Many H-1B workers get temporary jobs, study finds

[OhioChick]

Offshore firms seek permanent residency for few H-1Bs; U.S. firms have mixed plans

February 22, 2010 05:45 AM ET

Computerworld - Many employers sponsor H-1B holders to have them fill temporary posts, not to become full-time residents of the U.S., according to a study released last week by the Economic Policy Institute, a Washington-based nonprofit think tank.

The differences in the ways companies use H-1B visas can be stark, according to the study, which was authored by Ron Hira, an associate professor of public policy at the Rochester Institute of Technology and a longtime critic of the H-1B visa program. (Download a PDF of study here.)

For example, large India-based companies mostly seek permanent residency for just a small percentage of the U.S.-based employees for whom they try to secure H-1B visas, while some U.S.-based companies, such as Microsoft Corp. and Qualcomm Inc., are more likely to begin the green card process for employees. "Rather than attracting the 'best and brightest' for permanent immigration, as many have claimed, the programs have increasingly been used for temporary labor mobility to transfer work overseas and to take advantage of cheaper guest-worker labor," wrote Hira.

The study was called misleading by a spokesman for Compete America, a coalition of vendors, universities and other sponsors of H-1B visa holders. Spokesman Eric Thomas in particular questioned the use of L-1 visa data in the study. The L-1 visa is used by multinational companies for intracompany transfers. "That's how the system was designed, and that's how it's working. Lumping different visa categories into one bucket is a clear attempt to skew the data," he said.

The study examines company-by-company data and then separates it into H-1B and L-1 visa categories. An examination of the study finds that even if L-1 visa data is excluded, the pattern of visa use appears to remain the same.

More: http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9159838/Many_H_1B_workers_get_temporary_jobs_study_finds

[ChromeFoundry]

1. Corporations without ethics?

Big suprise!