There seem to be two issues surrounding the H1-B Visa program. On one hand, there is the issue on whether or not the visas are being properly utilized here in America. Also though, there is the issue of there being a large number of educated people on foreign soil who never have a chance to make it big in Silicon Valley just because they weren’t born here.
I will talk about the second of those issues first. Jon Evans of Tech Crunch has the following to say about this, “I happen to be very happy with my employers, but how many startups go unfounded, how many careers stagnate, because those same talented people who flock to the Valley–and the tech industry writ large–find themselves forced to languish in the the same jobs that brought them, because of the accident of their faraway births?” He essentially argues that the people born on foreign soil are deprived of the chance the American Dream. I’m afraid my answer here is unsympathetic. Do they deserve this chance in the first place? I don’t mean to say anything of their character or prowess, when I pose that question. I am simply pointing out that Silicon Valley is in America. If they want to make it big in America, they should not be using these visas, they should by applying for citizenship. If this immigration is your concern, then the discussion should be about the immigration process, not the H1-B Visa program.
Secondly there is the issue on whether or not American companies are abusing this system. This is harder to make a judgement on. Bourree Lam of the Atlantic points out, “One report from the Economic Policy Institute shows that the companies are abusing the H1-B visa program to help U.S. companies cut labor costs. Brookings, however, found that H1-B workers make more than their American counterparts.” In other words, studies seem to be split on whether the companies are actually saving money this way. It seems to me that it is being abused, but only some companies are. There are reports that Google and Facebook pay their employees with visas over $100,000 while consulting firms like Tata pay just over $60,000, the legal minimum.
Julia Preston of the New York Times points out, “Together the top five outsourcing companies had prepared as many as 55,000 H-1B applications. TCS, the company that had prepared applications for at least 14,000 visas, won 5,650 of them.” Smaller companies aren’t getting their visas approved simply because larger companies can apply for way more visas than they actually need to guarantee that they get a large number approved (the approval is a random draw). It seems apparent to me that the need for reform is evident.
Indiana University students of the Kelley Business School seem to think that giving more visas to recent college grads would help, but I think this would actually exacerbate the problems with H1-B visas. We don’t need more visas, we just need better approval criteria to make sure that people essential to their businesses like Theo Negri from the New York Times article by Julia Preston don’t get pushed out by one of the thousands of money-saving Tata visa workers.
I would recommend that two things happen. One – For the visa workers who are already here and are providing crucial services to their businesses, there should be a system in place to either favor them in the selection process for visas or to grant them permanent citizenship. I think that if the purpose of the visa program is to stimulate innovation here, then granting them citizenship would help to achieve that goal. Extensive investigations would be necessary for this though, as granting citizenship should not be taken lightly. In addition to this, very strict limits should be placed on how many of these visas can be applied for by large companies. This would help solve the issue that Tata Consulting Services is inflicting on the program.
Having these limits on larger companies will also help to alleviate the problem of foreign employees taking US citizen jobs. IF it is happening, then this will force employers in the US to offer greater incentive to the people opting for non-technology jobs mentioned in the Atlantic’s article when Jordan Weissman points out, “Roughly twice as many American undergraduates earn degrees in science, technology, engineering, and math disciplines than go on to work in those fields.” This will help to alleviate the technology gap which companies claim exists in the US.
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