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I weigh in on this now and then. The H1B visa is a visa created by tech companies that allows them to run a shadow, parallel immigration system where they get
by geebee 5y ago
I weigh in on this now and then.
The H1B visa is a visa created by tech companies that allows them to run a shadow, parallel immigration system where they get to decide who is allowed to live and work in the US, what they are allowed to have studied, what jobs they are allowed to work, and the circumstances under which they are allowed to remain. They have been partially successful in convincing people that opposition to this is xenophobic.
I'm not sure how much support there has been for a points based system like Australia or Canada has, where tech is one of many fields of study and work that is considered worthy of skilled immigration, and each field gets a determined number of points (plumbers get top points, as do many high educated fields outside tech). I do recall a debate where a spokesman from Oracle called a system like this "communistic" because it would allow the government - not business - to decide who to hire.
That's the kind of toxic bullshit we've gotten in this debate in roughly forever. I don't hold participation in the H1B against anyone (really, truly, I absolutely do. not). The US immigration system is bizarre, and if you don't have relatives in the US, it's hard to immigrate. Tech immigration is one of the ways you can get access to one of the most lucrative job markets in existence. And the US closes off many other avenues - I've had international students explain to me how much harder it is to get into a US law or medical school and remain here, or what it means to graduate from a program with a STEM designation vs one without.
But I do hold it against the tech firms, the people who claimed that there was a labor shortage while conspiring to fix and suppress wages. I think tech firms' real nightmare is a workforce, immigrant and otherwise, that is free to choose a career path according to how their own life interests align with market signals.