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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.]
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @04:42PM (6 children)
I guess I was the unicorn H1B with a very good wage and without a slave-driver boss (especially compared to the workaholic current one).
But it is true that young foreign workers were less distracted by family, and more likely to work harder to prove that they belong where they are.
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:36PM (5 children)
> I guess I was the unicorn H1B with a very good wage
80% of H1B holders earn entry-level equivalent wages.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @06:43PM (4 children)
Which is OK if you're doing entry-level work.
(Score: 1, Insightful) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @10:04PM (3 children)
Except H1B is explicitly not for entry-level work, its for highly-skilled employees.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @10:32PM (2 children)
Member of Technical Staff 1 : EE/CS right out of college
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Wednesday April 19 2017, @11:01PM (1 child)
I don't think you've thought through what you just wrote.
I'll give you some time to let it sink in.
(Score: 2) by bob_super on Wednesday April 19 2017, @11:07PM
Let me go erase my memory and burn my CV, as well as advise many of my friends to follow suit, for the convenience of an AC's uninformed world view...
H1Bs are the way to keep Masters students working in the US in high-tech.
Obviously, it's a lot more paperwork, and carries the risk of cultural misunderstandings, compared to hiring Passport-carrying-American graduates. Yet, companies routinely do it, at starting salaries which are definitely not bargains.