I'll speak from personal experience. I hold a BSc in Computer Science and in 2003 was laid off as were 10% of the workforce. The H-1B visas workers at the company were not laid off.
It's all about cheap indentured labor. The H-1B visa workers are obligated to the company for 6 years and cannot switch jobs even if offered a more competitive salary. That's not a FREE MARKET economy. It's an INDENTURED SERVANT market.
Why would a college bound American student want to study engineering or software development when they see the older generation being laid off from those professions and being replaced by cheap foreign workers with H1-B visas?
It makes more sense for them to study law and find a job producing nothing that adds to the GDP in the future.
Bill Gates and Larry Ellison are two of the biggest shills for more H1-B visas since they help to improve their bottome line. What happens when we've sucked up all the computer professionals from abroad? Are we going to import them from Mars?
How is that not a free market? The indentured H-1B workers are free to accept the terms of the deal, before being hired, or not. Nobody kidnapped them or sold them into slavery.
Existing workers are, presumably, free to work for the same--lower--pay as the H-1B workers.
How is this not free market? Employers are free to find the best deal they can for high-tech labor. You're free to work for the lower price, and probably keep your job.
I am wonder how the hell he could hire these "H" visa people when he has to prove he could not find the workers already here? I thought that most of the "H" visas were for ag workers and those coming over for education etc.
I do know that to hire an immigrant to work in a profession here that, as an employer, I had to apply to the state employment labor agency for permission to hire and then had to prove that I could not find any acceptable people here to fill my needs. I.E. after filing, I had to advertise on the UC web site for workers as well as advertise in the local newspaper for at least one month (I think) and then only after that, if nobody answered the add, could I go ahead to hire. AND experience in the trade was no excuse for hiring foriegn nationals. I was expected top hire here and train them in the job.
There is only one way Gates could get around this...by greesing palms.
Unusual company if they didn't lay off the H-1Bs. Around here they all went first.