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ShareWashington: Opposing restrictions on hiring H1B visa holders, India-born international economist Jagdish Bhagwati has argued that the provision will deprive the US of the best global talent which comes in the form of highly trained and talented people.
"The people whom you're hiring from India and from, you know, China and from -- the top universities, they're the smart lot, they're not really substitutes for guys who can't get jobs," Bhagwati argued during at a conference organised by the prestigious Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).
"In terms of broader considerations like the people who are coming in on H1B visas -- they're frequently highly trained and talented people and... a lot of our progress and prosperity depend on having such people," Bhagwati, professor of Economics at the Columbia University said.
The US Senate has voted for an amendment that requires that a company receiving Troubled Assets Relief Programme (TARP) funds and applying for workers under the H-1B process must operate as an "H-1B dependent company."
This means that the companies must comply with the H-1B dependent employer rules which include attesting to actively recruiting American workers; not displacing American workers with H-1B visa holders; and not replacing laid off American workers with foreign workers.
"As any professor knows... you have superb students and you've got a whole tail of about 30 per cent students who are just barely making it. So they get degrees, and are likely to be the ones who are not getting jobs," he said.
Bhagwati said it is a fallacy to think that everybody is homogeneous.
"I think it will be a sad day when we don't listen to people like Bill Gates on importing more -- making it easier for really talented people to come in on H-1Bs," he said.
He hoped the US will come back "to a more sane policy after foregoing these advantages" for two to three years.
