The issue is the nature of the h1b: if you lose your job, you're immediately kicked out. This gives employers much more leverage over their employees, allowing

The issue is the nature of the h1b: if you lose your job, you're immediately kicked out. This gives employers much more leverage over their employees, allowing them to suppress wages. It's the nature of the h1b, which doesn't encourage people to invest in and make roots in the country they emigrate to, the problem. On the other hand, there's very little evidence that there's a "fixed" number of jobs in the country: allowing more people in likely causes more opportunities, especially if they have children, buy a house, etc. There are a few possible solutions to this, such as: - Make it so once you have an h1b, you have the right to stay in the US for at least 1 year, whether your job is terminated, and make it easy for another employer to take over your h1b. This gives immigrants leverage over a bad employer, in the form of being able to go somewhere that will pay them more. - Make h1bs go to the highest bidders: each company says what salary they're going to give the h1b holder, and those companies paying the most get the visas.