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ETA: Regarding importing IT skills --- most H1-Bs range from mediocre to downright incompetent. My husband, in the past, had to spend time correcting work done by H1-Bs. There is a lot of fraud and corruption in the H1-B visa program. Thus, many get in here using fake resumes.
Good lord, you sound like me, a dozen years ago
I retired from full-time IT work; being a jack-of-all-trades who monitored, programmed and did network and small LAN tasks, plus AS400; back in 2010. After that, some contract work, but I was burned out from 30 years of the stuff, much of the stress coming from the last 10 years of dealing with offshore and H1B workers.
Some of those people were awful, just - blech. We had H1B people onsite who were proficient; the hiring/firing process was quite ruthless in the mantra "provide competent work or we know there are more where you came from." I established friendly phone relationships with them. But the H1Bs who didn't last long, and the offshore workers from India? GAAAAH!
Those people tore up the system. They'd run jobs on the production partition that would loop, chew up spool, hang up in a deadly embrace of datasets ... I killed 'em. Good old MVS command C <jobname> I grew used to seeing the extension number on the CISCO phone that meant one of them was calling to complain, and I'd pick up the receiver and put it back down. CLICK. Not gonna to talk to you.
The next evening (third shift. Another killing factor) my supervisor would be in with a report and asked me to explain why I knocked so many offshore people off the system and why I stopped their work. That was another tactic: aggravate me too much with junk programming and I will KILL your userid.
The supervisor knew what I did was valid, I had done enough squawking about babysitting those morons, but he had to have something to pass to management. My reasons would be pretty standard and repetitive: "hey, I gave them 55% of the spool and had to purge the output because they didn't have a delete command in the code." Or, (this was a HUGE squawk) "I went to the bathroom and came back to the system almost hung because some IDIOT issued a JES command that displayed all the completed and waiting to execute jobs. The buffer was backed up over 3000 LINES! I had to route that to the print room console and set the roll number to a point where it would flush faster!"
When I put in my resignation and gave my exit interview, I said "I'm tired, just TIRED of the crap I have to deal with. You have a few of us competent people who have to endure the incompetence of many. Slap butter and jam on me 'cause I am toast."
My husband's last job before his retirement was working from home for a small company that didn't hire H1-Bs. He was very glad for that aspect of his job!
One of the major reasons is that too many Americans graduated with STEM/IT degrees only to discover they couldn't find work. This, in large part, is due to H1-Bs holding such jobs. Plus many East Indians who started out as H1-Bs and later got green cards are now in positions where they do the hiring. When they hire, they blatantly discriminate against non East Indians.
Keep in mind that many Americans take out loans to go to college (yeah, I know. Biden is all about loan forgiveness). Imagine getting a degree only to discover not being able to find a job.
As I said, the H1-B was meant to be a temporary visa program. The visa fees paid by applicants were supposed to be used to train more Americans. Once more Americans got trained, there would be no need for any H1-Bs.
Meanwhile, we have Americans in those fields who can't find work due to, among many other reasons, also to what was mentioned above. Companies like Tata and Infosys have been allowed to hog the H1-B visas so they can bring in contractors and convince companies to lay off Americans and replace them with cheap contract workers. To add insult to injury, the laid off Americans are forced to train their replacements or they won't get severance pay.
Many IT jobs can be done by those who don't have an IT degree. My husband is retired DBA and he has a liberal arts degree. When he got into IT, he took some classes at the local community college. Once he had a job, his employer would pay for it when he needed to take a work related class.
ETA: Regarding importing IT skills --- most H1-Bs range from mediocre to downright incompetent. My husband, in the past, had to spend time correcting work done by H1-Bs. There is a lot of fraud and corruption in the H1-B visa program. Thus, many get in here using fake resumes.
Congress should be all over this. Have you written to your representatives in Congress? Any American workers laid off due to this scam, and their friends and family members, as well as anyone who cares about American workers and the economy, should be bombarding their Congressional representatives to demand an investigation and resolution of this serious problem.
Word has been circulating for nearly two decades, that the H1-B workers don't perform up to snuff; the quality of their work can't compare to US workers. Ultimately, this is going to affect the quality of US products and their competitiveness in the global market. It's an element in the 3rd-World-ization of the US. Why would anyone buy US IT products, electronics, etc., when they can get German or Finnish or other better quality products from nations that maintain high standards?
I wonder if the UK and Canada have this issue, where imported workers are allowed to displace skilled home-grown workers, and adversely affect quality at the same time.
