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H-1B reduced computer programmer employment by up to 11%, study finds


dasara_bullodu

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There would have been up to 11% more computer science jobs at wages up to 5% higher were it not for the immigration program that brings in foreign high-skilled employees, a new study finds.

The study comes at a sensitive time, as tech titans including Facebook battle the immigration restrictions put forward by President Donald Trump. Though Trump has focused initially on restricting refugees, the fate of high-skilled immigrants is a matter of intense debate in the current Congress.

The paper — by John Bound and Nicolas Morales of the University of Michigan and Gaurav Khanna of the University of California, San Diego — was conducted by studying the economy between 1994 and 2001, during the internet boom. It was also a period where the recruitment of so-called H-1B labor was at or close to the cap and largely before the onset of the vibrant IT sector in India.

In 2001, the number of U.S. computer scientists was between 6.1%-10.8% lower and wages were between 2.6% and 5.1% lower.

Of course, there also were beneficiaries — namely consumers and employers. Immigration lowered prices by between 1.9% and 2.4%, and profits increased as did the total number of IT firms.

As a working paper, it hasn’t been peer reviewed, and the authors allowed their model is too simple to allow for policy evaluations of alternatives.

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/h-...employment-by-up-to-11-study-finds-2017-02-13

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25 minutes ago, dasara_bullodu said:

Weak hearts don't read comments

Already read. This one makes the most sense 

"A number of years back, there was a legitimate need for H1B visas in the IT industry. Part of the process to bring a H1B candidate in was to prove there were no 'qualified' US citizens who could do the job. At the time, the IT world in the US was exploding and there weren't enough US citizens to fill all the jobs. The need for H1B was legitimate. That has gradually changed, and I personally have witnessed the change. It is pretty hard to defend that H1B need (as in the case of Disney and many more companies), when the existing IT staff of US citizens are forced to train their H1B replacements or forfeit severance pay. H1B workers are primarily employed because they are paid less than US citizens ..... period.

 

So if Google and the rest of the Silicon Valley tech industry claim such a hardship from the temporary ban on people from 7 countries being excluded from their workforce for 90 days, then I suggest that they relocate their operations to those seven countries. There, that would solve all their problems"

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