WP#2 Final H-1BAnnotated Bibliography

Rocki Passano

Professor Devon C. Adams

English 102 – 2315

31 October 2007

ANNOTATED BIBLIOGRAPHY H-1B Visa Program

Barrett, Larry. “H-1B Bump: Not Dead Yet”. CIO Insight — Ziff-Davis Media; July 2, 2007, Google Database Search; Mesa, AZ, 30 Aug 2007.

<http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_zdcis/is_200707/ai_n19426846>

This article reflects a fair and balanced look at the H-1B Visa Program following the defeat of the Senate’s Immigration Reform bill. The article provides a post mortem quote from high-tech lobbyists (pro increase), trade associations (pro increase), advocacy organizations (anti increase), and Norman Matloff a professor at UC Davis (anti increase). Barrett offers brief statistical information regarding the amendment proposed by Sen. J. Kyle (R-AZ), and Maria Cantwell (D-Wash) who hoped to double the amount of H-1B Visa cap by 2008, with additional increases thereafter. I was able to confirm from the HS/ICE website that in 2004, Congress increased the H-1B Visa cap by adding 20,000 exemption visas available each year for foreign students with advanced degrees from US universities making the current number 85,000 H-1B Visa applications granted each year in the US. The additional 20,000 exemption visas were a result of Congressional approval as part of a larger spending bill. I could find no bias in the article, just information both pro and con. Because I was previously employed by Ziff Davis, I know that unless the Corporation had a vested interest in the perception of the end result of an article, the company insisted writing published in any of the Media under the corporate umbrella be non-biased, factual, and accurate with the same print space for both sides of the issue. Therefore I trust the information in the article and the author.

Beck, Roy Howard. “The case against immigration: the moral, economic, social, and environmental reasons for reducing U.S. immigration back to traditional levels”. New York: W.W. Norton, c1996. CNJV6471.B43 1996 Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 20 Oct 2007

In his book, Beck argues for cutting immigration on the grounds that it is contributing to the falling real wages that breed dying communities and disintegrating families. He suggests that immigration has also contributed to the increasing gap between the rich and the poor in this country. Further, Beck makes a case that immigration harms every level of the economy, including the high-end high technology sector. He calls for a revamped system reducing U.S. immigration levels equivalent to those between 1924 and 1965. Additionally, he points out that only a small elite few are benefiting from current immigration levels, mainly corporations and other employers that benefit from low-wage labor. Beck also identifies African American workers as being particularly hard hit by immigration because many employers can meet minority hiring goals by employing immigrants instead of African Americans.

Broache, Anne. “Some H-1B workers underpaid, federal auditors say”. C/NETNews.com. San Francisco, CA CNET Networks, Inc., MCC Business Source Premier, Mesa, AZ 13 Sep 2007. http://news.com.com/Some+H-1B+workers+underpaid%2C+federal+auditors+say/2100-1022_3-6087367.html

This article reports on one of the problems associated with the H-1B Visa Program, the ability of Corporations to manipulate the system to the financial advantage of the Corporation. The article discusses the over 3200 petitions by H-1B workers have field against technology companies that did not commit to paying wages at prevailing rates. According to the article, the GAO found 5% of the total 65,000 approved applications were inaccurate but had been approved. Many H-1B workers are so grateful for their positions they may not complain because they fear having their visas revoked. The number of underpaid H-1B workers in the U.S. who are inaccurately paid is totally unknown. The article discusses that the problems and constraints which prevent conducting detail examinations of the applications but are just excuses. People start applying for these openings as soon as possible, the Department of Labor needs to do a better job of ensuring the applications are accurate and complete.

