WCA September 2015

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Wire & Cable ASIA – September/October 2015
From the Americas
work permanently in the US. In general, it takes about
two years to obtain a green card through EB-5. The wait
is much longer – sometimes decades longer – under
other visa programmes.
 Created by the US Congress in 1990, the EB-5
programme remained all but dormant until the recession
of 2008-2011 made it more difficult for American
developers to finance their projects through banks and
other traditional lenders. Wealthy foreigners seeking US
residency for themselves or their families presented a
ready alternative source of financing.
Abuses are alleged in the H-1B
programme created to meet labour
demand in the USA information
technology sector
“It hardly needs saying that immigration policy should not
undermine Americans’ jobs, wages, or working conditions.
The problem is that what some companies want – cheap,
exploitable, disposable labour – is exactly what the system
can be twisted into giving them.”
If the EB-5 programme described in the previous item
centres on investors, the H-1B programme that drew the
indignation of the New York Times editorial board centres
on workers: those displaced by others from overseas under
what the board members see as a flawed reading of US law.
(“Workers Betrayed by Visa Loopholes,” 15th June)
The H-1B programme, which provides up to 85,000 visas a
year to foreigners, mainly highly skilled technical workers,
was created by Congress to enable companies to fill
work-force gaps with specialised employees unavailable in
the United States. But the Times asserts that companies
both in the USA and overseas “ruthlessly” exploit loopholes
in the law – notably one permitting outsourcing firms to fill
the openings with their own workers – to slash their payroll
costs.
On 16th June the Labor Department announced it was
investigating two of the largest companies that supply H-1B
workers, Infosys and Tata Consultancy Services, both based
in India. Senators of the two principal political parties asked
for the inquiry after reports that Southern California Edison,
the utility company, turned to Infosys and Tata for H-1B
workers even as it was laying off 540 workers — many of
whom said they were required to train their replacements.
While importing workers to do the jobs of Americans they
displace is clearly not what Congress intended, the Times
editorial board noted that, despite common perceptions,
H-1B does not require companies to recruit American
workers before looking overseas.
It called for a reform of the programme, including added
protections for H-1B workers who themselves are
vulnerable to exploitation because of their dependence on
their employers.
An earlier call for H-1B reform appeared in a Senate bill for
comprehensive reform of the USA immigration system. That
bill died, killed by hard-liners in the House who objected to
provisions deemed too partial to unauthorised immigrants.
The Times called that “a tragedy” for the 11 million
unauthorised immigrants seeking legal status to live and
work in the USA.
 With no immediate possibility of an immigration
overhaul, the editorial board wrote, opportunistic tech
companies are pursuing their own narrow agenda,
pushing for vast increases in H-1B visas: “That might
help their recruiting problems, but leave much of the
system as dysfunctional as ever.”
Rising enrolment in computer
programming “boot camps” signals keen
interest in high-paying technology jobs
While the labour shortage in the American IT sector
mentioned above (“H-1B programme”) may persist,
graduates of domestic computer coding schools will more
than double in number this year.
According to data from Course Report, a website that
enables students to rate the schools, over 16,000 people
will graduate from programming boot camps – up from
6,740 in 2014. The intensive two- to six-month programmes
train students in the creation of websites and mobile apps.
Citing government statistics, John Lauerman of
BloombergBusiness reported that computer-related jobs
are expected to grow faster than the US median for all
occupations through to 2022. Average starting salaries for
computer science graduates top $65,000, and elite schools
including Harvard University are hiring teachers to keep up
with demand. (“Coding Boot Camp Enrollment Soars As
Students Seek Tech Jobs,” 8th June)
Again according to Course Report, the tech boot-camp
industry is less than four years old and graduated only
about 2,000 students as recently as two years ago.
Graduates do not receive diplomas or certificates. Their
credentials are the software programs that they coded while
in school.
Mean boot camp tuition is now $11,063, about 10 per cent
higher than a year earlier, and can go as high as $21,000,
Course Report said. Total boot camp industry revenue is
expected to be about $172 million in 2015, up from about
$52 million last year.
“We’re still seeing people getting placed,” Liz Eggleston,
co-founder of Course Report, said in a BloombergBusiness
telephone interview. “I’d say the market isn’t saturated yet.”
A 2013 graduate of the University of California, Santa
Barbara, told Mr Lauerman that he will pay $17,780 to take
classes at Hack Reactor in San Francisco six days a week,
11 hours a day, for three months.
“The programme and curriculum are intense,” said the
prospective code-writer, who had studied biopsychology
and Spanish in college. “That type of mentality is healthy,
and I want to be pushed.”
Dorothy Fabian – Features Editor