Here’s an email I recently got from a currently unemployed American techie (who’s also a longtime kf reader):

I am having difficulty competing with H-1b visaholders.  I thought it would be an easy sell.  I would say, “I am willing to work for as little as them, plus I speak English, and went to graduate school, and made good grades, and have done exactly that job well for decades.”

Employers don’t care.  You see, when they say to Americans, “You must routinely work evenings and weekends and holidays and vacations and all-nighters for free,” the Americans look for another job.  When employers say that to H-1b visaholders, they can add, “Oh, and it’s a crime for you to work in America for anyone except me, and if you get fired you are immediately deported back to Bangladesh, per capita annual income $800.  If you keep working at this awful job, by contrast, your whole family may move here for family reunification.”

And we worry why more Americans aren’t motivated to get STEM degrees? … The H-1B program (at about 100,000 visas a year) may look small, but it seems to have a huge impact on the tech industry (why so many Silicon CEOs care so much about it) ….