Anti-H-1B Blogger Targeted By Feds

[swaroop]

I am a Web Developer that lives in Southern California. I have good skills and have worked at some of the largest companies in the country.

When the recession hit, I started to have problems finding work. My industry has been impacted heavily by the influx of visa workers, mostly from India. It is estimated that there are 2-3 million of these workers, brought to American with H-1B and L-1 visas sponsored by companies like Microsoft and Google, but mostly by "bodyshops" like Infosys, Tata, and WiPro, and smaller mom-and-pop agencies. These workers are housed in "guest houses" and motels and remit most of their wages home. Their rates are usually 20-30% less than market wages (http://www.dpeaflcio.org/pdf/Gaming_the_System_Report_.pdf).

In the last ten years, my wages have dropped by almost 50% due to the flood of programmers competing for jobs in the tech industry. I have worked hard to keep my skills sharp and current, and am lucky to have stayed gainfully employed for most of my career.

http://endh1b.com/Web/NewsletterV13.htm

[Jim Sagle]

1. Whoever unrec'ed this is a piece of shit.

[OhioChick]

2. K&R n/t

[swaroop]

6. OhioChick

Can you shoot me an email to [e-mail]? and I will invite you to our group, aka,"The Bat Cave Underground".

[Angry Dragon]

3. Kick and rec

[ChromeFoundry]

4. Thanks for posting...

The site actually has a lot of great information.

[notesdev]

5. I've had to adopt a new business model

Shopping yourself out as a full-timer when put up against H1-Bs who shamelessly lie on their resumes and are willing to take half the money (for a job most can't do correctly, hmm wonder why they take less) is a losing game.

The way you have to go is to go independent and build up your own customer base. There is a lot of money to be made undercutting the body shops that supply H1-B labor. Since you don't have the overhead nor the weaknesses of that labor structure, you're at a competitive advantage. The hump you have to get over is doing sales, which sucks rocks. But you can use your pissed-offedness as motivation fuel to get that part of doing business done.

[pnorman]

7. Here's one Google hit:

http://www.programmersguild.org/bofa_protest/

[SOCALS]

8. When are they going to shut the whole program or at least cut it

by 50-75%?

[Hannah Bell]

9. never. gates & co asking for more.