[posterkid]

Great post, thanks. The H1-B scam is one of the most horrible things to happen to the tech industry. The comments about how the H1-Bs will work 15hour days because they have to are right on. My previous employer used about 30% H1-Bs in the IT group, and the company before probably had 40-50% in development.

There is no worker shortage. There is a shortage of workers willing to do 60 hour weeks for $40k/yr. Deport them all.

Debunking The Myth Of A Desperate Software Labor Shortage is a very interesting piece, if extremely long.

[harpseal]

Clearly the H1B visa program is a program designed to make Ameican Citizens unemployed while employing foreign nationals for a much lower salary.

[3AngelaD]

Yes, I guess it is really too much to expect Congress to put the interests of American citizens ahead of the interests of foreign nationals, and those who want to employ them cheaply. The word here is betrayal. Nobody minded very much when Congress made it possible for legal and illegal immigrants to take American jobs and displace American citizens, as long as those jobs were entry-level, unskilled positions occupied by those already at the bottom of the employment ladder, and specifically jobs previously held by blacks and native-born Hispanics. But now that it is clear Congress is doling out the same treatment to middle class, highly educated workers, people are surprised, surprised, this could happen.

[taxed2death]

To those who would promote globalization, beware of this double edged sword. I'm predicting in the near future, just as our manufacturing jobs have been sent overseas to the workers willing to work for pennies, workers from overseas will be coming hear to get middle management positions and be willing to work 70-80 hr. weeks for a $30,000.00 salary.
It's going to be strange seeing all these white collar workers standing in line for the gub-mint cheese handouts. But hey......it's good for the bottom line, right? ow long before someone undercuts YOUR job?

[RonF]

An Indian engineer working for a company on an H1-B visa is a high-tech version of a Mexican dishwasher in a Chicago restaurant without a green card. Work long, work hard, keep your mouth shut or you're back home. No wonder the companies love them. One more way that the Bush administration will jump up and suck the corporate teat when they think no one's looking.

[Scruffy]

Glad to hear this. The H1-B's program has been abused for years. Even during the hayday of .COMs the program was abused. Companies find Indian's and other foreign nationals as cheap, cheap labor.

[EdReform]

H-1B Hall of Shame

[lavaroise]

Revoking H1B would also require making illegal the dumping loophole allowing foreign nations to lower the prices of the their labors!

[Nataku X]

There's no solution. Stop the program, and companies will just move their business offseas. Unionize, and companies will move their business offseas.

After finishing my MS in CompSci, I look forward to a very long career in McDonald's. And I'm not kidding.

[Red Jones]

Carry-Okie; I wonder what you think of this issue, h1b?

[The Irishman]

Thanks for the post. My daughter, who works for Hewlitt-Packard, says employees with twenty years seniority are being laid off. I suspect they have been made "redundant" by the prospect of low paid H1-B "replacement" workers.

Again, thanks for the post.

[Stavka2]

``The real issue here is the shortage of highly educated, qualified U.S. candidates for the jobs for which we experience skill shortages,'' said Intel spokeswoman Gail Dundas.

This is the biggest crock of all. That's why I know plenty of guys in NC who are sitting around skilled and jobless. Sure...what ever, Congress just gets it's pay offs and as usual, screw everyone else.

[CanadianFella]

The tech sector is in a big shitsus. Scrapping H1B will dramatically raise labor costs and lead only to further closings, and then the sh** will start piling up so fast you'll need wings to stay above it. Get over the knee-jerk Buchananism and realize how extremely beneficial this deregulation of the labor market is.

[jiggyboy]

Intel and any company that pretends not to be able to find "skilled native workers" is telling a clever lie: When they decide that they want to hire some H1-B's on the cheap, *first* they pick the individual and *then* they write the job application and want ad so that he's the only one that qualifies. It's basically a statement of his resume, as a requirements list.

[meadsjn]

This one is just too sweet. All these people quoted above were the first wave of tech immigrants who displaced American citizens, during the multi-cultural group hugs of the 80's and 90's.

What the article doesn't mention is all the life-long American citizen tech workers who are currently suffering their third or fourth wave of H1B-type of displacement.