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You can work in tech and your work could be accurately described as indentured servitude. Tech if anything has a disproportionate amount of one specific kind: i

You can work in tech and your work could be accurately described as indentured servitude. Tech if anything has a disproportionate amount of one specific kind: immigrants on employer specific visas.

busterarm 4y ago
Points for being kind-of true. First off, let's establish that the oft-abused H1-Bs have salary minimums that put them in the top 5% of earners in the United States and in most cases the top 99.9(999)% of earners in their home countries. Second, the visas don't prevent you from seeking employment through other employers, but at certain phases of your status here between visa, green card and resident it will reset your timetable. Third, while the timetable for people from say India is absurdly long, from many other nations it is much much shorter. Fourth, at all times visa holders have the loophole of getting married to get a better visa. Most people living somewhere for an extended period of time at least have the social skill to negotiate setting up a family (citation: the continued survival of the human race). Even if you marry another immigrant, both visa-holders have the convenience of opting to use the shortest schedule table between both nations. You'll often see, for example, Indian visa holders marrying Australian visa holders...The current schedule for new Indian applications is like 35+ years while the Australian schedule is ~5. So yes, there are people in somewhat abusive situations. They stay in them because it's still an opportunity that puts them ahead of at least 95% of the world's population. Is that like indentured servitude or slavery? No, not really.
- SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
  Um, with polite response: a lot of these points are ethically dubious and at best say “they’re well paid, so they don’t really count”. At one point it says one can marry to get out of their indentured servitude, which… yikes, dude, imagine what a dangerous position that puts someone in if they can’t divorce a potentially dangerous relationship for fear of deportation.
  - busterarm 4y ago
    Don't be ridiculous. The overwhelming majority of people are going to get married. More than 40% of them to someone they meet at work. That's just life. Stop interpreting things the most hyperbolic way possible. Basic statistical facts paint quite a different picture than you are.
    - SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
      I’m not saying that marriage itself is bad, I’m saying that being in a marriage where you cannot freely leave isn’t an alternative to a job you cannot freely leave, which is an exploitation of labor that’s over represented in tech, in response to a poster who questions why tech should be trying to defend their labor. In none of your points have you reasonably addressed the original concern, which is that exploitation of labor does exist in tech, except to argue that it’s okay because of money, or they can enter a marriage that they cannot freely leave without also risking their immigration status and that’s somehow not a concern.

You can work in tech and your work could be accurately described as indentured servitude. Tech if anything has a disproportionate amount of one specific kind: immigrants on employer specific visas.

busterarm 4y ago

Points for being kind-of true. First off, let's establish that the oft-abused H1-Bs have salary minimums that put them in the top 5% of earners in the United States and in most cases the top 99.9(999)% of earners in their home countries. Second, the visas don't prevent you from seeking employment through other employers, but at certain phases of your status here between visa, green card and resident it will reset your timetable. Third, while the timetable for people from say India is absurdly long, from many other nations it is much much shorter. Fourth, at all times visa holders have the loophole of getting married to get a better visa. Most people living somewhere for an extended period of time at least have the social skill to negotiate setting up a family (citation: the continued survival of the human race). Even if you marry another immigrant, both visa-holders have the convenience of opting to use the shortest schedule table between both nations. You'll often see, for example, Indian visa holders marrying Australian visa holders...The current schedule for new Indian applications is like 35+ years while the Australian schedule is ~5. So yes, there are people in somewhat abusive situations. They stay in them because it's still an opportunity that puts them ahead of at least 95% of the world's population. Is that like indentured servitude or slavery? No, not really.

SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
Um, with polite response: a lot of these points are ethically dubious and at best say “they’re well paid, so they don’t really count”. At one point it says one can marry to get out of their indentured servitude, which… yikes, dude, imagine what a dangerous position that puts someone in if they can’t divorce a potentially dangerous relationship for fear of deportation.
- busterarm 4y ago
  Don't be ridiculous. The overwhelming majority of people are going to get married. More than 40% of them to someone they meet at work. That's just life. Stop interpreting things the most hyperbolic way possible. Basic statistical facts paint quite a different picture than you are.
  - SamoyedFurFluff 4y ago
    I’m not saying that marriage itself is bad, I’m saying that being in a marriage where you cannot freely leave isn’t an alternative to a job you cannot freely leave, which is an exploitation of labor that’s over represented in tech, in response to a poster who questions why tech should be trying to defend their labor. In none of your points have you reasonably addressed the original concern, which is that exploitation of labor does exist in tech, except to argue that it’s okay because of money, or they can enter a marriage that they cannot freely leave without also risking their immigration status and that’s somehow not a concern.