While there’s no doubt that the flawed H1B visa programme needs reform, to assume that tightening it will automatically create or protect high-tech jobs in the US is wrong. Here’s why.
In the case of high-technology jobs, there is no guarantee that employers who are forced to scale back H1B hiring will not simply choose to send those jobs offshore. In fact, a scholarly working paper published in February 2020 by Britta Glennon of the University of Pennsylvania found that there is a direct correlation between restrictive H1B visas and offshoring.
“The effect,” writes Glennon, “is strongest among R&D-intensive firms in industries where services could be more easily offshored.” Glennon, who considered both hard data and empirical evidence, found that India, China and Canada benefitted most from the US offshoring for reasons of availability of highly skilled workers and, in the case of Canada, proximity.
