It's hard to include all my points in such a nuanced issue. I actually agree with you that a visa program that brings in a smaller number of truly talented people (and preserves their freedom to choose their profession, job, and location) would be a good thing for the US. The H1B as it stands is wretched. Yeah, it brings in these folks, but it is also a massive scale indentured worker program, used extensively to facilitate outsourcing. A lot of people are surprised to discover that 6 or the top 10 users of the program are actually Indian outsourcing companies, who use the visa to cycle a worker through the US for a couple of years to facilitate moving the job overseas. And two of the remaining top 10 are based in the US but are essentially outsourcing companies. The first US company on the list, Microsoft, only comes in at #5!
I think a lot of the dispute comes from a misunderstanding about how the visa is used. It's almost like two completely alternate universes - one side is using it to bring in innovators, and the other is using it to replace ordinary american workers with ordinary workers from overseas at a lower rate. Everyone seems to agree about this, the only dispute is the extent. You might want to check out this article - :
I think a lot of the dispute comes from a misunderstanding about how the visa is used. It's almost like two completely alternate universes - one side is using it to bring in innovators, and the other is using it to replace ordinary american workers with ordinary workers from overseas at a lower rate. Everyone seems to agree about this, the only dispute is the extent. You might want to check out this article - :
http://news.yahoo.com/s/bw/20090224/bs_bw/feb2009tc200902239...