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| Statue of liberty |
What is H1B?
The H1B is a non-permanent, non-immigrant and employment based visa under the Hart-Caller Act. To obtain this type of visa, the employer must offer a job to the person wishing to move to America and must submit an application with the United States’ immigration department. Once the US immigration department approves the visa application, the person is allowed to work for that employer for a specified period.
Getting this visa empowers a person to stay in the United States of America for six years without clinging to one employer. The employee can have his spouse and non-married children with him and can travel in and out of America any time during the designated period. The professionals working under this visa regime are eligible to file for permanent residency in the United States of America.
Why Donald Trump revised H1B policy?
Donald Trump severely criticized the so-called economic invasion of cheap Chinese, Indian and Mexican labor force into the American market under the guise of H1B status. He raised the slogan of “Buy America, Hire America” and promised to modify the visa framework to make it harder for aliens to enter America to seek job opportunities. Trump was of the view that cheap labor force from other countries is stealing American tech workers’ jobs and vowed to bring the lost jobs back to US citizens.
What are the main points of the revised H1B immigration policy?
Donald Trump faithful to his election promise signed an executive order on the 19th of April, 2017 to tweak rules for granting H1B visa to foreign techies. Some of the significant changes that Trump introduced or going to introduce in this visa regime are as follows:
The executive order put an end to the award of these permits by lottery and instead introduced a system in which those companies will be given priority who provide jobs to high skilled techies with a salary which is equal to what is paid to the American workers. The companies will be made bound to prioritize those graduates who have got their degrees from American universities.
Zoe Lofgren, Congressman from California, introduced an act into the Congress that will prioritize visas applications of the companies willing to pay comparable salaries to foreign workers. According to him, this law will ensure American employers’ access to the high skilled IT labor they need and at the very same time reduce the incentives for the companies paying less.
A Senate member, Sherrod Brown, introduced an act to reform H-1B and L-1 Visa policy with an to provide more protections for American workers.
Who will be hit hard?
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| Immigrants with the American Flag |
A significant portion of the H1B visas are issued to Indian nationals and are expected to suffer the most from the Trump’s “America First” policy. The Indian techies are mostly hired by Companies like Infosys, TCS, Mindtree and Wipro on much lower wages than their American colleagues, and hence the companies mentioned above along with numerous others have been put on the “Red list.”
Why criticism against the reforms?
The increase in the number of applications each year now significantly exceeds the annual quota of 85,000 H1B visas. Prominent tech CEOS like Facebook’s Zuckerberg and Alphabet’s Google Schmidt along with many other have criticized the current H1B quota and are advocating for an increase in the number of visas offered to meet industry demand and to attract global talent towards America.
The Alphabet’s CEO while speaking at a seminar in MIT a few days ago took aim at the Trump administration’s policy to keep immigrants out of America by saying that we need the best of the talent from around the globe, regardless of their country, race or sex.
What next?
The Trump administration is hell bent on reforming the H1B program to safeguard American workers’ interests which are not a bad thing, but it should not mean to put restrictions on the talent coming towards America. America being the “Land of Immigrants” should stand for its principles of justice, equality and equity and above all for its principle of providing safe havens to the immigrants looking towards it.
After all, credit for American economic development goes equally to the immigrants if not more than the indigenous people.
Reforming the H1B policy program and protecting indigenous workforce is a positive step but it should not be used to produce hatred in the minds of locals for immigrants and vice versa. The reforms should be aimed to put an end to the frauds and abuses in the name of H1B visas and to export genuine talent from abroad.
“Making America Great Again” does not require alienating immigrants and skilled labor.
About Muhammad Asim
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