I appreciated "A foreign concept in hiring," Oct. 14, that shares concerns about the H-1B visa program.
Nobel economist Milton Friedman wrote in a 2002 ComputerWorld article that the H-1B visa program is a "government subsidy" program as it allows employers to obtain skilled workers for below-market wages. The workers labor under conditions akin to indentured servants as their employer-designed visa is conditioned on being continually employed. The employer for which an H-1B visa holder works is the only employer that may sponsor him for permanent residency. This combination of "carrots and sticks" gives the employer incredible leverage over the worker.
An April 2007 New York Times article quoted Kamal Nath, the commerce minister of India, as saying the H-1B visa is the "outsourcing visa." The H-1B visa worker learns internal processes that the workers then can take with them to other countries.
Norman Matloff, a University of California at Davis professor, has written extensively about the harms of the H-1B visa program. I also have written extensively regarding the harms of this program, created in 1990, that facilitates employment-age discrimination against experienced and loyal American citizen technology workers.
Organizations such as NumbersUSA provide powerful no-cost tools for citizens to demand meaningful reforms of corrupt programs such as this one.
The harmful H-1B visa program is a government-sanctioned foreign hiring preference program that should be immediately terminated.
GENE NELSON
San Luis Obispo, Calif.