Something I can agree with Trump on.... maybe - H1-B Auctions
Auctioning H1-B's would fix most of the problems involving the H1-B program. If Microsoft wants to hire some great engineer, and is willing to pay 100k / visa to get that slot, outsourced support firms won't be able to afford it.
https://techcrunch.com/2017/02/12/h-1b-and-you-and-me/?ncid=rss
H-1B and you and me
Let’s talk about something non-awful that Donald Trump has done. (Shouldn’t take long, right? Ba-dum-bump-wince.) Specifically, let’s talk about the draft executive order floating around which calls for H-1B visas to be allotted not by lottery, as they are today, but by auction, so that only highly-paid jobs are filled by H-1B holders.
This would be an excellent idea. I have repeatedly called for it myself. If we’re going to have limits on skilled immigration, let’s have better ones. The current H-1B is gamed by body shops such as Cognizant and Tata, and it’s a terrible visa for employees, one which ties their fate irrevocably to their employer, and prevents them from eg founding startups. People subjected to this should at least be paid well for it.
There are a couple of further subtle tweaks I’d like to make, mind you. One is to weight salaries somewhat by the size of the employer, to favor startups. Another is to apply this auction only to the “basic” H-1B visas (currently 65,000 a year) while leaving the lottery for the 20,000 reserved to those with masters’ degrees, and maybe split out 5,000 for those with a Ph.D., so that the especially well educated in industries that don’t pay as well as tech — such as science — can still qualify.
I personally think skilled people shouldn’t be limited by national borders at all. Immigration creates jobs and lowers crime rates. More importantly, though, skilled engineers are not like factory workers. We are not fungible. You cannot simply replace Immigrant Engineer X at Company Z with American Engineer Y; nor should you want to. If you are fungible, then you are not a good engineer. Sorry.