- An immigration-reform group says American companies are
abusing foreign-worker programs in the high-tech industry to the detriment
of U.S. workers, even as industries close to home create "a growing
pool of available [American] labor."
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- The <http://www.fairus.org/>Federation for American
Immigration Reform reports in a new study despite continued high unemployment
in America's high-tech sector, companies are electing to import cheaper
foreign workers instead of rehiring U.S. counterparts.
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- Companies are able to bring in skilled foreign workers
under work visa programs authorized in the 1990 Immigration Act. <http://worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp?ARTICLE_ID=33861>As
WorldNetDaily reported, the special H-1B and L-1 visas allow corporations
to import up to 65,000 cheap skilled workers from foreign countries to
fill alleged labor shortages, a claim author, columnist and <http://www.eagleforum.org/>Eagle
Forum President Phyllis Schlafly says "was always a fiction and now
is nonsense."
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- The high-tech industry pushed successfully in 2000 for
Congress to increase the importation level to 195,000 for fiscal years
2001, 2002 and 2003.
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- In the new FAIR report, analysts said the programs are
being used to keep industry wages artificially low, among other purposes.
But the programs also are being used to shortchange American high-tech
professionals, it said.
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- "H-1B and L-1 visa programs allow people in professional
occupations to work in the United States on a temporary basis," said
a summary of the study, titled "<http://www.fairus.org/html/h1breport_2003.html>Deleting
American Workers: Abuse of the Temporary Foreign Worker System in the High
Tech Industry." "At a time of high unemployment, the high-tech
industry is flooding the labor market by importing workers who are willing
to work more cheaply than American high-tech workers."
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- Among the study's key findings:
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- Temporary foreign workers are paid less than American
counterparts, "driving down the prevailing wage and putting American
workers at a competitive disadvantage."
- To cut costs and increase profits, companies are shedding
more expensive American workers and "replacing them with cheaper foreign
workers under the H-1B and L-1 programs." Furthermore, the study says,
there is no law preventing this practice.
- The visa programs are "rife" with abuse and
are not subjected to the required amount of government scrutiny. "The
required government review of H-1B applications is a rubber stamp operation
and is not safeguarding American jobs as Congress intended," said
the study.
- The visa programs were created to fill professional worker
shortages but "no evidence" of such a shortage in the high-tech
industry exists. " To the contrary, the market is filled with laid
off, unemployed American high-tech workers," analysts concluded.
- So "blatant" is the abuse of the programs that
American employees are being required to train their foreign replacements
before being laid off.
- Regulations governing the H-1B program are "miniscule,"
the report said, but "the L-1 program puts American workers at an
even greater disadvantage."
- "Labor dynamics are changing. Major companies can
now hire people with top skills for $60,000 a year. We don,t need people
on H-1Bs anymore. We can replenish staff from our own population,"
Howard Rubin, former adviser on technology issues to President Clinton,
said in a February 2002 interview with InformationWeek.
-
- "One recruiter flatly told me they have 50 H-1Bs
willing to work cheap ahead of me in line," said one Dallas database
administrator in a Sept. 26, 2002, interview with the San Jose Mercury
News.
-
- As overall unemployment remains at levels unheard of
throughout the 1990s, U.S. corporations are reporting cheaper labor costs.
-
- "U.S. employers incurred a much smaller increase
in the cost of hiring and retaining workers during the second quarter of
2003 than they did in the previous three months," said the Dow Jones
news service, rising only 0.9 percent from April to June. "The cost
of wages and salaries grew even more slowly, rising just 0.6 percent."
-
- "Follow the money," says Schlafly. "The
big corporations hire aliens from India and China at half or a third the
[U.S.] wages, work them long hours without overtime pay and treat them
like indentured servants unable to quit for a better job."
-
- "What makes this racket possible is the partnership
between corporations and government," she adds.
-
- Other critics point out more than just foreign worker
programs are costing U.S. jobs. Writing in <http://www.amconmag.com/>The
American Conservative magazine this month, Pat Buchanan two-time GOP candidate
for president, author and <http://worldnetdaily.com/news/archives.asp?AUTHOR_ID=185>syndicated
columnist, blames free trade agreements such as the North American Free
Trade Agreement as a leading cause of U.S. job loss.
-
- "Across America the story is the same: steel and
lumber mills going into bankruptcy; textile plants moving to the Caribbean,
Mexico, Central America and the Far East; auto plants closing and opening
overseas; American mines being sealed and farms vanishing. Seven-hundred-thousand
textile workers many of them minorities and single women have lost their
jobs since NAFTA passed in 1993," writes Buchanan, a co-founder of
The American Conservative.
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- "Undeniably, free trade has delivered for consumers.
A trip to the mall, where the variety of suits, shoes, shirts, toys, gadgets,
games, TVs and appliances abounds, makes the case. But what has it cost
our country?" he said. "Every month George Bush has been in office,
America has lost manufacturing jobs. One in seven has vanished since his
inauguration. In 1950, a third of our labor force was in manufacturing.
Now, it is 12.5 percent. U.S. manufacturing is in a death spiral, and it
is not a natural death. This is a homicide. Open-borders free trade is
killing American manufacturing."
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- There are signs the Bush administration may be getting
the message.
-
- Sarah Nelson, consular officer at the U.S. consulate
in Kolkata, India, told the Economic Times newspaper Washington was set
to reduce the number of H-1B visas it issues to information technology,
or IT, professionals next year. Also, Nelson said U.S. officials were discussing
changes to the L-1 visa program.
-
- "We would like to protect U.S. jobs," Nelson
told participants in a conference organized by the Federation of Indian
Export Organizations and Indo-American Chamber of Commerce.
-
- She said India holds the highest number of H-1B visas.
She also said India's IT industry could suffer under the reduced visa program.
-
- Meanwhile, President Bush, speaking to a crowd at the
Kansas City Convention Center Thursday, was emphasizing job growth as well
as improving the economy. He said he would introduce a half-dozen steps
from energy to tort and health-care reform to decreasing regulation to
accomplish his goals.
-
- "Our economy is starting to grow again," he
said. "Americans are feeling more confident. I am determined to work
with the United States Congress to turn these hopeful signs into lasting
growth and greater prosperity and more jobs."
-
- But recent polls reflect Americans' anxiety over the
economy, and many have faulted the president for not making noticeable
improvements.
-
- <http://www.rasmussenreports.com/Bush_Economy.htm>Pollster
Scott Rassmussen, in a survey released yesterday, found just 34 percent
of Americans believe Bush is handling the economy well, while a plurality
41 percent give him a poor rating.
-
- And "looking ahead" confidence isn't strong.
Thirty-eight percent of Americans believe the economy will be better in
a year while 33 percent say worse, said the survey.
-
- Based on FAIR's findings, the foreign-worker visa programs
could be adding to the administration's job-growth problems.
-
- "Given that the United States has a population of
290 million people, a large share of whom are highly skilled and educated,
there is no need whatsoever for a high-tech guestworker program,"
the report said. "There is overwhelming evidence that the program
is operated largely as a means for employers to hold down their costs by
discriminating against American workers in their hiring practices."
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