Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
theguardian.com
Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
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Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#2Of all of the candidates both Republican and Democrat (and including President Obama) only one, President Trump was not in bed with Silicon Valley and Tech companies attempting to depress American Wages and replace Americans with cheaper foreign imports. Even the University of California San Francisco (The UC system trains lots of computer scientists, IT workers) replaced its own IT workers with H1-B Visa imports.
What is notable is the US newspapers including NYT and WaPo don't write about this issue much. The Guardian (and Breitbart) have been the most consistent sources of information.
Thomas Frank had warned of the real reasons for Trump's rise staring in March 2016. Here is a July 2016 article after the BrExit vote that warned the Dems. Click on the link and you'll see Obama pictured with Zuckerberg. Zuckerberg famously want to depress American tech wages by having his own lobbying organization that tries to import more H1-B visa workers.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/jul/19/reveng...
At Wednesday night’s GOP debate, Rubio was asked about his co-authorship of controversial legislation–- known as the I-Squared bill — that would triple the number of wage-depressing H-1B visas up to 195,000 per year. In Rubio’s home state of Florida, the Walt Disney Company used H-1Bs to lay off hundreds of American workers and force them to train their foreign replacements. Disney’s CEO has endorsed Rubio’s I-Squared bill.
http://www.breitbart.com/2016-presidential-race/2015/10/30/h...
President Obama even allowed spouses of H1-B to work, displacing and lowering wages of yet more American workers.
The intent of H1-B is only for jobs for which there are no Americans available. There should be an independent commission that reviews each and every one of these applications. Frankly, it begs credulity that there are 65,000 STEM jobs that are so specialized that there are no Americans to fill the roles.
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#3This would make it harder for startups to recruit since it would be hard to value equity in a visa application.
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#4What kind of salaries should H1-B-heavy jobs expect if the visa didn't exist?
I'm wondering because I get the feeling that the general populace believes these positions (programming and everything related) pay pretty well. You might get the opposite feeling when browsing HN.
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#5The intent of H1-B was to get talented immigrants for jobs for which we had a shortage of American labor. Instead it has become a tool for indentured labor of foreigners (especially Indians) to be used to suppress wages and exploit the foreign nationals.
I have suffered because of this. I spent 6 years on H1 with no end in sight. It would take at least 20 years for Indians to get a Green Card. Till then, you have to do do insane amount of paperwork, deal with lot of uncertainty when we you are up for renewal and are in a limbo state.
Most of my friends who are really smart and are in US, have resigned to their fate and given up on their entrepreneurial aspirations.
If people think that companies like Facebook and Google are not exploiting people, they are mistaken. Even though the wages that they pay are much higher - H1 creates lack of job mobility, within that class of employees. I worked with someone really smart in an earlier startup in India. He spent 7 years in Microsoft because it seemed like he will get Green Card next year.
I worked with someone senior at FWD.us and as per that person the intention of FWD.us is to get more H1 and not Green Cards.
I have lived through this and hopefully out of this cycle. However the best from India aren't moving to US anymore. They now know about the uncertainties in their life because of H1 and are choosing to stay behind in India to build startups there.
Big consultancy companies (TCS, Infosys, Cognizant etc) are abusing the system. I hope someone puts and end to this.
Edited: formatting
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#6This would make it harder for startups to recruit since it would be hard to value equity in a visa application.
I agree that there will be some challenges and hopefully future changes fix that.
However current reality is that very few startups employ H1. I founded a startup when I was on H1 hired someone else on H1 and it was a pain to go through all paperwork. Right now, if the potential employee doesn't already have an H1 - the startup will need to apply for H1 lottery where odds are 1/4 and if they win it wait for 6 months before the employees can join.
Recently I built an Incubator where the intention was to pay market salaries while people try out ideas. And once the idea gets traction - raise funding and spin it out. Everyone on H1 refused to join the spin out because they didn't want to deal with the pains of being on H1 while dealing with uncertainties of a startup.
I hope that these regulations stop the abuse happening on H1. This will help in two ways: 1. No lottery - so people who want to move to US have a predictable path. 2. Better path for Indians to get Green Card. Right now the delay is insane (20+ years). Once they get Green Cards they can participate with more freedom.
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#7What kind of salaries should H1-B-heavy jobs expect if the visa didn't exist? I'm wondering because I get the feeling that the general populace believes these positions (programming and everything related) pay pretty well. You might get the opposite feeling when browsing HN.
H1 visas work like a long tail. Most of the visas are used by big consulting companies to suppress wages. Most of these jobs pay less than 65k and displace American workers because they would demand more.
A small part of the visas (less than 10%) is used in the long tail by companies like Google and Facebook. They jobs pay relatively well. However because of difficulty in job mobility, the immigrant employees lose on negotiation and aren't paid we well as they could have gotten paid. At least these jobs do not displace American workers. The above companies have a lot of unfilled openings and if an American worker is available with the right skills, they would hire that person.
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#8Isn't the risk that these companies will just let Indian's do the work in India instead of bringing them to the US? Won't the US loose tax money with such a setup?
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#9Isn't the risk that these companies will just let Indian's do the work in India instead of bringing them to the US? Won't the US loose tax money with such a setup?
If it's possible consultancy companies already move the jobs to India.
And if the intention is to solve the problem of jobs moving to India, create a law designed to fix that. H1 wasn't designed to fix this problem. Let it do what it was designed to do!
Re: Donald Trump to overhaul H-1B visa program
#10The intent of H1-B was to get talented immigrants for jobs for which we had a shortage of American labor. Instead it has become a tool for indentured labor of foreigners (especially Indians) to be used to suppress wages and exploit the foreign nationals. I have suffered because of this. I spent 6 years on H1 with no end in sight. It would take at least 20 years for Indians to get a Green Card. Till then, you have to…
My very good friend is Indian on H1B. In the last 10 years he has had 4 jobs and is making >200k/yr base. I know white people that are in the same job for 10+ years and can't get another job because their skills degraded. H1Bs have mobility and great wages, if you're good, just like citizens.