So, with protectionism at work these days and recruiters giving in to the popular "hire local" sentiment, the quest for this Unicorn who is an US citizen and has the right skills for a high technology job becomes quite an ordeal. After a while, I will start to get emails with the same job requirements that will say EADs (a temporary work permit that is given to those who are waiting in line to get a permanent residency card to be alloted to them. This wait can be as long as ten years today is likely to grow even longer) are acceptable and if even that fails it will slide down further to allow the much maligned H1s — the favorite punching bag for any and all anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Even after doing all that, given the severe (and often punitive) employment restrictions on H1 visa holders, chances are that the companies seeking these skills would have to do one of two very unpalatable things, get someone younger and possessing the right technology skills and experience from a different country on a brand new H1 visa or send the job offshore. Neither option is particularly helpful to the jobless citizens of this country or to those who aspire to become its citizens at some point.
This combination of unfortunate circumstances — the tethering of H1s to their sponsoring employer in what frequently becomes a decade long death trap, the inhumanely long and painful permanent residency process and close to no incentive for locals to consider education and career in technology — helps create an unending death spiral.
It consists of yet more job displacement, yet more new immigrants being added to the hopper who then line up for permanent residency choking up an already broken and dysfunctional system; the addition of newly minted permanent residents and citizens who have been hobbled by the immigration system to the point where they are ineffective in regenerating America with talent and innovation. This whole system is a travesty of justice and fair-play in more ways than can be counted and renders the premise of American meritocracy completely unsustainable.
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Article comments
1 - Aetius Romulous
Wow. What a great article. I suppose there are no comments because you have made the case air tight LOL.
Again, a great read and some brilliant logic.
2 - Cindy
Great article Heart. I read it, but I wasn't up to commenting. It makes me too angry. I'm angry just thinking about it again.
3 - Dr Dreadful
I immigrated just before 9/11 on a K-1 fiancé visa and was able to get an EAD by kicking up a stink at the local INS office who didn't want to give me one, even though their website said I was eligible. I doubt I'd find it so easy now.
4 - To_Inform_You
Those jobs you are getting in your in box are part of the perm process for an H-1b so any U.S. citizen applicant can be rejected and thereby "proven" that no U.S. citizen or green card holder qualifies for the position being held by the H-1B.
The jobs they advertise don't really exist. If you are in I.T. I'm sure you know that logic is logic and learning to apply logic you had to use for one tool to a new tool is quite natural for most I.T. developers. On-the-job self training is all that is required to add another tool to one's skillset. In fact, most of the newer technologies are much easier to use than it's predecessors.
Another piece of info for you. Very few contributed to your blog because it does not show up in a google blog search of H-1B.