Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa
Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa
Date: Tuesday, January 06, 2009 12:34 AM
<<<<< JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER No. 1953 -- 12/01/2009 >>>>>
Two very good articles were recently published.
"Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa?" is an article that was
published for Science Magazine. It starts out like it's going to be just
another one of those tear jerkers when it introduces a fictitious H-1B
scientist named "Otto B. Doing-Better". Don't let the intro fool you because
this is an excellent explantion about what is going on from both sides of the
issue.
http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2009_01_02/caredit.a0900001
Taken for Granted: Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa?
We haven't heard much from black activists on the issue of H-1B and
outsourcing. "An Opportunity to Build a New Workforce" by Harry C. Alford was
published for "The FinalCall". I'm not sure I would have read the article had
I known its source, which just goes to prove that opposition to H-1B and job
destruction can come from unexpected places. Alford has lots of insight about
the problems in the automobile industry that we don't see in the mainstream
media. His editorial is definitely worth a read -- just don't let preconceived
notions cloud your judgement until you read what he has to say.
http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_5475.shtml
An Opportunity to Build a New Workforce
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http://sciencecareers.sciencemag.org/career_magazine/previous_issues/articles/2009_01_02/caredit.a0900001
Taken for Granted: Brother, Can You Spare a Temporary Worker Visa?
By Beryl Lieff Benderly
January 02, 2009
"Postdocs hired at U.S. universities have become, for some time now, a new
kind of cheap labor -- who are most of the time only allowed to do those
experiments that please their bosses, and, on the other hand, cannot many
times contribute to the creative scientific process." --Otto B.
Doing-Better
Four and a half years ago, a young scientist we ll call Otto B.
Doing-Better began what he thought would be his dream postdoctoral
appointment. Otto is one of the tens of thousands of foreign scientific and
technical workers in the United States on H-1B visas, which admit nonimmigrant
skilled workers for a limited number of years. A lab chief we ll call Manny
Grants had promised to help him get the prestigious publications needed for a
shot at a faculty post--and maybe even permanent residence in the United
States.
Instead of the career he had hoped for, today Otto has a life in ruins,
professionally and personally. His employment prospects are stymied, and his
permission to stay in this country is about to run out. He sees no choice but
to return to his native land and seek work outside of science.
"I am a postdoc who has been ground up by the current system in U.S.
academia, where most of us are foreigners who rely on visas to remain in this
country," he tells Science Careers.
Professor Grants proved dictatorial and duplicitous when Otto "made
interesting and reproducible findings," the young scientist says. Some of
these results "contradicted some of [Prof. Grants ] views." The lab chief used
his power, Otto says, to prevent their publication. He gave Otto no raises and
then, citing funding difficulties, fired him. Lukewarm references kept Otto
from moving to another lab, ultimately costing him the right to remain in this
country, which depends on his staying employed.
Most heartbreaking of all, Otto s American-born child will stay here with his
estranged wife, who has filed for divorce.
H-1B holders vulnerability to their employers whims is only one of the many
features of this controversial visa that attract sharp criticism.
Just about everyone with a stake in the system--American engineers,
scientists, and IT professionals; high-tech executives and their lobbyists;
influential U.S. senators and the Department of Homeland Security--finds fault
with the program s provisions, enforcement, or both.
Visa holders such as Otto complain of exploitation and abuse. But many
American scientists and technical professionals blame the H-1B visa for
allowing temporary foreign workers to drive down wages and displace them from
jobs. Employers, meanwhile, denounce limits on the number of H-1B visas
available, which they say keep them from finding the skilled employees they
need.
In ordinary times, the controversy flares into public consciousness in the
spring, during well-orchestrated industry lobbying and PR campaigns seeking
more visas. This year, with unemployment mounting and degreed workers feeling
the effects more strongly than in past recessions, the issue appears likely to
grow much hotter than usual.
Missing Data
Complicating the debate, as usual, is a shortage of basic facts about the H-1B
and its effect on the American scientific and technical labor market.
Complete statistics are not collected on how many temporary foreign scientific
and technical workers are in the country, where they work, and whether they
leave the country when their visas expire or, as critics suggest, move into
the illegal immigrant pool. One widely quoted report asserts a relationship
between the presence of foreign workers and increased job opportunities for
Americans, although another analysis debunks the claim. Recently, the number
of available engineering positions has fallen as H-1B availability remained
constant.
