The Hypocrisy of Democrats in Offshore Outsourcing Rhetoric

On Real Clear Politics is the article, Offshoring is One Sure Thing.

Barack Obama's pick for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, vows to create millions of technology jobs that can't be outsourced. Sounds good, particularly in this melting economy.

On the other hand, Richardson supports expanding the H-1B visa program, which had greased the departure of good-paying tech jobs to lower-wage countries. The program lets U.S. companies employ up to 65,000 temporary foreign software designers, engineers and other skilled professionals a year.

This is the hypocrisy of Democrats and the Obama administration. They recognize that jobs are going offshore purely for cheaper labor reasons. Yet they ignore the connections and the fact that using guest worker Visas to bring in cheap labor is precisely the same thing and also displaces U.S. workers.

So one gets double speak from politicians.

What difference does it make if that foreign worker is sitting in Bangladesh with that American's job or sitting in Alabama? It's the same lost job, same cheap labor and the only difference is physical location.

In fact corporations want these Visas simply because many jobs, especially in the high skills area require training (often done by the American to be fired) before the job can be offshore outsourced.

Subject Meta: 

Forum Categories: 

The difference is that the

The difference is that the H1B worker can create more demand for housing, thus ensuring that young Americans can't get jobs OR afford homes. Outsourcing just makes sure of the former.

Fact: H1-B visa limit 85,000 + per year

The article incorrectly states the H1-B visa limit as being 65,000 per year.

The facts are over 85,000 per year:

- 65,000 reserved for anybody
- 20,000 reserved for Masters Degree and up holders
- UNLIMITED number to non-profits (e.g. universities, hospitals, ...)

This does not include the L1 visa, of which I believe there are an UNLIMITED number.

The outsourcing visa

H1-B visas result in increased outsourcing.

Seven of the top 10 H1 users in the US are Indian offshore outsourcing companies. Even Indian commerce minister, Kamal Nath, called the H1-B visa "the outsourcing visa".

Outsourcers corner market for U.S. skilled worker visas

Note the above article falsely states Google co-founder Sergey Brin came to the US on a visa. He was born and educated in the USA.