Before reading the articles for this week I was only loosely aware that there was some kind of visa for immigrants to work for a few years that was often used in the tech world. Now I understand the H1-B visa much more thoroughly and I have formed an opinion on its pros and cons.
I can see why 51% of billion dollar startups were founded by immigrants. Many immigrants come to the US looking to find bigger opportunities than they have in their home country. Many of these people are highly driven and motivated to succeed. These kinds of immigrants are exactly the kinds of people who will find success in a startup. I also think this statistic is important because it shows how much immigration can help our country. Overall, I see their impact as extremely positive and contributes to the growth of the economy and the community of our country.
After reading The Atlantic article and its rebuttal in TechCrunch I came to the conclusion that H1-B visa users have a positive impact on the tech industry. I think that it is beneficial because it brings talented workers into the field who are strong and innovative and it brings diversity into the field. Although I would love if the H1-B visa had a more diverse pull rather than drawing mainly from India and surrounding countries, I am a strong believer that diversity is always a positive. Bringing as many viewpoints into a room as possible will always bring the most developed and innovative ideas about. There has been extensive research on the benefits of diverse teams, especially in building tech products, so I am in favor of anything that helps bring more diversity. I do not think that any of the immigrants are stealing jobs. They are simply qualified and they are another source of competition, which I also believe is healthy. Creating a competitive work pool only encourages all of us to do better. In addition, I think the TechCrunch article made several valid points about the error in calculating the salaries of H1-B workers. They are not bringing down an average wage in the way it seems based on their data. In fact, for their age demographic they are earning a higher average wage.
As I’ve said, I do not see immigrants as a negative competition. I believe growth is positive for everyone involved. Especially when the immigrant workers who come in are helping to found billion dollar companies that create many more jobs than are “lost” to immigrant workers. The US was founded by immigrants. Every citizen of the US was an immigrant at some point if the are not entirely Native American. My identity as an American depends on the fact that our country is filled with people from different backgrounds. Also, as we discussed earlier on, the tech field is not particularly diverse. As tech becomes more and more central to everyone’s everyday lives, it is imperative that the people who are creating technology have backgrounds that help them understand all of their users, not just a select group of wealthy, white, men.
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