3 ms·
I agree the title is offensive and it should probably be titled "Who are the H-1B workers?" or something like that. Let me also state up top; I am extremely li
by ebbv 14y ago
I agree the title is offensive and it should probably be titled "Who are the H-1B workers?" or something like that.
Let me also state up top; I am extremely liberal, to the point where I am offended by the current terrible paths to citizenship for undocumented workers. I am not against immigration of all kinds.
With that out of the way let's go through slide by slide:
Assertion 1:
H-1B workers are more highly educated than US born workers because they have a higher rate of Masters and Doctoral degrees than US born workers.
This is assuming that all Masters are better than all Bachelors degrees, and all Doctorates are better than all Masters degrees. Anyone with any experience knows this isn't the case. Some educational institutions are better than others.
I don't know if on average US degrees are better than non-US degrees. But I think this is a weak assertion based on a potentially false assumption.
Assertion 2:
H-1B workers actually do not drive wages down, they actually make ~10% more than US born workers.
This is an exceedingly weak assertion because it is comparing all H-1B workers against ALL US born workers. For low paying jobs H-1B workers won't even be considered. So the US born workers' mean income is going to be lower. H-1B workers will only be considered for positions above a certain pay level, and at companies who are a big enough size to pursue H-1B staffing.
So this figure is very misleading. It should be comparing H-1B workers directly against their US born coworkers at the same companies in the same positions. Or at least, again, the same positions at companies of comparable size.
Assertion 3a-3c:
3a Skill gaps MAY develop or worsen because people are retiring.
Weaksauce. People are always retiring. There are also always more people graduating with CS degrees than ever before. Doesn't hold water at all. Gives itself away with the weasel word "may".
3b. Too few Americans are graduating with degrees in engineering.
Only 6.3% of the world's engineering degrees are earned in the U.S. Oh golly gee. And what percentage of the world's population are we again? 400 million divided by 7 billion = 5.7%. Sounds like we're doing OK to me.
Regardless that has nothing to do with the need to bring in more outside engineers. The question is how many engineering jobs we have vs. how many engineering degrees. And this figure has nothing to do with that.
3c. The demand for computer occupations will grow at an average pace of 25% over the next decade.
Ok. Let's just assume these projections are accurate. So what? 25% more jobs over 10 years, when we have how many new CS graduates every year? Where's that figure? We need both. Quick googling showed ~50k kids enrolled in CS degrees in the US in 2012, and this graph shows we'll need 200k new programmers over the next 10 years. Seems to me we'll be more than keeping up with that demand.
Assertion 4a-4b:
4a. Immigrants started 28% of all new US businesses.
This has nothing to do with the H-1B issue at all. It's just being used to try to skew the next one. But the problem is this figure isn't just about H-1B immigrants, and in fact it isn't at all about them because they are legally prevented from starting any new business, at least until they get their citizenship.
4b. Don't say that H-1B workers take away jobs from US workers because one day H-1B workers may become US citizens, and will start their own businesses.
That's really weak. They're not taking a job because they might one day start a company that makes more jobs? One really doesn't have anything to do with the other. A US born worker who got that job might have one day started a company as well. In fact, they are much more likely than an H-1B immigrant, who is legally not able to do so.
Summary:
This infographic is incredibly biased and clearly made with an agenda in mind.
The reality is that big companies like H-1B workers because they work for less. It's that simple. It's an easy equation for Microsoft, Facebook, Google, et al. Hire the worker that costs the least and will still do the job adequately.
I'm personally in favor of immigration. I think it's great. But it can also be abused and lead to economic devastation for US workers.
As someone born and raised in Michigan, I can tell you first hand what happens when US companies are allowed to run rampant with reassigning jobs to the person who's willing to work for the absolute least amount of money.
It might make sense to increase the number of H-1B visas, but it needs to be based on real analysis of available jobs vs. available US based workers. Not a biased infographic like this, filled with half truths and unrelated figures.
EDIT:
Let me also say that if we were serious about fixing the H-1B situation, our priority would be to treat the people brought over to work here more like human beings and less like indentured servants.
H-1B workers are unable to seek alternate employment if they don't like the situation at their employer who brought them here. They are thus not able to negotiate for better pay or promotions.
Before we go doubling the number of H-1B workers (which is wht Zuckerberg, et al want short of being free to hire ALL H-1B workers), we should fix the program's inhumane rules.
- rayiner 14y ago> This is assuming that all Masters are better than all Bachelors degrees, and all Doctorates are better than all Masters degrees. Anyone with any experience knows this isn't the case. Some educational institutions are better than others. It also assumes that a Masters in India is comparable to a Masters in the United States. This is flat out untrue. Only a small percentage of universities in say India churn out bachelors and masters degree holders that can stand toe to toe with their American counterparts. Everyone in tech knows this. There is a reason why the top Indian candidates attend grad school in the U.S.
- arkem 14y agoThe quality of the applicant's educational institution is taken into account by USCIS/DoL. The applicant provides a statement from a US education assessor as to the quality and scope of their non-US degrees. For example someone with a 4 year Computer Science degree from a disreputable foreign university might only be able to claim equivalence with a US Associate Bachelors in Information Systems degree rather than a 4 year US CS degree. While it's always fraught to compare educational institutions from across the world, the United States at least acknowledges that it isn't a trivial problem when assessing visa applications.
- gphreak 14y agoWould be interesting to compare degrees from different countries with each other, how hard it is to obtain them etc. The bachelor degrees in Germany seem to be strongly dependend on the university and I've seen quite a few people where I didn't understand how they got through. It seems to be worse with off-shore resources, but this could be just personal experience or the fact that my company utilizes one of the big 4 off-shoring companies (my assumption would be the really skilled people would rather work for software companies or something similar)