Ever wondered how life of an immigrant looks like in 21st century America? Well it is like a 19th century life when slavery was rampant and rights to free society was restricted for certain individuals with certain skin color. In 21st century this group is called Technology Slaves. These are folks from all around the world who were lured into American Dream by offering a Visa called H1B. Most of these folks are educated in the finest schools in America and possess a master’s or a doctorate degree. Unaware of what they have signed for they take a ride to their dream land and plan for a happy life in the land of immigrants. Their journey begins in an Airplane unlike their 19th century counterparts whose began in a storage compartment in a ship; unfortunately this is all that has changed then and now. Once in their promised land carrying a dual intent (strangely contrasting dual nature: means it is a non immigrant visa with provisions to become immigrant: More on it later) known the dreaded H1B. I call it “dreaded” because it is hated as much as by the immigrant having the visa as citizens of the country he is living in. Their life began with learning the accent, understanding the local lingo and culture. They start to grow and adjust in the land of opportunities, and some of these folks who like it decide to adopt America as the country to live. This might turn out to be the worst mistake they made in their journey. This is when the settlement phase and the most difficult phase of their journey starts. They quickly learn that they need a card called “Green Card” to live freely in the land of free claimed to have abolished slavery in Lincoln era. I wonder if H1B is modern slavery program initiated for the corporations in need of technology slaves.
Coming to terms with the reality these individuals realized that they are on a guest worker visa. The number of such visas a 3 times as much as number of Green Cards available. This is done to ensure that corporations can have steady supply of skilled labor at a reasonable rate. This not only impacts H1B holders but it also impacts locals whose paycheck is kept in check with this overseas supply of cheap labor. Now the vast majority of these temporary workers have to go through a lengthy and humiliating process to obtain green cards knowing fully well only 1/3rd will eventually get it. This process gives a complete control of the life of the H1B holder to the employer for a period of no less than 5 years. In this journey where only H1B holder has to adhere to the law as for everyone else involved like lawyers, government agency and corporations it is just a system to rake more money from the technology slaves as and when you can. To make things worse if a political agenda regarding illegal immigrant’s crop up there will be mass amnesty where law breakers will stand in the front of queue. The technology slave silently swallows all this with no complains as a price that he has to pay for a better life for himself and his family is his chosen land. He silently suffers through the broken immigration system that is designed to serve the needs of everyone except for the ones it is meant to serve.
Make no mistake these individuals seeks to settle in the country by fully legal means, paying taxes, contributing to medicare and social security taxes which they might never get to benefit from. I wonder what do government gain by doing all this? or is it simply a puppet of corporations as expected in a capitalistic economy ? There are close to 500,00o such highly educated folks who are probably seeking to live permanently in America after staying here for past 4-5 years and contributing to the society but things are made so difficult for them, on the other hand there are 8 million illegal immigrants who are given amnesty for breaking the laws and enjoy benefits more than those who play by rules and trying to settle in the country by legal means. There 50,000 green cards given to people from all across the world to promote diversity who have contributed absolutely nothing to the society so far but no consideration for people who have contributed to the society shoulder to shoulder with the citizens.
Think tanks have pointed out that engineering enrollment in US is in decline and 60% of the Master’s and Doctorate degrees awarded in American Universities goes to the foreign nationals. In order to keep America on par with other developed country aren’t we going to need these folks? This is what Intel’s Chairman Criag Barrett has said on the the subject “Barrett has some suggestions for fending off a brain drain. First, staple a green card to any master's or PhD degree [awarded to a foreign student] in the United States. You get the degree, here's a green card” .
What puzzles me is why America is so hard on there less then 1 million law abiding folks looking to settle down in the country the way immigrants have always been? What have they done wrong? What is it that they have done which makes them so despised and cornered by the government agencies in the very country that has welcomed immigrants for centuries? Shouldn't we learn from Canada, UK and Australia about how to run an efficient immigration program which will benefit the country as well as the immigrants ? These countries have immigration system with selection criteria based on the merit of the individual seeking to immigrate and the need of the nation as opposed to our immigration program which is nothing more than a puppet for corporate America and is twisted time and again to support political agenda and serve special interests.
在美国也好,在中国也好,都是打工,没啥好抱怨的,面子害死人.