Twitter and Other Tech Layoffs Raise H-1B Visa Employment Issues
forbes.com
forbes.com
The fact that people still go for it proves that I'm wrong, that it perhaps isn't as dystopian, or that people just aren't as aware of the true reality of the situation.
However, people still go for it because they have significantly better career and financial prospects taking a tech job on a H1 in the US, in comparison to their home countries. It's a positive expected value bet, even if xx% of people end up with a negative outcome.
Further, many people aren't aware of the negative outcomes or come from rich families who can withstand it. While others hope that even if they don't get the H1, they can at least land a good job with a neutral outcome back in their home country or in Canada/UK.
I think they've gotten away with it for this long because they have an exceptional tool in their arsenal - calling anyone who opposes employer controlled visas "anti-immigration". Even PG got in a few digs[1]. They get an assist from genuinely anti-immigrant people, whose opinions they present as the only argument, and they succeed in making people with reasonable objections to employer-controlled immigration spend the rest of the talk show disassociating themselves from this allegation.
At this point, I'm convinced that part of the reason we don't have a skilled immigration that preserves the freedom of mobility of the immigrants themselves is that high tech companies and investors don't want immigrants to have this freedom. They like it that an immigrant's right to reside in the US depends on staying in the good graces of their employer. They like it that a founder's right to live in the US depends on the blessing of a venture capitalist. Employers and investors don't want their power to end at offering a job or money, they want more power over people than this. They keep things this way because it gives them a tremendous amount of power over their workforce.