Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2012 20:40:14 -0500
From: mark <whitroth at 5-cent.us>
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: [WSFA] H-1B visa abuse limits wages and steals US jobs
Reply-To: WSFA members <WSFAlist at KeithLynch.net>

Excerpt:
The H-1B visa program was created in 1990 to allow companies to bring
skilled technical workers into the USA. It's a non-immigrant visa and so
has nothing at all to do with staying in the country, becoming a
citizen, or starting a business. Big tech employers are constantly
lobbying for increases in H-1B quotas citing their inability to find
qualified US job applicants. Microsoft cofounder Bill Gates and other
leaders from the IT industry have testified about this before Congress.
Both major political parties embrace the H-1B program with varying
levels of enthusiasm.

But Bill Gates is wrong. What he said to Congress may have been right
for Microsoft but was wrong for America and can only lead to lower
wages, lower employment, and a lower standard of living. This is a
bigger deal than people understand: it's the rebirth of industrial labor
relations circa 1920. Our ignorance about the H-1B visa program is being
used to unfairly limit wages and steal -- yes, steal -- jobs from US
citizens.

H-1B Explained

There are a number of common misunderstandings about the H-1B program,
the first of which is its size. H-1B quotas are set by Congress and vary
from 65,000 to 190,000 per year. While that would seem to limit the
impact of the program on a nation of 300+ million, H-1B is way bigger
than you think because each visa lasts for three years and can be
extended for another three years after that.

At any moment, then, there are about 700,000 H-1B visa holders working
in the USA.

Most of these H-1B visa holders work in Information Technology and most
of those come from India. There are about 500,000 IT workers in the USA
holding H-1B visas. According to the US Census Bureau, there are about
2.5 million IT workers in America. So approximately 20 percent of the
domestic IT workforce isn't domestic at all, but imported on H-1B visas.
Keep this in mind as we move forward.
--- end excerpt ---

<http://betanews.com/2012/10/25/h-1b-visa-abuse-limits-wages-and-steals-us-jobs/>

       mark

--
When asked why the Constitution makes no mention whatever of God,
Alexander Hamilton was reported to have  flippantly replied "the new
nation was not in need of "foreign aid"