The Current Labor Shortage
May. 3rd, 2006 11:32 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
billroperYesterday's post on immigration actually triggered more response than I thought that it would. And the discussion that followed moves me to ask a question about the two statements below:
1) Illegal immigrants fill jobs that Americans aren't willing to do.
2) The H-1B visa program allows industry to recruit technical workers, because there is a shortage of them in the U.S.
Now, I know that there are apparently qualified technical workers among my friends who've found it difficult to get a job following the dotcom bust, at the same time that industry is arguing that they need more H-1B workers. And I -- and others -- have wondered if it's simply a case of industry wanting more workers who will accept substandard wages and who dare not complain lest they be sent back to their home country.
If I have the strong suspicion that statement 2 is a crock, why should I believe something different about statement 1?
So what do you think? Is either statement true?
1) Illegal immigrants fill jobs that Americans aren't willing to do.
2) The H-1B visa program allows industry to recruit technical workers, because there is a shortage of them in the U.S.
Now, I know that there are apparently qualified technical workers among my friends who've found it difficult to get a job following the dotcom bust, at the same time that industry is arguing that they need more H-1B workers. And I -- and others -- have wondered if it's simply a case of industry wanting more workers who will accept substandard wages and who dare not complain lest they be sent back to their home country.
If I have the strong suspicion that statement 2 is a crock, why should I believe something different about statement 1?
So what do you think? Is either statement true?