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The unfortunate part is that everyone knows this needs to be done, but in the current environment neither side is willing to compromise at all. We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform. H1, Asylee, immigrant requirements all need to be addressed, and you can't really do one effectively without doing them all.
There's a lot of H1 abuse, but at the same time H1 has brought a lot of really skilled really good people that contribute to our greater society in both financially and socially positive ways. There's a place for the plan, but the wholesale abuse needs to be stopped. Same with general immigration. In a rapidly modernizing world, not having a merit based system is nonsensical. There's still a requirement to have refugees and asylees, and even some familial immigration, but there's no need to have it stretch beyond parents/children without clear sponsorship or financial responsibility placed on sponsor of the immigrant.
There needs to be a path to permanent residency for illegals. Maybe not citizenship, but moving them into the system benefits everyone, as those tax dollars become accountable and the demand for all the scum that traffics people lessens.
We need a more efficient processing system for all these people. I don't know if the answer is hiring 50,000 people to process, or a better system, or what, but waiting multiple years for a decision or a change in status is crazy, and also allows people to go missing within the system.
The problems and answers are near limitless, but we all need to come together to compromise, because the current state is untenable.
You will find that most companies big or small see Labor a option to save money. This was the same result for jobs that went to mexico for cars, and to china for other labor work. IT was the next option. First it was call centers for sales and or support to get a credit card, your bills, or account services etc. Then it was IT jobs. As India and other Asian countries opened markets and gained access to the internet this was a option for companies. Also IT outsourcing like Wipro and HCL came into this large corporations and sold them on 24 hour support etc at a much cheaper price. Then when it comes to HB1 Visas its just a legal way to bring in foreign labor and it is at a cheaper price then a normal American with alot of experience. Often one or 2 Hb1 visas are granted and those works train on a job and then go back to india and retrain 10 other employees to fill the roles that company needs. So Hb1 visas are often used in order for Americans to "train their replacements" and then they are sent back to india to replace the American workers jobs.
As the IT work force changes and the changes in Technology will continue to effect physical support vs American workers. As IT becomes a must have for all companies this will open more jobs and more options for Americans. The US government should limit HB1 visas these for special cases and not just basic IT support that plenty of AMERICANS are ready to do.
Esp those out of college looking for work in the IT field.
You will find that most companies big or small see Labor a option to save money. This was the same result for jobs that went to mexico for cars, and to china for other labor work. IT was the next option. First it was call centers for sales and or support to get a credit card, your bills, or account services etc. Then it was IT jobs. As India and other Asian countries opened markets and gained access to the internet this was a option for companies. Also IT outsourcing like Wipro and HCL came into this large corporations and sold them on 24 hour support etc at a much cheaper price. Then when it comes to HB1 Visas its just a legal way to bring in foreign labor and it is at a cheaper price then a normal American with alot of experience. Often one or 2 Hb1 visas are granted and those works train on a job and then go back to india and retrain 10 other employees to fill the roles that company needs. So Hb1 visas are often used in order for Americans to "train their replacements" and then they are sent back to india to replace the American workers jobs.
As the IT work force changes and the changes in Technology will continue to effect physical support vs American workers. As IT becomes a must have for all companies this will open more jobs and more options for Americans. The US government should limit HB1 visas these for special cases and not just basic IT support that plenty of AMERICANS are ready to do.
Esp those out of college looking for work in the IT field.
No federal administration has ever dealt with the third rail issue of LEGAL immigration, and that is why illegal immigration is the headliner act in all of this low pay immigration theatrics.. Trump, like the others has overlooked the facts of undermining American citizens with legal low payed interlopers from third world nations. No, he's all for that system, he has taken advantage of those programs in his own business interests so why would he want to overturn the gift horse aspect of that cheap labor?
The biggest chunk of our collective prosperity being taken by foreigners is all rolled up in the H-1B program, the illegals are mostly pitching hay or putting on roofing. Trump is screaming about the wall, while leaving the door wide open for all those legal types coming here to take American jobs, it's a pitiful act but one he loves to play. This is the stupidity of believing the common hype, media speak has long been focused on the illegal aliens coming here, but they are strangely silent on the real threat to American labor..