What those claiming a technical talent shortage lack in evidence, they make up
for in well-funded persuasion. Indeed, the industry view has won over most
national politicians and policymakers. The plan for science and technology
proposed by the Obama campaign, for example, calls for "comprehensive
immigration reform that improves our visa programs to attract some of the
world's most talented people to America" and supports an increase in the
number of foreign scientists and technical people permitted to study, work,
and stay in the United States.
Thousands of Americans struggling to start or maintain scientific and
technical careers are unlikely to support such a plan. The plan does, however,
promise to answer some of Otto s complaints by ensuring that "workers are less
dependent on their employers for their right to stay in the country" and
holding accountable employers "who abuse the system and their workers."
The Obama document goes on to note that "while highly skilled immigrants make
strong contributions to our domestic technology industry, there are Americans
who could be filling those positions given appropriate opportunities for
training." These are encouraging words, but the statement doesn't go far
enough: What about the thousands of Americans already able to fill those jobs
without any further training? The United States routinely graduates several
times more people with scientific and technical degrees than it employs in
those fields, according to the National Science Board s Science and
Engineering Indicators 2008. Even without importing scientific and technical
workers from overseas, these figures indicate, employers can find a large
supply of skilled talent.
But employers would very likely have to pay these workers more than they pay
temporary visa holders. The desire to pay lower wages--and not a talent
shortage--is the real reason behind the demand for more H-1B visas, critics
insist. And, though it may lack political clout, this view has some world-
class intellectual backing. "There is no doubt that the [H-1B] program is a
benefit to their employers, enabling them to get workers at a lower wage, and
to that extent, it is a subsidy, " the late Nobel Prize-winning economist
Milton Friedman, godfather of market economics, has been quoted as saying. "If
you get a number of computer programmers who are moving to the United States,
as we do under the H-1B program, -- then computer programmers earnings are
either going to be hurt or not rise as much as otherwise," agreed Friedman s
fellow economics Nobelist and University of Chicago faculty colleague Gary
Becker in a lecture.
Reaching for Reform
When the H-1B visa was established in 1990, it was "intended to fill jobs for
a temporary amount of time while the country invested in American workers to
pick up the skills they needed. -- Unfortunately, the H-1B program is so
popular that it's now replacing the U.S. labor force," said Senator Charles
Grassley (R-IA) on the Senate floor in November 2007, according to a press
report. "Some employers have abused the H-1B and L-1 temporary work visa
programs, using them to bypass qualified American job applicants," added
Senator Dick Durbin (D-IL) in a statement. Recently, a report by the
Department of Homeland Security s U.S. Bureau of Citizenship and Immigration
Services found widespread fraud in the H-1B system.
But far more important and damaging than dishonesty, critics insist, are the
loopholes and abuses clearly permitted by existing law. Indian outsourcing
firms, for example, currently use large numbers of H-1B visas to bring workers
into the country to train for jobs that are then moved overseas. In 2007,
Grassley and Durbin co-sponsored a bill, as yet unpassed, that would increase
protections for both American workers and H-1B visa holders.
As the recession deepens, bringing hiring freezes and furloughs to budget-
strapped universities across the country and threatening the solvency of
private-sector firms, supporters of the Grassley-Durbin proposals appear
likely to press anew to pass the bill. At the very least, H-1B critics will
have strong ammunition--in the form of high unemployment rates--against
industry s annual campaign to get lawmakers to raise the H-1B limit.
None of this, of course, is any help to current H-1B casualties like Otto, who
is leaving the country embittered by an academic system he believes harms not
just powerless individuals but science itself. "Postdocs hired at U.S.
universities have become, for some time now, a new kind of cheap labor
-- who are most of the time only allowed to do those experiments that please
their bosses, and, on the other hand, cannot many times contribute to the
creative scientific process," he says. His former lab chief "used his powerful
position to impose his will and cover up some exciting results of mine, which
could have moved the field of cancer research forward." The H-1B, Otto argues,
made this possible.
If the Obama Administration truly wishes to inspire a new generation of
Americans "to excel in, and embrace, science and engineering" without
excluding "innovators from overseas" as its science and technology document
proclaims, then it needs to craft programs that protect both the many
Americans hoping for decent-paying science and technology jobs and the foreign
scientists coming to this country to work and learn. An overhaul of the H-1B
is an obvious place to start.
