Re: Tech Visas

Joachim Feise (jfeise@ICS.uci.edu)
Thu, 24 Sep 1998 11:16:25 -0700


Tom Whore wrote:
>
> On Thu, 24 Sep 1998, Gregory Alan Bolcer wrote:
> > > Employers are required to pay the "prevailing wage" as defined by the DoL.
> > What sort of thinking is this? What sort of capitalist are
> > you, Joe? 8-) You don't believe in supply and demand? Free
> > market economies? Show me the requirement!
>
> While it sounds nice on paper , the idea that folks DONT undercut, buy
> cheap to sell high, and in short hire with a look to the bottom line is a
> tad bit more dream induced than reality induced.
>
> I am sure there are those place which would never do such things. I have
> worked for a few who have, have heard of more who do and have talked to
> people actualy in such situations.
They could file a complaint, but of course, that would mean that they loose
their job, so a lot of people stay quiet.
One argument against more visas that I think is harder to defeat than the
financial issue is that a lot of people who come to the US on an H1 visa go for
a Greencard once they are here. Since they need their employer as sponsor,
people tend to keep quiet about wages and other issues. Some people leave their
employer the day they get the Greencard. There are always a couple of posts
asking about advise on these issues on the visa newsgroups.
OTOH, I don't know about any statistics that would show how many people go for
the GC while on the H1 visa. Of the couple of people with H1 visas that I know,
half are preparing to return to Europe (homesickness, girlfriend doesn't want to
come to the US, or whatever).

> Its market driven. If your price to hire is lower than the price set by
> the markets your entering, youll be damn sure that if that fact is hinted
> at your offers will flow to a greater degree.
Officially, if your place of work in the H1 application is in one state, you are
not allowed to work in another state for more than 3 months. This is to avoid
people getting hired by a company in, say, Iowa, with low prevailing wages, and
then get to work in CA or NYC, the places with the highest rates.
Usually, nobody is checking on this, though, unless there is a complaint from a
competitor.

> Immigration or not, this is the way things happen on a large scale. Im not
> saying it its universal, but to suggest it is not done is as abusrdist as
> to say everyones doing it.
>
> (sh)It happens.
>
> The only good thing to do is profit by it how ever it is your profit
> (money, perks, spiritual, etc)