Anthropology News • April 2002 DIALOGUE Education and the Importation of Foreign Workers NICCOLO CALDARARO SAN FRANCISCO STATE U In the wake of the terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon, it is important to focus on changes in education and tech- nology and on issues of racismand immigration. H-1B Immigration Visas Debated Debate about H-IB immigration visas—temporary visas allowing professionals to enter the US and accept employment within their profession—has centered on how these visas affect labor and point towards deficiencies in American education. In 2000, Congress deliberated is- sues surrounding H-IB immigra- tion visas, and President Clinton signed a law extending them. Be- fore this extension, Congress tem- porarily increased the number of H- 1B visas to 115,000 a year; they also ordered a National Academy of Sciences study to look at future needs of the information technolo- gy workforce, which it decided to ignore when it passed a new exten- sion of the H-IB visas. The National Research Council, in their Oct 2000 NAS report "Building a Workforce for the Information Economy," had found that the visa program is nec- essary for sustaining the technolo- gy boom ocairring at that time, but that it might come at the expense of American workers. Moreover, they claimed that the visa program could depress wages and affect other types of compensation. Now, in the wake of the dot-com collapse and the sliding economy, this posi- tion has deteriorated somewhat. The various arguments for in- creasing the number of visas seem logical: 1) they allow for continued expansion of information technol- ogy and industrial activity; 2) there is a lack of qualified American can- didates; and 3) American corpora- tions are unable to keep up with the increasing complexity of IT process- ing and infrastructure. On the other hand, why do we need to physically transport 115,000 people from their homes abroad in order for them to work on technology that can be done by telecommuting? The answer to this is often just as illogical: "The locations where these people come from are not equipped to allow for IT distance workforcrng." This seems contradictory. If local educators have the technology to train immi- grants in high-tech jobs, why do they lack the ability to have them work at home? COM MEN TARY Abuses in H-1B Visa Program Currently, the H-IB visa program allows for considerable abuse, not only in the qualifications of those admitted, but in the treatment of those who receive the visas. In "Law Shouldn't Allow High-Tech Industry to Indenture Immigrants'' (San Francisco Chronicle, Sept 29, 2000), David Bacon, a member of the Labor Immigrant Organizers Network; and Judy Goff, executive secretary-treasurer of the Alameda County Central Labor Council AFL- CIO; argued that Congress's expan- sion of the H-IB visa program would result in cheap labor. Many immigrants coming to the US on H-IB visas weren't rinding high- paying jobs, but rather "high-tech sweatshop" jobs. However, this ar- gument isn't the crux of the problem, for if it were, corporations would "outsource" work to foreign locations where wages are cheap and labor laws are essentially nonexistent. There are other injustices that af- fect wages and make H-IB workers more attractive than US citizens. As Carrie Kiiby outlined in "New H-IB Visa Law a life Changer But 'Body Shops' Expected to Continue" (SF Chronicle, Oct 5, 2000, p Bl), there are many restrictions on H-IB workers, including a lack of free- dom to move from job to job and requirements to stay in their origi- nal job in order to apply for Green Card status. In "On the Sidelines H- 1B Leaves Minority Workers on Sidelines, Groups Say" (SF Chronicle, Oct 19, 2000), Kirby also reported that an Immigration and Naturali- zation Service survey of salary and benefits found that H-IB workers made less than other workers. This, Kirby reported, served as an impetus for tech companies to favor H-IB visas holders over other Americans— predominantly other minorityAmeri- cans. History of H-1B Visas In chronicling abuses in the H-IB visa program, we have to recall that these visas were designed in 1952 to let skilled foreign laborers work in the US temporarily at a time when the US was in need of highly trained professionals andskilled labor; they were to fill a gap in our training problems, as well as in our labor shortages in certain highly skilled areas. The US expended consider- able amount of money in the post- WWH period to fill this training gap. We invested in community colleges, universities and training schools of all kinds, and we provided return- ing GIs from WWII and the Korean War the opportunity to rebuild American industry. Yet, as John William Templeton, co-convenor of the Coalition for Fair Employment in Silicon Valley, noted in "Com- munity Colleges' Talent Pool" (SF Chronicle, Oct 16, 2000), communi- ty colleges are where many African American workers continue to gain their training; however, businesses overlook this "jewel of higher edu- cation." Thus, Templeton wrote, we should invest in these institutions so that they may have the resources to train American minorities for the New Economy, rather than by sole- ly looking to H-IB visa workers. So why don't we invest in our community colleges and training schools anymore? Not 20 years ago, the Carnegie Foundation for the Advancement of Teaching pro- duced a report on the growing alter- native systems of education in industry, predicting that these enti- ties would overtake traditional four- year, diploma-granting institutions. Today this alternative system is in shambles, victim both to the down- sizing of the late 1980s and 1990s, and to the PC effect and Internet explosion. Even in these fast-mov- ing areas, business training entities such as Novell and CNE Certified Network Professional certification have fallen, while others like MCSE, Oracle and Cisco certification pro- grams have maintained their rele- vance. The longevity of these latter programs, with the exception of a few like IBM and Rand, depend on a commitment from management to train workers in the face of other priorities or the bottom line. America's Failure to Train If we look at the skilled workers coming to America under the H-IB program, we find that their educa- tion was not in industry, but in schools often modeled on British or French systems suggesting that American education—with its "grade inflation" and "social promo- tion"—is the reason for the lack of Americans skilled enough for in- dustry. We are all aware that American businesses increasingly find graduates of our schools to be inadequately prepared for work. In fact, one might say that the collapse of the Internet was based on a lack of realistic business plans as well as poor execution. Certainly many of us can recall being told that univer- sity education was becoming obso- lete. Now we cannot say "We told you so" while viewing the ruins, since we must now train many of the survivors for employment. Following Sept 11, the US econo- my has contracted substantially. The effect this will have on the H- 1B program and the future of these foreign workers in America is a big question. How our society, indus- tries and educational institutions address this resulting economic stress will shape the outcome. The opportunity to use the skills and training of immigrant workers to redefine our industrial needs is one constructive road we can take, but it cannot be the only one. We need more than ever to invest in educa- tion to provide the foundation for a solution to our current economic problems. Moreover, this invest- ment must be applied throughout the US education system: from kindergarten to doctorate training. A bailout for the airlines is a tem- porary fix to today's economic problems, but our educational insti- tutions also are in economic free- fall andneed immediate help. E2 Niccolo Caldararo teaches at San Francisco State U and conducts research in artifact conservation and analysis, genetics, molecular biology of humans, and medical anthropology. 8