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PaperclipPerfector  21d ago (text post)   26710 thread views

Culture War Roundup for the week of December 30, 2024

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It literally comes down to immigration. Bad faith posters will argue that H1B immigration is “legal” and therefor not the problem, but theyre deliberately missing the fact that the problem is H1B visa abuse, which is technically legal, but practically identical to the type of illegal immigration wr see from Guatemala and Mexico.

How is it being abused? I'm not aware that any significant number of applicants are being approved who aren't in compliance with the statutory language. To wit:

For purposes of the E-3 and H-1B programs (but not the H-1B1 program), specialty occupation means an occupation that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of specialized knowledge, and attainment of a bachelor's or higher degree (or its equivalent) in the specific specialty as a minimum for entry into the occupation in the United States.

I get the impression from some of the comments here that some may interpret this as being for the kinds of highly specialized work where you might not be able to find someone available to do in America and thus need to look abroad. Abuse, then, would be hiring H-1Bs for run-of-the-mill coding work for which American universities graduate thousands each year. The problem with this argument is there's nothing in the law supporting it. The way I'd interpret "specialized knowledge" as an attorney is as knowledge distinct from general knowledge, i.e., not the kind of knowledge the average person would have, even the average educated person. Knowing how to code may not be the rarest skill, but it's not so common that the average person can be hired to do it with no experience and be productive in a few weeks. If you're hiring someone with a bachelor's in computer science to do the job, then you've met the requirement.

The illegality is in that many H1B positions are never actually open to American applicants. Particularly in tech a lot of the H1B positions appear to be subcontracted to what are the equivalent of "diploma mills" except for visas.

Well for one thing, as far as I'm aware the law requires companies to post positions and get no applicants before they can get a visa. But I have seen, with my own eyes, when such a "posting" was literally placed on the side of the break room fridge that was 1" away from the wall. While that may comply with the letter of the law, it seems to me to be a clear abuse.

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