The H1B Visa Debate

The introduction of the H1B Visa, a type of visa created to solve the apparent skills gap within specialist jobs in the U.S., has become one of the most controversial aspects of U.S. Immigration policy. Many critics have argued that the H1-B program replaces American workers, which is exactly what the program is designed not to do. While advocates of the program, like Google’s Eric Schmidt, claim more approved H1-Bs will actually help the U.S. Economy, by advancing the idea of a highly skilled workforce. Let’s take a look at what the H1B Program is all about and pose a bigger question: what does the implementation of these visas mean for U.S. workers?

What is a H1B Visa?

According to U.S. Department of Labor, the H1B Visa is designed to help “employers who cannot obtain otherwise needed business skills and abilities from the U.S. workforce” to do so by “authorizing the temporary employment of qualified individuals” from outside the United States. In other words, if you are a technology company and you just can’t find engineering or computer science graduates locally with the right skills, you can apply for this visa to bring in foreign workers. However, the law, the Department goes on to say, is set up to “protect similarly employed U.S. workers from being adversely affected by the employment of nonimmigrant workers.” Which means, you can’t replace existing workers.

Not everyone is an advocate of the program. “The H1B program offers these employers the opportunity to lower labor costs by substituting cheaper H-1B workers for Americans,” said Professor Ron Hira, an Associate Professor at Rochester University in Public Policy who testified before the U.S. Congress on National Economic Policy, and published the book “Outsourcing America”, dealing specifically with the rise in these types of visas. “Disney is doing what most corporations have availed themselves of – cheaper guestworkers.”

TheProfessor is referring to a story, first reported by The New York Times, that claimed Disney World laid off 250 IT employees and replaced them with workers from an external company based in India. Over the next three months, the Times said, Disney employees were “required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost.” “This is very common,” says Professor Hira. “Tens of thousands of American workers have been forced into this indignity.”

Disney isn’t the only company using this type of visa, according to Professor Hira. Other organizations who “specialize in outsourcing” including Cognizant, HCL, IBM and Accenture also apply for H1-Bs. It should be noted, just because these organizations use this form of visa, does not in anyway imply they are abusing the system. The main argument from those in favour of this form of visa, is that a lack of skills has led companies to outsource to outside organizations.

Talent Shortages

The program was devised to address an apparent lack in talent in the STEM industries (Science, Technology, Engineering, and Maths), but is being used by broader industries who also assert a shortage of skilled workers as a reasoning for securing the visas. According to a 2013 report by Manpower on talent shortages, one in five employers say that a lack of talent is hurting the “organizations ability to meet the client’s needs,” which, according to the report, means companies are increasing their focus on foreign talent.

Advocates of the visas, contend that the implementation of the program is necessary in order to deal with this lack of talent, and claim the program is good for the U.S. economy. Google’s Eric Schmidt, one of the strongest advocates for the program, has urged the U.S. Congress to increase the number of visas and deal with any mitigating issues surrounding immigration reform later on.

The program points to an interesting development within the American workforce, whereby companies are choosing to hire overseas contract workers, instead of utilizing existing local talent. It has highlighted a new question about the ramifications of the H1-B visa for contracted workers. It represents big questions about the viability of a contractor’s job, and may even create uncertainty. If a contractor believes their job may be at risk of disappearing, the chances are this will harm the organization as a whole. There is only one real question, does the H1-B program unjustly replace American workers? For now, that’s a question that will stick firmly in the mind of workers and critics of the program.