A computer science professor's never-ending H-1B fight

Computerworld - Norman Matloff, a professor of computer science at the University of California at Davis, appeared in 1998 before a U.S. House committee and delivered testimony titled "Debunking the Myth of a Desperate Software Labor Shortage.". It was that hearing and his testimony that may have framed the national debate over the H-1B visa.

Ten years ago, during the original dot-com boom, offshore outsourcing was just beginning; upstart India-based firms were winning Y2k remediation contracts and building businesses that would quickly become global outsourcing firms. With the rise of offshore outsourcing also came increasing demand for H-1B visas. Matloff today remains the leading critic of this program. Both presumptive presidential candidates support the H-1B program, and it has much support in Congress. Matloff knows he may be fighting a quixotic battle but carries on nonetheless.

How did H-1B advocacy start for you? First, even in 1998 there were severe problems that were masked by all the hoopla about the dot-com boom. Even in 1998, there were a number of people who just weren't able to get work. These were generally people who were over 40, many well qualified in the classical sense -- years of significant experience. It was clear, even then, that what the industry wanted was cheap labor.

The quest for cheap labor was the industry's own fault. The industry really began to get fixated on people with very specific skill sets. In 1998, Java, for instance, was hot. The industry got into this mind-set where they felt they had to have somebody with Java experience. By doing that, since Java was relatively new at the time, they were basically driving up salaries. They got even more interested in hiring people that were cheap. One of the ways to get cheap labor is to hire young, and if you run out of young people to hire that are American -- meaning U.S. citizens and permanent residents -- you turn to hiring young foreign people. And almost all the H-1Bs are young.

What was the epiphany that drew your attention? I'm very deeply immersed in the Chinese immigrant community [Matloff speaks Mandarin, and his wife is an immigrant from Hong Kong] and saw a lot of people that were hired on H1 visas -- the predecessor of the H-1B program -- who were not really good, but they found ways to get hired. So I had suspicions there. I don't think there was anything that really put me over the edge.

Don't your connections with the immigrant community put pressure on you to favor more relaxed, looser policies on immigration? People who are immigrants are harmed by H-1Bs just like the natives are, even the ones who are originally H-1Bs.The minute they get a green card, they are somewhat less employable, and when the hit age 35 and 40, they are lot less employable, just like the natives are.