For the final years of my engineering career I watched my friends being replaced by Indian engineers who did my friend’s jobs over the internet. Yes there is a visa racket bringing cheaper engineers in to take American’s jobs. But it is no longer necessary to even bring them here.
One of my designer buddy’s last job was to train his replacements via the internet to take his job. That extended him another six weeks and then he too was laid off. I asked him about the quality of the Indian engineering work and he said, “well, they do things differently but it is definitely first rate.”
From the company perspective, why have an engineer in America earing $105,000 per year when you can have one just as good earing $30,000? Also, the low buck guy can’t sue you for any one of a dozen legalisms created by our government Big Brother.
They're bringing in H-1B's at $60-90K, so there's got to still be an advantage in having people here. Something more than time zone.