Gibson, Stan. “The H1-B Visa Bill: Here’s My Vote”. PC Week. Business Source Premier, EBSCO Host Research Databases; Mesa Community College; Mesa, AZ, 30 Aug 2007. http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu

Gibson attempts to gain the reader’s attention by identifying some of the issues that make the H-1B Visa Program controversial. “It’s got it all: xenophobia, class struggle, age discrimination”, he states in his opening sentence. This is a factual statement. He goes on to define this 1998 bill as a 50,000 increase of the H-1B Visa cap of 65,000. Gibson’s article goes on to present an abbreviated and opinionated version of the arguments both for and against this bill. In his argument for, Gibson states, “If there are people willing to take jobs and the wages that employers are willing to offer them, they should.” This statement would work if it applied to all people – not just H-1B visa applicants. U.S. technology industry workers had been doing these jobs, but the longer they work in the industry, the higher the salary goes; technology constantly changes, working with new products equals education and eventually expertise. Corporations should be honest and admit it’s the salaries and overhead driving their desire for an increase in H-1B visas applications. In his argument against the bill, Gibson states, “It’s attempt to dilute the labor pool and depress programmers wages, particularly of older workers”. I don’t know about diluting the labor pool, but I do know that high tech wages are being depressed. In 1997 network engineers who had been in the industry for five to ten years were making $75,000 to $100,000 plus benefits and incentives. Today with twenty years experience, if lucky, a contract position at fifty dollars per hour might be available. That’s a loss of pay because contractors do not receive benefits. Further the H1-B Program is not limited to programmer positions. The high cost of health care is a factor that is never addressed by either side of this argument. However, this one factor could in my opinion, be the largest reason Corporations desire H1-B Visa workers. But this issue is left unaddressed in this article, or for that matter any real justification for the increase in H-1B visa cap increases.

Hayes, Frank. “H-1Bs and Students”. Computerworld 9 Apr 2007, Vol 41 Issue 15, page 54-54. Academic Search Premier; EBSCOHost Research Database; Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 30 Aug 2007 http://web.ebscohost.com.ezp.mc.maricopa.edu

This article delves into the statistics behind the assertion that there are not enough qualified degreed graduates available in the U.S. to fill the open positions within their organizations. Hayes quotes data from the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLS, the National Science Foundation and the Computing Research Association giving additional credibility and reliability to the article and the argument. Hayes uses data to demonstrate the popularity of Computer Science majors in the U.S. show a direct correlation to the boom-bust economy surrounding the high tech industry. “What about the actual number of CS degrees?.. Those numbers were flat at about 25,000 college CS degrees per year until 1998 – exactly four years after interest in CS majors started to climb. And did they ever climb. Undergrad CS degrees peaked at a spectacular 57,400 in 2004 – exactly four years after the top of the “CS and dot-com” bubbles”, states Mr. Hayes. Consider the U.S. produced approximately 40,000 (approximate average) degreed CS undergrads for approximately four years. During this same time, corporations demanded and received a temporary increase in the H-1B visa caps to 115, 000. Hayes also points out that since the bottom has fallen out – college CS degrees are down thirty percent, but was expected. Additionally, students that were interested in CS kept choosing IT majors until the dot com bust, when they stopped. “…Ph.D. students – the high IT types who compete most directly with H-1B applicants?” It is my understanding from checking Department of Labor and Homeland Security immigration educational requirements for H-1B Visa applicants is the equivalent of a U.S. Undergrad Bachelor’s Degree. This statement implies that in order to compete against an H-1B visa applicant and U.S. worker has to hold a Ph.D. This statement points to another loophole that Corporations use to justify their demand for foreign workers. This is probably why my husband has had such a hard time qualifying for and being hired for IT positions in corporations to this day. I felt comfortable using this document for my paper because Hayes presents a unique approach of viewing the problems surrounding the lack of interest in CS degrees in the U.S. today and the statistical analysis. According to Mr. Hays, “…so much for the idea that college students aren’t interested in IT. Of course they are. They just need something like the dot-com revolution to fire their imaginations and convince them there’s something worth doing in this business.” In many ways I agree, challenges do ignite the imaginations and motivate Americans into action.

