Republican Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said she will introduce a bill to end H-1B visas, which allow companies to bring skilled foreign workers, days after Donald Trump backed the program.

  • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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    12 hours ago

    It 100% needs to end…

    Like, how it was intended was fine, but now it’s used to get employees who can’t quit. Sign them to a contract that doesn’t get OT and make em work 100 hr weeks when here till they burn out then replace them.

    So Americans need to put up with it, or they won’t get hired.

    • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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      11 hours ago

      Yep, it’s basically slavery via holding the visa for foreign workers who have to put up with the corps holding their status over their heads, all while driving down pay for citizens. It was a good thought, but it’s being heavily abused now.

      • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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        9 hours ago

        It was a good thought, but it’s being heavily abused now.

        I’m not sure when it was a good idea and I also don’t know a time when it was not being abused, if I’m being honest. At least in IT (and in general, engineering, or so I’ve heard) going back to the 90s…

        Now, the other threat they hold over our heads is that companies will just outsource if we don’t allow this, but that’s not a law of nature or anything, either. There is no reason we should not tax such services like that, too.

        America kept telling their youth (and probably keep telling them) to “learn to code” because those were the jobs they were told Americans should aspire to, etc. Since I’ve been in IT since the 90s, I have more than my share of doubts about this promise, since I’ve seen how we are treated and the strong desire in the corporate world to suppress wages, benefits, any sense of autonomy, etc…if America is serious about this message, maybe they ought to look out for the workers.

        • curbstickle@anarchist.nexus
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          9 hours ago

          I’m not sure when it was a good idea and I also don’t know a time when it was not being abused, if I’m being honest. At least in IT (and in general, engineering, or so I’ve heard) going back to the 90s…

          Well the H1 came decades before (and still exists, its more generic), and the B was supposed to be specific gaps for skilled workers - longer term allowed, you can change jobs on this one (the original requires you to get a new visa, the h1b you just need to file a petition), allowed for a longer stay which was helpful for people trying to become citizens, it was meant to be used far, far, far less than it is today and has limited that are constantly ignored, etc,

          The H1B came out in 1990, it only took a few years for companies to work around the limitations that were intended and use skyrocketed.

          So probably for around 2-3 years it was a good idea.

      • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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        11 hours ago

        It’s not really slavery…

        Because you can quit, you just go back to your home country.

        And your home country might suck, but if you got a H1B, you’re upper class. No one goes from starving to getting a 100k salary in tech on a H1B.

        It’s more like how Americans work on an oil platform. They come here to earn a shit ton of money on a short timeline, then go back home where the money is worth a shit ton more instead of spending here or even “investing” it.

        • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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          4 hours ago

          but if you got a H1B, you’re upper class.

          No? You just need an engineering degree from a half decent university or a similarly valuable skill and you’re set, and in a weaker economy there’s no guarantee you can even find work with that degree or skill. I mean, in plenty of places computer science/engineering degrees have only recently come to be seen as valuable.

        • SupraMario@lemmy.world
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          11 hours ago

          Because you can quit, you just go back to your home country.

          When someone hangs a carrot over your head and says “if you want to stay, do what I say” that’s a form of slavery.

          And your home country might suck, but if you got a H1B, you’re upper class. No one goes from starving to getting a 100k salary in tech on a H1B.

          You’re right and it kills the need for the local citizens to get paid properly when a company has the option to pay way under market for someone who’s home country might suck.

          It’s more like how Americans work on an oil platform. They come here to earn a shit ton of money on a short timeline, then go back home where the money is worth a shit ton more instead of spending here or even “investing” it.

          And this isn’t an issue because???

    • CharlesDarwin@lemmy.world
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      9 hours ago

      It was getting abused since at least the 90s, at least as far as I could see. Sure, it was anecdotal as far as what I saw, but you’d hear others saying similar things.

      The sad thing is that even after the dot-com bubble, we still had H-1Bs, when something like that should have been an obvious trigger point to shut them down to zero, at least within IT jobs, and only raise them above zero once some other trigger point is reached, and even then, only very cautiously.

      If companies really need to find such rare talent, maybe they find some kind of way to have Congress build them a path to bring someone in as a full citizen and work. We’ll see how many “shortages” of local talent they have once all that rare talent are also free agents entirely capable of finding another job, LOL. I think the real “shortage” they are talking about is a lack of workers beholden to them, and willing to work for less than the prevailing wages…

      • NoneOfUrBusiness@fedia.io
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        4 hours ago

        maybe they find some kind of way to have Congress build them a path to bring someone in as a full citizen and work.

        I agree with this in principle (the whole concept of citizenship is frankly fucked up in the first place), but you don’t even need to go that far. There are much less oppressive work visa programs out there.