Lost Jobs: Importing foreign workers

[OhioChick]

Ohio companies seek thousands of work visas under program critics say displaces American workers

A federal program designed to help companies fill posts that require skills lacking in local workforces is being used to import foreign labor at sometimes intern-level pay, often replacing qualified American workers.

An I-Team investigation found that 82 percent of the 33,348 preliminary applications for H-1B visas in Ohio last year were for jobs paying below-average wages. The most frequent applicants for these visas were companies that experts say specialize in outsourcing, raising questions about whether the program is filling jobs here or allowing more jobs to move overseas.

The H-1B temporary work visa program was the subject of recent U.S. Senate hearings — during which a criminal investigation at Wright State University earned a mention — and Republican presidential candidates have sparred over possible reforms as companies here and elsewhere are accused of displacing Americans and exporting jobs overseas.

The largest seeker of H-1Bs in Ohio is Cognizant Technology Solutions, which sought approval to hire 1,043 foreign workers in Warren County last year. Some of the workers may have ended up at Cengage Learning, which laid off 75 workers — most from its Mason facility — in January after the company outsourced part of its workforce to Cognizant.

More: http://specials.daytondailynews.com/work-visas/

[valerief]

1. They have to be imported, because we can't import our prisoners, and heaven forbid

we don't fill to the brim our prisons with bullshit charges. Cuz freedumb.

[Baobab]

2. Several pendng trade deals and several existing ones use L-1 visas and are expected to expand soon

The biggest changes will likely be in service jobs where international subcontracting companies will be allowed to bid on work via a new international bidding system, a great many jobs will be privatized and then globalized using these procurement changes. So its possible that millions of jobs, literally could be globalized in this manner fairly rapidly. I am pretty sure that this has been planned in fields like health care, teaching, IT etc since the 1990s, and has been held up as they negotiate the so called "disciplines n domestic regulations" for various fields (and other aspects of these deals).

Recently India filed a WTO case that could have large implications for the use of these visas, it could lead to increases - substantial increases in their numbers.

There is a lot more information outside of the US on services liberalisation.