Bridge to Immigration or Cheap Temporary Labor ?

Bridge to Immigration or Cheap Temporary Labor?

The H-1B & L-1 Visa Programs Are a Source of Both

By Ron Hira,
February 17, 2010

American employers often claim they use the H-1B and other skilled guest worker visa programs
to attract talented foreign workers and help them remain permanently in the U.S.

But new evidence shows these programs are mainly a means to help outsource U.S. jobs
or recruit cheap temporary labor.


Excerpts from lengthy report:

With the abundant and easy availability of H-1B and L-1 visas, coupled with loopholes
that allow below-market wages, offshore outsourcing firms have had little reason
to hire American workers.



Firms rely on the H-1B and related L-1 programs for 3 principal reasons :

First, it facilitates their knowledge-transfer operations, where they
rotate in foreign workers to learn U.S. workers’ jobs.

Second, the H-1B and L-1 programs provide them an inexpensive,
on-site presence that enables them to coordinate offshore functions.


Third, the H-1B and L-1 programs allow the U.S. operations to serve as a
training ground for foreign workers who then rotate back to their home country
to do the work more effectively than they could have without such training in
the United States.


Our wage per employee is 20-25 percent lesser than U.S. wage for a similar employee,”
Vandrevala, of TCS, said. “Typically, for a TCS employee with five years experience, the annual cost
to the company is $60,000-70,000, while a local American employee might cost $80,000-100,000.
It’s a fact that Indian IT companies have an advantage here and there’s nothing wrong in that….
The issue is that of getting workers in the U.S. on wages far lower than local wage rate.

yea, i think it's all a scam. we bring in far more people that jobs created. in the long run it makes our unemployment worse

yea, i think it's all a scam. we bring in far more people that jobs created. in the long run it makes our unemployment worse

It is driving down the cost of US labor too which I think is part of the big globalist plan. Put US labor on a "level playing field" with immigrant and outsourced labor.

java wrote:

It is driving down the cost of US labor too which I think is part of the big globalist plan. Put US labor on a "level playing field" with immigrant and outsourced labor.

i'm all for cheap labor but for it to be effective cost of living has to remain low too.

we train them and they go back to the homeland to help build the infrastructure intended to deliver the final deathblow to our dwindling economy

phluffy wrote:

we train them and they go back to the homeland to help build the infrastructure intended to deliver the final deathblow to our dwindling economy

most of the money they earn they sen home too

It's easier to be for cheap labor when somebody else is doing the laboring.

java wrote:

It's easier to be for cheap labor when somebody else is doing the laboring.

or when you're hiring