Each fiscal yr, U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Companies (USCIS) allocates as much as 85,000 visas for the H-1B nonimmigrant visa program to briefly fill specialty occupations within the Science, Know-how, Engineering, and Math (STEM) fields and different expert disciplines. Overseas nationals should maintain a bachelor’s or grasp’s diploma to be chosen. Whereas the H-1B visa program’s proponents tout its supposed importance, this scheme is riddled with points.
- The H-1B Program Displaces American Employees.
The H-1B program permits employers to legally underpay H-1B staff, making using these visa recipients cheaper than hiring or retaining Americans. Based on the Economic Policy Institute (EPI), H-1B visa holders earn considerably lower than American staff, regardless of being in equivalent positions and having comparable training and work expertise.
The EPI information additionally present that 60 p.c of visa holders are paid nicely under the median wages of their localities by their sponsoring firms. This forces U.S. staff to compete in a job market that slashes their incomes potential and prioritizes hiring international labor. In numerous circumstances, labor contractors have fired American STEM workers to chop prices.
- Many H-1B recipients should not extremely expert.
A key intention of the H-1B program is to convey expert and specialised staff to fill labor gaps in our workforce briefly. A 2019 report exhibits that this part has been warped, as “most H-1B staff have not more than extraordinary expertise, expertise which are abundantly obtainable within the US labor market.” Most H-1B visa holders only have bachelor’s levels, that means many guestworkers seemingly have normal skilled expertise no totally different from U.S. residents.
The Middle for Immigration Research (CIS) found that foreign-educated guestworkers are much less expert than their American counterparts in STEM-related expertise. CIS’s findings confirmed international nationals who obtained a university or superior diploma exterior of the U.S. carried out poorly in pc operations, numeracy, and English-language literacy, scoring on the identical stage as U.S. residents who solely have a highschool diploma.
- The choice course of for H-1B candidates shouldn’t be based mostly on benefit.
Each April, USCIS begins the H-1B choice course of for qualifying candidates. This course of relies on a lottery system moderately than selecting people based mostly on their talent, superior training, or beginning wage. How does deciding on international staff by mere likelihood profit the U.S.? The present lottery scheme harms American workers by bringing in low cost international labor, leading to decrease wages for Americans, and prevents the hiring of really gifted guestworkers.
Options to the Downside
One answer can be enacting the American Tech Workforce Act, launched by Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.). The invoice would require a wage flooring for H-1B purposes, requiring employers to pay both $110,000 or a wage that exceeds the annual wage final paid to an American employee (whichever is larger) in the identical place. The invoice would additionally create a market the place eligible visa purposes are based mostly on the best bidder as an alternative of counting on the present lottery system.
Rep. Banks’ invoice would codify the Trump administration’s proposed H-1B rule changes that have been introduced in 2020. A few of President Trump’s modifications embrace H-1B staff truly possessing distinctive expertise and {qualifications} to be employed.
President Joe Biden campaigned on reforming short-term guestworker packages to make sure they’re wage-based and have correct enforcement measures. The president has additionally signaled that he helps shifting to a merit-based system for short-term visa packages. What’s he ready for? Except President Biden expands on his predecessor’s progress on the H-1B program, it is going to proceed to have an effect on American staff negatively.