And if you're in IT consulting like me instead of a software engineer, you absolutely should not cheer every immigrant. Many people wrongly assume that most H1B visas go to truly high-skilled individuals working at large tech companies. This is not the case. Take a look at the numbers in [1]. The top 5 companies bringing H1B workers are doing so specifically to outsource IT functions at lower cost than US workers. These H1B workers are absolutely taking away jobs and higher salaries from Americans who would like to do this work if it paid more.
What we need is to revamp the H1B system to be bid-based rather than lottery-based so it can actually fulfill its intent of bringing in workers that are truly needed rather than workers that are convenient.
My personal experience working with visa workers at multiple organizations is that many organizations do indeed use them as de-facto indentured servants. One visa worker got paid only once every 6 months. He tolerated it because complaining could get him sent back home. (It did cover his full pay, though.)
The claim H1B's are being used to "relieve labor shortages" is mostly untrue.
I disagree with a good many policies of the current administration, but they got this mostly right. I have to give them kudos.
The startups I've worked for, co created with coworkers who had H1-B visas (and green cards) created a lot of IT consulting gigs. We might even have hired you. This is as we went from 40 to 400 employees. Those H1-B visa holders created gigs for you to work. Even the consulting gigs you are competing for and losing are creating more consulting gigs later on. You are counting those right?
It's not simple, your intuition gained from media stories is not correct. You should instead read what economists say, they usually find that native wages and jobs are increased by immigrants.
Just think about how many dumb stories the media writes about stuff you actually do understand. Like - is your usual biggest project risk really hacking? Nope, it's the 50% chance a software project won't succeed at all.
Yes, I am counting those. And yes, I am looking at real data instead of media puff pieces. For example, [1]. It's important to consider 1) relative numbers (how many market rate positions are being created as a result of H1B vs. number of depressed wage positions taken away by them), and 2) The total net result on US workers. If 1,000 new jobs are created, but 10,000 others that Americans want to work now pay 15% less than they should, is it really a net positive?
Also as a rebuttal to your point, the type of economist findings you are referring to are almost always explicitly for complementary labor rather than substitute labor. In the case of H1B abuse, it tends to be the latter rather than the former. Additionally, abuse of the H1B program leads to add-on effects in the labor market that keep salaries low and discourage entry of new American workers - see for example [2].
I want to reiterate that I support the intent of the H1B program and startups using H1B workers are generally doing exactly the right thing. The problem is that the program has been hijacked by corporate interests looking to cut costs and thus it needs to be significantly revised.
Nope, you've linked to a media piece and a law journal article.
The economists did all the math, they actually thought of your 1) and 2) and other things besides. (Both the middle and high wage H1-B immigrants helped.)
They usually (not every single time) find that immigrants benefit native workers, that's low, medium, and high skill immigrants. They both increase the number of jobs AND the average wage.
The "abuse" of the H1-B program you mention is also helping even though you are correct that it is against the intent of the program. You almost certainly owe several of your gigs to H1-B immigrants, time when you would have otherwise been on the beach or working at a lower wage.
I know this goes against almost everything you've ever heard. It's counterintuitive. Like treating cancer with radiation, using a back fire to stop a wildfire, or that adding more software devs to a late project will make it later.
You want to look for something like "this poll of economists says that more immigration is bad for the US". "This poll of economics nobel prize winners say that while high skill immigration is good, medium skill immigration is bad". "This survey article of economics immigration articles finds that 70% of papers agree: middle skill immigration lowers wages". You will not find much.
For example these polls of economists say that high skill immigration is super good, but low skill immigration is only pretty good.
As patriotic American who cares for their fellow citizens and also out of self interest you should say "we should really crank up the H1-B program and let a lot more skilled immigrants in".
> The top 5 companies bringing H1B workers are doing so specifically to outsource IT functions at lower cost
And this is the part I don't quite understand. According to the rules, this shouldn't be possible.
So either (a) the rules are broken, and need to be fixed or (b) the rules are not being enforced.
And since we have the numbers, and the companies, it shouldn't be that hard to see how they are getting past either the regulations or the intent of the regulations or both.
As a former H1B visa holder who definitely did not lower wages (-g-) and whose employers were, AFAICT, meticulous about following the rules, it annoys me to no end that all H1B visa holders are tarred with the brush of the ones violating the rules.
Here's how it works. A company like Cognizant gets as many H1Bs as it can via an army of applicants and subsidiaries in India to game the lottery system. Meanwhile, companies in the US that want to pay less for IT functions create job descriptions that are tailored specifically to H1B applicants (if you've ever wondered why there are mandatory requirements for a very specific set of systems experience and education, this is often why), then post those jobs only where they are unlikely to be found and tell American applicants who do manage to find them that the position only pays [20% below real market rate]. Now you've got a US company that can legally say they just can't find any qualified domestic applicants, an H1B-focused staffing company that has tons of people it can bring in and rotate through regularly, and wages that are depressed. Net result: IT departments at large companies that are 40%+ staffed by H1B contractors.
I've seen this happen repeatedly at clients you've definitely heard of and it creates a situation where there are plenty of Americans who would work these jobs, but the salary/benefits being offered just aren't competitive.
What we need is to revamp the H1B system to be bid-based rather than lottery-based so it can actually fulfill its intent of bringing in workers that are truly needed rather than workers that are convenient.
[1] http://fortune.com/2017/08/03/companies-h1b-visa-holders/