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posted by martyb on Friday February 01 2019, @01:03AM   Printer-friendly
from the getting-a-start dept.

The Department of Homeland Security announced a rule change Wednesday that will transform the lottery that decides who gets the 85,000 H-1B visas granted to for-profit companies every year.

Previously, an initial lottery granted 20,000 visas only to those holding advanced degrees granted by U.S. institutions — master’s degrees or doctorates — and then a general lottery granted 65,000 visas to all qualified applicants.

The Department of Homeland Security switched the order of these lotteries, it said in a notice of the final rule change, which will bolster the odds for highly educated foreign nationals. The change reduces the likelihood that people with just a bachelor’s degree will win in the general lottery, said Lisa Spiegel, an attorney at Duane Morris in San Francisco and head of the firm’s immigration group.

The program shift could hurt technology staffing companies, also known as outsourcers, who have a reputation for flooding the lottery with applications. Three Indian firms — Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro — often account for a majority of the H-1B applications, an analysis of government data shows.

LINK:
https://www.sfchronicle.com/business/article/H-1B-visa-lottery-changing-to-favor-those-with-13574410.php


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  • (Score: 5, Insightful) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 01 2019, @11:41AM (7 children)

    by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 01 2019, @11:41AM (#794985) Homepage Journal

    We need outside help...

    No, we don't. The H1-B program is nothing but an attempt by corporations to pay workers whose skills are in high demand as if they were common skills rather than rare ones by using the global supply pool rather than the national one. It doesn't just hurt Americans, it hurts everyone with the skill in question across the globe.

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  • (Score: 3, Interesting) by idiot_king on Friday February 01 2019, @03:59PM (4 children)

    by idiot_king (6587) on Friday February 01 2019, @03:59PM (#795057)

    It doesn't just hurt Americans, it hurts everyone with the skill in question across the globe.

    Immigration hurts NO ONE. Anyone who says different is a bona fide xenophobe. And: "From each according to her/his ability, to each according to her/his need." Funny thing is that corporations, which are SUPPOSEDLY based on competence hierarchies, should adhere to this to drive profits. But they don't because of embedded societal racism/sexism/bigotry, and so on. Importing labor is NECESSARY for the capitalist machine to even work, oddly enough. But capitalism allows as many contradictions as possible to maintain its facade of "stability." And if these skills were really in high demand, why aren't they giving them to inner city minorities who don't have jobs, especially if these immigrants, also anecdotally, don't have the same skillset as people "educated" here? It's because those people don't have the appropriate skills because of a damaged education system which has crippled the ability of minorities and low income folks to climb the societal ladder -- one of the core tenets of American Capitalism.

    • (Score: 2) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 01 2019, @04:28PM (2 children)

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 01 2019, @04:28PM (#795062) Homepage Journal

      Apt nick.

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      • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @07:50PM (1 child)

        by Anonymous Coward on Friday February 01 2019, @07:50PM (#795155)

        Backatcha bird brain =P

    • (Score: 3, Insightful) by toddestan on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:30AM

      by toddestan (4982) on Saturday February 02 2019, @12:30AM (#795261)

      The thing you're missing is that H1b isn't about immigration. H1b is a work visa. The people who are brought over through H1b don't get to stay, at some point the visa runs out and they have to go home. Sure, some do decide they want to stay and get off the H1b bus and successfully immigrate to America, but that's a minority.

      Now, I'm not completely opposed to the idea that if a company needs a certain skillset, and they really and truly can't find an American to fill the job, then they can bring someone in. But that's not what the H1b visa is about - there's actually other visas that can be used in those kind of situations like the O1 visa. Most H1b visa holders are hired for junior entry level jobs, and that actually hurts the people you mention. If they work hard and make it through college, they suddenly find that they are competing with a bunch of cheap imported labor for all those entry level positions.

      Ultimately, while the companies benefit from the cheap imported labor, in the end it hurts them and it hurts America too. Because when those people with their work visas eventually go home, they take their knowledge and experience with them. Already we have companies complaining they can't fill senior level positions. Well, all those senior level people were once junior level people, and if no one hires local junior level people, soon there won't be any local senior level people either.

      I'm not at all opposed to immigration, but programs like H1b either need to be seriously curtailed or ended entirely.

  • (Score: 2) by Freeman on Friday February 01 2019, @04:49PM (1 child)

    by Freeman (732) on Friday February 01 2019, @04:49PM (#795069) Journal

    I would argue, that it may not hurt those in developing countries. Sure, it may eventually turn into a negative, but I'm thinking right now it's not. In fact, all this outsourcing to India could be extremely helpful to the local population. It sure isn't helpful for the American populace, though. It also seems to be hitting Australia as another recent article pointed to.

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    • (Score: 3, Informative) by The Mighty Buzzard on Friday February 01 2019, @05:48PM

      by The Mighty Buzzard (18) Subscriber Badge <themightybuzzard@proton.me> on Friday February 01 2019, @05:48PM (#795096) Homepage Journal

      Outsourcing is the opposite of what's being done with H1-B. You're harming India by taking their best and brightest and harming America by depressing wages. Putting data centers or what not in India is actually a good idea for both nations. It provides cheaper services for the US population and/or frees up profits to be spent expanding your business and thus creating jobs. What jobs you have available in a nation isn't nearly as important as how much they pay and that they exist in the first place.

      Not call centers, mind you. If you work in a communication job being able to communicate effectively is pretty fucking important.

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