Weak economy, anti-immigrant sentiment hits H-1B visa program

In the wake of the 9/11 attacks, it was rare to see a comment anywhere about immigration that failed to include the word "terrorist". Now, blaming immigrants for terrorism seems to have gone out of fashion, but in the wake of a recession that was caused entirely by good, red blooded, American-born US citizens on Wall Street, no one seems to be able to write a sentence using the word "immigrants" without throwing in "job-stealers". So I would like add a grain or two of truth to all the falsehoods in the various anti-immigrant rants posted above. Professional immigrants do not steal jobs or work for low wages. There are strict laws in place to make sure that H-1B employers pay prevailing wages, and the immigration office has announced that it is conducting no less than 25,000 (not a typo) inspections to make sure that companies comply with the rules. These inspections are already well under way. I personally know of H-1B foreign workers making six figure incomes or close to it, as well as working in jobs that America desperately needs. I would like to ask the people who want to shut down the H-1B program a few questions: 1) If an H-1B flu vaccine researcher was working on a vaccine that might protect your child against swine flue (and I know a couple who of H-1B visa holders who are doing exactly that), would you send the person back to his or her country even if it increased the risk that your child might get sick? 2) If you are running a company, would you turn away business from hard working, tax-paying, legal foreign professionals? 3) If you were looking for a job, would you turn down a good offer in your field from a company that was founded by or owes its existence to someone who got started in his or her career by getting an H-1B visa? If your answers are yes to any of the above questions, I would look forward to seeing your explanations. I know that many of you will try to bash me for being a greedy, profiteering immigration lawyer, because I am simply telling the truth about how immigration by skilled foreign professionals benefits our country. But i can tell you from long experience that I have rarely met an American company executive or manager who voluntarily wanted to take on the aggravation of paying legal fees, outrageous government filing fees, spending a great deal of time and effort on paperwork and finally being investigated, just in order to hire an H-1B worker, if there were qualified Americans available. And let me ask you engineers who want to kick out foreign workers: If your wish came true tomorrow, and every single foreign engineer were suddenly put on a plane home, would you still be able to find a job in an economy that Americans have shown themselves quite capable of ruining on their own, thank you, without any foreign help at all?

You are all failing to see the big picture here. This has nothing to do with how much the designers make. It has nothing to do with making this nation a third would country. What it is all about is balancing the world economy. United States has the largest Gross National product anywhere in the world. Ok…… Look it as though the United States is a company. If your company grows to a point where you have no room to grow what does the company normally do? It will send this technology to suppliers and they become specialist in the particular areas that the company decides it doesn’t need or required special skills. By doing this the suppliers learn more and grows and the company grows as well. But you see if the United States only manufactured its products in the U.S. and never shared its technology with anyone, what do you think would happen? We would grow to a point where no one outside the U.S. could afford our products. I’m sorry but we would screw ourselves from our selfishness. By outsourcing our technology and manufacturing sectors and employing outside the United States, we are training the world to be self-sufficient. In return our company (The U.S.) Grows! We have to stop thinking what is best for us the individual and start thinking what is best for our country and for others around the world. I remember in grade school someone from the government came to the classroom and ask us elementary students what we most wanted for the world. Well they didn’t ask about the world, because they knew we were too young to understand the concept of something so large, but they put in terms we could understand. All agreed in my class to be the same as others. No one having more money than the other guy, even at the age of 7 or 8 we all understood what it meant to be poor. Having been a designer for 20 years I’ve learned what it means to have allot and as many of you, myself included, know what it mean to have nothing. My roller coaster ride of a career made me learn what my needs really are. What are yours?

As a software consultant I have have worked at several large US companies. The reality of the situation is that many of the hiring managers are now Indians and they get kick backs into their Indian bank accounts when they hire H1-B workers. Many of them get on the job training this way. They are NOT more skilled than their US counterparts when they arrive. They are eventually more experienced because they were given the opportunity to train on the job. I have see this happen on many software projects.

What a crock!

The author is clearly a mouth piece for the
corporations who started this myth.

I know a ton of great US engineers who have not found work for over a 9 months while their H1B coworkers are still working.

Now days I never recommend to anyone that they study engineering. It is clearly a poor career choice when the US government imports one hundred thousand low cost engineer every year. If we were talking steel or tires, wouldn't this be called dumping?

"...anti-immigrant sentiment hits H-1B visa program"
A nation that struggles to keep it citizens' stomach full shoudn't be busy playing the role of world philantropist or policeman. There is no credibility in doing so! Take care of yourself/your own before you can help others - they tech you so when you're on a plane and there is an emergency...
It is not anti-immigrant - it is self preservation.

