Post by unlawflcombatnt on Apr 11, 2009 14:05:38 GMT -6
from Businessweek:
It's Time to Overhaul H-1B Visas
by Ron Hira
4/2/09
"We need to build a skilled-immigrant policy that will help our economy thrive
Reading the editorial pages of America's major dailies, you'd think the economic recovery depended on granting plenty of temporary work visas to skilled foreigners. After Congress voted in February to limit the use of these H-1B visas by financial firms getting taxpayer bailout money, The Washington Post called the provision (part of the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) "antithetical to innovation and domestic prosperity." The Wall Street Journal criticized the move in an editorial headlined "Turning Away Talent." In The New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman simply called it "S-T-U-P-I-D."
Such advocacy presents a false choice: Keep the program as it is or risk losing exceptional foreign workers.
As employers are sending off their H-1B visa requests for fiscal year 2010—and with some in Congress considering an overhaul of the program—it's time to dispel the myths about H-1Bs....
What myths distort the H-1B debate? The biggest may be that employers can hire H-1B visa holders only when there is no American for the job. The program, run by the U.S. Labor and Homeland Security Dept., has no such constraint. Nor do employers getting the visas have to demonstrate a shortage of U.S. workers in their field.
Indeed, they can opt not to recruit American candidates and to give preference to foreign workers. As the Labor Dept. states in its 2006-2011 Strategic Plan: "H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker." This is not just a hypothetical possibility. According to news reports, a number of major U.S. companies require American employees, as a condition of their severance pay, to train H-1B workers to do the work they do. This process, often called "knowledge transfer," is a key step in offshoring the tasks to a low-cost country.
Another myth: H-1B workers are the world's best and brightest. While some are truly exceptional, they make up a small share of the visa holders. The minimum degree required to hold an H-1B visa is a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, hardly a rare commodity. Instead, companies frequently turn to H-1Bs because they can be paid below-market wages. This contradicts the visa program's intent (and helps push wages down for American employees). But it is a common practice, given the gaping loopholes in the regulations....
Then there's the mistaken belief that granting H-1B visas helps prevent the outsourcing of American jobs. In fact, the program is expediting that offshoring, and not just because of "knowledge transfer." Offshore outsourcing firms with U.S. operations, including Infosys (INFY) and Wipro Technologies (WIT), now dominate the top ranks of employers getting H-1B workers. In 2008, such firms accounted for 7 of the top 10 H-1B visa recipients, getting almost 12,000 of the 85,000 quota. They use their U.S. operations to train their foreign workers, who learn more about U.S. clients and then rotate back to their home countries to provide service more effectively.
Perhaps the most dangerous myth of all is that the H-1B program has the same advantages for foreign workers—and the economy—as permanent immigration does.
High-skill immigrants who stay permanently in the U.S. make enormous contributions to the economy through their work, research, and entrepreneurialism. But the H-1B is a temporary work permit, one that allows participating foreigners to be mistreated. The visa, remember, is held by the employer, not the worker. That considerably diminishes the H-1B holder's bargaining power for better wages and working conditions....
The H-1B program can be cleaned up by closing loopholes and increasing oversight. Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are expected to reintroduce a version of last year's bipartisan reform bill in the coming weeks. Passed into law, it would require employers to try to hire Americans first and to pay H-1B workers market wages. It would also bar employers from replacing American workers with H-1B holders. Perhaps most important, it would create a random-audit process to ensure compliance with the rules...."
www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_15/b4126063331942.htm?chan=magazine+channel_opinion
---------------
Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, is co-author, with Anil Hira, of Outsourcing America.
It's Time to Overhaul H-1B Visas
by Ron Hira
4/2/09
"We need to build a skilled-immigrant policy that will help our economy thrive
Reading the editorial pages of America's major dailies, you'd think the economic recovery depended on granting plenty of temporary work visas to skilled foreigners. After Congress voted in February to limit the use of these H-1B visas by financial firms getting taxpayer bailout money, The Washington Post called the provision (part of the 2009 American Recovery & Reinvestment Act) "antithetical to innovation and domestic prosperity." The Wall Street Journal criticized the move in an editorial headlined "Turning Away Talent." In The New York Times, columnist Thomas Friedman simply called it "S-T-U-P-I-D."
Such advocacy presents a false choice: Keep the program as it is or risk losing exceptional foreign workers.
As employers are sending off their H-1B visa requests for fiscal year 2010—and with some in Congress considering an overhaul of the program—it's time to dispel the myths about H-1Bs....
What myths distort the H-1B debate? The biggest may be that employers can hire H-1B visa holders only when there is no American for the job. The program, run by the U.S. Labor and Homeland Security Dept., has no such constraint. Nor do employers getting the visas have to demonstrate a shortage of U.S. workers in their field.
Indeed, they can opt not to recruit American candidates and to give preference to foreign workers. As the Labor Dept. states in its 2006-2011 Strategic Plan: "H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified U.S. worker wants the job, and a U.S. worker can be displaced from the job in favor of the foreign worker." This is not just a hypothetical possibility. According to news reports, a number of major U.S. companies require American employees, as a condition of their severance pay, to train H-1B workers to do the work they do. This process, often called "knowledge transfer," is a key step in offshoring the tasks to a low-cost country.
Another myth: H-1B workers are the world's best and brightest. While some are truly exceptional, they make up a small share of the visa holders. The minimum degree required to hold an H-1B visa is a bachelor's degree or equivalent experience, hardly a rare commodity. Instead, companies frequently turn to H-1Bs because they can be paid below-market wages. This contradicts the visa program's intent (and helps push wages down for American employees). But it is a common practice, given the gaping loopholes in the regulations....
Then there's the mistaken belief that granting H-1B visas helps prevent the outsourcing of American jobs. In fact, the program is expediting that offshoring, and not just because of "knowledge transfer." Offshore outsourcing firms with U.S. operations, including Infosys (INFY) and Wipro Technologies (WIT), now dominate the top ranks of employers getting H-1B workers. In 2008, such firms accounted for 7 of the top 10 H-1B visa recipients, getting almost 12,000 of the 85,000 quota. They use their U.S. operations to train their foreign workers, who learn more about U.S. clients and then rotate back to their home countries to provide service more effectively.
Perhaps the most dangerous myth of all is that the H-1B program has the same advantages for foreign workers—and the economy—as permanent immigration does.
High-skill immigrants who stay permanently in the U.S. make enormous contributions to the economy through their work, research, and entrepreneurialism. But the H-1B is a temporary work permit, one that allows participating foreigners to be mistreated. The visa, remember, is held by the employer, not the worker. That considerably diminishes the H-1B holder's bargaining power for better wages and working conditions....
The H-1B program can be cleaned up by closing loopholes and increasing oversight. Senators Richard Durbin (D-Ill.) and Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) are expected to reintroduce a version of last year's bipartisan reform bill in the coming weeks. Passed into law, it would require employers to try to hire Americans first and to pay H-1B workers market wages. It would also bar employers from replacing American workers with H-1B holders. Perhaps most important, it would create a random-audit process to ensure compliance with the rules...."
www.businessweek.com/magazine/content/09_15/b4126063331942.htm?chan=magazine+channel_opinion
---------------
Ron Hira, an assistant professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, is co-author, with Anil Hira, of Outsourcing America.