H-1B Visa Holders are ‘Underpaid, Vulnerable to Abuse’: U.S. Think-TankTop Stories

January 18, 2019 10:46
H-1B Visa Holders are ‘Underpaid, Vulnerable to Abuse’: U.S. Think-Tank

(Image source from: Livemint)

The United States think-tank on Thursday claimed that the workers under the H-1B visa programme are “vulnerable to abuse” and “frequently” placed in poor working conditions.

In the report, seeking reforms such as a substantial increase in wages, the South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council also sought safeguards for those working under the visa programme such as providing greater employment rights and fair working conditions.

“H1-B holders in the United States can rest assured that changes are soon coming which will bring both simplicity and certainty to your stay, including a potential path to citizenship. We want to encourage talented and highly skilled people to pursue career options in the U.S.,” Trump had tweet Friday.

Authored by Ron Hira from Howard University and head of South Asia Center of the Atlantic Council, Bharat Gopalaswamy, the report says the current system not only harms Americans, but it also enables H-1B workers to be exploited.

“H-1B workers themselves are underpaid, vulnerable to abuse, and frequently placed in poor working conditions. Adopting safeguards to ensure H-1B workers are paid appropriate wages, provided fair working conditions, and given greater employment rights would not only improve their lives but would also better protect U.S. workers,” it said.

The report said adopting adequate safeguards would also ensure the H-1B programme contributes to the United States economy by filling genuine shortages in the labor market with foreign workers who possess rare skills and can be rightly characterized as the “best and brightest”.

Reforms Suggested

Three key reforms were suggested by think-tank saying these should apply to all employers and not simply a subset of them.

“The first, and most important, reform is to substantially raise the wages of H-1B workers. If the United States is going to invite in the “best and brightest” workers, they ought to be paid in the top quartile,” the report said.

Second, employers should demonstrate they have actively recruited US workers, and offered positions to qualified people, prior to turning to the H-1B programme, it said.

The report observed that the rationale of the H-1B programme is to fill labor gaps and not merely to swell the pool of candidates for employers, the report observed.

“Third, the programme needs an effective and efficient enforcement mechanism,” the think-tank said, claiming that the current programme compliance is complaint-driven, resting almost entirely on whistleblowers to reduce fraud. This is a poor design, it said.

The Atlantic Council said there should be adjustments to the allocation process. “It makes no sense to allocate H-1B on a first-come, first served basis or, even worse, by random lottery - as occurs when the program is immediately oversubscribed,” it said.

-Sowmya Sangam

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H1B visa  United States