H1B Visa Suspension Vs. Globalization of Work
Recently, the Trump administration announced the suspension of H1B visas. By this means, Trump suspended permits for hundreds of thousands of foreigners, white-collar ex-pats, to work in the U.S.
To those who don’t know about an H1B visa, it is the visa type that enables professionals from IT / computer professionals, university professors, teachers, scientists, dentists, engineers, surgeons, architects, lawyers, etc. It’s every occupation that is beneficial to any society.
One of the main reasons that Trump gets support from the silent majority is protecting the middle class's American workforce. Since the American middle class is losing their jobs, politicians like Trump try to protect what is left from AI, robotics, and, most importantly, immigrants. Since Trump-like politicians can’t prevent technological improvements in the future of work, they try to prevent immigration. While suspending the H1B visa is a primitive solution to protect middle-class American jobs, it may not work because of the digital work globalization.
Will President Trump’s temporary ban on H-1B visas boost domestic hiring, or will it lead companies to embrace outsourcing? With unemployment rates at 13.3% as of early June, some people might think it’s logical to promote an “America first” approach to protect jobs. However, it’s a futile effort to assign particular work to particular groups of people in today’s technology. The middle class of the future won’t be citizens of one country or won’t be a part of a specific nation. They will be a hybrid nation beyond borders and beyond digital and real-world dimensions.
Digital Immigration For Workforce
On the day the president Trump announced his executive order, Luis von Ahn, co-founder and chief executive of the language-learning startup Duolingo Inc., tweeted saying a green card ban would force the company to move jobs abroad. Most of the tech companies argue their primary workforce consists of white-collar immigrants. Since Duolingo is an online education app that teaches foreign languages worldwide, it would be unreasonable to hire local people. Mr. Ahn has a point; you can’t make globalized work with the local workforce.
Employees will work remotely from their countries, a work arrangement that has already been proved successful by workplace shutdowns worldwide during the Covid-19 pandemic. One of the leading countries that benefit from an H1B visa, India, transformed its workforce to work remotely for American companies. These people will be working for a country they don’t live in. They will be digital immigrants. According to recent NASSCOM data, 95% of India’s 4.36MN-person strong IT industry has pivoted to remote work under COVID-19. Crucially, their productivity levels have either stayed the same or increased. Big-hitters such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys, Wipro, and Tech Mahindra have also expressed certainty that their employees will continue on a remote or virtual workflow post-COVID. Speaking to Business Insider, C Vijayakumar, CEO of HCL Technologies, said that employee productivity has gone up by “16–17%.” Hopefully, politicians will catch up with the idea that countries and borders for the workforce are no longer critical.
American companies may choose to respond to the visa suspension by hiring the same employee, but having them work remotely in another country, said Joseph Vavra, associate professor of economics at the University of Chicago Booth School of Business. Remote working reduces costs for companies and independent professionals. The most significant companies at the moment are now discussing hiring employees remotely. Politicians may insist on hiring local employees. However, hiring from the global talent pool will be beneficial to sectors like IT / computer professionals. According to Revelio Labs research, the most remote working friendly jobs are located in the most expensive cities. If remote working is sustainable, living in the most expensive cities is not very logical. In addition to this, H1B visa suspension is another reason for the talent to immigrate. High tech talent already moving to Canada. So is it reasonable to lose these talents? “We already have a shortage of STEM workers in the United States; they’re not just going to suddenly become qualified to do these jobs, just because they lost their job doing something else.” Ms. Minear, the president of the American Immigration Lawyers Association, says.
Steve LeVine mentions another exciting fact on remote working and talent immigration. According to Steve LeVine, the Silicon Valley tech industry is built on serendipity. He is asking, “If workers flee the Bay Area, what’s left?” He continues, “If serendipity’s explosive impact in creating the tech world as we know it has been biased in practice, a question is whether anyone should be vexed over its possible diminishment. A better, rejuvenated system would arguably be open to any winner.”
It is a fact that the future of work will be exciting, and capitalism or the private sector will find its way to work things out in any circumstances. However, the main question is whether our governments or politicians will adapt to the future of work.
