H-1b: Why the highly coveted visa that changed my life is now reviled in America
Article CAIRCO note:
Professional American IT workers are routinely forced to train their underpaid foreign worker replacements
Article publisher:
CNN
Article date:
5 June 2017
Article category:
Our American Future
Medium
Article Body:
... Employers must make a good-faith effort to recruit an American worker for a position before seeking an H-1B visa, but they don't have to document their efforts.
"The actual rules don't require companies to look for American workers and specialized skills," Hira says. "The definitions have gotten loose. Everything in the system is written in favor of the employers."...
The main reason American companies hire H-1B workers through outsourcing firms, Hira says, is to save money. A whole lot of it.
Employers are suppopesed to pay H-1B workers a "prevailing wage" based on the job and location. But Hira's research found that employers were recruiting H-1B labor at entry-level wages, not the average wage for specific jobs...
Infosys or Tata can save a company up to $45,000 per worker every year, according to Hira's analysis...
Laid off and forced to train his replacement
Craig Diangelo lost big to H-1B...
Not only did Diangelo, 65, lose his job to a less-skilled, lower-paid foreign worker, but he was forced to train his replacement or face losing his severance.
He'd worked in information technology all his life, but the sudden job loss dimmed his future considerably. So much so, that Diangelo is now running for office...
"I would like the law to change," Diangelo says. "You cannot bring over an H-1B worker to replace an American."...
In October 2013, the new managers gathered the 220 employees in Diangelo's unit and bluntly announced that their jobs were going to Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services.
"Why were we not given the first rights to re-apply for our jobs?" Diangelo says. "Why was I not given the opportunity to go to Infosys and say: 'I would like to apply for this position?' "
To make matters worse, Diangelo was told he would have to engage in "knowledge transfer" and train his Indian replacement.
"I was in complete disbelief," he says. "I gave my soul to this company. They had been good to me. It didn't make any sense."...
Related
Microsoft, Cisco Hide H-1B Hires Through Indian Outsourcing Firms, Says Report, Breitbart, June 8, 2017.
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