You will find that most companies big or small see Labor a option to save money. This was the same result for jobs that went to mexico for cars, and to china for other labor work. IT was the next option. First it was call centers for sales and or support to get a credit card, your bills, or account services etc. Then it was IT jobs. As India and other Asian countries opened markets and gained access to the internet this was a option for companies. Also IT outsourcing like Wipro and HCL came into this large corporations and sold them on 24 hour support etc at a much cheaper price. Then when it comes to HB1 Visas its just a legal way to bring in foreign labor and it is at a cheaper price then a normal American with alot of experience. Often one or 2 Hb1 visas are granted and those works train on a job and then go back to india and retrain 10 other employees to fill the roles that company needs. So Hb1 visas are often used in order for Americans to "train their replacements" and then they are sent back to india to replace the American workers jobs.
As the IT work force changes and the changes in Technology will continue to effect physical support vs American workers. As IT becomes a must have for all companies this will open more jobs and more options for Americans. The US government should limit HB1 visas these for special cases and not just basic IT support that plenty of AMERICANS are ready to do.
Esp those out of college looking for work in the IT field.
Great post, so many good observations you've made here. From my friends and my own family members across the work spectrum from around retirement to those just coming out of college, the job market is just awful despite all the happy-talking about low unemployment. That's mostly because even educated Americans are applying to like 2,000 jobs and not hearing anything back, just giving up and dropping out of the workforce so they're not counted as "unemployed". (Either that or you have PhD's driving cabs or filling coffee orders). And that's because of the glut of foreign workers esp. from India, because the US corporations, self claimed elites and too many politicians in government actively work against the interests of American workers and despite the nation-killing student loan crisis, they either ignore or reward companies that hire cheap labor from abroad in place of Americans for American jobs, even for high skilled professions in STEM fields like computer programming.
It's just nuts, I've never heard of another country with a labor policy that actively discriminates in favor of foreign workers and against it's own citizens. It's got to be the dumbest policy ever conceived and it's because of all the corruption with the way US election campaigns are financed and lobbying, companies like Disney and FB can just bribe US politicians to look the other way while they recruit slave labor from India in place of Americans. That's the kind of thing that leads to revolutions in countries, and if this keeps going, I don't think the US will be an exception. The only mystery to me is why Trump hasn't cracked down much harder, certainly on the high-skill sectors like STEM that have been most hurt by the H-1B visa and where Americans are most in need of those jobs esp. since it takes so many years to get expertise, and students majoring in them have so much student debt. Trump wanted to shut down the H-1B visa fiasco entirely in the campaign to all the mass corruption and abuse, and he has the power to do it and on this issue, support from a big majority of the US population. But he's gotten cold feet.
The unfortunate part is that everyone knows this needs to be done, but in the current environment neither side is willing to compromise at all. We desperately need comprehensive immigration reform. H1, Asylee, immigrant requirements all need to be addressed, and you can't really do one effectively without doing them all.
There's a lot of H1 abuse, but at the same time H1 has brought a lot of really skilled really good people that contribute to our greater society in both financially and socially positive ways. There's a place for the plan, but the wholesale abuse needs to be stopped. Same with general immigration. In a rapidly modernizing world, not having a merit based system is nonsensical. There's still a requirement to have refugees and asylees, and even some familial immigration, but there's no need to have it stretch beyond parents/children without clear sponsorship or financial responsibility placed on sponsor of the immigrant.
There needs to be a path to permanent residency for illegals. Maybe not citizenship, but moving them into the system benefits everyone, as those tax dollars become accountable and the demand for all the scum that traffics people lessens.
We need a more efficient processing system for all these people. I don't know if the answer is hiring 50,000 people to process, or a better system, or what, but waiting multiple years for a decision or a change in status is crazy, and also allows people to go missing within the system.
The problems and answers are near limitless, but we all need to come together to compromise, because the current state is untenable.
Merit based system has its flaws. Immigrants are required as per requirements, people with higher merit may find them jobless.
There are many doctors from India driving Cab or working at gas stations because they could not clear the Licensing exam once coming to Canada / USA. I personally know a MS plus MBA with 10 years of experience who is working part-time at Lowes. So called merit system will bring individuals with higher degree but there may be no jobs for them. If you bring 100 Ph.D. in Physics, this will ruin the already saturated job market of American students who have done Ph.Ds in the same field.
If the job requirement is of picking apples at an orchard or making curry at a Pakistani Restaurant, how will any Merit based immigration system help?
