Hey, immigration man

High-tech workers may get special dispensation A perceived crisis in finding qualified workers within the U.S. to fill high-tech jobs in a globally competitive marketplace led the Senate last week to pass a bill raising the cap on the number of H-1B visas granted for foreign workers.

By a near unanimous vote, 94 to 1, the Senate moved to increase the number of temporary visas during the next three years to almost 600,000. Petitions have been closed since March of this year, when the Immigration and Naturalization Service estimated that the current limit would be reached from petitions already filed. The maximum number of H-1B visas allowed by law this year is 115,000, decreasing to 107,500 next year and to 65,000 the following year.

The bill has overwhelming support from the high-tech business community and reported opposition from labor unions that fear jobs will be lost to foreign, non-union workers. Telcordia Technologies said the labor crisis is real.

"We are finding it difficult to find qualified people because of the nature of the work we do in the telecom industry," said a company spokesman. "There is a limited pool in the sense that, of the millions of technology professionals, how many have the telecommunications background we are looking for?"

Telcordia believes concerns about American jobs going to foreign workers are misplaced and that, if the U.S. doesn't hire from this pool, someone else will.

"This is a highly educated and talented work force," the spokesman said. "Many of them have been educated in the U.S., and if we send them off to another country because we can't hire them, then the work is going to follow. Then you will have more offshore development centers. And that's when Americans will lose."

The people that companies are pursuing through H-1B visas do not necessarily match with those of organized labor. According to INS figures in a report from June of this year, 31% of the workers approved for visas hold the equivalent of a master's degree, while an additional 8% hold the equivalent of a doctorate.

This could be why some unions do not whole-heartedly oppose the legislation and look for residual benefits from its passage.

"Instead of saying we support or oppose, we are really focusing on the need for training and retraining high-tech workers so they can get the skills they need for these jobs," said a Communications Workers of America spokeswoman.

Fees for petitioning the INS for foreign workers go to a program for training American workers. An alternative proposal by the House Judiciary Committee not included in the bill approved last week had a provision that would nearly quadruple that fee.

"When it comes to the House version, we're hoping that happens because the money goes directly to enabling workers to get the skills they need for these jobs," the CWA spokeswoman said.

Another concern of those opposed to the legislation is the protection of workers' salaries. In an address before the House Judiciary Committee in May, Frank Brehm, northwest regional coordinator for The Programmer's Guild, said, "There is no credible evidence of a shortage of high-technology workers. Congress has, nonetheless, become convinced that it needs to act as America's largest temporary help agency and intervene in the supply-and-demand mechanisms of the U.S. labor market... without the implementation of adequate safeguards for American high-tech workers."

The supposition among some opponents of the legislation is that paying foreign nationals less than similar American workers will drive down salaries.

"We pay market value. These are not naive people. They understand what the marketplace is," said Telcordia's spokesman. "To think that because they are not from here [they] don't have a sense of their value in the market is an insult to them. If we don't pay them, Cisco or Nortel or Lucent will."