Rsiv -- I wrote this assignment as part of my Business Law class
The person who reviewed was a sitting judge (the faculty, she taught on part time basis). Her opinion was if what I have written is true, its disgusting. So I am sure we have a good legal case, do we have a good moral/social case that can sway public opinion and make people work faster/harder to give us our Green Card. Please feel free to use the assignment to give it to your journalist friend. I could not find the final copy that was proof read so please ignore grammatical mistakes,
rgds,
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1. Identify a significant problem area within American Business
Today in American Business there is suboptimal utilization of legal alien’s talent and discrimination against employed alien. Due to immigration law and procedure these aliens also face considerable hardship.
2. Describe in detail the nature and extent of the problem in Society today
The United State government issues many type of visas to foreign Nationals [1]. The focus of the paper here is a type of visa, H1-B [2], which is issued to a foreign National “who will be incumbent in a temporary position, who will perform services in a specialty occupation, on whose behalf the employer has obtained an approved Labor Condition Application.” [2]
In short, if there is shortage of a skill in the U.S., and that skill is vital for the U.S. economy [3], the U.S. government allows U.S. companies to ‘import’ foreign nationals possessing that skill. Most of these foreign Nationals come through H1-B visa. If a foreign students undergoing higher education in U.S. has to have a H1-B visa to work in U.S. Few examples of skills that are in shortage (or were in shortage in the last few years) are Information Technology skills, Computer Software skills.
The number of H1-B visa offered in the last few years have been in the range of 65,000 to 1,20,000. The contribution of these H1-B workers has been tremendous to U.S. economy. The U.S. economy has enjoyed tremendous growth in the last few years. Former U.S. Labor Secretary Robert B. Reich says that 70% of the economic growth can be directly attributed to computers and Internet and the Internet and a good proportion of this should go to these knowledge workers [4]. To paraphrase “By making American industry more competitive, more innovative and by enabling technology to power the economy, these H1B workers have given back in a huge way” [4]
“The U.S. has the largest pool of scientists and technologists in the world… A closer look at this pool will reveal that a significant percentage of this talent is foreign born. According to a report by the National Science Foundation, as of 1997, 21% of the chemical engineers in the U.S. were foreign-born; 20% of the computer scientists were foreign born too.” [4] This can be explained because with the passage of time, these temporary H1-B workers are granted Permanent residency and finally citizenship.
The focus of this paper is to bring out the hardship and discrimination that these H1-B workers go through till they become a permanent resident (and after that a citizen) because of prevailing emigration law and procedure.
The law requires that the alien holding an H1-B visa can only remain in the U.S. legally, if he/she is employed with the firm that applied for his/her H1-B. [5] He and his/her spouse cannot be employed in anything else, by anyone [5]. The law also states that that the maximum period of H1-B visa (or multiple visas) for a person is 6 years, upon completion of which the emigrant has to leave the country unless he has an approved permanent resident petition (also called green card) [5]. ((8 U.S.C §1101(a)(15)(l)(b), 1182(n), 1184(c); 20 CFR 655 subparts H and I). An alien worker can only work for other employer (except for government or other ‘sensitive’ industries), if the other employer is willing to do a ‘fresh’ H1-B (which takes anything between few months to an year) or after getting a green card[5]. If he joins the other employer he has to initiate the green card process a fresh. Certain recent reforms in emigration law, makes it easy to switch job or get a de facto green card even before actual green card is approved. But the above mentioned rules still hold good.
Most of the legal alien that work, want to stay long enough to either become a citizen or earn enough to go back to his/her country. That time period is definitely more than 6 years before their H1B expires and they have to go back. If an alien gets a green card before 6 years, he has no danger of leaving the country and the restriction on the alien (or the spouse) not to work for anyone is gone.
In the old days (about a decade ago), a green card would take less than a year or two after being applied. Now, due to various reasons, it takes anywhere from 3 to 8 years. Most companies have policy not to initiate ‘green card’ till a certain time period has elapsed (which is usually 1 year of employment). Due to the circumstances and the emigration laws, an alien has no choice but to stick to his/her company till his green card is approved. An alien can change his/her job but has to start the green card process from the beginning. Moreover due to the economy and legal fees, many companies are reluctant to hire an alien. Though a point needs to be made, an alien with a green card does not face these hardships.
The above restriction imposes undue hardship on an alien and gives rise to discrimination. The Immigration Reform and Control Act of 1986 (IRCA) protects an alien who is "lawfully admitted for permanent residence" from employment discrimination because she is an alien [6]. An employer who knows that the employed legal alien is going to stay for his/her green card, no matter what, can (and in many cases does) pay him/her low, deny promotion or raises or expect high amount of work (for the same compensation).
Most of the time the spouse of the legal alien is also highly qualified person (a master or a Phd). By not allowing him/her to work till a green card is obtained, is wastage of that talent. The monetary value of the person to the U.S. economy is in the range of $250,000 (i.e. U.S. has to invest this much amount in a person education to get a master or a Ph.d.), which the economy is getting for free.
The biggest restriction imposed by emigration law is, it impedes free flow of skilled labor (that has been admitted legally in the U.S.) to a place (in the U.S. economy) where it can be utilized best. Both the U.S. economy and the alien lose out in this.
3. Read and summarize in your own words, two reference sources that support, oppose or discuss your identified problem.
While the merit of providing H1-B visas is being debated in this election year, the merit that a legal alien should get a green card is generally agreed by all. Recent changes in the emigration laws make its easier to change job or avail benefits of green card a little early. There are still many problems with the system that monitors and grants green card. Many recent government initiatives have tried to hasten the processing time. One such initiative is called PERM [7]. The proponents of PERM agree that undue delay put unwanted hardship on an alien. The new system aims at drastically reduce the years it takes to grant a green card. The other initiative, S. 2045 , to make it easier for H1B workers to switch job (and in some cases without jeopardizing the green card process) was passed by congress in 2000 [8]. While passing the law Congress agreed that an H1-B worker should be provided with more flexibility.
While S. 2045 made switching Job easier, the Perm initiative that had to be implemented many years ago is still imminent.
4. Analyze and discuss how this problem in any way effect your life, or the life of someone that you know
Being a legal alien (on H1-B), I can relate to most of the hardship faced by an H1-B visa holder. I would say that I have been fortunate in not being discriminated in my job, but my inability to switch to job that would pay me more or that I would enjoy doing is a cause of hardship. The fear of loosing the job (and then to subsequently uproot my life and move out of U.S.) makes the stake very high. The fact that one has to seek another job (within 10 days) in the same line of business and one cannot work any other job for financial security makes life that much harder. Inability of the spouse to be legally employed (in spite of having advance degree) puts lots of financial burden and also wastes her talents. She has no option but to sit at home.
5. Provide a proposed solution or resolution of the problem.
If the immigration process were efficient as it were once, the hardships arising due to the wait for green card would be a non issue. So the most obvious thing to do is to make the process more efficient. The law can be amended to allow a person to automatically pursue all the benefits of a green card after a certain time has elapsed, subjected to the condition that if the green card is rejected for any reason, he is ineligible to stay in U.S. (as is the case today). Some movement in that direction has happened in which an applicant gets green card like ‘benefits’ after certain stage, but that stage itself takes many years.
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