printThe following is taken from my new column, “H-1B Hogs Swindling ‘Average’ Americans,” now on WND.COM:
“The other day, John Miano of the Center for Immigration Studies pointed to the duplicity of ‘Microsoft’s attempts to downplay layoffs while calling on newly elected President Obama to provide more foreign labor.’ Naturally, the man with the reverse-Midas touch can’t make labor materialize magically, but he could issue more H-1B visas.
Touted as a means of trawling for the best and the brightest, the H-1B swindle is anything but. ‘Ordinary talent doing ordinary work’ is Professor Norm Matloff’s overall assessment of the H-1B crop. …
The 65,000 yearly recipients of H-1B visas are mostly ‘average workers.’ …
The primary H-1B hogs—Infosys (and another eight, sister Indian firms), Microsoft, and Intel—are forever claiming that they are desperate for talent. But, in reality, they have unlimited access to individuals with unique abilities through the open-ended O-1 visa program, that is if they really wanted it. …
Theoretically, the H-1B program could be abolished and all needed Einsteins (and pin-up girls) imported through the O-1 program. They just need to demonstrate ‘extraordinary ability.’
But industry lobbyists never suggest this. Funny that…”
The complete column is “H-1B Hogs Swindling ‘Average’ Americans.”
Read my libertarian manifesto, Broad Sides: One Woman’s Clash With A Corrupt Society.
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These people in high places, are bent on destroying our once great country. I recently moved to small town Naples on the west coast of Florida. It’s totally infested with illegals from mexico, haiti, central america and the rest of those countries from the region. What I immediately discovered, is that these people are getting benefits, we citizens can’t even dream about. Free housing, food stamps, medicaid, lower rental units for entire families.In the meantime, I am on Social Security, served in the military during the Viet Nam conflict, worked for the State Department in the early nineties,once again risking my life, and the government refuses to help me get an apartment with the rental tag, given to these ILLEGALS. I live now with the fear that Concord Management, who runs this property, will do whatever it takes to get me out and give the apartment to some ILLEGALS, whom, most likely, will destroy it within a couple months. This property is subsidize by the government and it seems is only for lawbreakers. The complex is filled with them. What a shame what we have become as a nation.
Geez. Do they think we’re morons?* It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to point out their flaws of logic. But then again, maybe they are this brazen because they know they hold all the aces.
*Granted, most people I know are.
The reform that I’d like to see in H1B is allowing the alien to change jobs, instead of being trapped in indentured servitude.
My first job at a Chemistry firm had lots of Filipinos with Masters Degrees earning slightly above minimum wage in NY – which the firm preferred over paying higher “market” wages. Perhaps America is better off importing TECHNOCOOLIES working for modest salaries in Palo Alto than “farming out” the programming to Bangalore – I am not enough of an economist to say. Importing an unlimited supply of Technocoolies serves to drive native-born Americans out of science/engineering (why sweat calculus 80 hours / week when you can breeze through education courses and get a steadier job?). Employers can leverage imported Technocoolies to shut up, obey orders, and work free overtime. As you note, it’s a cheap ruse benefitting a few firms lobbying (bribing) Congress for special favors. Meanwhile America’s critical technology base depends upon foreigners who then prefer working with / importing other foreigners (I know).
Regarding the O-1 visas for outstanding talent, we have an upcoming lecture by a visiting female (American) scientist on “Lunar Hydration Observations”. She may be brilliant like Elana Kagan but resembles her physically! There is an ACUTE SHORTAGE of Argentinean pin-up girls! Argentina’s 57 year old President Kirchner isn’t bad on the eyes either:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cristina_Fernández_de_Kirchner
[Keep us laughing, M.]
Norm Matloff is one of the very few good guys when it comes to truth-telling about the H-1B issue and the supposed “dearth” of qualified American technologists to fill “available” jobs. Everyone (in Silicon Valley) knows someone (or perhaps many individuals) who is talented, qualified, technical, and jobless.
Most engineering jobs I have ever seen require knowledge at a bachelor’s degree level and no more. In the case of computer programmers (which I am not) it seems that most of what is needed to do the job comes from on-the-job training with the latest equipment and software (which companies–not universities–possess) and not from a bachelor’s curriculum. I’m happily corrected on this point, if I’m wrong.
As to the O-1s, exceptional talent is rare and there should always be a place for an individual possessing such talent to work lawfully in America (think of the German scientists we acquired after WWII who helped us beat the Soviets in the “Space Race.”) But again, such individuals are extremely rare and it does not seem to me that the average imported techie now touted as “exceptional” really is—he or she is not likely to be the next Werner von Braun.