Joe,
Congratulations for bringing us an insightful article on a sensitive subject. I specially liked the way you take an open stand and express your ideas in a frank and non-provocative manner. I wish other people get inspired by this article and follow a similar approach.
As a foreign worker on a H1-B status, I could not agree more with you that the H1-B program was designed as a quick patch for a rather large problem. At the heart of this program lied the immeadiate need for trained IT personnel. Times have changed and the program certainly needs a fundamental revision. Especially, since the IT job marked had plunged, there is really little left to the domestic IT workforce, than lobbying the Congress for anti-outsourcing and anti-H-1B legislations. That's understandable. This is not to say that the domestic IT industry backs this type of legislations, though. It's only the couple of IT labor organizations, that make all the noise in Washington, DC. The industry, mainly represented by large corporation such as IBM, Microsoft, Dell, Hp, (
http://www.h1bsponsors.com/Top100h1b.html) seems not to care that much. They even look scared, for a protectionist move from the administration may close their "new" window of opportunity. But they also know that this is unlikely to happen. They realize that the steel industry got what they needed - they got their high tarrifs on foreign steel imports. The textile industry is also happy - they are now protection from China. But, in the case of the IT industry, what they want is the total opposite. They do not want to be protected, contrary, they want to be left alone, so they can exapand as far as they can. And they should. If they do not get the relatively cheaper labor from India today, who guarrantees that French, German, Chinese and other competitors will not close that market tomorrow?
In a way, the the IT industry does not want to close a valuable valve of talent hidden in the un-explored fields of Asia, and East Europe.
Cheap labor is like anything else that's cheap: You get what you pay for. But the companies using these services don't see it...yet.
My assumption is that you are not referring to the H-1B visa workers, because as we all know they are far from cheap. In fact they are not even inexpensive.
Numerous reports from the Bureau of Labor statistics, Information Technology Association of America and other independent research organizations indicate that highly educated foreign workers earn more that their American counterparts. For instance a 1995(recent data shows similar paterns) survey by the Center for Immigration Studies in Washington D.C, found that median wages for foreign born math/Computer scientists and skilled labor were higher than for native American counterparts. Because nearly 40% of the foreign born computer professionals hold advanced degrees, compared to 16% of the native American IT workers, the share of the foreign born with high-earnings-more than $75,000 per year- was more than double that of
natives.
Ref: (
http://www.epf.org/research/newsletters/1998/eb980917.asp)
Sample wage comparison(again, recent data shows similar patterns) :
Once again I would like to reiterate my heartly admiration for your work, and I would like to see more people discussing this issue.
[ November 24, 2003: Message edited by: Levent Gurses ]
I could not say it more precisely! Thank you!!!
