Toot-Toot! The H1-b Train Has Left The Station!

Source: Cnet

The one day H-1b train pulling into the station.

The rush by companies, particularly of the high-tech persuasion, to apply for H-1B visas has come to an end–only one day after it began.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services said Tuesday that it had received 150,000 applications as of Monday afternoon for the controversial work permits, which allow foreigners with a bachelor’s degree in their area of specialty to be employed in the United States for up to six years.

A Slashdot commenter has a good idea: Those spots should be auctioned off. The more an employer is paying for an H1-B visa, the more highly-skilled the worker in question is likely to be. IOW, we really will be getting those people with skills we can’t find here.

Now that makes a lot of sense to me. I'm certain a very tiny percentage of H1-b's actually go to those with skills we need, and of that's the case a company should be willing to pay to bring them in, as presumably these are skills that will generate profits. However, where I have a problem with this is the use of H1-b's to hammer American salaries. My guess is that 90% plus of H1-b's fall into the latter category hence, they should be stopped.

If an individual genuinely has a marketable skill, that skill would by definition have value, and ought to be worth bidding on, no? Or is the whole point of the exercise to flood markets with cheap labor? Because if that's true then the whole damn thing should be shut down hard.

America is not a jobs program for the world, the sooner we remember that the better off everybody is.

H/T Vdare

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