"Fixing" the employer sponsored immigration would be like asking Lincoln to "fix" slavery.
In the Midwest, concern about the H-1B
With the prospect of a deal on immigration, the tech industry is in overdrive in pushing for an H-1B cap increase. Its efforts include supporting fluffy organizations to write boilerplate letters in support of a virtually unrestricted H-1B cap.
The latest, called inSPIRE STEM, is co-chaired by former U.S. Sen. John Sununu (R-NH) and Maria Cardona, whose resume includes working as an advisor to Hillary Clinton in her 2008 campaign. It is urging U.S. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) to include the provisions of the Immigration Innovation Act (I-Squared) in its bipartisan negotiations on a comprehensive immigration bill. That bill will allow the H-1B cap to rise to 300,000.
Computerworld's analysis of government data shows that a major share of H-1B visas are going to offshore outsourcing firms.
Roy Larson:
This is an example of crony capitalism at its very worst. These politicians aren't making a good faith effort to draft better legislation that is balanced in approach and considers all parties involved: American workers, immigrant workers, and business.
Instead, they create pawns of all workers that makes immigrants and citizens economic advesaries while the 1% are laughing all the way to the bank. These programs bring out the worst in people and turn working people into dogs fighting over scraps.
Immigration is suppose to be sacrisanct and rooted in American tradition. It isn't suppose to be a tool for exploitation. We should be encouraging citizenship and inviting our future neighbors with a common cause and shared prosperity. Not building a nationalize temporary staffing pool with a revolving door where junior level workers enter and skilled workers leave ultimately becoming our global competition.
Simply stated employer sponsored visas do not support our American values of freedom and equality. It creates a second class in our society with restricted rights and corporate "masters" who have control over those rights. They need to be abolished.
We spend so much time trying to fix the flaws and loopholes in the program that we lose sight of the true issue: corporations should not be immigration middle-men. Corporations have economic loyalties to investors. We cannot allow them to be stewards of programs where national interests trump their own economic interests. When push comes to shove corporations will side with their own economic interests.
There is no fixing the H-1b visa.
"Fixing" the H-1b visa would be like asking Lincoln to "fix" slavery. As if something fundamentally wrong can be fixed. It cannot. It must be abolished.
There are things we can do to make the H-1b less destructive to American and foreign workers. It's a shame that we are so focused on that effort, instead of a truly fair and comprehensive change. At the end of the H-1b debate what we will be doing is picking economic winners and losers. We will be manipulating labor markets and even choosing what industries have access to the indentured class worker. When a nation has become so entrenched with crony capitalists I think we all know who the winners and losers will be.
When you read about the hearings in Congress on the H-1b visa who is noticeably absent? American workers and foreign workers. When you read about the hearings on STEM legislation in Congress who is noticably absent? STEM professionals. Isn't it odd that STEM professionals aren't invited to shape their own future? They waste no time rolling out the red carpet for STEM executives.
Vivek Wadhwa is a well-known H-1b expansionist. But even he says that the program is wrong and if he had his way he would replace it with something else. This isn't one of his major talking points, but something he says later in discussions. You'll miss it if you aren't paying attention. We are talking about comprehensive immigration reform. What part of comprehensive don't people get? Let's write legislation that will survive generations, not up for debate every few years.
Why is Silicon Valley asking Congress to create Franken-Visas and tightly coupling immigrant entrepreneurs to such a flawed program? The more we tack on to this visa, the harder it becomes to dig ourselves out from it.
The right thing to do is the abolish the H-1b visa and all employer sponsored visas. Get rid of the corporate immigration middle-men and tell those who think immigration is a trade matter to shut their filthy un-American mouths. In my opinion we should maintain the status quo in terms of numbers and roll all employer sponsored visas into a single permanent visa where the immigrant controls their destiny, not a corporation.
The national debate should be who those visas should go to and ultimately how many. I understand that will be a heated debate and it should consider all interested parties. But there shouldn't be debate around indentured servitude and corporate immigration middle-men. Let's start on a playing field where all workers have equal rights and equal mobility.
Abolish all employer sponsored visas. If we are being intellectually honest most of us know that it's the right thing to do. America is better than this.