem of the only X on a team of Ys. Cultural (and other) differences can be hard, it is just a fact of life. Think of it as being in the shoes of a lonely non-American in the country of Americans, if that is any consolation.

The difference is, he presumably is in America.

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#189

Are there any political candidates on the Presidential ballot for 2024 who might be willing to hold corporations accountable for these types of practices with stricter enforcement or perhaps changing immigration policy?

most executives need to a) look good while talking to the mass, but in fact b) steer by the wants and needs of other executives IMHO

Re: Google, Meta, Amazon hiring low-paid H1B workers after US layoffs

#190

Generally not supposed to say this out loud, but being the only American on an all H1B team at these companies can be absolutely brutal. Very alienating, always missing out on back channel communications, no sympathy for missteps

I’ve been the only US citizen on a team and now I am on a team with exclusively white, remote employees. I’ve watched my current team build the worst systems I’ve ever seen while constantly congregating themselves.

"while constantly congregating themselves" you meant a different word here but I can't for the life of me figure out which one
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