US – Benefits of High-Skilled Immigrants

The technology journalist Robert X Cringley has an article criticizing H1-B visas that I think is worth offering a rebuttal to. In contrast to pro-immigration voices that is often associated with Silicon Valley, this piece reflects the anti-immigration sentiment that I think reflects the same old protectionism we see in many other places in this country. The basic story here can be boiled down to Cringely’s title: H-1B visa abuse limits wages and steals US jobs.

He has a few complaints. One is that these visas don’t really go to irreplaceable superstars for whom there is no substitute, but rather to replace run-of-the-mill programmers. In addition, he complains that the pay that goes to these workers is lower than the average pay for the positions they take. There is no STEM worker shortage he argues, so this program is just driving down wages and steal Americans’ jobs.

The first problem with this is that even if I grant ALL of Cringely’s assumptions, he fails to demonstrate that H1-B hurts workers overall because he only focuses on the workers directly competing with H1-B recipients…

Choosen excerpts by JMM from

via Misunderstanding the Benefits of High-Skilled Immigrants – Forbes.