Immigrants to the United States with unique or valuable skills are starting to complete the roundtrip. Economic pressures and a difficult job market here have led many to return to their native countries to pursue new opportunities. This is particularly the case with immigrants from India and China, whose economies are growing this year. Meanwhile, unemployment is 9.7% in the United States right now – and likely to hit 10.3% early next year.
China's gross domestic product is poised to increase by 7.5% by the end of 2009, with India's up 5.4%. In the United States, on the other hand, GDP is forecasted to drop 2.6%.
While some are headed back to their homelands by choice, others are being forced to return because their visas are expiring. For immigrants in some categories, green card applications filed in 2001 are being processed now, which means recent applicants may have to wait a while ... forcing them to leave the United States.
If you're hoping this will cause a noticeable increase in jobs available ... holding your breath isn't a good idea. Only 140,000 H-1B visas are issued every year. So, even if every visa holder who received one over the past six years left, we'd still be nowhere near the number of jobs lost.











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
9-22-2009 @ 5:56PM
Correction said...
Tom Johansmeyer: "Only 140,000 H-1B visas are issued every year. So, even if every visa holder who received one over the past six years left, we'd still be nowhere near the number of jobs lost."
I'm sorry, but this is a very, very misleading statement. One cannot compare H-1B visa workers to the broad working population which includes truck drivers, librarians, salespeople, police officers, factory workers, farm workers, construction workers, etc. etc. H-1B visa workers are heavily represented only in the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics (STEM) fields. There are some H-1B nurses as well. The vast majority of H-1B visa workers work in these fields. So when you multiply out the numbers based on your own 140,000 per year number, it ends up at 840,000 foreign-national workers ALMOST ENTIRELY IN THESE FIELDS currently working in the U.S. It DOESN'T include people in these fields working under green cards for permanent residents. 840,000 jobs is A VERY LARGE PERCENTAGE of the total U.S. jobs in these fields, and if "every visa holder who received one over the past six years left" it would make a HUGE impact on the employment fortunes of American citizens seeking work or a change of job in these fields.
9-23-2009 @ 3:05PM
Nat said...
On what basis are you asserting this: "So when you multiply out the numbers based on your own 140,000 per year number, it ends up at 840,000 foreign-national workers ALMOST ENTIRELY IN THESE FIELDS currently working in the U.S. It DOESN'T include people in these fields working under green cards for permanent residents. 840,000 jobs is A VERY LARGE PERCENTAGE of the total U.S. jobs in these fields, and if "every visa holder who received one over the past six years left" it would make a HUGE impact on the employment fortunes of American citizens seeking work or a change of job in these fields."
Care to provide some numbers to back your assertions?
9-23-2009 @ 5:40PM
Correction said...
ComputerWorld, May 26, 2009 - "H-1B workers outnumber unemployed techies":
http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9133529/U.S._H_1B_workers_outnumber_unemployed_techies
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2006 National Employment Matrix code and title:
Total employment
Computer and mathematical science occupations: 3,313,213
ftp://ftp.bls.gov/pub/special.requests/ep/ind-occ.matrix/mlrappendix.txt
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This should be enough. No, I'm not going to write a book on this comments page and go back and forth... sorry.
9-25-2009 @ 9:57AM
tunnelrat said...
Tom Johansmeyr is one of many shills perpetuating the myth that Americans can't do tech work and that American needs all these Indians to program our computers. He will never mention that there is not a single commercial software product produced in India by Indians. He is a shill for the Indian outsourcing industries, and little more. You could short the entire client list of Infosys, WiPro, and Tata and make a killing. They come into a U.S. company, purge it of Americans, and destroy the I.T. infrastructure. Look at G.M. (bk), Readers Digest (bk), Michaels (bk), Wet Seal(bk), etc. -- all outsourced I.T. to India and ethnically cleansed Americans from their staff. Amex is next for BK.
Here is a story about a victim of one of Tom's sponsors in India, Inc:
American Women Forced To Train Indian Replacement, Then Fired By Indian Boss
Dianne Drozdowski, a mother of three young children, was recently laid of by American Express. Here is her story:
I had been working for the American Express service center in Phoenix, AZ for four years. ...
...That all stopped when an Indian woman took over the management roll for my team. She instituted monthly one-to-one sessions, which I thought would be a great way to provide me constructive and positive feedback to better my work and my career. That was definitely not the case. In each one-to-one I was met with her blatant hostility toward me. She picked apart everything I did and did not give me positive feedback. According to her, there was always something I should've done better and faster. I am admittedly a perfectionist, so I took her negative feedback very much to heart and tried harder than I ever had before in my life to meet and exceed expectations; whatever her expectations were, because I could never get her to tell me exactly what she expected.
...The last straw for me was the day she ripped into me for my supposed lack of good time management skills. I have always prided myself on my time management skills and have been given nothing but positive feedback from customers, peers, and past managers for my sense of urgency and my timely communications regarding project turn around times.
...My husband called my manager to let her know I’d be out on medical leave for minimally six weeks. She demanded that he tell her what was wrong with me, but we knew our rights under the HIPAA act. Technically, she was not allowed to ask what was wrong with me. My husband remarked that she took on an angry tone with him when he refused to tell her about my medical situation.
...Within a few weeks after my medical leave had began, a teammate let me know that my boss had posted two data analyst positions just like my position, but they were open to Indian candidates only (in the American Express India center in New Delhi). Upon my return to work from my medical leave, I asked my manager about these positions. She told me they were being hired to offer me backup, and that I'd be the lead over the team and remain the central U.S. data contact for Merchant Services. But I could see the writing on the wall. It was no surprise to me when I was pulled into a conference room a month after my return and was told my job had been migrated to India. I was told I had 45 days left with the company, and that the two people from India who'd be taking my job would be flown to Arizona for me to train. Not only did they take my job and my livelihood, but the ultimate insult was that I had to train them to do my job, and if I didn't train them well, American Express threatened they would withhold my 12 weeks of severance pay. So I spent the next 45 days training these men the best I could. Neither of them had experience with data query nor writing SQL code. It was my opinion that they lacked the skill set necessary to do the job as well or better than me. It was as if they had literally hired these two individuals off the street with no skills and no background. Their only qualifying "skills" seemed to be the color of their skin and their ethnicity.
...I also feel that I am the victim of reverse discrimination. I firmly believe I was forced out of the company because my manager does not like Americans, especially Caucasians. Since I left the company, many of my colleagues have also had their jobs migrated to India. On my old team alone, two new workers have been hired to backfill positions, and one is from India and the other is from Pakistan.
...I'm now drawing a weekly unemployment claim, for which I receive $237 a week. I can barely pay my bills or support my two children.
http://endh1b.com/Web/NewsletterV5.htm
10-17-2009 @ 2:29AM
San said...
140,000 per year number, it ends up at 840,000 foreign-national workers on H1B..and nearly another 1 Million on L1 Visa...Thus, nearly 1.85 Million internationals have taken away the high quality jobs american deserve...and BTW, most of these outsiders and shipping jobs to India and China...thus, the ratio is 1:3, i.e for 1 one internation, there are 3 offshore folks sitting in India...Thus the job loss in USA is around
1.85 + 3*1.85 = 7.4 Million jobs lost to outsiders
Its time for Obama to take action NOW