Reading 03 Post

The controversy surrounding the H-1B Visa program is similar to what blue collar Americans in farming and low-skilled jobs have been complaining about and that is the immigrants are taking their jobs, the difference in the case of H-1B Visa's is that these people are coming to the US legally and are taking jobs in high-skill, high-education requiring jobs such as doctors and engineers. There are really two sides to the controversy, the first being that companies are hiring H-1B workers to replace American IT specialists, as in the case with Disney, because those coming on H-1B Visa's are more likely to accept a lower wage and may be more motivated to stay at the current company and work extra hard because they have the fear of being sent back to their home countries if they do not have the Visa which is sponsored by their employer. On the other hand, there has been a significant amount of contribution to the STEM industry by foreign born people. Some of the biggest companies in the world which are started in America, like Google, were started by aliens and those companies created thousands of jobs for Americans as well as greatly contributing to the technology push in the United States. Some of these H-1B Visa owners don't even stay in America, but they take their knowledge back to their home countries and try to apply it there in order to advance their home country. I am in favor of expanding the use of H-1B guest workers on the condition that the workers that are being brought in are the technical superior for the spot which they are filling. They shouldn't be hired just because they are cheaper or slightly younger, that would be a direct attack on the livelihood of Americans. That condition is how I would respond to concerns about lowering of wages or loss of jobs for US citizens. American citizens shouldn't necessary be prioritized, we should still have to earn of spots. My father came to the U.S. to work for Notre Dame on a H-1B visa and I see all the contributions he has made to the field of Material Science through patents and developing new technologies in combustion propagation, so there is a great potential for contribution from people in America with H-1B visas.