Hello Jim M,
Nice to hear your work of going after deadbeat employers, who do not pay their employees, is getting some coverage.
regards
tt tt
Congress takes on H-1B visas
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Labor limit
Should Congress lower the cap on H1-B visas?
H-1B hiring
Share your experiences with the H1-B program.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
miles ahead of the whole world? think again. Japan follows closely. And where do most of your products come from?
Submitted by: MG
1:00 PM CDT, Apr 9, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
H1-B's? Servants of the U.S.? Yeah, and who takes advantage?
Submitted by: MG
12:58 PM CDT, Apr 9, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more comments or post your own
Stories
Training program on road to derailment
May 4, 2002
High-tech jobs flow to foreign workers
February 10, 2002
Sun layoffs draw federal scrutiny
June 25, 2002
International tech recruits in danger of exploitation
March 6, 2001
By T. Shawn Taylor
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 6, 2003
In 2001, the dot-com crash sent software entrepreneur Pete Bennett into the bleak Silicon Valley labor market along with hordes of other displaced tech professionals.
Among workers competing with Bennett were foreigners allowed into the U.S. under H-1B visas, designed to let American companies hire workers who have unique skills that cannot be found among American job seekers.
Bennett, who ended up taking a job selling mortgage loans, thinks the H-1B program did him in.
"Every place I sent my resume had an H-1B bidding for the same job," said Bennett, who believes at least two employers that interviewed him had no intention of hiring him or any citizen. "I was there just so they could say they interviewed an American. The recruiter told me the job went to an H-1B."
Bennett's experience led him to launch the Web site www.nomoreh1b.com, a place where affected workers can commiserate and get the latest news. He joins a swelling sea of critics who say the H-1B visa program does not restrict foreign workers to specialty occupations with worker shortages as intended, but displaces U.S. workers in favor of cheap foreign labor, driving down wages.
As Congress prepares to reauthorize the controversial program for another three years in the fall, foes are calling for safeguards to stop the wholesale replacement of U.S. workers. They also want the annual cap on H-1Bs to return to the 65,000 limit established in 1990. The tech industry successfully lobbied for an expansion to 195,000 in 2000.
"It would be ridiculous for Congress to do anything but roll these numbers back because of the state of the economy. A lot of tech workers are suffering," said Michael Gildea, executive director of the Department of Professional Employees, a labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
Gildea said the H-1B visa program does not take labor market conditions into account.
Some have nicknamed the H-1B the "tech visa" due to its prevalence in that industry. Unemployment among tech professionals has been estimated at between 10 and 15 percent, compared to the national rate of 5.8 in March. Gildea likened the H-1B's impact on tech workers to job losses in the steel and textile industries decades ago.
"They told us to get ready for knowledge jobs. Well, they're farming those out, too. It looks pretty bleak," he said.
After raising the cap steadily from 65,000 to 115,000 to 195,000, last year only 79,100 new H-1B visas were issued, which critics say is further proof that worker shortages, particularly in the tech industry, are fabricated by employers trying to keep payroll costs down, Gildea said.
Though the H-1B visa was designed to be temporary and petitioners must overcome the assumption they will try to immigrate, many foreigners see it as the first step to a green card. The visas, issued for three years, may be extended once for a total of six years. A green card candidate can work in the U.S. on a permit issued to them for as long as the process takes.
"They could be in the country for 9 to 11 years. I don't think a 9- to 11-year program is temporary," Gildea said.
Angelo Vitalino, 41, a project/program manager who has been unemployed for nearly a year, said he does not know if he has lost work to an H-1B but "knowing the level of unemployment there is in the tech workforce, it just doesn't make sense that we should be taking in foreign workers," said Vitalino, who lives in New York with his wife, who isn't working, and their three children.
As more tech workers struggle with long-term unemployment and stories circulate about U.S. workers being forced to train their foreign replacements, disgust is turning to activism. Last month, a group of Stanford University students posted fliers inside two graduate dormitories where foreign students live stating that visas are forcing Americans into unemployment. Some labeled the students "racists" and "xenophobes."
But some critics of the program say that visa holders are victims, too. Norman Matloff, professor of computer sciences at the University of California at Davis, believes the H-1B program abuses foreign workers but most are too afraid of being sent home or losing their shot at a green card to complain.
"The fact that I'm critical of the program doesn't mean I have a problem with the people," said Matloff, who has presented his views on foreign visas in testimony before Congress.