No federal administration has ever dealt with the third rail issue of LEGAL immigration, and that is why illegal immigration is the headliner act in all of this low pay immigration theatrics.. Trump, like the others has overlooked the facts of undermining American citizens with legal low payed interlopers from third world nations. No, he's all for that system, he has taken advantage of those programs in his own business interests so why would he want to overturn the gift horse aspect of that cheap labor?
The biggest chunk of our collective prosperity being taken by foreigners is all rolled up in the H-1B program, the illegals are mostly pitching hay or putting on roofing. Trump is screaming about the wall, while leaving the door wide open for all those legal types coming here to take American jobs, it's a pitiful act but one he loves to play. This is the stupidity of believing the common hype, media speak has long been focused on the illegal aliens coming here, but they are strangely silent on the real threat to American labor..
This is so true, in fact you're right not only policy but also on the political side of things. American voters just don't care about most issues the media goes on about, for 95% of voters it's basically jobs and healthcare, which is why I don't understand why Trump has been so reluctant to fulfill his campaign promises on severely restricting the H-1B or even putting a moratorium on it, that's the one issue Americans will be voting on in 2018 and 2020 and the one he has to follow through on if he wants to win. And what you say about excessive legal immigration of cheap labor from ex. India, being a much greater threat to Americans' economic well being than illegal immigration-- totally true. In my experience, and I have a lot of conservative friends and family members, even rather few conservatives really care so much about those "border-crossers" or building the wall. Sure, it has symbolism, but in practice, the illegal aliens crossing the US border from Mexico and Central America really don't pose a huge threat to American jobs, wages or livelihoods overall.
OTOH, mass immigration-- legal immigration (for now)-- from the two countries that most use and abuse the H-1B visa and other visas like it, India and China, absolutely poses a very direct threat to Americans' livelihoods and their ability to support themselves and their family. Because of their huge population, close to 2.5 billion people between them, and the sheer desperation of so many of them to get a green card, far too many are willing to basically indenture themselves and accept sub-standard wages for US jobs. Because that's what the H-1B is, a modern formal way to do indentured servitude. And if employers can basically get slave labor from India and China, then Americans who need jobs in their own country to cover student loans, mortgages and family costs, are left out in the cold. So mass legal (for now) immigrant cheap labor from India and China on things like the H-1B visa, unlike illegal immigration like you say, really is a direct threat to Americans' jobs, livelihoods and ability to support themselves, in fact it's the biggest threat by far to the big majority of Americans' economic well being alongside automation eliminating so many jobs. Even worse, the jobs affected are usually high skill middle class and upper class jobs and Americans have to take on a lot of student loans to get them.
In fact I think this is a big part of what's causing the US birth rate to fall so hard and Americans dying so young compared to Europe. Americans have just stopped having kids because, even if they have a job, they can easily wind up like those hard-working tech workers at Disney in 2015, replaced on a dime when cheap labor from Bangalore is brought in on the H-1B and made to work 100 hours/week. So nobody feels comfortable starting a family anymore, even people with high-paying supposedly upper class jobs, when there's a constant threat of getting replaced by cheap labor and having trouble getting a new job to support the family since US cost of living is so high. And too many Americans, even skilled ones can't get good jobs, so lots of suicides and the opiate epidemic.
This is why every other country in the world protects their own workers' jobs. India and China themselves are tough about this, India is afraid of all the millions of millions of poor people from Bangladesh who would indenture themselves and work as cheap labor for Indian firms, so they tightly restrict it. Same with China. Same with Europe, they don't let cheap labor come in and reduce wages and jobs for native Europeans, and any employer who tries this goes to jail. Foreign workers in Europe must be paid the same wages as natives. The US is the only country that favors foreign slave labor over native free labor, and the H-1B formalizes the indentured servitude and is a huge threat to American labor.
Great post, so many good observations you've made here. From my friends and my own family members across the work spectrum from around retirement to those just coming out of college, the job market is just awful despite all the happy-talking about low unemployment. That's mostly because even educated Americans are applying to like 2,000 jobs and not hearing anything back, just giving up and dropping out of the workforce so they're not counted as "unemployed". (Either that or you have PhD's driving cabs or filling coffee orders). And that's because of the glut of foreign workers esp. from India, because the US corporations, self claimed elites and too many politicians in government actively work against the interests of American workers and despite the nation-killing student loan crisis, they either ignore or reward companies that hire cheap labor from abroad in place of Americans for American jobs, even for high skilled professions in STEM fields like computer programming.
