It is a process that nearly everyone involved admits is nonsensical, highly vulnerable to abuse, as well as a contributor to inequities among domestic & foreign #tech #workers.

Yet the system has endured for decades, largely out of public view. There is occasional debate over the ~120k workers from overseas who are awarded #H1B #visas every year for temporary high-skilled employment.

#Immigration #law #exploitation #PERM

Last December, a tiff erupted between billionaire entrepreneurs #ElonMusk & #VivekRamaswamy, on the one side, & #MAGA champions including #SteveBannon, over the formers’ claims that #H1B workers are needed because the homegrown #tech workforce is inadequate. But almost as quickly as it started, the spat vanished from the news.

#Immigration #law #exploitation #PERM

There is even less attention given to what happens w/these foreign #workers — ¾ of whom are…from #India —when many decide they want to stay beyond the 6yr max allowed for an #H1B recipient (a 3yr term can be renewed 1X). To qualify for a #GreenCard, workers must get their employers to sponsor them via the Permanent #Labor Cert process, aka #PERM. And to do that, employers must demonstrate that they made a sincere effort to find someone else—a #UScitizen or permanent resident….

#Immigration #law

…As a result of choices made by legislators 35yrs ago, the effort to find a #citizen is not expected at the front end, when employers are considering #hiring #workers from abroad. At that point, employers simply enter the lottery for #H1Bs, & if they get one, they can use it.

Only once a company has employed someone for 5 or 6 yrs & become *committed* to *helping* that person stay in the US permanently must the company show that it is trying to find someone else.

#immigration #labor #law #PERM

It’s no surprise that the efforts at this point can be less than sincere.

This is where the [endless & deceptive] newspaper ads come in. Under US Dept of #Labor rules dating back to the era before the worldwide web, employers must post the #job for which #PERM certification is being sought for 30 days with a state workforce agency & in 2 successive Sunday newspapers in the job’s location.

#Immigration #law #exploitation

This makes for a highly ironic juxtaposition: pages of print ads paid for by #tech #employers, many of them the same Silicon Valley giants that have helped eviscerate newspaper classifieds & drive down print newspaper circulation to the point that it can be hard even to find a place to buy a paper in many communities.

#immigration #labor #law #exploitation #PERM