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posted by on Wednesday April 19 2017, @02:28PM   Printer-friendly
from the let-'em-eat-brioche dept.

Trump is planning on signing an executive order on Tuesday that will cause a review of the H1-B program. It is just a review, and undoubtedly business interests will step up the pressure, but there are some interesting ideas:

"If you change that current system that awards visas randomly, without regard or skill or wage, to a skill-based awarding, it makes it extremely difficult to use the visa to replace or undercut American workers, because you're not bringing in workers at beneath the market wage," the official said. "So it's a very elegant way of solving systemic problems in the H-1B guest worker visa."

Breitbart of course has an article out (though it reads like they need to hire some native speaking editors) -- still, recent college grads face a huge hurdle:

The federal government releases little data on the many different guest-worker programs, but the available evidence says the national population of white-collar contract workers is up to 1.5 million. That population is roughly twice the population of 800,000 Americans who graduate from college with skilled degrees each year.

And finally, lest people forget that progressives also have issues with H1-B visas, here is Bernie Sanders (a decade ago of course) attacking this ploy to make sure money only trickles up by ensuring low wages. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nR9QdQIKqMc

[Ed Note: Trump did sign the executive order at a photo op in Wisconsin.]


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  • (Score: 2, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:56PM (10 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @03:56PM (#496376)

    Except for the little sticking point that H1Bs don't often become citizens. They take their work experience back to their home country. Net gain for the US: a few thousand dollars padding to corporate budgets.

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  • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:06PM (8 children)

    by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:06PM (#496381) Journal

    In my career as a software engineer, I've known at least 3 H1B coworkers take and pass a citizenship test. And I'm an anti-social ass who avoids learning about his coworkers lives for the most part.

    • (Score: 2) by ikanreed on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:17PM (7 children)

      by ikanreed (3164) Subscriber Badge on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:17PM (#496389) Journal

      I should add that they originally came as H1-B workers, but were obviously not H1B when they passed the test, because our obtuse immigration rules would never allow that.

      • (Score: 3, Interesting) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:53PM (6 children)

        by bob_super (1357) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:53PM (#496418)

        Yes, you need to go through the Green Card stage for a few years first.

        Side note: If you came to do code/engineering work, taking the citizenship test is passing the test.
        They give you a booklet of answers, don't require you to know all of them, and unless you have a terrible translator or memory, you're going to pass.

        • (Score: 2) by NewNic on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:14PM (5 children)

          by NewNic (6420) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:14PM (#496461) Journal

          Even more hillarious: taking the language test for someone born and raised in the UK.

          --
          lib·er·tar·i·an·ism ˌlibərˈterēənizəm/ noun: Magical thinking that useful idiots mistake for serious political theory
          • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:40PM (4 children)

            by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:40PM (#496482)

            Poor bastards, how could they ever pass? Colour? It's COLOR moron :)

            • (Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:53PM (2 children)

              by Kromagv0 (1825) on Wednesday April 19 2017, @07:53PM (#496509) Homepage

              It is usually lifts, lorries, flats, and hundreds and thousands that fuck up the British on that part of the test.

              --
              T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
              • (Score: 1, Funny) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @09:07PM (1 child)

                by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @09:07PM (#496550)

                tannoy snog chips boot biscuits knickers knackered woohoo

                • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:02AM

                  by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @02:02AM (#496656)

                  Spam, spam, eggs, bacon, and spam,

            • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @01:15AM

              by Anonymous Coward on Thursday April 20 2017, @01:15AM (#496634)

              and it's neighbourhood you twat!

  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:19PM

    by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:19PM (#496468)

    > Except for the little sticking point that H1Bs don't often become citizens.

    Originally they did. But two things have happened over the last decade:
    (1) The green card process has become so drawn-out that many give up or are forced to give up by circumstances like the expiration of their H1B visa
    (2) Off-shorers have started gobbling up the lion-share of H1B visas so they can do on-site training as the first step to shipping the work off-shore

    One idea, which I like but which will never happen because xenophobia, is that H1B should be replaced with a fast-track green card, like 2 years. The employers get to have their indentured servant for 2 years and then they are free to compete on equal footing with everyone else, and if they are that important to their employer they'll be paid premium wages not slave wages anyway.

    Last night on PBS Newshour, one of the guests said that 80% of H1B holders are paid at a rate equal to entry-level wages. That's the real problem, regardless of whether they stay or not.