ITIF report debunks theories by critics of the H-1B visa.
By Raif Karerat
WASHINGTON, DC: A new report released by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF), a Washington D.C.-based think tank, has taken a handful of misconceptions about H-1B visas to task.
“Despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary, a vocal group of advocates insists that the United States does not face a shortage of science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) workers,” reads the ITIF’s release. “The advocates argue incorrectly that high-skilled immigration is not only unnecessary but is actually harmful to American workers,” it adds.
The report, which debunks 10 myths commonly touted by critics of the H-1B program, should be largely welcomed by Indian information technology companies that receive the largest number of H1-B allocations and have consequently been accused of stealing jobs from American nationals on their own soil.
“Good report,” an unnamed source inside India’s technology sector told the Hindustan Times. “This is the argument we and other tech companies (U.S., Indian, and others) have been making for some time.”
Titled, “Debunking the Top Ten Arguments Against High-Skilled Immigration,” the study states high-skilled guest workers are brought in to complement — not substitute — the domestic workforce, excluding some recent exceptions, as in California. “They create jobs in their industries by complementing native workers, create jobs in local service industries through the multiplier effect, and create other advanced jobs through high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation,” the paper reads.
The ITIF says H-1B critics are “more interested in protecting the salaries of high-wage professionals than in helping the broad base of American consumers and workers.”
While critics may argue H-1B visas allow foreign companies to compete in American markets, the report contrarily states the myth masks the definitive fact that H-1B guest workers enable American companies to continue to operate Stateside without off shoring.
The ITIF states the current limits impressed on H-1B visas are what force many companies to go abroad, costing Americans an estimated half million jobs each year.
14 Comments
Things we know about H-1b from publicly available data:
– Most of the Random Access H-1b visas are taken up by Offshore Outsourcing companies.
Random Access = H-1b visas not claimed by other countries in trade deals (which is idiotic) or are otherwise restricted to specific institutions, for example university and medical.
– Offshore Outsourcing companies stuff in a huge number of H-1b visas in order to force a lottery. Because they don’t really care who they bring in (if A or B don’t win in the lottery, C will do just fine because their workers are all trainees anyway)
– Forcing a lottery is in the best interest of Offshore Outsourcing companies, because it gives them a Federal Government provided monopoly on cheap IT and STEM labor.
– One Offshore Outsourcing liaison can remove 10+ jobs a year to an overseas office, via 3AM teleconference calls.
– Offshore Outsourcing companies use hundreds of thousands of Visas each year, but literally sponsor only a handful of people for Green Card. So most H-1b workers will never become U.S. citizens and entrepreneurs. Most H-1b workers are involved with job destruction in the United States.-
– Offshore Outsourcing companies use most of the H-1b visas, but never consider the resumes of U.S. engineers. Instead, the Offshore Outsourcing companies have an internal policy of only hiring people from India for U.S. engineering jobs. And we know this from Publicly available U.S. court documents.
– The reason why legitimate U.S. businesses cannot get reliable access to the H-1b system, is because the Offshore Outsourcing companies want it that way. Any increase in the number of H-1b visas will simply be taken up by the Offshore Outsourcing companies.
– There are numerous cases of H-1b workers being trained by better qualified, more skilled U.S. workers, that are then replaced by the H-1b worker.
– Southern California Edison, Pfizer all did H-1b replacements of local workers. And as you can tell, by these names, H-1b replacement typically occurs at companies that have enjoyed steady profits for year. Pfizer makes 10+ billion in profit. SCE give shared holders a government guaranteed 10% return on investment. This is because the dead wood is at the top of these companies, and they have run out of ideas on how to actually compete in the market place. So Offshore Outsourcing companies provide a government supplied turnkey solution to boosting profits and putting gold in the parachute.
My opinion: Libertarians have got to realize that H-1b is a government program, it is not compatible with libertarian philosophy. In that it promotes a second class of indentured worker, without full rights. Libertarian business people should be promoting Green cards only, as they give the worker their full rights and restore a free market competition for goods, workers, and services.
Sadly, and it is often the case, business people don’t what the real problem is. We all work at our small tasks as businessmen engineers, but we fail to see the big picture on immigration.
The two pro-h1b witnesses at the recent Senate hearing did not have an opinion on the Offshore Outsourcing companies. They had never thought about it, and stated this when asked. But the business guy started to understand the real problem with over-subscription by Offshore Outsourcing companies toward the end of the hearing.
The truth is U.S. businesses don’t need the H-1b visa, they need permanent workers. A better Green card system is the way to go.
The reality is that the H-1b visa distorts the market in favor of the Offshore Outsourcing companies. These companies damage U.S. economy by removing jobs. And add no real value to economy as they just replicate the exact same functionality overseas.
In the quoted study, “Debunking the Top Ten
Arguments Against High-Skilled Immigration,” one of the authors, Adams B. Nager quotes himself 8 times in the Endnotes section. The other author, Dr. Robert Atkinson quotes himself 3 times (both excluding Ibid cites).
