:: Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

US gets locks and keys to bolt H1-B doors

By Paranjoy Guha Thakurta

APR 26 : As the recession in the West deepens, protectionism is on the rise. A bill has been introduced in the US Senate which, if it becomes law, would place severe restrictions on American employers engaging the services of foreign workers on H-1B non-immigrant visas. The bill has made India’s computer software development and business process outsourcing industry rather jittery.

Many Indians who are adept at information technology have perceived the US as a land of milk and honey. But even they are no longer rushing to catch the first flight to a country where free enterprise capitalism was supposed to offer unlimited economic opportunities to the talented and the enterprising. The evidence is in the form of a sharp fall in the number of applicants for H-1B visas this year.

H-1B visa holders can be "temporarily" hired — usually for three years, extendable for another three years — by US employers provided they are in "specialty occupations". The US Immigration & Nationality Act specifies a "speciality occupation" as one that requires theoretical and practical application of a body of highly specialised knowledge in a field of human endeavour, including, but not limited to, architecture, engineering, mathematics, physical sciences, social sciences, biotechnology, medicine and health, education, law, accounting, business, theology and the arts, and requiring the attainment of a bachelor’s degree or its equivalent as a minimum qualification. Fashion models are exempt from the minimum educational qualification provided they are "of distinguished merit and ability".

An official "strategic plan" document of the US Department of Labour states that "...H-1B workers may be hired even when a qualified US worker wants the job and a US worker can be displaced from the job in favour of the foreign worker". The bill in the Senate proposes that US employers first make an attempt in "good faith" to recruit an American worker before hiring a foreigner holding a H-1B visa.

Further, the bill proposes that employers be prohibited from hiring H-1B visa holders unless at least half its total employee strength comprises US citizens. "Our bill will put a stop to the outsourcing of American jobs and discrimination against American workers", says Dick Durbin, a Senator belonging to the Democratic Party from Illinois, who is also the Assistant Senate Majority Leader and one of the two sponsors of the bill.

The most-commonly voiced criticisms of the H-1B policy over the years has been that it replaces American workers, depresses salaries and is a form of subsidy to corporate bodies. It is claimed that the objectives of the policy are subverted by companies engaging foreign workers through contractors and by designating them as consultants. Some US critics have gone to the extent of describing H1-B visa holders as "indentured servants" or "slaves" because of their dependence on their employers.

This year, there has been a sudden drop in the number of people applying for H-1B visas (see box) even as those opposed to outsourcing of American jobs have become increasingly aggressive. Notable among them is Lou Dobbs, conservative television anchor of CNN. For years now, he has frequently highlighted and condemned "offshoring" of jobs. He has persisted in his campaign despite being accused of inciting xenophobia, besides mixing reportage with personal opinion and facts with advocacy. He has been described as a "raving protectionist", a "ratings hound" and as a person with an "intellectual midlife crisis".

Another right-wing radio talk show host, Rush Limbaugh, had the following to say to a caller on his radio programme: "If you’re sitting out waiting for a job that’s now being done by a slumdog in India and you’re waiting for the job to be cancelled, for the slumdog to be thrown out of work, and you to get the job, it ain’t going to happen, it’s not the way economics works…"

These two media personalities may or may not represent mainstream American opinion but they are certainly cashing in on a rising tide of protectionism in a country that has traditionally advocated free movement of goods and capital but baulked at similar norms governing the movement of people. Vivek Wadhwa, who arrived in the US as a "low-level programmer with a big investment bank" and went on to become a senior research fellow at Harvard Law School, an executive in residence at Duke University and who founded two computer software firms that employed over 1,200 people, was viciously attacked when he argued that American immigration policy is "chasing away talented foreigners who had previously served as a backbone of US science innovation". In an article in Business Week, he wrote how he had received over 1,000 email messages personally attacking him, disparaging his race and heritage and even threatening to bodily harm him.

This, indeed, is what protectionism in a time of recession is all about.

Paranjoy Guha Thakurta is an educator and commentator based in New Delhi