The H-1B debate has taken over X, and the argument is actually most on the right.
To give you an understanding of what an H-1B is, it's a way that workers with advanced skills and knowledge in various fields (particularly STEM) can come to America from foreign countries and get jobs here. A corporation can apply for a visa on behalf of the worker they want to import for a set period of time, up to six years.
In this way, the U.S. always has the best and brightest and stays on the cutting edge. The issue is that the H-1B system is wildly abused by corporations because it allows them to effectively own the person they import. The working migrant cannot work for another company as their visa is sponsored by the corporation that brought them in. Leaving the job means having to leave the country.
Moreover, this allows the company to underpay the worker, making it far cheaper to import talent from overseas than hire domestically. As you've likely already surmised, if you weren't up on this issue already, this encourages corporations to give American workers the cold shoulder, as they cost more to employ.
As it stands, there are 36 million people in the STEM workforce, which makes up 24 percent of America's labor pool. You would figure that Americans would be itching to get into these positions, but they face obstacles that foreign workers don't. For one, tuition costs for Americans are through the roof, making it highly unattractive for American students to pursue STEM degrees.
Foreign students have a red carpet rolled out for them, with their own home countries willing to sponsor these degrees and even institutions here in America helping out, as it benefits corporations to have a cheap labor force. Foreign students even get Optional Practical Training programs that extend their stay by 24 months to get real job experience post-graduation.
There is also a cultural aspect to this as well, as Vivek Ramaswamy was raked over the coals for mentioning yesterday. He is correct in stating that many foreign cultures emphasize STEM fields to their children early on, and as such, there are many more people from these countries who pursue these degrees. Here in America, our culture looks at these fields as difficult, time-consuming, and expensive, creating a culture where youngsters look to other fields to go into.
(READ: The Fight for American Independence Is Restarting, and the New Enemy Is Ourselves)
As I wrote in the article linked above, we're going to have to tackle this cultural aspect if we're to truly present an American workforce capable of making a huge impact in STEM. However, as you can see, it goes deeper than a cultural issue.
H-1B is, as JD Vance put it, an "unholy alliance between government and our biggest corporations." We have to disincentivize corporations from hiring a foreign workforce and make it cheaper for Americans to be hired. Moreover, we have to make it cheaper for Americans to get into STEM fields.
- We can start by lowering visa caps, to limit the number of workers a corporation can import. With this restriction, corporations will be forced to look into the American labor pool, which might also trigger corporate-funded programs to help grease the students along their path to employment.
- We can increase wage requirements. What makes a foreign workforce so attractive is getting to underpay workers whose lives they effectively control. Raising the wage requirement would effectively make these imported workers just as expensive as domestic workers, and possibly more expensive because of all the money they need to shell out to get them to the U.S. in the first place. This will effectively stop the problem at its source.
- Offer tax breaks for corporations that prioritize hiring Americans. This would make hiring Americans even more appealing to companies, as the extra pay that Americans require could be eased by the taxes they don't have to pay on them.
- Early STEM education is a huge factor in getting people into STEM educational programs, so local school districts could begin developing programs that encourage STEM from an early age, giving students knowledge and confidence in the field before they even reach college level.
- Apprenticeships and vocational programs would allow students to get real-world experience, making an expensive four-year degree something one doesn't need to get a career in STEM.
These are just a few suggestions that could lead to a huge turnaround for Americans in STEM and stop the H-1B visa issues. To be clear, we probably won't ever stop importing immigrants, and if they're the best and the brightest, we shouldn't. America should always be at the top, and that requires getting people who are at the top of the game; however, it's clear that what's happening now isn't that.
While we may be importing top talent, the H-1B is being used to import cheap labor from workers who aren't actually as talented as the corporations might claim. If we can address the hurdles listed above, it will go a long way to solving this issue.