Posted on 03/20/2012 5:21:58 AM PDT by Kaslin
When President Obama was participating in a live video chat, Jennifer Wedel asked him, "Why does the government continue to issue and extend H-1B visas when there are tons of Americans just like my husband with no job?" Her husband is a semiconductor engineer who was laid off three years ago and is still unable to find an engineering job.
We all would like the answer to that question.
The U.S. Census Bureau reports that, counting only U.S.-born individuals, there are 101,000 with an engineering degree who are unemployed, another 244,000 who are not working or not looking for work and therefore not counted in unemployment statistics, and an additional 1.47 million who have an engineering degree but are not working as an engineer.
Obama's answer to Wedel sounded like he had been well briefed by the big corporation lobbyists. He even expressed bewilderment that any U.S. high-tech engineer could be out of work because industry executives tell him there is an unfilled "huge demand" for engineers.
Obama said, "H-1Bs should be reserved only for those companies who say they cannot find somebody in that particular field." Yes, indeed, they should. But in fact, they are not.
Created in 1990, the H-1B program was designed for employers to import foreign H-1B workers to fill various high-tech jobs only when Americans could not be found, and the law was supposed to make it illegal for an employer to replace an American with an H-1B worker. However, the big corporation lobbyists succeeded in fuzzying up the law so there is now no effective rule to prevent employers from firing American jobholders and replacing them with H-1B aliens.
Big companies prefer H-1B workers because they can pay them significantly less than Americans, never have to give them a raise or promotion, and have the unilateral power to deport them. H-1B workers don't dare to complain about working conditions or unpaid long hours, and they can't quit to take a better job.
Most H-1B workers are imported for entry-level jobs and trained by experienced U.S. workers who are then laid off. This process has introduced a new expression and acronym into the English language -- DYOG: Dig Your Own Grave.
One senator understands this problem: Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa. In a letter to the president last month, he pointed out how Obama's response to Jennifer Wedel shows he is only regurgitating the corporation lobbyists' sales talk with their phony mantra that "there are better and brighter people abroad."
Grassley said "thousands of qualified Americans remain out of work while companies are incentivized to import foreign workers." Grassley criticized the Obama administration for proposing new rules to "attract and retain highly skilled immigrants" to replace Americans, to expand eligibility for foreign students to remain in the U.S., to eliminate protections for U.S. workers, to allow employers to pay lower wages to alien workers and to give work authorizations to spouses of H-1B workers, thereby increasing competition for Americans looking for all kinds of jobs.
Obama has made expanding H-1Bs a feature of his re-election campaign, trying to broaden the program that already allows the importation of 65,000 H-1B visa aliens annually. Some people are even pushing the ridiculous notion of stapling a green card to college diplomas, so that foreigners would automatically be allowed to stay and work in our country.
Will that include the 57,000 Chinese undergraduates now in U.S. universities, most of whom were admitted on the basis of fake transcripts and recommendation letters, and are awarded college degrees for which they did not qualify? That's another racket that should be cleaned up.
Dickinson State University in North Dakota awarded degrees to 584 foreign students who did not earn them. On the day of an all-campus student meeting concerning this matter, Education Dean Douglas LaPlante was found dead from an apparently self-inflicted gunshot.
Media coverage of Obama's colloquy with Wedel focused on inviting her to send her husband's resume, but the real news should have been jobs. Is Obama ignorant of the unemployment reality facing U.S. engineers or is he disingenuously reciting the self-serving lies of his high-tech donors?
A good example of how the H-1B visa system works was described in a lawsuit filed against Molina Healthcare Inc., which handles Medicaid and Medicare paperwork for the government, and Cognizant Technology Solutions Corp., which recruits H-1B workers in India. On Jan. 14, 2010, one day after the Department of Labor approved Molina's application for 40 H-1B workers, Molina fired approximately 40 competent U.S. programmers, managers and analysts and hired 40 H-1B replacements imported by Cognizant from India.
That is how H-1B visas work in the real world to take jobs away from Americans.
If I spent all this time doing engineering and I can’t get a job because of some foreigner, I will be pissed.
Liberal school curricula undermine our student’s ability to compete for these positions.
Get the liberal social agenda’s out of school and get back to basics on the courses offered and promoted.
Well-sourced and well-written article by Mrs. Schlafly, exposing yet another way that America is intentionally killing itself, exchanging short-term profit for long-term ruin.
Just another example of how this president views himself—not as an American citizen but as a citizen of the ‘world.’ His every action is to bring Americans down.
they took our juuuuuuhb!
they took our juuuuuuhb!
Thanks for the post.
More muslims
I am looking forward to the day when most media jobs along with law firm positions are outsourced or H1-B’ed.
The result was a lot fewer and better paid foreign workers. I got frequent calls from other companies and changed once. When I was no longer worth the premium wage, then it was time for me and my family to come back to the United States.
Was Japan expensive? Did you like it there?
There are some, even on this forum, that defend the H1B program, but I can tell you that it definitely takes American IT jobs, - took mine! When you go to interview you must interview with an Indian guy and if you’re not another H1B, you’re wasting your time and being humiliated in the process.
Thanks. Good article to post for the “while I’m against illegal immigrtion, I’m all for legal immigration” crowd.
Because years ago, the first Bush administration made a deal with India to export as many jobs as India wanted if they would be our military ally in Central Asia. That was later expanded under Slick to include China, which is kind of odd because China was the threat we were trying to neutralize in allying with India in the first place.
I have seen first hand the games played by organizations who use a revolving door of Indian engineers (hardware and software) to keep the wage scale depressed for American engineers.
The bean counters never want to pay for the highly diverse skill set and training (WAY more than any MBA)required to be a good engineer capable of developing systems for anything from skate boards to rockets so to keep the wage scale in line they use these H1Bs.
Never let your children become an engineer. To be really good you must not only have a great foundation in lets say electronics and software but you MUST continually keep abreast of the ever changing technology which comes much faster than the latest MBA scam for improving the bottom line by avoiding taxes, suppressing wages, tracking the age of the staff (see note 1 at end), stealing rebates from your customers (see note 2 at end) etc.
And, unless you work for an Engineering Firm, you will always be a spare tire. By that I mean, the mahogany row crowd will only call on you when they need something otherwise stay hidden in the trunk less you be seen by one of the MBA types at the golf outing.
One thing I found as Corporate Director Of Engineering for a $50B/year company was you tend to believe these H1B people understand English as they sort of speak it, but believe me there is a huge disconnect.
NOTE: I caught the HR department tracking the age of every member of the office staff so as to make sure they never reached retirement. In 16 years, in an office of 200+ only one person retired the rest were pushed out.
NOTE: One division (of 50+) was caught twice stealing major portions of customer rebates for consumables which were agreed upon in the contract. They were the division’s largest customer. They left. The mahogany row crowd had already been promoted because of the huge contribution to the bottom line, (with stolen money). The spare tire remained in the trunk.
We hear how Americans are just not smart enough... Just look at our scores compared to the world. We bought the lie, educators get more cash and companies do not have to pay those high employer taxes. What a bargain for us illiterate Americans.
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