Immigration Bill Would Give Half Of New U.S. IT Jobs To Guest Workers

Never mind is the issue of asylum for workers who are in the U.S. illegally. What the proposed immigration reform bill also does is allow outsourcers and large corporations to bring thousands more low-paid but highly skilled technical workers to the U.S.

Infosys is one of India's major outsourcing firms and one of the top 10 users of H-1B visas.

Infosys is one of India’s major outsourcing firms and one of the top 10 users of H-1B visas.

The so-called Senate “Gang of Eight”, S. 744, introduced the proposed comprehensive immigration law. For more on the bi-partisan “Gang of Eight see the links at the end of this post.

As currently written significantly increases the number of skilled guest worker visas available to employers in information technology (IT) and other sectors.

The highly skilled guest worker visa is known as the H-1B, and 49% of H-1B holders work in IT.

The H-1B visa program is capped under current law for private-sector employers at 65,000 visas per year. An additional 20,000 H-1B visas are reserved for foreign graduates of U.S. universities.

While business complains there is a shortage of highly skilled workers in the U.S. making importing such workers from overseas a necessity.

This analysis by Ross Eisenbrey, vice president of the Economic Policy Institute outlines the drastic H-1B visa expansion and how it will transfer many new U.S. technology jobs, especially IT jobs, jobs to low-paid workers brought to the U.S. on H-1B visas

With certain exceptions, S. 744 will raise the cap initially to 115,000 and if strong demand continues, to 180,000 per year, with an additional 25,000 reserved for foreign graduates.

Thus, under the likely high-demand scenario, we would have 120,000 more H-1Bs annually than we do now, and 58,800 of them would be in IT.

We can reasonably predict, therefore, that guest workers will fill nearly half of all IT job openings for which a college degree is required each year.

In a new report, Guestworkers In The High-Skill U.S. Labor Market, Hal Salzman, Daniel Kuehn, and B. Lindsay Lowell calculate that in 2011 there were approximately 483,000 IT job openings for college grads filled in the last year, including those with advanced degrees, a third of which were filled by newly arriving guest workers in three different guest worker programs.

If S.744 is enacted and the maximum numbers of H-1B workers are allowed to enter and work in the United States, nearly 220,000 new job openings in IT would be filled by guest workers—almost half the annual total as of 2011.

 Immigration Reform: Who Are The “Gang Of Eight” In The U.S. Senate?

Comprised of four Republicans and four Democrats, the “Gang of Eight” formed in the wake of the 2012 U.S. elections to deal with the often-emotional issue of immigration. The Washington Post offers this breakdown of everyone in the “Gang of Eight” and their motives for getting involved.

The Republicans

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.); Sen. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.); Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.; Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.)

The Democrats

Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.); Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.); Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.); Sen. Michael Bennet (D-Colo.)

Full text of proposed immigration law on Politico.com

Related reading:

Offshore Outsourcing Firms Are Top 10 Users Of H-1B Guest Worker Program

 

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