Indentured Service 2000: Behind the High-Tech Visa Crunch

Editorial Report

We have all heard the horror stories. Well-educated, trusting souls sell their homes in a foreign  country, arriving in the USA with an employment contract and fully expecting that it will be upheld, only to get a rude awakening when the job is eliminated; super high-techies who happen to be over 35 are being banished to mundane repair jobs; workers arrive with the impression that they are to begin work for an actual company, and soon find out they have been sponsored by a contractor who will be leasing them out to the highest bidder.

We are all for a higher H-1B cap in light of the current economic prosperity and abundant job market, but there's also that nagging apprehension about what the higher cap will mean to workers. After all, employer-sponsors of H-1B holders get a pretty good deal when they take on skilled young workers who work 40% more hours for 40% less money, and have virtually no choice but to stay with them, lest they be expected to leave the country within 10 days of ending the H-1B relationship.

Despite these worrisome exploitations, Republicans and Democrats alike are eager to lift the current cap of 115,000 H-1B annually awarded visas, and allow more foreign talent into the job market pool. Some propose to remove the cap entirely.

Rep. Lamar Smith is one Republican (Texas) who is willing to allow an unlimited number of foreign workers in, so long as they meet stringent requirements, including that they receive a minimum wage of $40,000 a year. This wage wouldn't stop the larger companies from importing professionals, but it is reasoned that it might at least discourage the sweat shops and people brokers.

A long-time opponent of the H-1B program, Smith once considered it anti-American-jobs, but has changed his tune in response to cries of a labor shortage from the high-tech world.

Having collected a staggering $10 million in campaign funds from high-tech companies, both Republicans and Democrats are eager to move forward without giving much thought to the anti-immigrant abuses against foreigners that exist in the system. Thus far, all complaints have been about unfair competition for American workers and other domestic concerns. But no one has really broached the ethical quandaries surrounding the plights of many of these foreign workers.

Exploited or not, they are eager and willing to come work long and hard to be in the US of A, and the employers know it.

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