Barack Obama on H1B and Immigration
November 26th, 2007 · 117 Comments
Michael Arrington interviews democrat senator and presidential candidate Barack Obama.
MA: What is your position on H1B visas in general? Do you believe the number of H1B visas should be increased?
BO: Highly skilled immigrants have contributed significantly to our domestic technology industry. But we have a skills shortage, not a worker shortage. There are plenty of Americans who could be filling tech jobs given the proper training. I am committed to investing in communities and people who have not had an opportunity to work and participate in the Internet economy as anything other than consumers. Most H-1B new arrivals, for example, have earned a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent abroad (42.5%). They are not all PhDs. We can and should produce more Americans with bachelor’s degrees that lead to jobs in technology. A report of the National Science Foundation (NSF) reveals that blacks, Hispanics, and Native Americans as a whole comprise more that 25% of the population but earn, as a whole, 16% of the bachelor degrees, 11% of the master’s degrees, and 5% of the doctorate degrees in science and engineering. We can do better than that and go a long way toward meeting industry’s need for skilled workers with Americans. Until we have achieved that, I will support a temporary increase in the H-1B visa program as a stopgap measure until we can reform our immigration system comprehensively. I support comprehensive immigration reform that includes improvement in our visa programs, including our legal permanent resident visa programs and temporary programs including the H-1B program, to attract some of the world’s most talented people to America. We should allow immigrants who earn their degrees in the U.S. to stay, work, and become Americans over time. As part of our comprehensive reform, we should examine our ability to replace a stopgap increase in the number of H1B visas with an increase in the number of permanent visas we issue to foreign skilled workers. I will also work to ensure immigrant workers are less dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country and would hold accountable employers who abuse the system and their workers.
Tags: H1B · Immigration
117 responses so far ↓
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Why don’t we have a count of American unemployed IT people that are trained and qualified (BSCS), but looking for work? Many studies have shown that we, in fact, do NOT have a shortage of skilled workers in the US.
Isn’t that something we should have?There are still many, many professionals out there that were laid off due to the H-1B surges in 200, 2001, and 2003, as well as the cumulative effects of outsourcing. They are underemployed, or have had to change fields and work multiple jobs to make ends meet. Do not forget that this visa is called the “outsourcing visa” because it accommodates and streamlines the ability to MOVE WORK OUT of the US.
Do we expect Americans to study hard, pay big tuition fees, preparing for a career - and become qualified (by BSCS degree) - only to find out that they are not first in line for jobs in their own country? (Think - What is wrong with this picture? Is this a Set-Up?)
The skills for IT jobs that you see in internet job postings are presented in very narrow specific terms with numerous listed skills - including even version numbers of products used. The chances of an individual having the exact mix of skills listed is improbable. And, any smart IT person would not be able to work locked into a specific, stagnant skill set. The nature of this work is to problem solve, to constantly learn and incorporate new skills into your skill set. This use of very specific skill sets in job postings is a means to disqualify American citizens on paper, so that less expensive foreign labor can be used.
Obama talks about a “bachelor’s degree or its equivalent” - the “or its equivalent” means what? a big loophole to bring in cheaper foreign workers without any rights.
Do not be fooled. Any well trained BSCS (Bachelor of Science in Computer Science) professional can easily and quickly learn new skills, and needs to, to keep an interest in work and to do a good job.
It sounds like Obama is trying to play both sides to me. I am hesitant to believe anyone that doesn’t talk about cleaning up all the well documented abuse in the H-1B and L-1 visa programs before they even mention ANYTHING about increases.
Haven’t we all heard about Lawrence Leibowitz, the Director of Marketing for Cohen & Grigsby now best known for teaching companies how to NOT HIRE AMERICAN WORKERS?
There are NOT enough new jobs in this field being generated right now to employ all the new graduates we have, forget about all the people that have been displaced by the previous serges in H-1B and L-1 visa use and the ongoing increase in outsourcing.
Increasing H-1B will promote and streamline more, faster outsourcing - that is NOT what Americans need. Women and minorities, as usual, are the hardest hit.
So when evaluating presidential candidates, we must really think about, who do they REALLY work for?
You can investigate this issue at: http://www.numbersusa.com/hottopic/H1B.html
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As A former tech worker who has seen many of his fellow Americans replaced by CHEAP H1B indentured servants this is my number one issue. I will not vote for any candidate who feels that the H1B program is nothing less that TREASON.