I agree with other commenters that the Author of this article is out of touch with reality. These companies are insisting that they cant find good American Talent so for this reason they need H1B's. But when I contact potential employers they scarcely want to talk to me because they all say that they are flooded with so many resumes that they dont' know where to begin. And I know for a fact that I have excellent credentials and qualifications. How much brains does it take to see that there is some lying going on in this picture?

To "Hiring Manager" : Please specify the company for which you work. I would be happy to send my résumé!

"The H-1B visa program is a valuable one, and as the Kaufman Foundation study points out, immigrants have contributed disproportionately to the US high-tech sector."
This is true in the good old days. But in case you haven't noticed, times have changed. Since the dot com bust, companies have been busy outsourcing R&D also beside outsourcing manufacturing. High tech jobs are disappearing right before our eyes. Wake up and take notice!

"U.S. citizens or foreigners, as long as they graduated from US universities, should have the same right to be hired."
Citizens of this paid taxes to build this country. It is a previlege for foreigners to come and study in this country. Now, it is their right to have a job after graduation?! They should enjoy the same right as a citizen in hiring? Even when there is historical unemployment rate? Which country screws its citizens this way and offers such a good deal for foreigners besides this country?

The H1-B visa program should be shut down immediately, or a price tag of about $250k per visa should be assessed. There are absolutely no jobs out there for experienced engineers with magnificent records of accomplishment in the US. Hiring foreign labor instead of US citizens is nothing short of treason. If Hiring Manager can't find the talent through an ad, maybe the US gov't. needs to assign people for him. We could build a database of available engineers in less than one week.

I'm seeing alot of engineering work going over seas to engineers who were likely trained in our universities, but couldn't find a way to work in the US. So they go back to India or China, form companies, hire workers and other engineers to accept work at lower cost that if it were performed here. Are we better off? Is the US economy benefiting from that?

Most of the jobs ads are either for show (PR), fake or for resume collection only at this time. One sees the same jobs advertised day in day out or re-advertised after some time and never get filled (some comapny insiders even confirm this observation to me). This happens in company websites as well as on job sites such as hotjobs.com.
The "shortage of engineers" theme is a scam for companies to justify their lack of moral obligations to this country. They have outsourced nearly everything they could. They shouldn't call themselves American companies and shouldn't sell their good here any more as their practices leave Americans without jobs, hence without purchasing power. A country of service-based consumers but no manufacturing base, hence not creating any wealth, is a nation destined to become a third world country. Our leaders and corporate executives need to wake up!

U.S. citizens or foreigners, as long as they graduated from US universities, should have the same right to be hired. The principle of equal human right tells us, one group of the people must NOT discriminate against another group of the people based on the race, origin, or gender.

See "Shortage of engineers?" in the Rowe's and Columns blog for more comments.

Hello Hiring Manager,
You claim "Engineers who are US citizens, we need you now! Please send your resumes! Where are you?! ... In fact, we always have engineering job openings! And I tell you more: if all US citizen students decide to switch their majors from leisure studies to engineering, we will still have job openings."
What is the company that you're working for or own that is hiring? Please let us know your company and your email address so we can send our resumes to you.
Many engineers are out of work. Don't delay!

This article misses the point. The reason so many foreign workers have patent applications points out the failing of the h1b program. Companies have brought these guys in to do the work more cheaply than US citizens, and there are enough of them proportionally that it gives us that number. When they go home, they take their new knowledge with them and make their own country a better place (many also go home rich and can retire). Meanwhile we have a LOT of unemployed engineers here. Wonder why the kids don't want to study engineering anymore? They're not stupid. They look at us and see that engineering is not the best profession to be in if you want to have a career until you retire. We have always had a lot of engineering talent in this country, and we always will. Whether or not it gets used is another matter.

If there are enough US engineers then why are they ignoring my (very competitive) job adds? A very common misconception is that companies save money by hiring foreign workers. Quite the opposite, in fact. In addition, the upfront costs of a foreign engineer is very high (does not normally exist for a local). The problem with engineers, wherever they come from, is that they are smart. A foreign worker has the same rights as a US one. They will not work for less, and they don't. Americans are very quiet about raises now, foreigners are not. Bottom line, it's cheaper and easier to hire a US citizen and I would do it, if I only could.

Immigrants made this country, EVERYONE is an immigrant just a X-generations away from that experience. But tired of hearing how valuable foreign workers are. The real issue is how the immigrant workers view their status - going toward citizen or permanent resident or only here for the pay so they can go home rich. I am 59-year old engineer, out of work, and finding (1) - it is a buyer's market -if they want a left-handed PhD with red hair willing to work at starting wage, they can find that person (2) universities do not take in everybody, they want diversity, ie, foreign students, so try to take in some US students, hmmm? Maybe the workplace can find enough US engineers if they can get trained (3) why is everyone assuming there are not enough engineers - good ones keep their skills up-to-date but too bad they get laid off due to their higher pay grades at their experienced career point?

