Posted on 10/07/2009 7:40:54 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
Vimal Patel was studying for a master's in business administration in London when he saw an advertisement for work in the U.S. The ad offered a job in the tech industry, as well as sponsorship for the kind of work visa that allows foreign nationals to take professional-level jobs in the country. So Patel applied and paid his prospective employer, Cygate Software & Consulting, in Edison, N.J., thousands of dollars in up-front fees. But when Patel arrived, Cygate had no tech job for him. He ended up working at a gas station, and Cygate nevertheless took a chunk of his wages for years, according to documents in a criminal case against Cygate.
After a federal investigation into Cygate, Patel and five other natives of India recruited by the company pled guilty to visa violations in June. They were sentenced to 12 to 18 months of probation, assessed fines of $2,000 each, and now face deportation. But at Patel's sentencing in the federal courthouse in Newark, N.J., his lawyer said the slim 36-year-old, with a mop of brown hair spilling over his forehead, was more victim than villain. Like many ambitious workers from abroad, he came to the country seeking his fortune, and he suffered for the effort. "It's a sad day," said Anthony Thomas, the public defender assigned to represent Patel. "He always dreamed of coming to the U.S."
Cygate, which changed its name to Sterling System after the lawsuit, is one of thousands of low-profile companies that have come to play a central role in the U.S. tech industry in recent years. These companies, many with just 10 to 50 employees, recruit workers from abroad and, when possible, place them at U.S. corporations to provide tech support, software programming, and other services.
(Excerpt) Read more at businessweek.com ...
Don't EVER pay fees up front for prospective employment.
EVER.
Legitimate headhunters are paid by the EMPLOYERS for their services, not the prospective employees.
This is a simple, old-fashioned scam.
There is no "High-Tech Sweatshop" problem in the US.
I have seen this problem first hand having had to actually train a few Indian “consultants” in my company.
* In the USA, cost-cutting pressures have increased, so companies turned over management of tech systems and other back-office operations to outsourcing firms.
* A lot of these firms, in order to cut cost, hire smart college graduates from India and other countries into the U.S. on temporary visas such as the H-1B ( the Philippines is another country where outsourcing occurs ). Notice that most of these firms favor ENGLISH speaking countries.
* One important way outsourcers hold down costs is by keeping a lean workforce at each client site—then turning to smaller companies when they need to increase staff for specific projects, such as installing new software or building a new Web site.
These companies are known as “body shops” because of their role, and often rely heavily on foreign workers who come into the country on H-1Bs and other visas.
Unfortunately, this is where a lot of the shenanigans take place. A lot of these poor souls actually are here hoping to be able to eventually get permanent residency but are in effect, indentured servants who can’t move, have no say as to what they can do because their visas limit them to ONLY working for the firm that hired them.
A lot of American companies usually don’t know—and don’t press to find out—which body shops are tapped to support their tech operations.
They don’t care really. The important thing is the job is being done at a much lower cost than if they hired an American.
IT IS ALWAYS ABOUT THE BOTTOM LINE.
Related article:
http://blog.vdare.com/archives/2009/10/02/businessweek-drops-the-ball-on-h-1b-story/
This has been going on since the Y2K era. It’s one of the things that made IT such a cutthroat business. With unemployment at todays levels there’s no way anyone can say we need H1B visas for entry level programming / data entry jobs other than to drive the wage scale down.
Converse Hi Topp tennis shoes are made in Viet Nam.
Factoid.
says so right on the sole.
I found this paragraph on the link you provided to be quite interesting :
“It is my observation that focusing narrowly on fraud is favored by the cheap labor lobby because they can make the following argument: “give us more H-1Bs and in return we will give you more enforcement”. How about if instead of enforcement of a program we didn’t ask for, they gave us our jobs back?”
My response : GOOD LUCK WITH THAT. Remember this -— Companies are in their respective businesses to MAKE A PROFIT. For publicly listed companies, it’s about the bottom line -— keeping shareholders (like you and me in many cases ) happy. How to increase profits ? One way is to CUT COSTS. How to cut costs ? Find someone who can do the job for less than half the price.
That’s just the reality my friend. How do you propose we solve this problem without interfering with the free market system ?
Actually, I do. So does my wife, who happens to work with a number of Indian programmers.
Do you know what "sweatshop" means?
Do you know the defining characteristics of one?
Do you have evidence that those characteristics exist in any tech jobs in the US?
huh....I’ve talked to programmers who I swore were calling me from a gas station...
No one makes them sign up to come to the US, and contrary to what the congress-idiots cite, there are plently of qualified American IT workers that could do the job. Companies would rather keep wages low by importing the H1Bs.
Don't you just love how our 'elites' like Greenspan treat people's lives like a commodity. We need to drive labor costs down, flood the market with cheap labor. Housing bubble?... allow people who can't pay back loans to have a mortgage. Who cares if a famly's livlihood and life savings are destroyed in the process. These people are Godless, destroying the "little people" with their policies.
And there's nothing really wrong with driving down the wage scale; the wage scale for a lot of software development is seriously out of whack. Given the automation of most of the development tools, I'm amazed at what you have to pay for 95% "point and click" development.
Just like it was insanity to pay $60/hr for web devs back in 2000 it's crazy now to pay $40/hr for most (MOST - not all) app devs. And yes, I do some software development.
The platforms - hardware and software - have really eliminated a huge chunk of the difficulty in being a SW dev. Most apps out there are greatly simplified, and do not need high end skills, and should not be paid for such.
The market will bear what the market will bear. If $40/hr is too high, people will get it developed for less. That includes outsourcing - either truly overseas or with imported workers. I'm still shocked to run across unemployed SW devs and webdevs here in Seattle who still believe they are worth $50+/hr. No, you're not.
Customers would rather pay lower costs for products, thus putting pressure on companies to keep costs low.
I guess you’d rather have all our hight tech industry run overseas, if it saves you a nickel. I don’t see any other industry, or workers subjected to the same treatment, if you don’t count letting the mexicans freely stream into this Country.
Yes, yes, and yes
I'm calling BS.
I've worked for, with, and in competition with Desi H1-B High Tech employees.
Here in Silicon Valley they are paid less, expected to work longer and harder, and are fearful of getting deported should they seek employment elsewhere.
Perhaps "sweatshop" is hyperbole, but the working conditions are much harsher on an H1-B. It's still a zillion times better that back home, though!
Although I've been displaced by H1-B's on more than one occasion, I still like these guys, they have a certain enthusiasm and sense of humor that appeals to me.
I just wish the world was a level playing field (at US standards!)
BINGO! We have a winner!
And, are any of them chained to their workstations?
Were any of them forced to come to work here?
Hyperbole is an understatement.
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