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10063 - good site. PeterPan
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you need to listen to the message again…you will learn if you pay attention…you are sounding like a cyclone hit you…go ask your parents who crossed the border when you were a baby. people like you are never going to float, whether there are immigrants or not
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LOL. The IT recruiters have been annoying me with tons and tons of job E-mails since 2004. There aren’t jobs? Something must be wrong with those unemployed folks.
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I’m a software engineer. After I graduated college, it was very, very challenging to find a job, because none of them were entry level. Of course, all of the entry level jobs have been outsourced to foreign countries. Still, I managed to get a job at a start-up, where I worked 12 - 15 hours a day for much less than the typical salary in my region. While I was there, almost HALF the software engineers were foreign, India and Mexico to be specific. They were HB1 contractors with roughly 7 years of experience each. My company would pay the contracting company and the contracting company would pay the hb1 worker roughly 30% of that, it was highway robbery!
A HB1 visa increase will just reward companies that outsource entry level work to foreign countries as well as contractors that hire hb1 workers and then take 60%. I’m sorry, but $15 an hour is NOT prevailing wage for a software engineer with 7 years experience, which is what some of these hb1 visa employees were getting paid. You know what though, they were happy with $15 a hour, because that is a lot of money compared to what they would earn in their native countries. So what happens? Wages are kept down while inflation increases and Americans are out of jobs.
Fix the HB1 visa program before you increase the cap. Start by auctioning off HB1 visas to the highest bidder instead of just giving them away first come first serve to contracting companies. Don’t allow HB1 visa workers rights like in-state tuition or tax breaks. Then, funnel money into creating entry level jobs in the U.S. Force companies to hire entry level citizens and train them, if we have to.
The company with the highest number of HB1 visas? Infosys, a contracting company with it’s headquarters located in Bangalore, India.
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The Only way to fix the H1B and L1 abuse is by strict regulations. First of all, third party H1B consulting should be banned. Also a person on H1B should be paid 10-20% more than what is the prevailing wage. After that, there would be no need to do anything, Sit back and watch the fun.
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neo - you took the words right out of my mouth! When there is a shortage, you pay more, not less. H1B is very simply a scam to bring wages of Americans down.
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I’m an EMPLOYED IT manager. We can easily train high school people to do a lot of the IT jobs, they don’t need BS degrees, a microsoft cert is sufficient. Yet my own company drives down wages routinely by bringing in H1B people rather than trying to compete or train Americans. We routinely offshore development and then lay off our developers. H1B is a corporate scam and is directly responsible for some of the collapse of the middle class. Personally I will not vote for anyone that supports it as is. At the same time my job would be in jepordy for even mentioning this to managment.
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Guys… bashing H-1B people won’t do any good. Wanna bash someone? Bash the big companies that are going offshore to hire cheap labor just to make more money. If H-1B jobs are still inside of the U.S., even if they get lower salaries than most of you, the jobs are still in the country. If the government shuts off H-1Bs, don’t think you will get these jobs. These greedy companies will just close their plants here and go offshore.
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Before I go too far I must say I have been on a H1B visa for the last few years… not a very enjoyable experience either from my side either. I work for a very big fortune 50 in my field of specialization (unfortunately,I would not have found work in this area in back home). The jobs good the pay is decent..and life is fine. It is however depressing to see entire divisions at other places, almost sweatshops, on H1 and L1. Where I agree with most of you is that we have been cornered by this corporate strategy. . my manager and HR seem to think they have thrown me a lifeline… to be honest its irritating and insulting.
I feel that we live in a complex world.. and no one gets chinese/indian/mexican comodities and services at cheap rates without paying a price. Someone somewhere in someway has to pay for it. For me, unfortunately, the other option is to go back home and carry with me a truck load of work with me when i leave
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Supply and demand, more supply and the price goes down.
H1B visa in a nutshell.
Go ahead tell me the law of supply and demand does not include local labor!
The “best and brightest” are replaced by the “cheap and desperate”
If your short of IT workers why do interviewers tell me I’m “Overqualified”
Why are there 25 different requirements including 3 years experience on an in-house system written in India?
Why have I trained H1B holders to take my job?The abuse of our immigration laws to lower salaries of Americans goes back to before the Civil war when the SLAVES of the south were competing against the paid workers of the north.
The Irish were brought in to lower wages of the Germans, the Chinese were brought in to lower wages of the Irish and the H1B’s are being brought in to lower the wages of Americans.
This is nothing new it’s not race, gender etc it’s Price
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H-1B as a remedy for labor shortages and as a means of hiring "the best and the brightest" from around the world
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H-1B visa holders may only work for sponsoring employers after approval by the Departments of Labor and Homeland Security.
Although most of the non-compliant H-1B workers had posted wages from employers in fields associated with technical or
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