Babs, August 31, 2007

The sole purpose of the H-1B program was to temporarily fill spot labor shortages until the local labor pool could step in. If an H-1B is in its 7th year, the government needs to investigate why no American has been found or trained in all that time. The sad truth is that we never needed all these foreign workers, and now they are clamoring for green cards. Between 2000 and now, hundreds of thousands, maybe over a million, guestworkers came here on H-1Bs (and other work visas). During those same years, hundreds of thousands of us were laid off. America was a world leader in technology, engineering, innovation, science and business for decades before any significant number of these 'immigrants' were brought in. Even if there had been a shortage, the layoffs of the dot com bust would have freed up ample native talent. Studies and government data show that most H-1Bs are brought in at low or even entry level. They are not the rare and esoteric skill sets we were led to believe, but are ordinary foreign workers replacing our rank and file American workers, which was contrary to the intent of the visa program. US unemployment numbers are bogus, and everyone knows it. They don't count underemployment, for one thing. The salesman who measured my graduating son for a suit was an ex IT guy. I run into IT people all the time, often doing non IT work just to survive. I also run into many IT people who are working far below the level their skills and histories would lead you to expect. I'm an IT hiring manager, and whenever I post a job it makes me incredibly sad to see how many sharp American candidates show up, because I want to hire most of them but only have one or two openings to fill. That's why I can't figure out why these companies complain they can't find American talent and need foreign workers. I literally bump into great American IT talent all the time.