'Indian IT firms misusing H-1Bs'

This could have the makings of a controversy. An American expert claims the H-1B visa system is full of loopholes that are exploited by Indian IT companies — a charge vehemently refuted by Indian firms, which say the influx of Indian H-1B visa-holders is fuelled by huge American demand. Launching an attack in a paper on high-skill guest workers, Ron Hira, professor of public policy at Rochester Institute of Technology, argues that H-1B visas are failing to fulfil their objective of serving as a gateway to immigration for the 'best and brightest'. Writes Hira, "The largest users of the H-1B programme are offshore outsourcing firms, whose business model depends on moving as much work overseas as possible. For example, in 2006, Wipro Technologies applied for 19,450 H-1B positions but only for 69 green cards, a 0.004 green card to the H1B application ratio." Hira adds that while it is mandatory for H-1B visa-holders to be paid the prevailing wage in the US, most Indian IT companies send employees who work on much less, creating a labour arbitrage. He claims offshore outsourcing firms rely on the H-1B programme for three principal reasons. "First, it facilitates their knowledge transfer operations, where they rotate foreign workers in to learn US workers' jobs. Second, the programme provides them an inexpensive, on-site presence that enables them to coordinate offshore functions... Third, the US operations serve as a training ground for foreign workers who rotate back to their country." Indian IT firms were quick to respond. "It is obvious that if people from tech companies go to the US, they are going there on onsite projects," said an NIIT spokesperson. "The number of people taking computer science in the US is coming down dramatically every year. US firms do not have many resources to look for the brightest minds. Therefore, they have been raising their voices to increase the H-1B visa limit. US corporations will go for the best resources in order to remain competitive. We make them competitive. The requirement for these knowledge workers is a demand that is coming from US corporations," said V Balakrishnan, CFO of Infosys Technologies. "Outsourcing of any work is done end-to-end. The key is the Global Delivery Model. In order to fully harness its benefits, it is required that some parts of the outsourced work be done onsite, right at the client's location. In fact, GDM itself is such that the work gets carried across multiple locations. Therefore, it is important for US corporations to go for this model," said A L Rao, COO of Wipro. An American Embassy spokesman said, "Congress makes some modifications to US immigration laws every year and business groups are pressing for an increase in the H-1B limit." The spokesperson added,"Some 20,000 additional visas above the normal 65,000 have been set aside solely for foreigners who have a graduate degree from a US university — the clear implication being that they are being encouraged to remain in the US. So the H-1B visa is being used for more permanent employment than perhaps was originally intended."

SOURCE : THE TIMES OF INDIA