In its May 26 editorial calling for an expansion of the H-1B visa program (“International graduates of US colleges should have an easier path to stay”), the Globe mischaracterized the role of this and other guest worker programs. Although they bring in some highly skilled workers, often in technology, they do so by creating an exploitative employment relationship that harms all workers. H-1B workers have few employment rights, in a system that they’ve described as “indentured servitude,” and some employers engage in rampant wage theft from H-1B workers. This system also harms American workers. The largest H-1B employers exploit it to offshore American jobs, and many employers force American workers to train cheaper H-1B workers who then replace them.
The editorial’s timing is puzzling since recent articles in the Globe have reported that the market for college graduates is softening — the very jobs H-1B workers fill. Hundreds of thousands of technology workers have been laid off in recent years, making it difficult for experienced technology workers and recent graduates to find jobs. In fact, recent graduates face a difficult job search in a broad range of fields, as has been widely reported. A large expansion of the H-1B program is unwarranted any time, but a call for it now is, at best, tone deaf.
Moreover, guest worker programs create perverse incentives for universities since they are a key gatekeeper for access to the US labor market. Those seeking work authorization attend US universities to get a guest worker visa. Universities exploit this advantage by creating master’s programs targeted at foreign students, who in turn often enter high-turnover jobs with exploitative working conditions at low pay.
The high-skilled immigration system is indeed broken. Expanding the scandalous H-1B program would only make it worse.
Ron Hira
Washington, D.C.
Hal Salzman
New Brunswick N.J.
Hira is a professor of political science at Howard University and a research associate with the Economic Policy Institute, and Salzman is a professor of planning and public policy at the Edward J. Bloustein School and senior faculty fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development at Rutgers University.