H-1B visa exploitation harms workers and professionals

Source: The post H-1B visa exploitation harms workers and professionals has been created, based on the article “Best of both sides: The H-1B visa system is designed to exploit foreign talent” published in “Indian Express” on 24 January 2025

UPSC Syllabus Topic: GS Paper2-International relations

Context: The article discusses the exploitation in the H-1B visa program. It highlights fake resumes, low wages, and abuses by Indian IT body shops. It criticizes corporate America for legal wage suppression and debunks myths about the STEM crisis and racial bias.

What is the H-1B Visa Program?

The H-1B visa is for skilled foreign workers, often labeled as the “best and the brightest.” It is widely used in the IT sector.

For detailed information on H-1B Visa Program read this article here

How Are Indian IT Body Shops Exploiting Workers?

1. Thousands of small Indian-owned IT firms, known as “body shops,” exploit H-1B workers. Examples include:

• Fake resumes: Workers often add fake experience to secure jobs.
• Proxy interviews: Others take interviews on behalf of candidates.
• Living conditions: Workers live in squalid guesthouses and face threats of deportation.
• Debt and coercion: They pay visa fees, taxes, and sign exploitative contracts.

2. One worker admitted selecting candidates for jobs by flipping a coin during interviews.

For detailed information on H-1B Controversy and India’s Position read this article here

What Role Does Corporate America Play?

1. Corporate America exploits the H-1B program to suppress wages and replace American workers with cheaper foreign labor.
2. The H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004 restructured wage levels, setting them at the 34th and 50th percentiles, enabling underpayment legally.
3. Companies favor H-1B workers over Americans, as documented in research and court cases.
4. The Department of Labor permits firms to manipulate prevailing wage levels, making wage theft compliant with the law.
5. Example: Elon Musk’s claim of a “broken” H-1B program is inaccurate; it functions as designed for corporate profit.

Is There a STEM Crisis in the U.S.?

1. The U.S. does not face a genuine STEM crisis; this is a myth created by flawed studies.
2. A study by the National Science Foundation in the late 1980s exaggerated the need for STEM professionals.
3. This myth led to the creation of the H-1B visa program under the 1990 Act.
4. Researcher Carolyn Veneri found that real unemployment in tech is obscured by counting underemployed individuals as fully employed.
5. For example, a former engineer working as a sales clerk is counted as employed, skewing unemployment data.

Key Takeaway

The H-1B program is flawed and exploits workers. It benefits corporations while harming both American professionals and foreign workers. Legal loopholes and corporate greed, not a STEM crisis, are the root causes of this problem.

Question for practice:

Examine how the H-1B visa program is exploited by both Indian IT body shops and corporate America, and its impact on workers and professionals.