As Tech Giant Calls For More Foreign Workers, Senate Hears of Displaced Americans

Townhall.com ^ | March 24, 2015 | Byron York

[Kaslin]

Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google, believes passionately that the United States needs more skilled foreign workers. He has long advocated increasing the number of so-called H-1B visas, which allow those workers to come to the U.S. for several years and, in many cases, work for lower wages than current employees. Schmidt is frustrated that Congress hasn't done as he and other tech moguls want.

"In the long list of stupid policies of the U.S. government, I think our attitude toward immigration has got to be near the top," Schmidt said during a recent appearance at the American Enterprise Institute in Washington. "Everyone actually agrees that there should be more H-1B visas in order to create more tech, more science, more analytical jobs. Everyone agrees, in both parties."

The Eric Schmidt pleading for more foreign workers is the same Eric Schmidt who boasts of turning away thousands upon thousands of job seekers who apply for a few prized positions at Google. For example, at an appearance in Cleveland last October to promote his book, "How Google Works," Schmidt explained that his company receives at least 1,000 applications for every job opening. "The good news is that we have computers to do the initial vetting," Schmidt explained, according to an account in the Cleveland Plain Dealer.

Other tech leaders join Schmidt in calling for more foreign workers. Some companies are actually lobbying for more H-1Bs and laying off American staff at the same time. For example, last year Microsoft announced the layoff of 18,000 people at the very moment it was pushing Congress for more guest worker visas.

Given all that, there's not quite the unanimous agreement on the need for more foreign workers that Schmidt claims. At a recent hearing before the Senate Judiciary Committee, a number of experts testified that the H-1B program, so sought-after by CEOs, is being abused to harm American workers.

Ron Hira, a Howard University professor and author of the book "Outsourcing America," told the story of Southern California Edison, which recently got rid of 500 IT employees and replaced them with a smaller force of lower-paid workers brought in from overseas through the H-1B program. The original employees were making an average of about $110,000 a year, Hira testified; the replacements were brought to Southern California Edison by outsourcing firms that pay an average of between $65,000 and $75,000.

"To add insult to injury," Hira said, "SCE forced its American workers to train their H-1B replacements as a condition of receiving their severance packages."

Hira testified that such situations are not unusual. And on the larger issue of whether there is, as many tech executives claim, a critical shortage of labor in what are called the STEM fields -- science, technology, engineering and math -- another professor, Hal Salzman of Rutgers, testified that the shortage simply does not exist.

"The U.S. supply of top-performing graduates is large and far exceeds the hiring needs of the STEM industries, with only one of every two STEM graduates finding a STEM job," Salzman testified. "The guest worker supply is very large (and) it is highly concentrated in the IT industry, leading to both stagnant wages and job insecurity."

The hearing also featured Jay Palmer, a former Infosys project manager who blew the whistle on a case in which the big outsourcing firm paid $34 million in fines for worker visa violations. "I watched this on a daily basis," Palmer told the Judiciary Committee. "I sat in the offices in meetings with companies that displaced American workers only because the Americans who had been there 15 or 20 years were being paid too much money."

So not everyone agrees with Schmidt on the need for more H-1B workers. Certainly not the laid-off IT employees at Southern California Edison. And not the workers reportedly displaced by similar practices at Disney, Harley Davidson, Cargill, Pfizer and other companies. Who knows? Maybe some of those workers have been among the 1,000-plus who apply for every Google opening.

To hear the witnesses before the Senate Judiciary Committee tell it, Congress needs to act -- not to increase the number of H-1Bs but to close the loopholes that allow them to be so badly abused at such a cost to American workers. "Congress and multiple administrations have inadvertently created a highly lucrative business model of bringing in cheaper H-1B workers to substitute for Americans," Hira told the committee. "Simply put, the H-1B program has become a cheap labor program."

[King Moonracer]

No matter how rural of a company I visit, there is always a growing contingent on Indians in IT. They work hard, but are taking all the IT jobs. Americans should not be displaced, especially by non-citizens.

[servantboy777]

Americans should be furious.

My company has laid off thousands of American workers and imported Indian/Chinese/Taiwanese workers to backfill those positions.

