H1-B Visa Bar Threatens US Job Prospects of Over 100,000 Indians

[OhioChick]

Fri Feb 20, 2009

WASHINGTON, D.C. - Nearly 100,000 skilled Indian workers’ prospects of living the American dream may turn sour with the Congress barring firms that received bailout money from hiring foreigners through HI-B visa program if they replace US citizens.

Estimates suggest that there are 100,000 Indian nationals among the 163,000 from across the world that had applied for the skilled worker visa in FY2009.

The US has capped the H1-B visa at 65,000 a year, out of which 40,000-45,000 generally goes to Indian professionals, mostly from the IT industry.

Restricting hiring of H1-B visa holders forms part of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, widely known as the stimulus bill, that was passed by the Congress yesterday.

With thousands of jobs being cut by US companies almost daily over the past few months, there have been widespread apprehensions that these positions could go to low-cost foreign workers or might be outsourced to places like India.

The government data for 2008 shows that about 5.7 lakh Indians were issued H1-B and other non-immigrant visas.

The bar comes even as IT firms in the US and India are demanding an increase in the H1-B visa cap, which was cut from 195,000 to the present level two years ago. Indians then accounted for over 100,000 H1-B visas.

Experts believe the Congress’ move would certainly impact hiring of H1-B visa holders, thus affecting in a big way the engagement of Indian techies in the US, but might not affect outsourcing of jobs to places like India.

Senator Bernie Sanders, who along with another Senator Charles Grassley had moved the proposal for such restrictions, said that about a dozen banks which are getting over $150 billion as the bailout money have sought visas for over 21,800 foreign workers in past six years to replace sacked Americans.

These banks have announced at least one lakh job cuts in the recent months, Sanders noted.

Earlier this month, India-born international economist Jagdish Bhagwati also argued that the provision to restrict hiring of H1-B visa holders would deprive the US of the best global talent which comes in the form of highly trained and talented people.

“In terms of broader considerations like the people who are coming in on H1-B visas—they’re frequently highly trained and talented people and ... a lot of our progress and prosperity depend on having such people,” Bhagwati, Professor of Economics at the Columbia University had said.

The American Immigration Lawyers Association, which also has been opposing the measure, described the Congress approval as “disappointing” and argued that this would prove to be counterproductive as it prevents the US companies to hire the best available global talent. (PTI)

http://www.indiajournal.com/pages/event.php?id=6002

I'm sure that 100,000 unemployed U.S. IT workers will be thrilled to have a job.

[BobRossi]

1. H1-B visas should all be revoked, NOW!

What the hell are we waiting for? Americans first!

[Wildewolfe]

2. Sure is hard to feel sorry there...

[getthefacts]

3. I am as pro-immigration as they come...

but it seems reasonable to focus on protecting workers in America first before bringing in anyone else during this time of crisis. I'm sure there are plenty of unemployed IT workers that could use some jobs right now.

[williesgirl]

4. Revoke ALL of these visas and hire Americans NOW. rec'd

[madrchsod]

5. our friend`s husband lost his job in IT field because of his pay

i`m sure he`d be replaced my someone who will work for a lot less....who could that be?

[Donnachaidh]

6. boo freaking hoo

:nopity: :nopity:

[Phred42]

7. Good - GO HOME!

[LiberalEsto]

8. There are MILLIONS of unemployed Americans

and these people think they are entitled to come steal our jobs? Fuck 'em.

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

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[Name removed]

11. Deleted message

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[ChromeFoundry]

12. First off...

I didn't, and I'm quite certain that the OP didn't ask YOU or any other H-1B holders to pack up and move to this country. The H-1B program was never intended to serve as a pathway to US citizenship. The US government is not responsible for providing you travel and moving costs associated to your trip home...that is the sole duty of your sponsor (company that wanted to utilize low cost labor from a less fortunate country).

Should I be offended that India is letting their guest workers go and deciding to keep their citizens employed? I'm not, I think India should do what is best for India...that is their governments duty and purpose; likewise for the United States politicians. But, I do not believe in a double standard.

One thing you need to understand is that the people of this country didn't beg you to come here...greedy companies with profit motivations did. They lobbied the government to tap into a cheap labor resource, and they stuffed fist-fulls of cash into the politicians pockets, end of story.

BTW, if an H-1B has been working here for 10-years time... they are breaking the law. The maximum time frame including all extensions would be 7-years. This tells me that you are full of shit and certainly do not understand the H1 programs rules and guidelines. Nobody is asking for revocation of green card holders.

If you don't like the way things are done here, then you've got three choices; 1)Learn to live with it. 2)Vote for different political representation. 3)Go find a better place to live. Oh wait, only citizens are allowed to cast a vote.. because after all this is a country made up of representatives of actual citizens. That leaves two options...Choose.

[ihavenobias]

13. Please don't toss around such unsupported strong accusation-opinions.

Thanks.

[AdHocSolver]

9. It is a lie that the "imported" workers are any better workers than the Americans that they replace.

A few years ago, I worked for a company that brought in engineers from China, with the intention of training them so that they could go back to China and set up a factory for this company there. (Eventually, that is what was done.)

The point I want to make here is that these engineers were NOT more competent than the American engineers. In fact, the American engineers that I worked with were more knowledgable and experienced than the Chinese imports. I worked with both groups and the American engineers, besides being more talented, were far more sociable and better to work with.

The Chinese engineers really had the American managers fooled. The imports get away with it because, as I found over the many years that I worked in the engineering and IT fields, the people promoted to managerial positions in technical fields are most often the LEAST technically competent.

These managers don't know the difference between a talented individual and one skilled at fooling the bosses.

If you think about it rationally, ask why China or India would send their "best and brightest" to the U.S. My experience with "imports" is that China and India keep their "best" at home and send the mediocre and surplus talent to the U.S. They send us the engineers and technicians who couldn't get a job at home, and get away with it because American managers are too dumb to know the difference.

[earcandle]

14. Wow. Thats telling 'em!