The H-1B visa program has always been about displacing citizen workers for the purpose of lowering their wage growth. When American corporations use the pick-up line that, hey baby, we just want to ensure our competitiveness, what they mean is that they can't compete with low wage countries, so they have to import their workers. Too bad citizens have to go flip burgers.
If you think about motive, this is easier to understand:
The exact size of the H-1B labor force in the U.S. is uncertain because of a lack of accurate data. The U.S. sets a cap of 85,000 H-1B visas annually.If the government really cared, it would make it its business to know this.
I work with lots of foreigners, some who are here on H-1B visas. They're mostly great people, but that doesn't make it good policy to hire them in preference to qualified Americans.
