H-1B visa layoffs

A senator from Iowa has told Microsoft to layoff the foreign workers first and keep the red blooded Americans.

As a programmer who has suffered layoffs and cuts in pay because of lower paid H-1B visa workers from India and China, I am watching this Issue, closely.

I have seen first hand how difficult it is for H-1B workers to get and keep a job. It is amazingly hard for them to get their green card. I sympathize with them. Working side by side with my Chinese and Indian friends, I understand their problems. They are truly Americans in spirit, fleeing poverty to come for a chance at the American Dream. Most say they’ll go back someday, but the only time they ever do is if their visa’s run out.

On the other hand, I have worked in shops where I was the only American born programmer out of dozens. The schools in the U.S. tend to produce graduates suited for flipping burgers and nothing else. I am largely self taught, augmented by advanced college courses that I paid for myself. I currently do not know anyone born in America, who has my background and can write programs. (I know of them, but they are several orders removed from me and I do not interact with them.)

There is a part of me that thinks that H-1B visa workers should be laid off before any Green card or citizens are laid off, but there is also the part that understands what it means to these pilgrims to come here and embrace the American Ideal.

Schools should concentrate on producing technically competent graduates, and business should be not laying off any H-1B workers until there is someone to replace them.

Senator questions, prods Microsoft on inclusion of H-1B workers in layoffs