How tech companies abuse visas to hire cheap foreign labor, offshore jobs

The <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H-1B_visa" rel="nofollow">H-1B</a> visa program lets high-tech companies like Microsoft bring foreign workers to America and pay them less than they'd pay qualified U.S. citizens.<br /><br />Defenders of the program say it recruits the best and brightest from overseas, allowing U.S. firms to develop innovative technology.<br /><br />That's baloney.<br /><br />Foreign students in computer science now working in the U.S. are on average less talented than Americans, according to a study released in February by<span style="color: #333333; font-family: Georgia, serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 21px;"> </span>the <a href="http://epi.org/" rel="nofollow">Economic Policy Insttitute</a>. But they are cheaper.<br /><br />The EPI study concluded:<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...employers prefer to hire foreign workers over similarly qualified U.S. workers, because legal loopholes in how the “prevailing wage” is calculated let them save on labor costs. The H-1B visa also ties workers to their employer, effectively rendering them captive for the duration of their visa. </blockquote>What's worse, U.S. employers don't even have to try to hire qualified Americans for high-tech jobs before hiring someone from overseas. <br /><br />And there's something even more sinister at work:  the H-1B worker learns the job and then rotates back to the home country and takes the work with him, <a href="http://www.epi.org/blog/top-10-h1b-guestworker-offshore-outsourcing/" rel="nofollow">another EPI report</a> found. The top 10 companies using H-1B visas ALL have major operations overseas.<br /><br />Last week, Indian technology company Infosys paid a $34 million settlement to the U.S. Department of Justice for alleged H-1B visa fraud, according to <a href="http://abcnews.go.com/Business/top-10-companies-request-visas-foreign-workers/story?id=20730536#" rel="nofollow">ABC News</a>. Prosecutors say <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Infosys" rel="nofollow">Infosys</a>,<br /><blockquote class="tr_bq">...unlawfully used H-1B visa holders to fill skilled labor jobs that the Justice Department says would "otherwise be performed by U.S. citizens or require legitimate H-1B visa holders.<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, 'arial sans-serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;">"</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: proxima-nova, 'arial sans-serif'; font-size: 15px; line-height: 23px;"> </span> </blockquote>Here are the top 10 recipients of H-1B visas in the US:<br /><ol><li>Cognizant. H1-B Visas Received: 17,964</li><li>Tata Consultancy. H1-B Visas Received: 9,083</li><li>Wipro. H1-B Visas Received: 8,726</li><li>Infosys. H1-B Visas Received: 6,550</li><li>Accenture. H1-B Visas Received: 5,799</li><li>Microsoft. H1-B Visas Received: 4,766</li><li>IBM. H1-B Visas Received: 3,770</li><li>Larsen & Toubro. H1-B Visas Received: 3,286</li><li>HCL. H1-B Visas Received: 3,074</li><li>Deloitte. H1-B Visas Received: 2,850</li></ol><br />Only three of them -- Microsoft, IBM and Deloitte -- are headquartered in the U.S.<br /><br />Yeah, we're pretty steamed about it too.

corporate criminality H-1B visas offshoring How tech companies abuse visas to hire cheap foreign labor, offshore jobs

The H-1B visa program lets high-tech companies like Microsoft bring foreign workers to America and pay them less than they'd pay qualif...

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