It's just nuts, I've never heard of another country with a labor policy that actively discriminates in favor of foreign workers and against it's own citizens. It's got to be the dumbest policy ever conceived and it's because of all the corruption with the way US election campaigns are financed and lobbying, companies like Disney and FB can just bribe US politicians to look the other way while they recruit slave labor from India in place of Americans. That's the kind of thing that leads to revolutions in countries, and if this keeps going, I don't think the US will be an exception. The only mystery to me is why Trump hasn't cracked down much harder, certainly on the high-skill sectors like STEM that have been most hurt by the H-1B visa and where Americans are most in need of those jobs esp. since it takes so many years to get expertise, and students majoring in them have so much student debt. Trump wanted to shut down the H-1B visa fiasco entirely in the campaign to all the mass corruption and abuse, and he has the power to do it and on this issue, support from a big majority of the US population. But he's gotten cold feet.
I would put my money on the fact that much of his "other" supporters are utilizing a fair portion of those designated as H1-B, Trump will continue to attempt his high wire act of pandering to both sides of the conservative cohort, a slippery slope to be sure but he is, after all, still campaigning...
No federal administration has ever dealt with the third rail issue of LEGAL immigration, and that is why illegal immigration is the headliner act in all of this low pay immigration theatrics.. Trump, like the others has overlooked the facts of undermining American citizens with legal low payed interlopers from third world nations. No, he's all for that system, he has taken advantage of those programs in his own business interests so why would he want to overturn the gift horse aspect of that cheap labor?
The biggest chunk of our collective prosperity being taken by foreigners is all rolled up in the H-1B program, the illegals are mostly pitching hay or putting on roofing. Trump is screaming about the wall, while leaving the door wide open for all those legal types coming here to take American jobs, it's a pitiful act but one he loves to play. This is the stupidity of believing the common hype, media speak has long been focused on the illegal aliens coming here, but they are strangely silent on the real threat to American labor..
And again this brings us right back to the political side of this and why Trump has been so hesitant to take action on an issue where Americans are unanimous across spectrum, liberals and conservatives, that he should sharply restrict or just shut down the H-1B visa. Basically everybody hates it except corporate plutocrats like Disney in 2015 that profit from slave labor from India. Even most Indians I've talked to hate it, the way it encourages exploitation, race to bottom, faking resumes and credentials. Trump in the campaign realized all this and it was one of his smartest campaign promises, and the one that's most important for him to follow through on. Not 1 in 100 Americans cares much about Trump "following through" on things like Iran, those things don't directly affect us. OTOH labor policy and the H-1B visa do directly affect us, like I said the mass cheap labor from India and China that could come in on the US on visas like that, and target middle-class and upper-class jobs, is the single biggest threat to American livelihoods along with automation, there's no way for the USA to maintain decent wages and standard of living is employers are allowed to hire what's basically foreign slave labor and force them into indentured servitude through the H-1B.
Just can't figure out why, as you say Trump has been so comparatively weak on this issue when he's so strong on the others, or why he goes on so much about the wall and illegals, which doesn't really pose a direct threat to most American's livelihoods, while being so timid on mass legal immigration through things like H-1B, which is a threat. Trump's basically committing political suicide here. Like I said Americans really care only about a couple key issues, like jobs and healthcare, and Republicans are very unpopular on healthcare, so if Trump wants to prevent a Blue Wave in 2018 and get re-elected in 2020, he has to respond to Americans' concerns about the H-1B visa and mass cheap labor hurting American jobs and wages. It's the only reason most people voted for him, esp. Independents, and if he doesn't follow through, he's toast, people have no reason to vote for him. It's bizarre he's move away from his populist positions on this one key issue and instead side with the globalists by being so weak on the H-1B reform, when the globalists will hate Trump anyway and laugh at Trump for doing their bidding at his own expense. I mean, sure a lot of people hate Trump, but until this now I figured at least even his political enemies had to admit he has good political instincts. But on this issue, probably his most important, apparently not.
The H-1B and L-1 visa abuses: is Trump reforming them?
No, he is not. Trump rules by EO alone, and he can't reform anything that way.
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