Jobless & American? Blame H-1B

Date: Monday, December 02, 2002 9:21 AM

H-1B and JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

The Institute of Electrical and Electronic Engineers (IEEE) say they oppose
a further increase in H-1B but they never denounced the job destruction that
will occur with the current H-1B limits. IEEE has yet to push for abolishing
the entire H-1B program even though it's own members are feeling the pain of
unemployment. IEEE seems to agree with the propaganda that American
engineers need to be retrained in order to compete with H-1Bs.

The author of this article thinks that the facts presented at www.ZaZona.com
are "obviously exaggerated sentiments". That's not surprising he feels that
way considering who he is writing for. Linda Evans is recognized as one of
the exaggerators, so I think she deserves a round of applause for her
efforts at getting so many letters published in newspapers.

You can submit comments to the article by scrolling to the bottom of the web
page.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/xml/comp/articleshow?artid=29803403

The Economic Times Online
Printed from economictimes.indiatimes.com >Politics/Nation

Jobless & American? Blame H-1B

PRASENJIT BHATTACHARYA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SATURDAY, NOVEMBER 30, 2002 01:37:56 AM ]
NEW DELHI: The role of H-1B visa workers in increasing unemployment is
generating heat in the upper echelons of US politics. A study is being
conducted by the US' federal department for accounting, called the General
Accounting Office, on the impact of H-1B visa workers on US jobs.

The study will be ready by next year, and will form a significant input to
the September '03 debate in the US Congress on letting the H-1B visa cap
shrink from 1.95 lakh to 65,000 in '04.

GAO undertook the study after two Democrat members on the US House Committee
on Science — James Barcia and Lynn Rivers — put in a request to GAO for
gauging the impact of the H-1B visa programme on unemployment.

Voices in the US are rising about the unemployment impact of H-1B visa
programme, with associations like the Institute of Electrical and Electronic
Engineers opposing the role played by H-1B visa workers in increasing
unemployment of US engineers.

The influential body of electronics and electrical engineers in the US,
IEEE, has this to say about the H-1B visa programme in a middle-of-the-year
pronouncement.

"IEEE-USA opposes any further extension and/or additional increases in the
H-1B visa quota for entry of skilled guest workers, especially in light of
the current economic downturn and record high unemployment among electrical
engineers and computer scientists."

IEEE says that if market forces are not satisfying demand for skilled
technical workers in the US, then displaced US engineers and computer
science professionals should be retrained, school-level math and science
education improved, and immigration reforms that facilitate permanent
immigration visas for skilled foreign-born engineers and scientists seeking
US citizenship be pushed strongly.

Individual cases of US workers complaining to various US courts on being
replaced on job by H-1B workers are also routinely coming to light. Examples
abound in the US media of American technology workers going to court over
displacement by H-1B visa holders. Jenlih Hsieh, a 50-year-old US tech
worker, filed a complaint with the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission
that SwitchOn Networks of Milpitas fired him after six months and replaced
him with an H-1B worker.

According to the complaint, filed by attorney Phillip Griego, the H-1B
worker was earning $30,000 less a year. The US Department of Justice is also
routinely investigating cases involving displacement of US workers by H-1B
replacements.

The grassroots anger against H-1B workers is best exemplified by web sites
like zazona.com, run by an unemployed engineer Rob Sanchez. The site claims
that in '01, nine out of 10 US technology jobs were taken over by H-1B
workers.

Then there's the case of Linda Evans, a US resident, who writes loads of
letters to elected Federal officials asking for abolition of H-1B visa after
her husband was laid off.

Obviously exaggerated sentiments, but deeply reflective of the public and
political mood in the US against H-1B visas. As a technology journal says,
in '03, when the H-1B cap debate begins in the US Senate, it will basically
be high-tech firms lobbying for more foreign workers against a political and
industrial opinion concerned by rising unemployment among US hi-tech
workers.

Help to Keep ZaZona.com Online

Donate to the Cause at
http://www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

Back to archives