Howard Foster wrote an excellent piece (on the Huffington Post of all sites) outlining the disconnect between our elected officials and the unemployed in regards to immigration policy. In his piece, Mr. Foster correctly made the assertion that the number of issued employment-based visas should be reduced during times of high unemployment, as we've been experiencing over the last four years. Foster only scratched the surface of the injustice of foreign national hiring, however, as he only cited the 65,000 H-1B visas Washington issues each year. According to the Migration Policy Institute, the U.S. actually floods (.pdf) the job market annually with well over a half-million foreign workers, including upwards of 150,000 with J-1 visas and 75,000 with L-1 visas.(Click to enlarge chart.)
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| Flooding the job market isn't helping to reverse this trend. |
the powers that be don't care about the unemployed. they only care about their supply chain of cheap foreign labor. colleges are generous with in state tuition for foreign students too. international students = higher rankings = bigger endowments. you're spot on with the assault on the middle class tag.
ReplyDeleteYes, the hiring of foreign nationals not only adds to the woes of the unemployed, but it contributes to wage deflation. Despite the fact that hiring has picked up slightly over the last couple of quarters, federal withholdings have fallen year-over-year. That means people are earning less.
ReplyDeleteMy grad school granted several foreign students in-state tuition as an incentive to attend, but denied in-state tuition to one of my buddies who had recently *permanently* relocated to the area.
It's a shame you can't cite facts like this without being labeled a racist...even though many of the imported workers are of European descent.
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