Special Visa’s Use for Tech Workers is Challenged

The high technology sector in the United States is amongst the worst hit by the current recession. The recent outcry against the hiring of foreign workers – mostly from India – at comparatively lower wages exemplifies the severity of the crisis of unemployment in the high tech sector. The unemployed within the high tech sector, members of the US Congress. and certain special public interest groups are focusing on the legality of the L-1 visa which allows American companies "to transfer employees from a foreign branch or subsidiary to company offices in the United States." Critics of the L-1 visa argue that the visa is "now routinely used by companies based in India and elsewhere to bring their workers into the United States and then contract them out to American companies – in many instances to be replacements for American workers." In uncertain economic and political times, such outcry can often obscure the fact that while the abuse of the L-1 visa is a problem, the use of foreign technical expertise, in fact, only strengthens the US economy, and creates a global community of skilled workers. - YaleGlobal