Is this the end of H-1Bs?

Date: Monday, October 06, 2003 1:08 AM

JOB DESTRUCTION NEWSLETTER

www.ZaZona.com

Rajghatta has a good point - the reason American hi-tech companies
didn't lobby to keep the H-1B visa cap at 195,000 per year is because
they didn't need the extra workers. As soon as they need more H-1Bs
they will lobby Congress and get the limits to whatever they want.
Whether the limits are raised or lowered has absolutely nothing to do
with unemployment rates in the U.S.

http://economictimes.indiatimes.com/cms.dll/html/uncomp/articleshow?msid=217122

Is this the end of H-1Bs?

CHIDANAND RAJGHATTA / DESIDERATA

TIMES NEWS NETWORK[ SUNDAY, OCTOBER 05, 2003 10:38:08 PM ]
The death occurred this week of H-1B, an American visa type that
enabled some half a million Indians to migrate to the United States
over the past decade.

No, kill that obituary. The H-1B is not dead. It has only been
arrested, and rolled back to the original quota of 65,000 that was the
annual limit for many years before it was raised to 195,000 during the
tech-boom.

(Who do you think is at loss if the number of H-1B visas is brought
down?)

Still, going by the breast beating in the Indian media, you would think
that it is H-1B RIP.

The hysteria is unwarranted. When it was first instituted in 1990, the
H-1B quota of 65,000 sufficed to meet the US need for skilled workers
for its hi-tech companies, universities and hospitals.

It was only when the tech sector exploded in the mid 1990s that the
quota actually began to get filled. As the pressure increased, the US
Congress raised the limit, first to 115,000 in 2000, and then to
195,000.

But even as the quota was raised, the bust had arrived. By 2002, less
than half the H-1B quota was being filled, and the visa, which was
mostly being cornered by tech firms, was being handed out to teachers,
nurses, and even models.

This year, petitions for H-1B are said to have dropped to less than
30,000. The truth is, if American hi-tech companies really wanted to
keep the limits at the higher levels, they would have lobbied for it
and got it done.

But with virtually no domestic job growth and jobs being exported, it
would seem that it is countries like India which may soon need to
institute an H-1B kind of visa.

However, in the time the US hi-tech industry boomed and H-1B was the
rage, it helped expand the Indian population in the US significantly
(Indians went from around 800,000 in the 1990 census to 1.6 million in
2000) and dramatically altered the 'desi' profile.

From dharma bums in the 1960s, to nerdy academicians in the 1970s, to
persevering physicians in the 1980s (with plenty of overlap), the 1990s
saw the arrival of the geeky Indian techie. Indians are estimated to
have snagged nearly half the 900,000 H-1Bs since the programme was
instituted.

More H1-Bs were handed out in India than any other country in the
world, and more in Chennai nee Madras than in any other consulate in
the world.

At its peak around the turn of the decade, the H1-B had spawned a whole
ancillary industry. It booted up websites such as www.h1bjobs.com,
www.h1bresources.com, www.h1bsponsors.com and even a nomoreh1bs.com.

In fact, in the late 1990s, there was apocryphal story of desi boys who
finished their college in the US and found jobs here tootling down to
El Paso, a border town in the United States.

They would make the short journey across the border to Juarez in Mexico
and return the next day with their passport stamped with a new visa.
This became known as the H1-B trip and legend has it that it became
such a routine and popular gig that motels and restaurants on the
border started screening Bollywood movies and serving desi food.

The H-1B fella was a standout and there were jokes aplenty about him
(and an occasional her). He was the one standing next to the two
largest size suitcases at the airport wearing blue jeans and white
sneakers.

He was the one who kept a moustache when he first came to US and
removed it after a year. He was the one who put plastic covers on
everything from the remote controls to new couches.

He was the one who put a vinyl cover on his kitchen table. He was the
one who owned a rice cooker or pressure cooker.

He was the one who went home every year to look for a wife. So what. He
was also the one who helped India - and the US -- along the high-tech
road. For that, old chap, much thanks from both sides.

Support this Newsletter and ZaZona.com by donating:
www.zazona.com/Donations.htm

To Subscribe or Unsubscribe send an email to

Back to archives