http://www.theithacajournal.com/news/stories/20000904/opinion/27812.html



The Ithaca Journal


Monday, September 4, 2000

Why Clinton should veto 'H1-B'

By Vernon M. Briggs Jr./Guest Columnist
_________________________________________________________________

The sad but informative letter of the Jesse Fern (Aug. 26 "Software
labor shortage") is right on target. The H1-B visa program is a fraud.
It is not intended to fill a shortage of computer programmers.

Its purpose is to supply a greedy industry with cheap workers who
cannot be bid away in what is supposed to be a competitive labor
market.

As Fern's letter indicates, as long as this phony program is allowed
to exist, very few U.S. citizens will ever be hired. The computer
industry, in all of its myriad of forms, has found a way to legally
discriminate against the employment of U.S. citizens in their own
country.

The H1-B program allows U.S. firms to hire foreign nationals on
temporary visas for up to six-year periods of time. During this time,
the foreign workers are under contract to the U.S. employer and may
not quit in response to any offer from a competitor. They are
essentially indentured servants. Their only option, if dissatisfied
with their employer or life in America, is to return to their
homeland.

In its present manifestation, the H1-B visa was created by the
Immigration Act of 1990. It is supposed to be a way to admit workers
for employment in "specialty organizations" where there are "temporary
shortages" of U.S. workers until the nation's education and training
system can respond by providing sufficient job applicants.

The numbers of visas was originally capped at 65,000 a year. In 1998,
at the insistence of the computer industry, the cap was almost doubled
to 115,000 a year. Pending in Congress at this very moment is a
proposal to almost double the number again to 200,000 visas a year.

As it has evolved over the past 10 years, the H1-B program has been
converted from being a worker recruitment program of last resort to
one of first preference and almost exclusive use.

There is no effective check made by the under-staffed and under-funded
Department of Labor that is responsible for verifying the assertion of
the industry that they cannot find "qualified" applicants.

The industry needs only "attest" to the fact that a shortage exists in
order to have visas issued to people from various less economically
developed countries (e.g., India, Pakistan, Taiwan, Eastern Europe,
Russia) to fill in the openings.

As a consequence, the computer industry has been able to recruit
programmers to work at wage levels considerably below what comparably
trained workers in the U.S. feel are justified for investing in such a
career. Moreover, as Mr. Fern's letter testified, the employers are
now requiring several years of prior experience work to be hired.

Workers in Third World nations are willing to work for these low wages
(which are higher than they receive in their homelands) and they
already have the requisite years of work experience. As a consequence,
few young Americans are even considered should they apply for any of
the jobs that the industry is required by law to advertise.

Moreover, as the industry is able to keep H1-B workers for up to six
years, there is no fear that the supposedly free market will cause
wages to rise in response to competition as the industry expands.

Likewise, as more and more Americans like Mr. Fern realize that they
are not wanted despite all the hype about the need for more
programmers, there will be more claims by the industry that American
workers are unavailable to meet their demand. But such a consequence
is entirely a self-fulfilling prophecy.

One hopes that President Clinton will veto the pending meritless
proposal to increase the H1-B cap when it reaches his desk. But given
the fact that both parties are so beholden to the computer industry
for financial support, I am not optimistic. The national interest
would be best served, as Mr. Fern suggests, if this corporate labor
subsidy were terminated. But it will take an act of leadership to do
it.

---

Briggs is a professor in Cornell's School of Industrial and Labor
Relations. His book, "Immigration and American Unionism," is scheduled
to be published in the spring by Cornell University Press.