Work Visas May Work Against the U.S.

[OhioChick]

February 8, 2007, 12:00AM EST
Indian outsourcers file the most applications for temporary H-1B visas. Are they using them to train staff for jobs abroad?


America's visa program for temporary workers was originally set up to allow U.S. companies to bring skilled workers who are in short supply to the U.S. Microsoft (MSFT), IBM (IBM), Intel (INTC), Oracle (ORCL), and Sun Microsystems (SUNW) have been active participants in the program, hiring foreign workers for specialized computer programming jobs and positions managing projects with overseas staff.

The visas, known as H-1Bs, are popular enough that President George W. Bush is calling for an increase in the cap on the number of workers who can come to the U.S. under the program. "We've got to expand what's called H-1B visas," he said in a January speech. "It makes no sense to say to a young scientist in India, you can't come to America to help this develop technologies that help us deal with our problems."

Outsourcing Conduit…

But a review of new information from the federal government suggests that the companies benefiting most from the temporary worker program aren't U.S. companies at all. Rather, they appear to be Indian outsourcing firms, which often hire workers from India to train in the U.S. before returning home to work. Data for the fiscal year 2006, which ended last September, show that 7 of the top 10 applicants for H-1B visas are Indian companies. Giants Infosys Technologies (INFY) and Wipro (WIT) took the top two spots, with 22,600 and 19,400 applications, respectively. The company with the third most applications is Cognizant Technology Solutions (CTSH), which is based in Teaneck, N.J., but has most of its operations in India. All three companies provide services to U.S. companies from India, including technology support and back-office processing.

The only other U.S. companies among the top 10 are the accounting and consulting firm Deloitte & Touche and consultancy Accenture (ACN). They rank seventh and ninth, with 8,000 and 7,000 applications, respectively.

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2007/db20070208_553356.htm

[Vidar]

1. Bush continues to inflate a bullble set to burst under the unfortunate

who succeeds him.

[ixion]

2. "skilled workers who are in short supply to the U.S"

That statement is misleading, if not patently false.


The problem is not a shortage of skilled workers. There are thousands of programmers looking for work. The problem is that companies don't want to pay programmers a competitive salary. They want the programming done on the cheap. So rather than hire a qualified US citizen for a competitive rate, they bring in someone from India who will work for about half, or less, of what the going rate is at the time.


H1-B visas are a major reason the job market sucks right now, IMO. :grr: