David North of the Center for Immigration Studies argues that not only does the H-1B visa system unfairly harm American workers, it is also discriminatory because it favors nationals from one country over the rest of the world.
Looking at Information Week’s recent breakdown of the top eight biggest H-1B employers in 2015, North spotlights that the companies almost exclusively hire candidates from India.
The H-1B visa program has been under fire in recent years due to the actions of some companies that have replaced American employees with cheaper foreign workers on H-1B visas.
The criticisms of the guest worker program have been largely focused on its impact on American workers. North concludes, in his analysis of the Information Week’s findings, that the program needs significant reform not just because it harms Americans, but also because it appears to be discriminatory. North said:
The defenders of the H-1B program say that it is needed to bring to America the ‘best and the brightest.’ If so, why in these leading cases do 98-99 percent of the best and brightest come from India, and why are they virtually all men?” he asks in his analysis. “(I doubt that this is a coincidence, but none of the gatekeepers in the H-1B program — not the Department of Labor, nor State, nor Homeland Security — keeps track of these workers by gender.)
“By hiring 98-99 percent Indians, the outsourcing firms are not only discriminating against U.S. workers, they are also discriminating against those from the rest of the world,” he added.