Monday, June 1, 2009

Duh!

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.
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4 comments:

  1. globeisatrociousJune 4, 2009 at 11:25 AM

    True if it is a zero sum game, a pie we divide up rather than a pie each of us bakes. When the far left reaches around and touches the far right, they meet at xenophobia.

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  2. lovable liberalJune 4, 2009 at 6:08 PM

    You need to try to make a real argument out your homely metaphor. Who knows, maybe there's one in there.

    Even if there is, it won't be on point. Immigration policy in a democracy should be about benefit to citizens. Even if a globalized labor market benefits the GDP, it is unlikely to benefit citizens when it displaces qualified workers in their own country.

    Unless of course you think the United States of Microsoft is the way to go...

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  3. Silence DoGoodJune 5, 2009 at 5:05 PM

    United States of Microsoft? Spooky how right you are!

    OpenSecrets.org has Microsoft pegged at #3 corporate donor at $806,299.

    Now all this talk about how Um-bama is in love with technology blah, blah, blah..

    I know I will get flamed - always happens when I have the nerve to look up actual facts.

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  4. lovable liberalJune 6, 2009 at 7:23 PM

    Again, Microsoft was not a corporate donor. Microsoft's employees donated. Did they donate via bundling or through a corporate PAC?

    You understand this distinction, but you persist in making misleading statements about it.

    Question bullshit!

    ReplyDelete