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Comment by throwaway5752 | Hacker News Reader

So what. F-1s, OPTs, H1B, are people too and as a rule are taking an enormous risk in life uprooting to a new country and a different language. Most of them have advanced degrees. Hundreds of them apply to open jobs too. They are human beings, and there are a lot of human beings - regardless of arbitrary imaginary lines that divide us - who are looking for work.

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But when hired, they become tied to a company in a way that the average worker is not, pushing down wages. If they have a rare skill set the US is missing, it is better for both them and the workers they compete with if they are allowed to move over here without being tied to the specific employer, so the employer cannot use that as leverage to push down their compensation, and thus market compensation.

So you believe they have more rights to work in the USA than US citizens? A US Citizen can't even apply for the job the company slated for an H1B applicant.

"So you believe they have more rights to work in the USA than US citizens"

What are you even asking? Do you know how many hoops they have to go through to get an H1B in the first place, and how many conditions they have once they are here working on one? Do you understand what it's like to be a month or so away from being deported if you get fired and can't find a new job, and living with the pressure every day?

To answer your question: no they don't, and the situation reflects that. Why did you capitalize "Citizen"?

>Do you understand what it's like to be a month or so away from being deported if you get fired and can't find a new job, and living with the pressure every day?

That's the biggest reason why H1-Bs cause problems for American workers: people on those visas are under immense pressure to accept deals that natives and more secure immigrants would not. The pressure on American workers would be reduced if all H1Bs were converted to citizenships.

In my experience, roles are not "slated" for H1B applicants. Rather, companies have to evaluate whether or not the applicant is worth burning an H1B visa to hire them. The result is that the hiring bar is higher for foreign workers.

It would be nice if we could criticize this as a shitty hiring practice that hurts US citizens without someone strawmanning the critique into being a personal attack on the character of H-1B workers. I wish them all the best, and would love to compete with them on an even playing field. And I wish all the worst to big companies that use them to replace and devalue vast swathes of American workers.

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