The United States of America, a land of opportunities, has recently cancelled the H-1B Visa for the year 2020, which it offered to highly skilled immigrants every year leaving threatening ripples across the globe.
Firstly, what is the H-1B Visa? The H-1B Visa is a Visa in the United States under the Immigration and Nationality Act, section 101 that allows U.S. employers to temporarily employ foreign workers in specialty occupations. Jobs which require a bachelor’s degree or higher fall under this category.
The Act was introduced in 1990 by President George Bush to encourage highly skilled workers in the field of research, engineering, technology, medicine, architecture and so on.
The law has been utilized by educated and skilled workers internationally, with 72% of H-1B Visas being offered to India itself. It has allowed talented and exceptional hard workers such as Satya Nadella and Sundar Pichai to lead Technology giants. The law also greatly encouraged students to pursue higher education, especially in the field of STEM in the hope of achieving better employment opportunities in the country.
So, what caused this change even when the law is considered highly beneficial by many? Let’s review what encouraged Trump to Buy American and Hire American.
Since, his term as President began in 2016, Trump and his administration have been gradually updating policies to align them with the presidential executive order on buy American and hire American.
The statistics reflect his decision making as, The Migration Policy Institute has said visa denials skyrocketed to about 42% in 2018 for H-1B-dependent companies from 4% in 2016.
Trump has criticized the present law and said that it allows companies to replace Americans and hire H1B Visa dependents by offering the latter a lesser salary. Trump was quoted as calling the H-1B program as "a cheap labor program."
Prominent companies such as Walt Disney (DIS) and Southern California Edison have been accused of replacing American workers and "gaming the visa system." A study from the Economic Policy Institute showed that H-1B workers were underpaid at Indian IT firms providing outsourcing services in the U.S. for American companies. These companies saved more than $20,000 a year per worker when they hired Indians instead of Americans.
Hence, the President has promised to protect American trade and bring back jobs, but he also wants to make sure American jobs are not being stolen with the nation's own visa program.
But the solution to this problem isn't as simple as canceling the H-1B Visa altogether. Ensuring that equal pay is given to all the employees of a company, regardless of the fact that they are H-1B dependent or not would be a plausible and viable long term solution.
The Protect and Grow American Jobs Act was introduced in Congress in January, 2019 with a proposal to amend the original Act that created the H-1B program to remove the clause which allowed the Visa dependents to be underpaid. Hence ensuring that the only criteria of landing a job would be one’s skills and not their nationality.
The Immigration Innovation Act of 2018 introduced in the House in September proposes using fees collected for H-1B visas to promote domestic STEM education and worker training, including financial aid and research initiatives and also providing H-1B visa holders more flexibility in the process.
America, today, has not only been shaped by its native citizens but also by the talented individuals who have been welcomed by the country over the years. Depriving the nation of foreign talent will not only have serious repercussions for international countries but, it will also make America less representative and more hostile.
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