Book Review: ‘Sold Out’, by Michelle Malkin and John Miano

Breitbart ^ | 2 Dec 2015 | John Hayward

[ConservingFreedom]

[...] Malkin, who has the authorial voice throughout most of the book, describes the vaunted H-1B visa program as "the grandfather of all American worker sellouts," implemented by "political tricks, Beltway influence peddlers, and legislative corruption behind the program." Open-borders ideologues and special interests desperate for cheap labor have so thoroughly obscured the issue that even many immigration skeptics don't realize there are many other programs for VIP immigrants... and, as Malkin shows, all of them are outrageously abused.

The easiest immigration myth to destroy is the absurd contention that America lacks enough native STEM graduates and computer experts to meet employer demands. This is nonsense on its face - how can we have a fantastically expensive, Democrat-dominated primary education system, capped off by an overpriced university system currently in the process of inflating a doomsday loan bubble, plus chronic high unemployment and a shrunken workforce, but also have a shortage of qualified American workers for the best jobs?  

As Sold Out details, the problem is that Big Business wants cheap labor to perform those jobs, so they've corrupted reasonable measures to welcome high-potential immigrants into pipelines for budget-priced foreign labor. Malkin and Miano demonstrate how "the only persistent tech worker shortage in America is a shortage of workers at the wage employers want to pay." They have little difficulty rounding up quotes from business executives who put the matter in precisely those terms.

Crony interests are making a lot of money filling that demand, and they're not always polite to their bargain-basement workers, who are often literally kept in basements, or crammed into overcrowded apartments by visa-mill proprietors. Some of these operations exploit visa programs intended to provide short-term U.S. residency to fill specific, temporary job slots to build up a warehouse inventory of immigrant labor [...]

[ConservingFreedom]

H-1B ping. Let me know if you're not on the list and want to be added (or are and want to be removed).

[baltimorepoet]

Add me.

[ConservingFreedom]

Apologies for leaving you off this ping. :(

[ConservingFreedom]

Added. Welcome aboard!

[baltimorepoet]

I can state first hand that I experienced not being able to find work in my field (computer science) despite a degree and good grades from 1991 to 2001. The post-Cold War defense reductions didn’t help, the timing of the Gulf War didn’t help either, and then I found out about how H1-B visas also weren’t helping.

I considered “turning to the darkside” but instead in 2000 I went back for a Master’s in Comp Sci, did an unpaid internship at a place run by another ex-military guy & got a good recommendation which I used to get an internship at a major defense contractor.

First day at internship was Sept 10, 2001, (I wasn’t scheduled to go in Sept 11) 2nd day was Sept 12, 2001 and the airport next door was quiet.

[stephenjohnbanker]

H-1B visa rules were full of holes from day one. It didn’t take lawyers any time at all to figure out how to scam it. CLOSE THE PROGRAM!!

[Mi-kha-el]

Several months prior to Malkin’s birth, her parents had immigrated to the United States on an employer-sponsored visa.

I love MM, but something does not add up here. She would not even be here if it had not been for a working visa for her dad.

[baltimorepoet]

If anything, she can speak to how it is supposed to work, and address how it is not working.

[GOPJ]

Michelle Malkin - tellin’ it like it is...

[ConservingFreedom]

something does not add up here. She would not even be here if it had not been for a working visa for her dad.

Does that somehow obligate her to support working visas - or to leave the country? Is a person conceived by rape obligated to oppose anti-rape laws because if not for rape he wouldn't exist?

[Mi-kha-el]

Yes she can and should.

[factoryrat]

This goes far beyond just tech, IT, and STEM jobs. This has been going on for at least the last 20 years, or one full generation. People born after 1990 have no idea what the job market was like, and the opportunities that were sold to the highest foreign bidders.

Try to be the next bill gates, or the next Henry ford for that matter, and see just how much crony financed blowback you receive.

The US is where the british were at near the end of their colonial empire.

[Mi-kha-el]

Extreme. I am not “a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster”. I am a proud American, who has received US citizenship due to H1B visa. You receive millions through refugee and “Diversity Visa” programs, plus many millions of illigals. The H1B is the only program that allows the influx of highly skilled professionals, some of whom later become proud contributing US citizens grateful to the nation that adopted them. Yes, the programs has loopholes and is often abused, so let us fix it, but not through the baby with the water. Thanks.

[Mi-kha-el]

Sorry for the typo. “illegals”

[kabar]

Malkin was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, to Philippine citizens Rafaela (née Perez) – a homemaker and teacher – and Apolo DeCastro Maglalang, who was then a physician-in-training. Several months prior to Malkin's birth, her parents had immigrated to the United States on an employer-sponsored visa. After her father finished his medical training, the family moved to Absecon, New Jersey.

We had and have a shortage of medical doctors. Foreign doctors make up about 25% of the doctors in this country. There are reasons why we can't produce enough doctors domestically, but that is another matter.

[ConservingFreedom]

I am not "a stateless person with no ties to any community, only to his paymaster". I am a proud American, who has received US citizenship

Then you're not a guest worker and my tagline doesn't apply to you.

The H1B is the only program that allows the influx of highly skilled professionals

http://www.cis.org/LowSalariesforLowSkills-H1B

• Very few H-1B workers are "highly-skilled." Employers who used the Department of Labor's skill-based prevailing wage system classified most workers (56 percent) as being at the lowest skill level (Level I) as did most State Employment Security Agency (SESA) wage determinations (57 percent). This suggests that most H-1B computer workers are low-skilled workers who make no special contribution to the American economy, or that employers are deliberately understating workers' skills in order to justify paying them lower salaries.
• According to the applications filed in 2005, it appears that employers may be significantly understating what U.S. computer workers are earning in order to justify paying low wages to H-1B guestworkers in those occupations. In FY 2005, H-1B employer prevailing wage claims averaged $16,000 below the median wage for U.S. computer workers in the same location and occupation.
• 90 percent of H-1B employer prevailing wage claims for programming occupations were below the median U.S. wage for the same occupation and location, with 62 percent of the wage claims in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.
• While higher than the prevailing wage claims, the actual wages reported for H-1B workers were significantly less than those of their American counterparts. Wages for H-1B workers averaged $12,000 below the median wage for U.S. workers in the same occupation and location.
• The reported wages for 84 percent of H-1B workers were below the median U.S. wage; 51 percent were in the bottom 25th percentile of U.S. wages.
• Many employers make prevailing wage claims using wage sources that are not valid under the law. The Department of Labor routinely approves prevailing wage claims based on these invalid sources.

[Iscool]

Ted Cruz is not going to like this article...

[Mi-kha-el]

Thanks. These are the loopholes. It is up to the government to close them. My employer invited me because he could not find someone matching my skills and experience. It was the time of low unemployment, so the hiring pool was small. The H1B workers have to be paid industry average wages. The H1B workers pay fees that are supposed to go for training local workforce. During my way through immigration process, I paid enormous ammounts in legal and government fees, in the meantime I provided required services to my employer, paid my taxes, medical insurance, my son’s education fees. At no time was I a burden on the society. That is what I have experienced.

[SharpRightTurn]

Traitorous sellout alert.

BTTT