It really isn’t hard to move those tech jobs abroad and then have Americans go to India or China instead on working visas (eg a Chinese Z visa I had for 9 years). The USA is maintaining some kind of balance with their H1 program: enough to encourage keeping those jobs in the USA, but not enough to be a free for all for immigration. It isn’t doing really good at that, but an overly punitive H1B program will simply cause those jobs to switch to other countries.
Yep. Since OP mentions working as IT consultant, I can easily see how that field being dominated by IT shops that merely checkbox one or more of H1B critireas. I can see how his/her perspective is colored.
But if you make visa program too punitive, then folks will simply chose not to come. A person in their 30-40s, want stability so as they can raise their kids, have a place to call home and not be on a perpetual cycle of anxiety.
In my mind, this will disincentivize folks who have most to contribute to US economy. I don't know much about China but for folks who are really good, salaries in India is already pretty high and closer to US salaries and will have fewer reasons to immigrate.
Chinese tech salaries are pretty good, so much so that they attract workers from adjacent countries like Japan where tech salaries are traditionally less good.
> It really isn’t hard to move those tech jobs abroad
It isn't? They've been trying their hardest since the late 90's, and have never been able to make it work. They'd love to pay $1.00/hour for programming work in Bangladesh like they do for textile manufacturing, but as of a quarter-way through the 21st century, they haven't been able to.
It isn’t. There is a cost, it doesn’t make sense right now to pay those costs beyond a few R&D centers. But make work visas harder to get in the USA, then it will make sense to do more R&and abroad.