My comment appears to have been declined, I don’t see the “pending approval” tag anymore.
Updated: the data I provided has been posted below.
the title of the article is interesting too , repeating a claim that I have seen , but have not seen the data or the jobs that they are talking about. What kinds of jobs do these visaholders help create? seriously.
“H-1B visa holders help create jobs in the US: Washington think tank ITIF”
Here is the statement from the article that attempts to answer my question posed here:
““They create jobs in their industries by complementing native workers, create jobs in local service industries through the multiplier effect, and create other advanced jobs through high rates of entrepreneurship and innovation,” the paper reads.”
One quick response to this is that H-1b, as guest workers, and not immigrants with real stakes in america, with a requirement to be sponsored by companies cannot by definition participate in entrepreneurship . So this statement betrays the way the majority of H-1b are deployed in the American corporate landscape – as ‘coolies’ with pedestrian tech skills instead of ‘gurus’ with exceptional tech skills. The former can be had readily in america; the latter indeed (by definition) not as much and in fact are a proper use of H-1b.
“They create jobs in their industries by complementing native workers, create jobs in local service industries through the multiplier effect,”
–THe response here is that, yes , jobs would be created in a multiplier effect manner when AMERICANS are also so employed in the jobs priming the multiplier effect. In programming it is ALL ABOUT the rule that is applied to the subject that is being programmed : and the rule here is
1) First Americans should get access to the jobs
2) NEXT non Americans get access to the what is left over from (1)
The Programmers Guild, a group that watches the plight of American IT workers says on this: “Funny, the “think tank” that creates this report has the same address as the CEO group “Change the Equation” that has the same address as an tech industry lobbying group.”
The “study” is supposedly about STEM, but puts a heavy emphasis on IT shortage. I’m not seeing a labor shortage in this data. It looks more like an oversubscription of foreign students in postgraduate programs taking seats from Americans and permanent residents.
OES Employment Growth 2004-2013 [1]
— Math and Computer Sci 2004 = 2,915,300
— Math and Computer Sci 2013 = 3,696,180
Total Math and Computer Sci Employment Growth = 780,880
Bachelors and Associate degrees conferred [2]
Citizens and Permanent Residents: 2004-2013
Academic Discipline, Broad (standardized)
— Engineering = 708,298 (70,830 avg. per year)
— Physical Sciences = 191,492 (19,149 avg. per year)
— Geosciences = 46,875 (4,688 avg. per year)
— Math and Computer Sciences = 945,901 (94,590 avg. per year)
— Science and Engineering Technologies = 1,485,926 (148,593 avg. per year)
Total = 3,378,492 (337,849 avg. per year)
[1] Occupational Employment Statistics: OES DATA
http://www.bls.gov/oes/tables.htm
[2] National Center for Education Statistics (NCES) Data Sources
https://ncsesdata.nsf.gov/webcaspar/
* Latest data available is 2013
article: ‘The ITIF says H-1B critics are “more interested in protecting the salaries of high-wage professionals than in helping the broad base of American consumers and workers.”’
–that is also quite funny to use as a talking point in the argument. Well, yeah , american IT people are interesting in keeping their jobs and what goes along with that is their salaries.
But are they ‘high wage’ salaries? According to stats, on avg, they are stuck in 1999 buying power. Also, high salaries implies a comparison — compared to salaries in India where they do not have the carrying costs to live in a place with good roads, schools, environmental and civil infrastructure, perhaps they are high. But it is absurd to compare these two incomparables.
Lies
http://keepamericaatwork.com/at-what-price-does-an-american-sell-its-integrity/
Does it really?
http://keepamericaatwork.com/at-what-price-does-an-american-sell-its-integrity/
The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation? They claim that they are a “think tank.” A better name would be a “juke box,” because they will play any tune that you want if you just put in enough money.
The H1B Visa Program is detrimental to the American middle class.
It’s a simple case of Economics 101: The Law of Supply and Demand.
Tech labor is a resource that follows this natural law. If you flood any labor market with outside labor, the wage rate is pressured downward, thus harming or destroying the careers local workers.
If there were a shortage of tech/STEM labor in America, we would see wage rates skyrocketing. But the wage rates of American tech workers have been going down since their peak in 2001.
Why? Because of a massive inflow of H1B Visa tech workers from abroad, mainly from India.
The H1B Visa Program is destructive to American workers and American families and should be terminated.
Yes sir. And here we witness more of the endless shilling by the cheap labor lobby. If anyone is interested in what $2B spent (by tech corporations) for “lobbying” and propaganda can buy, the H-1B astroturf campaign and corrupt politicians such as Orrin Hatch (a.k.a. Judas) are prime examples/case studies.
You get catchy falsehoods such as: “skilled labor shortage”, “thousands of unfilled jobs”, “best and brightest” and “jobs Americans won’t do”. AND you get the “magical foreign worker.” Foreign workers who, if hired rather than a qualified citizens, will magically create many more jobs. Such a deal huh?
This new report can be summed up as follows:
“Don’t believe your lying eyes.”