Matloff, Norman. “Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage. Testimony to the U.S. House Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration, 21 Apr 1998 updated 9 Dec 2002. http://heather.cs.ucdavis.edu/itaa.real.html

Dr. Matloff provides his testimony to the Judiciary Committee, Subcommittee on Immigration which reveals the hidden agenda behind the public relations campaign to influence Congress to increase yearly quota of H-1B work visas. He provides a comprehensive outlined document which delves into the facts and myths surrounding this controversy. Matloff focuses his argument against increases in the H-1B work visas on Software Engineers specifically because as noted he found the majority of H-1B visas were awarded to software developers and programmers 15 to 1 ratio versus hardware related visas awarded. Dr. Matloff is a tenured professor of Computer Science at UC Davis, received several honors, and is well published. I feel his work is reliable, factual and will be helpful in a research paper on H1-B Visas. This subject and document are relevant as the H1-B Visa Increase is being brought back into the forefront of the immigration issue, this congressional session and will probably be relevant in the upcoming Presidential election.

---. “The Adverse Impact of Work Visa Programs on Older U.S. Engineers and Programmers”. California Labor and Employment Law Review, Volume 20 No.4 August, 2006. State Bar of California. EBSCOHost Research Database, Mesa Community College, Mesa, AZ 18 Oct 2007.

In this article written for the State Bar of California, Dr. Matloff delves into the much ignored problem of high tech workers being discriminated against because of their age when applying for high technology employment. A company or corporation will never admit to this, but the facts prove the problem exists. In a study conducted by Matloff he found 57% of computer science graduates were working as programmers; at 15 years the number had dropped to 34% and by 20 years, the number was down to 19%. By contrast, Matloff found six years after graduation 61% of civil engineer graduates were working in the field and 20 years after graduation, 52% were still working in this field. Further evidence to support the existence of this problem was provided when a study conducted by the national Research Council (NRC) commissioned by Congress proved what U.S. Technical workers had been claiming all along. In an effort to refute their claims that we don’t have enough educated engineers in this country, lobbyists for corporations in favor of H-1B visa increases switched their claims to the workers in the U.S. are not skilled enough. This should have proved to Congress that the corporations were lying and there is no need for increases.

United States. Cong. House of Representatives Subcommittee on Immigration, Border Security and Claims, Committee on Judiciary. H-1B Visa Program: More Oversight by Labor Can Improve Compliance with Program Requirements. Statement of Sigurd R. Nilsen, Director Education Workforce, and Income. Washington: GAO 06-901T, 2006

The document is the testimony given to the Subcommittee on Immigration, et al, regarding misuse of the H-1B Visa Program Employer compliance with the prevailing wage rate. There had been several complaints to the Department of Labor that employers were not paying the prevailing wage they had agreed to for the position and in order to get the application approved. The GAO investigation results called for more oversight by the Department of Labor and Homeland Security – Immigration Compliance Enforcement, in reviewing applications completely for inaccuracies made by the submitting company. The Department of Labor claims that it is limited by law to checking for missing information or obvious inaccuracies and does this through automated data checks. GAO found several hundred certified applications that contained erroneous employer identification numbers. Employers appear to be constantly finding ingenious ways to beat the system and this study points out some of the ways to successfully accomplish this task. Further it appears to me that government agencies tasked with keeping the H-1B Visa Program honest aren’t doing their jobs to ensure that H-1B workers are being fairly treated and paid.

Obviously, there is quite a bit of controversy surrounding the H-1B Visa Program both for and against. My research brought me to the conclusion that there is no correct answer or easy solution to the question -- do we need to increase the H-1B quotas? My research did show that corporations are not being totally honest. Corporations have changed there approach to accomplishing their goal of increasing H-1B Visa quotas, they are no longer saying “there are no educated Americans to fill the vacancies” instead they are saying there are “no Americans with the right skill sets to fill the vacancies”. America now graduates sufficient bachelor degreed computer science graduates to force this change. What is not being said is that there are plenty of qualified, educated, and skilled Americans to fill these positions -- the men and women who helped pioneer the high tech industry in the 80s; but were laid off in the 90s; the same men and women who want a living wage for the work efforts. CEO’s, CFO’s, CIO’s, and corporate presidents have no problem receiving very large salaries and/or compensation packages mostly based on efforts of their employees. Additionally, there could be a need for highly educated specifically skilled workers that cannot be found in the U.S. so there should be a vehicle for obtaining such talent. And that talent should be paid a fair market wage no matter who fills the position. In order to find equitable solutions for the issues, we need to know the true facts regarding the motivations of the corporations.