Many H-1Bs come from cultural backgrounds that teach them to do their jobs, be respectful and not cause trouble, said Murali Krishna Devarakonda, president of the Immigrants Support Network, formed in 1998 to deal with problems H-1Bs face. It boasts 18,000 members.
Devarakonda, who came to the U.S. in 1991 on a student visa, later obtained an H-1B and finally got his green card in 2001, said the administration of the H-1B visa is contrary to its basic premise--that employers need foreign workers to fill shortages. He said the law is written as if it is the foreign workers who need the employers.
"So the law puts our entire fate in the hands of the employer until we get the green card," he said.
In 2000, Congress made the visa portable so that workers would not feel trapped in their jobs. But that only solved part of the problem. Jim Mills, an immigration attorney in Brick, N.J., said most of the H-1B cases he handles deal with an employer's failure to pay H-1B workers during down periods or not at all. Unlike a U.S. worker, if an H-1B is laid off, the employer has to either keep paying his or her salary or cancel the visa, he said.
"It's in their best interest to not pay these people and have them sit around. Very often, they get the worker to sign a request for vacation to get around the law," Mills said.
But making the visa portable allows foreign workers to hop from job to job, putting them in direct competition with U.S. workers, which defeats the purpose of the program, Gildea said.
"Before, if they lost their job, they were supposed to go home," he added.
Technically, they are still supposed to go home but none of the three federal agencies involved in the H-1B visa approval process enforce this part of the statute, government officials said. The Labor Department does investigate complaints by foreign workers against their employers and awarded back wages to 580 workers last year totaling more than $4.2 million, according to labor statistics.
Of course, tech workers on H-1Bs are being laid off, too. Tim Tsyganko of the Ukraine remained in the U.S. illegally for more than two months after being laid off as a network engineer in Dracut, Mass., late January. He and his wife, Eugenia, are returning to Europe after two years. He leaves behind his dreams of citizenship and a 15-year-old son from a previous marriage.
"My money is almost gone. So I can't afford to stay here anymore," said Tsyganko, who felt he was paid well and loved his job. "I really doubt I can see (my son) in the future."
In the end, the problem U.S. workers have with the H-1B visa might take care of itself.
"In India, the job market is better than it is over here," Devarakonda said. "Many of them are choosing to go back."
Nice to hear your work of going after deadbeat employers, who do not pay their employees, is getting some coverage.
regards
tt tt
Congress takes on H-1B visas
E-mail this story
Printer-friendly format
Search archives
Labor limit
Should Congress lower the cap on H1-B visas?
H-1B hiring
Share your experiences with the H1-B program.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
miles ahead of the whole world? think again. Japan follows closely. And where do most of your products come from?
Submitted by: MG
1:00 PM CDT, Apr 9, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
H1-B's? Servants of the U.S.? Yeah, and who takes advantage?
Submitted by: MG
12:58 PM CDT, Apr 9, 2003
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Read more comments or post your own
Stories
Training program on road to derailment
May 4, 2002
High-tech jobs flow to foreign workers
February 10, 2002
Sun layoffs draw federal scrutiny
June 25, 2002
International tech recruits in danger of exploitation
March 6, 2001
By T. Shawn Taylor
Tribune staff reporter
Published April 6, 2003
In 2001, the dot-com crash sent software entrepreneur Pete Bennett into the bleak Silicon Valley labor market along with hordes of other displaced tech professionals.
Among workers competing with Bennett were foreigners allowed into the U.S. under H-1B visas, designed to let American companies hire workers who have unique skills that cannot be found among American job seekers.
Bennett, who ended up taking a job selling mortgage loans, thinks the H-1B program did him in.
"Every place I sent my resume had an H-1B bidding for the same job," said Bennett, who believes at least two employers that interviewed him had no intention of hiring him or any citizen. "I was there just so they could say they interviewed an American. The recruiter told me the job went to an H-1B."
Bennett's experience led him to launch the Web site www.nomoreh1b.com, a place where affected workers can commiserate and get the latest news. He joins a swelling sea of critics who say the H-1B visa program does not restrict foreign workers to specialty occupations with worker shortages as intended, but displaces U.S. workers in favor of cheap foreign labor, driving down wages.
As Congress prepares to reauthorize the controversial program for another three years in the fall, foes are calling for safeguards to stop the wholesale replacement of U.S. workers. They also want the annual cap on H-1Bs to return to the 65,000 limit established in 1990. The tech industry successfully lobbied for an expansion to 195,000 in 2000.
