You don't "gotta" if that lower-cost international labor is also lower-skill ... which it clearly is, since laid-off Americans are training their Third World replacements (as a condition of getting their severance).
H1-Bs often come as part of a larger package, with their India-based employers (rather than direct US employers) providing outsourcing and development services that also leverage offshore talent.
H1-Bs are more obvious a target for the US labor market, but less significant than offshoring, which really can’t be stopped without killing the golden goose of the global IT market—of which the US has a largely disproportionate share.
Exactly. The one acquaintance I talked to at some length said most of the H-1B workers being brought in by his company were not trained in his area (writing code, among other things) at all. Some were schoolteachers and such. The only good thing about it for him was a good severance package and that because the training of the replacements was lengthy, he had time to prepare for his next employment (not in IT at all.) But I doubt one in 5 persons would make the kind of transition he did, successfully. I even wonder if I could, in 2015 (too old / not enough energy?)
Any new job requires training to the specifics of a company.
But if it is such bad business to hire H1-Bs in the current system, their employers presumably will pay the cost of that.
“...lower-cost international labor is also lower-skill...”
HAH! PHDs in the technical arts are a dime-a-dozen from India. There is nothing low-skilled about them!!