Personally, I think Matloff is rather biased in most of his studies. However, I will say this, I was on an H1B for 5 months or so of my life. I can agree with the perception that one feels like a indentured servant. There is always that worry in your mind's eye that one can get fired and would be kicked out of the country. My company went through layoffs two weeks before my green card interview and that was an insanely stressful experience because I was in the situation where if I had gotten laid off, I would probably have to leave the country. If I left the country, my green card application would have been deemed abandoned which means I would have to start over. If you want real immigration reform, make the H1B visa a portable work visa for 5 years. Of course, this doesn't serve the owners of companies. They would rather have the current situation that probably depresses wages but certainly leads to a situation where the employee can be exploited by unscrupulous managers.