Maggie's Farm

"Can't find enough excellent programmers here".

What is actually happening is that H1B workers are more willing to work very long hours for lower wages. Most programmer jobs do not fall under the 40 hour a week rules for overtime so they are encouraged to work very long hours, many well in excess of 80 hours a week. This is the primary driver in the H1B program, kind of a neo-slavery. Another factor is that it is common in these progammer/engineer enclaves that the "boss" is also an H1B or of the same country of origin and will only hire fromthat country. In the industry it is common to see entire staffs being made up of H1B Indians, Koreans or Chinese, etc. An additional factor is that for American programmers working within one of these H1B enclaves there is open and hidden bias against the American worker, strong accents and work discussions in foriegn languages making it difficult to understand work flow and instruction. One of the little known factors in this system is while there is a mild but pervasive prejudice towards Americans there is a extremely strong prejudice towards American blacks. Having said all of this I can say I have worked with a lot of talented people and a much larger number of less talented and they came from al countries and all races. What I noticed most from the Koreans was singlemindedness and commitment to get the job done. From the Indians was camaraderie and cooperation to accomplish goals. From American programmers what I saw was mostly worker bees and a few real geniuses. The bottom line is that the H1B program was designed to push American workers out of the programmer workforce in favor of the foreign workers who are more willing to be slave labor.