I agrre with Mr. Durbin,
What really happened with influx of foreign workers is the following.
First WS stimulated Internet Bubble in a sense of wacky applications of it. For instance Facebook is today more important than real useful economy tools and investment goes into this dangerous tool.
The real goal of WS was to tech millions of foreigners advanced skills and next send them to India and China (this country has dangerous for a number of reasons) and have projects launched for a small fraction of cost, This was part of so called globalization.
WS did not care about NA worker his skills and future. Purely Anti American behavior. period.
Nothing changed and they are looking into new ways to carry on on those things.

American Engineer's observation about middle and old workers been shown the door by corporations in favor of young ones is so true. Having worked in the high tech field for my entire career of over 25 years, I am finding it increadingly hard to get hired. My friends who work some of the high tech companies (Apple, Google, EBay and such) told me these companies prefer young engineers whom they believe have less family commitments and can stay long hours. (Recently, one friend who recetly got a job in one of these companies observed that many of the young female workers are now pregnant - too bad the companies can't control that and presumably young husbands would have family commitments as well! How sad that companies are not willing to pay for experience and maturity and EEOCs.)

So my guess is, the reason that the millions of unemployed highly qualified US citizens choose to hide out and ignore the engineering job postings is because they prefer to stay at home and write emotionally justified blog comments...
Engineers who are US citizens, we need you now! Please send your resumes! Where are you?! There are other employers besides Microsoft and NASA! We all have job openings! In fact, we always have engineering job openings! And I tell you more: if all US citizen students decide to switch their majors from leisure studies to engineering, we will still have job openings. Downturn is for banks and real estate market, remember? And if some high tech guys did get caught up, may be it is because they hired to many Harvard Business School grads (all US citizens, I bet) instead of Engineers!

If you go to any first class universities in US, you will notice that there are very few US citizen students in Engineering department, that is why Microsoft has to hire non US citizens! Engineerings are very hard fields. No US citizen students want to sweat on engineerings. They just want to take the easy path.

Attracting talents from foreign countries is good idea but not at the expense of citizens. At this time of historical high unemployment rate, the number of H1-B visa should be ZERO! If this country doesn't even have jobs for its citizens, it is unconscienable for companies to bring foreign workers in! Corporations are outsourcing jobs to Asia and other parts of the world left and right. They won't mind replacing all domestic workers with H1-B workers as well, given the opportunity to do so. H1-B abuses are an open secret.

I would like to ask the Engineer who wrote the comment above why he thinks Microsoft doesn't hire U.S. citizens, provided his statement is true?

In the past two years, almost all hightech companies laid off so many mid-aged Americans. Most of these people are more experienced and high educated. They have spent their best years in the companies. It was their contribution made all those big hightech companies what they are today. Yet they were swipped out like spent parts. At same time, each companies hired fresh out foreigners in the name of worker shortage. If you need any trained engineer in silicon valley, I am sure you can find thousands of well qualified ones. There is something serious wrong with the picture. The labor shortage is cooked up by the dirty politiciens and greed company CEOS.

“The best and the brightest who would normally come here are saying, ‘Why do we need to go to a country where we are not welcome, where our quality of life would be less, and we would be at the bottom of the social ladder?’”
The problem is that even if you are a president in some countries, you still earn less than a software engineer in the US.

In your blog you wrote "The H-1B visa program is a valuable one, and as the Kaufman Foundation study points out, immigrants have contributed disproportionately to the US high-tech sector. If Americans aren’t willing or able to contribute their fair share, then it will be important to US economic success to attract talent from overseas." What a load of illogical verbage. If foreigners contribute 35% of Microsoft's patent applications, then obviously Microsoft is hiring too many foreigners. U.S. citizens filling those same positions would doubtless have submitted as many or more patent applications if it was their job to do so. You're not drawing conclusions from the facts, you're interpreting the data in light of your own preconceived prejudices. Let the "best and the brightest" U.S. citizens have an opportunity in the U.S., and let the "best and the brightest" foreigners have opportunities in their own country helping their own economies and their own cultures. Your low opinion of U.S. citizens may be indicating an underlying psychological problem on your part, or perhaps only a sheltered and ignorant life. I can't believe you wrote "if Americans aren't willing to contribute"!!! FIRST, U.S. citizens are not the only Americans. Peoples from ALL of North and South America are Americans, but not all are U.S. citizens. Secondly, it would be very difficult for a U.S. citizen to contribute at Microsoft when they won't hire U.S. citizens!!!