For instance it is estimated that during the recession over 200,000 jobs for US-born workers weren't created due to immigration policy restrictions: http://www.renewoureconomy.org/wp-content/uploads/2014/06/pn...
Do you have a citation from a more neutral ideally peer reviewed source? I don't trust The Partnership For a New American Economy. They are attempting to advance a particular political agenda on immigration and should not be considered a reliable or unbiased source for information.
The Partnership for a New American Economy is a coalition of business leaders and mayors launched by Michael Bloomberg and Rupert Murdoch to influence public opinion and policymakers toward comprehensive immigration reform. "The partnership will enable Mayors and CEOs to demonstrate to policymakers the vital role that immigration plays in our economy by publishing studies, conducting polls, convening forums, and sponsoring public education campaigns." Among other goals, the partnership will pursue Congress and the White House to enact legislation which will create "a path to legal status for all undocumented immigrants now in the United States". The partnership will seek to influence "by publishing studies, conducting polls, convening forums, and sponsoring public education campaigns".
(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Partnership_for_a_New_American_...)
Everybody is pushing one agenda or another. Hopefully, in a humanist, rational society, you wouldn't get put on mute on the basis of having an opinion, especially if you have hard data to present.
Now, say you're a company and you have multiple locations. You apply for the employee at the cheapest location, then pick a title that will get a lower prevailing wage, and say they are entry level when really they have 5 years of experience. So the prevailing wage determination is skewed. This is what I mean about telling a white lie. Anything that is available to companies that has a monetary reward for telling "white lies" to the government and depends on the companies "being honest" let alone understanding or agreeing with the overarching intent of the legislation -- is going to have the absolute shit abused out of it eventually.
If a Software Engineer gets a higher prevailing wage than a Software Developer (or vice versa) according to the DOL. Which title do you think the employer will pick to apply under? The answer is obvious.
People are concerned with inequality between nations, but policies like this prevent opportunity worldwide and hurt US workers and consumers for the sake of "protecting US workers".
Do some employers game this system? Sure. But doing so is risky and repeat offenders can get blacklisted by the USCIS.
I saw that page, but I was looking for the actual wage stats and kept running into 404s (including one from that page).
I would particularly be happier with something based on automatic worker visas for graduates of US universities, applying the permit to the spouse also, and no specific company assignment. This sponsored stuff keeps everyones wages down by not providing H-1B movement.
That's still how the bulk of H-1Bs are used. The majority of them are granted to companies like Cognizant, Infosys, TCS, and several others. For example:
>The two largest H-1B users are Indian-based, Infosys, with 6,298 visas, and Tata Consultancy Services (TCS), with 6,258. In third place is Cognizant, which is based in New Jersey, but runs large offshore centers. These firms have long dominated the top H-1B list spots.
>Hira points out that over the last four years, Cognizant has received about 23,000 new H-1B workers with visas valid for up to 6 years, and has a number of workers on L-1s. (L-1 visas are used by multinational firms to transfer employees between countries.) "So, most, if not nearly all, of Cognizant's employees in the US are on some guest-worker visa," said Hira.
From: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9247241/Offshore_firm...
False. Maybe in some situations, but not in general if you consider _all_ the costs.
H1bs on average earn more than us-born workers.
And for the wifes part: my wife has the same qualification as I have (two MSc in CS/IT), yet, she is not allowed to work. Not even with the proposed change in the law, as it requires to have ongoing greencard process, which itself may take years. So if you think that those shobby cheap visa workers just bring their freeriders with them, you are very far away from the reality.