Images. Top: U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Middle: Kelly Krause.
Beryl Lieff Benderly writes from Washington, D.C.
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http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/article_5475.shtml
An Opportunity to Build a New Workforce
By Harry C. Alford
-Guest Columnist-
Updated Dec 22, 2008, 01:09 pm
Our economy is in dire straits. The employment levels are hitting new lows and
no end is in sight. The one thing we have going for us is a Visionary who will
become President of the United States on January 20, 2009. This provides us
with hope and motivation for positive change.
One of his biggest challenges will be putting people back to work. The only
way this is going to happen is for us to innovate and spring new opportunities
because business as usual will no longer work.
We must first recognize the fact that the U.S. Auto Industry will no longer be
the same. Chrysler will probably go under and Ford and GM will shrink to small
entities. Toyota will be king and Nissan, Honda, Hyundai, etc. will not be far
behind. A layman may say that the jobs will simply shift over to the Asian
companies.
The fact is they won t. Asian automakers do not hold a permanent workforce.
Most of their hourly workers are managed by staffing agencies.
That s right, they work for independent contractors and are, thus, tenuous.
The Asian firms don t even have to account for payroll, social security taxes
and reports to the IRS. Thus, there are no retirement benefits for these
workers as opposed to the good UAW agreements for U.S.
auto workers. My cousin worked over 16 years for Toyota as a construction
manager.
All the while she was an independent contractor. When she left all she had was
what she alone saved as there was no company participation. While U.S.
auto companies shrink, the Asian counterparts are having "their cake and
eating it too."
Another big factor that is shrinking the American workforce is outsourcing to
foreign shores.
Corporate America is turning its back on the American worker. Even if the work
is not outsourced jobs go to illegal immigrants or H-1B visa holders.
This accounts for millions of jobs. The nation of Mexico receives over $29
billion annually from its citizens who are working in the United States --
legally or illegally. That s a lot of money that is being pulled away from
American households.
What we need is a big fix or alternatives to the above. One huge opportunity
is right before our eyes. American communities are in need of updating and
repair. Our infrastructure is outdated and unsafe. The bridge that fell in
Minneapolis was a superb wake-up call.
House Majority Whip James Clyburn said a couple of weeks ago, "In South
Carolina alone we have over 6,000 bridges in need of repair. That s South
Carolina alone." Bridges, roads, government buildings, schools, hospitals,
etc., must be repaired and that is going to demand millions of new jobs in
construction, design and engineering. We are going to have to train a lot of
citizens and we must start doing this now. In addition, utility companies such
as electricity, gas, water, telephone, cable, broadband, etc., are in the same
state.
These private/public repairs are going to start now and last for the next
couple of decades. It is an excellent opportunity to get our workers prepared
and assist them in the integration of this new workforce.
A good model for this is what was done after the Katrina debacle. We trained
thousands of people who are now in the construction or ship building industry
via full time and permanent positions. (See
www.imgreat.org)
In addition to the infrastructure needs is the demand for Green Industry
innovation. The Obama administration is going to demand a new focus on
alternative energy production and increased independence from oil, gas, coal,
etc.
Nuclear energy plants will soon populate our land. An average job at a nuclear
energy plant is $150,000 per year. This is phenomenal and we must prepare a
ready workforce to meet the demand.
Solar energy, windmill energy, alternative fuel, traditional drilling and
pumping are going to bring jobs that will support a family very well.
Blacks must ensure that we are there when these doors of opportunity open.
Let s go to work!
We must also demand that construction unions finally start to integrate their
rolls via affirmative action and equal opportunity. Executive Order
11246 is over 46-years-old and the Civil Rights Act is more than 43-years-old.
The time has come for us to confront construction unions and demand a level
playing field.
Let s not fall for that old game known as "pre-apprentice programs."
No, every new hire must become a full-time apprentice with all the normal
benefits. Blacks are going to integrate these unions from top to bottom or any
such union defying this responsibility must be decertified.
For community activists, organizers, associations, elected officials, now is
the time to start preparing for these new opportunities. We can t be
traditional and wait and see what happens. We must be at the forefront and
advocate for our chances. YES WE CAN!
(Harry Alford is the co-founder, president and CEO of the National Black
Chamber of Commerce, Inc. This commentary was distributed by NNPA.)
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