One of the biggest problem we have in the country is need for jobs. If you can create jobs, you can start up the economy. But jobs need an economy to start. Well, there are jobs here. Not just illegal worker jobs, but real jobs. But companies want to keep wages low, so they use any means possible to do so. Hire illegal workers or bring in legal workers through the H-1B and H-2B system.
First some background. An H-1B visa is for ‘highly skilled’ workers from foreign countries for jobs that are difficult to hire here in the US. Like computer programmers, engineers, consultants etc. An H-2B visa is for a ‘temporary’ worker to come to the US to work at seasonal jobs like maid service, theme parks or harvesting. Or that is what it should be. These H-2B jobs are only supposed to be for 10 months only and then back to their home country. In theory, both of these visas appear to be very good. If there aren’t enough skilled workers in the US willing to work for a large corporation like Microsoft as a software engineers, then this is a great way to bring in workers and in fact it is a great pathway to citizenship in the U.S.. H-2B workers are for those jobs that people really have a hard time doing. The Grand Hotel on Mackinac Island has a tough time getting people to work in the hotel because there really isn’t a large workforce nearby who are willing to only work the summer season. By bringing in ‘temporary’ workers, the hotel fills the jobs that appear to be unfillable. Unfortunately, you’ve got to follow the money and find that both legal and illegal immigration and the continued support of both means big dollars to the companies that use them.
The argument that illegal immigrants take jobs from U.S. citizens has been shown to be false. Illegals work at the bottom rung of the job market in landscaping, restaurant and unskilled labor jobs because it is the work that allows them to make money, to ignore that they may not be able to work legally and not be faced with a language barrier. Also this type of work is hot, dirty and hard. Since illegal workers can are paid off the books, the companies that hire them find they are much cheaper than legal workers. A legal landscaper is paid a prevailing wage, he must also pay taxes to the state and federal government. The company must manage that money and send it on to the state and federal as well as add any other required money, like unemployment tax. Also, these workers are subject to the labor laws so they can have other benefits that other companies will offer. And these workers can quit a job at any time and move to another without repercussions. An illegal may pay income taxes and the employer may pass it on the government or the illegal employee can be paid in cash, without any taxes withheld. The illegal work isn’t subject to labor laws, since they aren’t really working and will not get benefits. If an illegal quits, they run the risk of being turned in by their employer for spite. Many times, the illegal worker is paid far less than the prevailing wage just because the employer can.
H-1B employees and H-2B employees are legal workers who have contracted with a company to work in the United States in return for access to country. The U.S. is considered still the best place in the world to work by many nations. In both H-1B and H-2B, the employee is beholding to the contracting company to continue working in the U.S. For example, an H-1B worker who is working towards his green card status wants to maintain a good work record so they are not likely to change jobs for five or more years. Unlike a U.S. citizen who can change, an employer knows the H-1B will be steady. Also, an H-1B employee doesn’t not want to be laid off or fired, because without employment they will be sent home. So they will tolerate anything since they have a larger prize, a green card. H-2B can work up to three years in the U.S. with ‘temporary’ jobs. Being here at least gives them a chance of trying for a better job or getting some chance of staying.
So let’s follow the money. The mega-corporation I own needs good, well trained sofware engineers. I can go and hire the U.S. trained engineers and put them to work. Oh, they still want their old salaries and a little more. They want benefits and all kinds of good working conditions. They want four weeks of vacation. And I probably need to retrain them on the latest technology because they didn’t get much training in their last job. Or I can claim that I can’t find good engineers because I need mega-Java+ and no one has that kind of experience except some nice young Indians and so I bring in H-1B’s in mega-Java+ through a contract house. I pay the contract house and they pay the nice, young Indian men. These are young people and so I don’t have to pay them the same rate as the old grizzled U.S. engineers. They will take two weeks of vacation. The contract house has to take care of benefits and frankly they are not going to give me two weeks notice and leave because they need, really need this job. So I can ask them to do anything extra. And they are pleasant and polite. My mega-corporation also needs janitors, lots of janitors. So I contract with a H-2B company to fill my need for 100 janitors. They can only work for 10 months, but if you play the numbers right, they can work for 10 months here and 10 months for another place etc. Again, I don’t have to pay them; I pay the H-2B company. I don’t have to worry about unions, because that is the H-2B company problem and frankly they can’t organize. I don’t have to pay them that well, because well, they will get the prevailing wage, but just that. So they get about minimum wage after the living expenses are removed etc. And if they don’t show up for five days, they go back to where ever they came from.
So in the end, my mega-corporation can cut wages by hiring young people that I don’t really have to manage. I can push that savings to the bottom line. And I can still complain that I would hire Americans, but they don’t want to work or they don’t have the training. Immigration to a corporation is good, very good. By keeping the system just the way it is, a corporation can have its cake and eat it too. Companies get cheap labor and yet they can complain that the U.S. workers aren’t available or as well trained. Or they can lament about illegal workers taking jobs from U.S. citizens and yet hire them through the back door for cheap.
The only way to stop illegal immigration is to hit the people that hire illegals hard. Take away their businesses, fine them up the wazoo. And one way to start the economy is to stop having H-1B and H-2B workers come in. If there is a real reason for a worker, make it on a case by case. A professor in Astrophysics probably qualifies. But we have well trained welders here. They may be union, but they are capable of doing the work better than an H-2B.
Immigration and Money
