How American tech workers are being sold out
nypost.com
nypost.com
It's ridiculous to support an expansion of the H1B - or even the H1B program at all. It's just an excuse to increase supply and drive salaries down. If it was anything else Infosys and Tata wouldn't be the top importers of H1Bs. If there was a program that brought immigrants in, no strings attached I would support it (even though it's against my interests as a programmer). People should have a fair shot at working in the States - but not under onerous conditions that unecessarily weaken the position of American workers
If you admit the demand being high, how can you deny the supply being low? They depend on each other. If the supply is low, it is low compared to current demand... and if it is high, it is high compared to current demand.
The best proof of the fact that there is a shortage in tech is the fact that the salaries are very high. That is true not only in the US, it is true everywhere (or at least in most places). Would increasing supply lower the salaries in tech in the US? I think it would... and the employers do have an interest in that happening. But that would happen no matter if the shortage is real or not, so it proves nothing.
What I'm trying to say is that the shortage is mostly real and you have a vested personal interest in keeping foreigners out and your salaries high... and we, foreigners, want to be able to break into a high paying market(especially if we feel we're being underpaid for our efforts and have something economically valuable to offer).
It's fine if you say "we want foreigners out in order to keep our salaries high and get a bigger slice of the pie", but it's a lie saying you're doing it because of some other reason such as: there is no tech shortage so there's no need for extra techies(false because of the high salaries), things are just dandy the way they are, or that H1B's are being exploited and caring about their fate.
And the other part of the discussion is not if a more relaxed visa strategy would hurt some US devs immediate interrestes but wheather it would hurt long-tern US interests. This isn't(in my view) as clear cut as the other aspects I'm discussiong here, but my oppinion is that the US as a country could have great gains from tech immigrants. This is a far lenghthier discussion though and there are far more arguments and counter-arguments that I care going into right now.
I haven't seen non-anecdotal evidence that salaries are inordinately high. "Silicon valley" tech salaries rose by a total of 13.7% from 2010-2014. (Look at the interactive chart at http://media.dice.com/report/check-and-check-u-s-technology-...)
A little more than 3% increase a year isn't ridiculous. Especially when US inflation has averaged around 2% over that time period. And considering that other places in the US aren't nearly as "hot" as the bay area.
The real shortage is in people who live in the bay area, who can code a prefix tree on a white board in under 30 minutes, who want to add routes all day for the company's boring app, and who want to do it for less than the 3% a year average increase.
If you add enough bizarre qualifications, you can say that there's a shortage of anything: There's a shortage of Swift developers with 5 years experience!
American companies are notoriously bitchy about a talent shortage, but I think it just about always comes down to "overqualified people don't want to take underwhelming salaries". Right now, i believe good programmers are dramatically underpaid for the value they create
I have a vested interest in keeping out foreigners who are being screwed over with artificially low salaries and subsequently screwing natives over by driving salaries down (like with Tata + Infosys). I'm fine with people coming in, but it needs to be on a level playing field, and H1B doesn't do that. I'm arguing for less restrictions around foreigners, and more restrictions on companies gaming the system