In a May 26 editorial titled “International graduates of US colleges should have an easier path to stay,” the Globe advocated for an expansion of the H-1B visa program. However, critics argue that this and other guest worker programs are fundamentally flawed. While they do attract highly skilled workers, particularly in technology, they also create exploitative employment relationships detrimental to all workers.
H-1B workers often face limited employment rights and have described their situation as "indentured servitude." There are reports of rampant wage theft among H-1B employees. Furthermore, this system negatively impacts American workers; major H-1B employers use it to offshore jobs and sometimes compel American employees to train their H-1B replacements.
The call for expanding the program comes at a puzzling time, given recent reports from the Globe indicating a softening job market for college graduates—positions typically filled by H-1B workers. With hundreds of thousands of technology workers laid off in recent years, experienced professionals and new graduates alike are finding it increasingly difficult to secure employment. Expanding the H-1B program now appears ill-timed and insensitive.
Guest worker programs also create problematic incentives for universities, which serve as key gatekeepers to the U.S. labor market. Many prospective workers attend U.S. universities specifically to obtain guest worker visas. Universities leverage this by creating master's programs aimed at foreign students who often end up in high-turnover jobs with poor working conditions and low pay.
Ron Hira from Washington D.C., a professor of political science at Howard University and research associate with the Economic Policy Institute, along with Hal Salzman from New Brunswick N.J., a professor at Rutgers University's Edward J. Bloustein School and senior faculty fellow at the John J. Heldrich Center for Workforce Development, contend that the high-skilled immigration system is broken. They believe that expanding what they describe as the scandalous H-1B program would exacerbate existing issues.
