BUSINESS COMMENTARY
The unemployment rate in the United States still hovers around 9.1 percent, yet the U.S. federal government still allows companies to bring in foreign workers under its foreign worker programs with the excuse that local talent is not available.
The most debated programs are the H-1B, H-2B, L-1, OPT, J-1, and B-1 visas, under which a U.S. company can employ a foreign worker for up to six years. Each visa designation addresses a different need, with the H-2B visa allowing a company to bring in a foreign worker who lacks the qualification for a specific job but can be trained within a reasonable time.
During good economic times these programs helped people come to the Unites States, but over the years, and especially during the recent economic downturn, these programs stop Americans from getting jobs because they are lost to foreign workers that entered the country on the above foreign worker programs, according to a 2011 report by the Government Accountability Office (GAO).
“The total number of H-1B workers in the United States at any one time—and information about the length of their stay is unknown, because (1) data systems among the various agencies that process such individuals are not linked so individuals cannot be readily tracked, and (2) H-1B workers are not assigned a unique identifier that would allow for tracking them over time,” said the 2011 GAO report.
The H-1B visa is capped at 65,000 jobs annually, which is less than 1 percent of the total July 2011 U.S. unemployment numbers of 13.9 million people, but it adds up year after year. Also, the foreign worker may stay in the United States six years, and may even be eligible for a permanent residency and U.S. citizenship down the road. Then the individual brings in brothers, sisters, and families that can take jobs from qualified Americans.
“Loopholes in these programs have made it too easy to bring in cheaper foreign workers with ordinary skills, who directly substitute for, rather than complement, workers already in America. They are clearly displacing American workers and denying them both current and future opportunities,” testified Ronil Hira, professor at Rochester Institute of Technology, before a U.S. Senate subcommittee hearing in July.
Proponents of the H-1B visa saga roll out a slew of reasons why U.S. foreign workers programs should be kept alive, while opponents address the program’s problems that become more prominent during hard economic times.
The 2011 GAO report suggested that lax oversight and statutory changes are undermining the original intent and value of the foreign guest worker program. Besides, it has become easy to perpetrate fraud.
“A recent Department of Homeland Security study reported that 21 percent of the H-1B petitions they examined involved fraud or technical violations,” said the GAO report.
Over the past years, the programs have been watered down significantly and it gives an unintended competitive advantage to companies that outsource well-paying and high-tech jobs to foreign shores.
“For at least the past five years the employers receiving the most H-1B and L-1 visas are using them to offshore tens of thousands of high-wage, high-skilled American jobs,” testified Hira.
Scrutinizing Numbers
“The top three India-based offshore outsourcing firms, Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Ltd., and Wipro Ltd., added a stunning 57,000 net new employees last year alone [2010],” said Hira.
The outsourcing industry increases its workforce by the thousands year after year with American workers being on the losing end most of the time.
Infosys Ltd. brought into the United States 10,002 workers on the H-1B and L-1 visa between 2007 and 2009. Wipro Ltd. used the H-1B and L1 visa for 7,878 of its workforce.
“The H-1B and L-1 visa programs do not require any labor market test. … Employers are not required to show that qualified American workers are unavailable. ... Employers can and do bypass American workers when recruiting for open positions and even replace outright existing American workers with H-1B or L-1 guest workers,” testified Hira.
Next...America’s Icon Using J-1 Visa
America’s Icon Using J-1 Visa
“The J-1 Exchange Visitor Program is now the largest U.S. guest worker program in terms of annual admissions. Of the 350,000 exchange visitors and their spouses and dependents that entered the country in 2010, nearly 300,000 were employed in full- or part-time jobs during
their stay,” said a mid-2011 report by the Economic Policy Institute (EPI).
EPI suggests that summer jobs in the recreation and entertainment industry that should traditionally be reserved for America’s youth or those out of a job during hard economic times go to individuals from China, Russia, Brazil, India, and other countries.
Companies don’t have to advertise the availability of such jobs, even if there are many unemployed American workers in the particular area, and thus legality cannot be questioned.
“U.S. workers that are displaced by J-1 workers have no protections or enforcement tools under the State Department regulations,” according to the EPI report.
Even icons, such as the Hershey Company, are keeping American students from landing a summer job by bringing foreign students into the country for several months to learn English. The program Hershey has used is the J-1 visa program, which allows foreigners to come to the United States to fill seasonal tourism jobs at resorts and seaside towns.
Awareness of the J-1 cultural exchange visa program, which was largely hidden though the years, came to light after around 400 students, hired by Exel Inc., which runs the Hershey warehouse in Palmyra, demonstrated poor working conditions.
“The State Department’s J-1 Exchange Visitor Program allows for and facilitates the abuses the students face. … The J-1 has been hijacked by employers and turned into a program that provides cheap, exploitable labor,” according to a recent EPI article.
The EPI report accuses the State Department, which has complete oversight of the guest worker program, of not overseeing the program and neglecting to root out abuse.
“It is not clear that this guest worker diplomacy benefits anyone other than certain U.S. employers and sponsor organizations. If the Exchange Visitor Program is to continue, the State Department should provide evidence demonstrating how the country benefits culturally and educationally from having 300,000 workers enter the country each year to take jobs that young Americans desperately need,” said the EPI report.
Pink Slips for America’s Teachers
In researching the J-1 visa program, it appears to be a multiuse program, as it also brings teachers into the country at a time when many teachers are losing their jobs. Just to name a few instances: In 2011, New York City gave the pink slip to thousands of its teachers; the Los Angeles school district laid off 4,500 teachers; and the Milwaukee school system will have laid off more than 300 teachers before the beginning of the new school year.
“The Cordell Hull Foundation (CHF) is currently accepting applications from public, private, and charter schools to join our teacher exchange program, allowing CHF to sponsor foreign teachers to work for one to three years in U.S. K–12 schools,” said an article on the J1VisaTeachExc website.
What is little known to the average U.S. citizen is that the Chinese regime, through its so-called Confucius Institute, under a program called “Han Ban,” offers teachers to schools throughout the United States, and even pays salaries, living expenses, and round-trip transportation.
The Chinese offer is a way to make it easier to get rid of American teachers, make place for someone from a foreign country under the J-1 Visa, and as an added bonus, brainwash American youngsters.
Although the intent of the Confucius Institute appears to be benign, teaching about Chinese culture, the true objective is “to suppress criticism of China and to shape what is taught on campus through the usual tactics of bribery and intimidation,” according to an article on the Michael Turton blog.
The Confucius Institute is running into unforeseen problems with its major push to get itself integrated into schools worldwide.
The University of Pennsylvania decided not to host a Confucius Institute (CI) and India refused to have these institutes gain a foothold, according to an article on the Topix website. But neither addressed the J-1 visa program used to bring CI teachers to the United States.
“The best schools have refused to accept the CI due to similar concerns of decline of educational standards and educational freedom. Some of the best schools in the USA such as Harvard, Stanford, Yale, Princeton, Columbia, UPenn, and many other top-tier schools have refused CI programs,” according to an article on China Censorship Watch.
