Influx of foreign workers lowers wages and forces Americans out of work

[OhioChick]

The Dec. 16 article ``Locking out the best and brightest'' hit home. I am an information technology professional and have had several experiences that suggest a shortage of foreign workers is exactly where America wants to be.

Companies had trouble filling IT slots in the late 1990s as Y2K challenges abounded. This shortage was real. I was a lead IT consultant at the time and found myself interviewing college graduates not the norm for clients looking to hire experienced IT professionals, but companies needed bodies. As a result, the government tripled the number of H1B visas, and an influx of foreign workers came to America.

After Y2K, the need for IT personnel declined, but the foreigners stayed and thousands of Americans couldn't find work. I had never been out of work from the time I graduated from college in 1977 through 2000.

But in 2001, 2002 and 2003, I spent a total of 39 weeks unemployed, and I was far from unlucky. Many of my contemporaries had more than 12 consecutive months of unemployment and left the field in frustration.

I consulted at one company, and although it was one of the biggest abusers of foreign workers around, it wasn't the only one. It forced their managers to hire foreign workers over Americans who had superior skills and brought in H1B workers who were supposed to be fully qualified but were not and required training, sometimes by Americans who had to train their eventual replacements.

Although foreign workers are supposed to be paid the ``prevailing wage,'' in truth the prevailing wage ends up being the lowest wage a company can pay somebody. When supply exceeds demand, desperation sets in. The low pay scale of foreign workers forced American workers to accept lower wages to find work.

Between 2000 and 2003, I saw consulting fees of my skill level drop from $55 to $40 an hour. I still make less now than I made in 1999.

Additionally, there were many rogue foreign ``body shops'' that doctored the resumes of foreign workers to fit the requirements of their American clients.

The main purpose of the H1B program is to bring in workers and talent that can't be found in United States. Certainly there are highly skilled foreigners the United States should open its arms to, but there is a fine line between need and want. If left unchecked, companies can use and have used foreign workers to promote lower wages and unemployment for Americans.

If you can raise the salaries of IT, engineers and other personnel adversely affected by the influx of foreign workers (and outsourcing), then the foreigners working here will truly be here out of necessity and the companies won't have difficulty finding American workers with acceptable skills. If you pay them, they will come.

http://www.timesunion.com/AspStories/story.asp?storyID=651635&category=OPINION&newsdate=1/1/2008

[ihavenobias]

1. Something tells me

that headline won't play well at DU (fairly or unfairly).

But progressives shouldn't be scared to discuss the impact of insourcing and outsourcing on wages and benefits in America. In fact, *if* we're serious about the poor and middle class, it's a discussion we NEED to have.

I think people are scared to touch it for fear of being labeled racist or xenophobic (or some other pejorative phrase). And while I agree that these attitudes may often motivate our couterparts on the right, that doesn't change the fact that there are perfectly rational reasons to have this debate on the left.

www.theyoungturks.com

[Arctic Dave]

2. needs to be discussed

I think this really does need to be debated in a rational way. I think we as a country need to come up with a comprehensive way to look at the outsourcing/immigrant dilemma we have. I believe people think this is just a border state issue but I live in Alaska and yesterday I was flying home from work (I work in the the oilfields in the arctic) and I was surprised that there were several people on the plane that clearly were not US citizens. The company they are working for is a seismograph company that has used foreign labor a lot in the past. This is not high end or skilled labor (like what you do) so it makes wonder how they are able to get work visas or how they are able to fly these people from their place of origin for cheaper then hiring people in state for a decent wage. These are just some of the things I think about when I hear stories like yours I don't think I'm being unfair or bigoted by thinking these things but I would like to hear other opinions.