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"The abuse of the system is real, and media reports are validating what we have argued against for years, including the fact that Americans are training their replacements."
(Grassley-Durbin Bill press statement, Nov 11)
There has been much ado about the H1-B and L1 visa programs for foreign workers, with some in favor, and some against. What is pretty clear though, is that abuses do happen.
Now Senators Chuck Grassley (R-IA) and Richard Durbin (D-IL) have introduced legislation to try and curb some of these abuses. Among other things, their bill proposes to prohibit companies with more than 50 employees of hiring H1-B employees if the company already employs more than 50 percent of H1-B and L1 visa holders, and to establish a wage floor for L1 workers.
Working conditions of similarly employed American workers may not be adversely affected by the hiring of the H-1B worker, including H-1B workers who have been placed by another employer at the American worker's worksite. In addition, it explicitly prohibits the replacement of American workers by H-1B or L-1 visa holders.
Full text of the bill here (pdf), supporting statement by IEEE USA here.
Given election times and all, what chance do you think this bill has to make it into legislation?
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday November 25 2015, @03:08PM
And brain drain, regardless of how it is done, will always depress local wages in the long run. The depression may be less than if it was under current regime, but it will still happen.
There is literally no evidence to back that up. The evidence that actually exists shows that immigration of high-skilled people increases wages for everybody because its not a zero-sum game. More smart and skilled people creates more growth, that's why places like SF, Boston, NYC have high wages and high concentrations of skilled workers while places with low concentrations of skilled workers have lower wages for the same jobs.
The only group that is hurt by immigration are low-skilled workers (high-school education at best) who are hurt by immigration of similarly skilled people. They tend to suffer a small wage depression because they can't benefit - they can't start new businesses themselves. But even low-skilled workers benefit from immigration of high-skilled workers because those new people hire people to do landscaping, build houses, babysit their kids, etc.