Congress should be all over this. Have you written to your representatives in Congress? Any American workers laid off due to this scam, and their friends and family members, as well as anyone who cares about American workers and the economy, should be bombarding their Congressional representatives to demand an investigation and resolution of this serious problem.
When it has been mega-rich Americans like Bill Gates who began the offshoring/H1B trend? Yeah, Congress is not going to do much.
In the late 90's and early 2000's, Gates began pouring millions into India. The gesture was pitched as philanthropy/humanitarian; the goal was to create jobs and elevate living conditions through tech education; which was a benefit to those who profited most from that industry, at the expense of American workers.
I'm retired and out of all that, but in my last years I saw older workers actively discouraging their offspring from following their parents into the tech field.
These days, I follow a number of youtubers who take on scammers, almost wholly based in India. The tech education in that country didn't just turn out workers seeking employment in honest jobs, many of them migrated to less-than-legal positions.
When it has been mega-rich Americans like Bill Gates who began the offshoring/H1B trend? Yeah, Congress is not going to do much.
In the late 90's and early 2000's, Gates began pouring millions into India. The gesture was pitched as philanthropy/humanitarian; the goal was to create jobs and elevate living conditions through tech education; which was a benefit to those who profited most from that industry, at the expense of American workers.
I'm retired and out of all that, but in my last years I saw older workers actively discouraging their offspring from following their parents into the tech field.
These days, I follow a number of youtubers who take on scammers, almost wholly based in India. The tech education in that country didn't just turn out workers seeking employment in honest jobs, many of them migrated to less-than-legal positions.
Interesting. Thanks for sharing your perspective and experience. That's eye-opening, that older tech workers are discouraging their kids from going into tech, because of this situation! It also means, if people looking for a career field follow that advice, the US will ultimately be doomed to low-quality tech work. That's another concerning aspect of it.
Scammers are getting bolder. They're figuring out ways of mimicking legitimate business phone numbers, so when people make a routine call, they end up in the hands of a scammer. (I discovered this when I called a car rental agency, or thought I had.) They've also invaded those re-sale websites like Etsy and e-bay, requiring payment via Paypal, and setting up a fake Paypal application window on their page, to collect people's credit card numbers. The tip-off: NEVER give out your SS number! (They sneak that in to the application form.) Abort, if anything asks you for that.
Scammers are proliferating like crazy, and are finding new ways to access people under disguise. Beware!
One of the major reasons is that too many Americans graduated with STEM/IT degrees only to discover they couldn't find work. This, in large part, is due to H1-Bs holding such jobs. Plus many East Indians who started out as H1-Bs and later got green cards are now in positions where they do the hiring. When they hire, they blatantly discriminate against non East Indians.
Keep in mind that many Americans take out loans to go to college (yeah, I know. Biden is all about loan forgiveness). Imagine getting a degree only to discover not being able to find a job.
As I said, the H1-B was meant to be a temporary visa program. The visa fees paid by applicants were supposed to be used to train more Americans. Once more Americans got trained, there would be no need for any H1-Bs.
Meanwhile, we have Americans in those fields who can't find work due to, among many other reasons, also to what was mentioned above. Companies like Tata and Infosys have been allowed to hog the H1-B visas so they can bring in contractors and convince companies to lay off Americans and replace them with cheap contract workers. To add insult to injury, the laid off Americans are forced to train their replacements or they won't get severance pay.
Many IT jobs can be done by those who don't have an IT degree. My husband is retired DBA and he has a liberal arts degree. When he got into IT, he took some classes at the local community college. Once he had a job, his employer would pay for it when he needed to take a work related class.
ETA: Regarding importing IT skills --- most H1-Bs range from mediocre to downright incompetent. My husband, in the past, had to spend time correcting work done by H1-Bs. There is a lot of fraud and corruption in the H1-B visa program. Thus, many get in here using fake resumes.
^^^^^^^^ Yes! This has been going on for decades. It's bad for American employees and for America. But the tech company executives think it's a great thing.
Location: West Los Angeles and Rancho Palos Verdes
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Quote:
Federal data from the State Department shows that in 2021, almost 550,000 foreign visa workers were allowed to enter the United States labor market to take American jobs. Most of those half a million foreign visa workers, almost 470,000, arrived on the H1-B, H-4, H2-A, and H2-B visas.
This figure does not include large portions of the foreign visa worker population who are in the U.S. waiting to secure green cards. The federal government refuses to track the total foreign visa worker population. The figure also does not include the millions of foreign nationals who are in the U.S. on work permits and the roughly eight million illegal aliens holding American jobs today.
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