H-1B Visa Reforms: The Hidden Agendas
Mon, 01/02/2006 - 21:58
The Job
The politics around an issue like H-1B visas can provide any number of opportunities for noble sound bites and an equal number of opportunities for hidden agendas. This was painfully obvious in a recent article in EE Times, which discussed efforts to level the playing field for these immigrant engineers. The picture that was being painted was of robber-baron companies ruthlessly taking advantage of helplessly dependent workers.
The flip-side image of this, of course, is that companies invest significant time and money on these engineers, which they only hire because there is such a shortage of skilled engineers among the native population. They have a responsibility to keep track of these non-citizens, which they can only do if they are working for them. Salaries are, of course, negotiated individually, as is the American way.
Neither of these positions stands the real-world test. The pay and working conditions are far from the company-town images that are evoked by those who claim to be helping these workers, and the motives of the companies involved have more to do with keeping salaries down than they do with developing scarce talent resources. The comment in the article about how small companies are so much better to them than larger companies is, in my experience, exactly wrong. Small companies can get away with a lot more than large ones, which tend to have much more in the way of internal checks and balances.
The real kicker in the article is the fact that, if enacted, the reforms would effectively kill any reason for companies to bring in H-1B workers. Add to that the fact that unions are heavily behind the legislation, and it’s not too hard to figure out the real motivations.
I’ve personally seen situations with H-1B workers that made me feel uncomfortable, but I suspect that even these immigrants would not like “reforms� that eliminated their opportunities. I do think there are home-grown engineers that would appreciate the elimination of competition, though. That’s what this is really all about.
Larry Mittag
The flip-side image of this, of course, is that companies invest significant time and money on these engineers, which they only hire because there is such a shortage of skilled engineers among the native population. They have a responsibility to keep track of these non-citizens, which they can only do if they are working for them. Salaries are, of course, negotiated individually, as is the American way.
Neither of these positions stands the real-world test. The pay and working conditions are far from the company-town images that are evoked by those who claim to be helping these workers, and the motives of the companies involved have more to do with keeping salaries down than they do with developing scarce talent resources. The comment in the article about how small companies are so much better to them than larger companies is, in my experience, exactly wrong. Small companies can get away with a lot more than large ones, which tend to have much more in the way of internal checks and balances.
The real kicker in the article is the fact that, if enacted, the reforms would effectively kill any reason for companies to bring in H-1B workers. Add to that the fact that unions are heavily behind the legislation, and it’s not too hard to figure out the real motivations.
I’ve personally seen situations with H-1B workers that made me feel uncomfortable, but I suspect that even these immigrants would not like “reforms� that eliminated their opportunities. I do think there are home-grown engineers that would appreciate the elimination of competition, though. That’s what this is really all about.
Larry Mittag