"It would be ridiculous for Congress to do anything but roll these numbers back because of the state of the economy. A lot of tech workers are suffering," said Michael Gildea, executive director of the Department of Professional Employees, a labor union affiliated with the AFL-CIO.
Gildea said the H-1B visa program does not take labor market conditions into account.
Some have nicknamed the H-1B the "tech visa" due to its prevalence in that industry. Unemployment among tech professionals has been estimated at between 10 and 15 percent, compared to the national rate of 5.8 in March. Gildea likened the H-1B's impact on tech workers to job losses in the steel and textile industries decades ago.
"They told us to get ready for knowledge jobs. Well, they're farming those out, too. It looks pretty bleak," he said.
After raising the cap steadily from 65,000 to 115,000 to 195,000, last year only 79,100 new H-1B visas were issued, which critics say is further proof that worker shortages, particularly in the tech industry, are fabricated by employers trying to keep payroll costs down, Gildea said.
Though the H-1B visa was designed to be temporary and petitioners must overcome the assumption they will try to immigrate, many foreigners see it as the first step to a green card. The visas, issued for three years, may be extended once for a total of six years. A green card candidate can work in the U.S. on a permit issued to them for as long as the process takes.
"They could be in the country for 9 to 11 years. I don't think a 9- to 11-year program is temporary," Gildea said.
Angelo Vitalino, 41, a project/program manager who has been unemployed for nearly a year, said he does not know if he has lost work to an H-1B but "knowing the level of unemployment there is in the tech workforce, it just doesn't make sense that we should be taking in foreign workers," said Vitalino, who lives in New York with his wife, who isn't working, and their three children.
As more tech workers struggle with long-term unemployment and stories circulate about U.S. workers being forced to train their foreign replacements, disgust is turning to activism. Last month, a group of Stanford University students posted fliers inside two graduate dormitories where foreign students live stating that visas are forcing Americans into unemployment. Some labeled the students "racists" and "xenophobes."
But some critics of the program say that visa holders are victims, too. Norman Matloff, professor of computer sciences at the University of California at Davis, believes the H-1B program abuses foreign workers but most are too afraid of being sent home or losing their shot at a green card to complain.
"The fact that I'm critical of the program doesn't mean I have a problem with the people," said Matloff, who has presented his views on foreign visas in testimony before Congress.
Many H-1Bs come from cultural backgrounds that teach them to do their jobs, be respectful and not cause trouble, said Murali Krishna Devarakonda, president of the Immigrants Support Network, formed in 1998 to deal with problems H-1Bs face. It boasts 18,000 members.
Devarakonda, who came to the U.S. in 1991 on a student visa, later obtained an H-1B and finally got his green card in 2001, said the administration of the H-1B visa is contrary to its basic premise--that employers need foreign workers to fill shortages. He said the law is written as if it is the foreign workers who need the employers.
"So the law puts our entire fate in the hands of the employer until we get the green card," he said.
In 2000, Congress made the visa portable so that workers would not feel trapped in their jobs. But that only solved part of the problem. Jim Mills, an immigration attorney in Brick, N.J., said most of the H-1B cases he handles deal with an employer's failure to pay H-1B workers during down periods or not at all. Unlike a U.S. worker, if an H-1B is laid off, the employer has to either keep paying his or her salary or cancel the visa, he said.
"It's in their best interest to not pay these people and have them sit around. Very often, they get the worker to sign a request for vacation to get around the law," Mills said.
But making the visa portable allows foreign workers to hop from job to job, putting them in direct competition with U.S. workers, which defeats the purpose of the program, Gildea said.
"Before, if they lost their job, they were supposed to go home," he added.
Technically, they are still supposed to go home but none of the three federal agencies involved in the H-1B visa approval process enforce this part of the statute, government officials said. The Labor Department does investigate complaints by foreign workers against their employers and awarded back wages to 580 workers last year totaling more than $4.2 million, according to labor statistics.
Of course, tech workers on H-1Bs are being laid off, too. Tim Tsyganko of the Ukraine remained in the U.S. illegally for more than two months after being laid off as a network engineer in Dracut, Mass., late January. He and his wife, Eugenia, are returning to Europe after two years. He leaves behind his dreams of citizenship and a 15-year-old son from a previous marriage.
"My money is almost gone. So I can't afford to stay here anymore," said Tsyganko, who felt he was paid well and loved his job. "I really doubt I can see (my son) in the future."
In the end, the problem U.S. workers have with the H-1B visa might take care of itself.
"In India, the job market is better than it is over here," Devarakonda said. "Many of them are choosing to go back."