Excerpted from: ERRI DAILY INTELLIGENCE REPORT-ERRI Risk Assessment
Services- Monday, September 28, 1998-Vol. 4, No. 271
LEAD FOCUS
H1-B WORKER VISA BILL "WRONGHEADED"
SAYS CHICAGO INSTITUTE
By Steve Macko, EmergencyNet News Managing Editor
CHICAGO (EmergencyNet News) - According to a Sunday Washington Post article (09/27/98, Pg.
A06), the White House has negotiated a bill that would authorize as many as 337,500
temporary computer workers to migrate to the United States in the next three years. The
bill, apparently a compromise between the administration and some Republicans, is designed
to meet a reported shortage of high-tech computer programmers and designers that are
needed to make up shortfalls in a tight domestic
labor market. The bill, scheduled to go to the Senate in coming weeks, lifts the number of
H1-B visas to be granted to foreign workers wishing to work in the United States.
The H1-B program has come under increasing fire from the AFL-CIO and other organized labor
organizations in the United States in recent months, but without apparent impact on
efforts to expand the importation of foreign workers into the U.S. labor market. The
measure is reportedly strongly supported by Silicon-Valley executives who believe that
there aren't enough American workers to meet the needs of a rapidly growing computer
industry.
According to the Post, the H1-B program has also come under fire by the U.S. Dept. of
Labor, who suggest that companies that want to import foreign workers should first
demonstrate a shortage of American workers to meet the needs of the rapidly evolving
computer industry. Additionally, organized labor groups say that nothing in the new H1-B
program prevents companies from laying-off American workers in order to hire foreign
workers, who can then allegedly be hired for lower wages.
Clark Staten, Executive Director of the internet-based Emergency Response and Research
Institute (ERRI), says that the whole idea of hiring essential workers from outside the
country is flawed and that it could contribute to an decrease in a potential employment of
the disadvantaged and under- employed American minorities and women.
"This whole program is simply wrong-headed...it places a priority on immigration and
the employment of foreign workers rather than addressing the root issue of educating and
training American's under-employed workers to meet the growing needs of the Silicon
Valley," Staten said in an interview on Saturday. "We are at a juncture in this
country where we must decide whether short-term corporate profits are more important to
the country than the education of American citizens and the future
evolution and expansion of the high-tech industrial base of the United States," he
added.
"At this time of reported government budget surpluses, we would respectfully suggest
that this is the time to spend some of that money on America's future and on an extensive
effort by the establishment in Washington to redirect, retrain, and prepare unemployed and
under-employed American citizens for future careers in the computer industry," Staten
continued. "We strongly believe this is the time for a cooperative effort on the part
of both business and government to develop programs that will provide training,
internships, apprenticeships, and other innovative and success-driven approaches to
meeting the needs of all segments of the high-technology companies of the future,"
the ERRI CEO added.
"As America transitions from a 'smoke-stack industrial society,' populated by former
assembly line workers, to a largely service and technology based economy, it is important
that large segments of the society don't get left behind...a strong America in the future
requires that we not become dependant on foreign workers for our essential capabilities
and future economic development," Staten concluded.
Although not discussed in the Post article or so far noted in other public debate about
the H1-B visa program, Staten also pointed out that questions have arisen in defense and
intelligence circles in regard to software security issues and the possibility that
foreign nationals, with no allegiance to the United States, could easily engage in
espionage, sabotage, or the theft of intellectual property while participating in this
temporary H1-B program. Staten said that the insertion of time-delayed viruses,
unauthorized back-doors, password-sniffers or trojan horses could have disastrous future
effects on software that is produced, if left undetected.
Saturday's Post report quotes a Lou Harris & Associates poll that says 82 percent of
Americans oppose an expansion of the importation of high-tech workers, and that 77 percent
believe that the H1-B program will reduce job opportunities for American citizens. A
number of technology experts, however, question whether the will of the people will be
heard in the case of the H1-B visa issue.
(C) EmergencyNet News Service, 1998. All rights reserved, but may be redistributed with
permission.
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