[from occupied ga]

PERHAPS if US students didn’t major in things like “Black Studies”, Gender Studies”, “Environmental Studies”, etc. and that’s the ones who are motivated to further their education. Then there are the utterly worthless masses who feel “entitled” to the fruits of the labors of those ever diminishing sector that actually works for a living. If maybe people would make themselves desirable in the job market, then there wouldn’t be the need to hire foreign citizens.

[from occupied ga]

Americans should be furious.

Americans should get off their dead asses and make sure they're BETTER QUALIFIED than the Indians who are displacing them.

[MNDude]

My company had to programmer job posted for 6 months ($110K per year) but never got anyone qualified to fill the job.

Eventually we had to hire out some Indian (that we ended up firing in 2 months anyhow).

[Monty22002]

At 1/4 the cost? You know how much 40 rupees is in India? About a buck. And people there make about 1/40th. So what are we supposed to do, work 40/1 harder to compete?

[Erik Latranyi]

First, the story about Microsoft is misleading. They just purchased Nokia and let the redundant staff go.

Second, I do not trust any story from a Howard University professor. They are lying liberal scum.

Lastly, the real issue is the cost of labor is far more than the salary....especially in California. Regulations, mandates, healthcare, etc. are all far, far higher on the left coast.

But, just as Obama gave Chrysler away, for free, to a foreign company with US taxpayer loan guarantees, it is politically incorrect to see US workers vs foreign workers anymore (except during a political campaign).

[Resolute Conservative]

They are not more qualified. A degree from Curry University is not worth the paper it is printed on. They are all theory and no bang.

[nathanbedford]

We have no immigration "policy," rather we have immigration politics.

It is almost impossible to debate whether it is for the greater good to import skilled people to keep America at the cutting edge of computer science or whether importing foreign gifted workers at lower wages will only start a race to the bottom in which every employer will be compelled the fire Americans and hired cheaper aliens in order to compete. That debate is worth having. It is also worth having a debate about whether companies like Google really need bodies to be physically present in America when so many American firms are now communicating not in person but in cyberspace.

But it is impossible to have these debates so long as Democrats are flooding the country with unskilled, unschooled bodies who have no real virtue except in their propensity to vote Democrat.

[Drango]

A good article but it understates the arguments against H1Bs. We are eating our own seeedcorn.

Each year college students declare majors.Some decide to major in French, some Geology, some pre-med, some pre-law, some astrophysics, some sociology and so on. Among those students are those who decide to major in computer science. However, wages for CS graduates are depressed by H1Bs. ECON 101.

As wages are depressed, the career of becoming a technonerd becomes less attractive to students. It’s hard work and given the pay, other career choices are more attractive.

Double the salary of CS graduates and we will have plenty of students in that career field.

[redgolum]

This is why we no longer have anything but an aristocracy.

The voters don’t want this, but the elite are determined to make sure no one rises up to challenge them.

[from occupied ga]

Sorry tootsie roll. I don’t buy it. I had to fill two technical positions last year. I interviewed over 20 people. ONE native born US citizen qualified and was outstanding (Chinese descent) and one guy from Jamaica. Most of the US born didn’t have a clue and failed miserably in the technical interview (and some of the Indians didn’t have a clue and also failed miserably in the technical interview) So I ended up hiring the two best people the person of Chinese descent and the guy from Jamaica.

[glorgau]

H1-B visas might be acceptable if the visa holders were allowed to switch employers with the initial company paying all the fees.

That would change the equation used - much more risk to bring in somebody that can jump ship for a better offer (as any American can) rather than an indentured servant.

[Monty22002]

Asshole for the insults

[redgolum]

Friend, that isn’t the issue.

We have gone through a number of H1B’s at work. They are often much lower quality than American born engineers or coders, but they work for cheap. Over all, the quality impact is detrimental to the bottom line, but for the quarterly bonus it looks great.

[from occupied ga]

They are not more qualified

You are flat out wrong - read post #13

[from occupied ga]

Insults? You obviously have never had to hire skilled people.

[dead]

Your single position in Georgia sample is not necessarily reflective of the nationwide competence of home-grown talent vs. Indian talent.

[Monty22002]

You sound like the HR person from hell. And I mean the WORST of the worth from hell type.