Just working my way through this article and wanted to say thank you. I knew that this objection..that some call racism.. has come from somewhere and I’ve been trying to get to the root of it.
I've seen this at startups. The visa holders were all yes men because they could be kicked back in minutes. Their managers loved them because, as you pointed out, they could be exploited.
I didn't understand until an Indian (US born) pointed it out. They H1B were worked like slaves.
This lines up with my analysis. Immigration isn't a top issue for me, but it's obvious that exploitation happens both at the legal and illegal levels. A certain type of purported liberal-minded or libertarian-minded business class person wants to undercut wages, and immigration is the best tool for that. Not to mention, as you noted, immigrants tend to be more pliant as workers because they have to be.
I too don't see anything particularly progressive about trying to build a serf caste stateside. Especially not via black markets (illegal immigration and open boards), but increasingly not via legalizing predatory arrangements either.
"The reason we’re not Indian is straightforward — we didn’t grow up there and don’t have the cultural context, and our parents’ conception of India is frozen in the 1970s."
Interesting point. I think one sees something similar in many Americans of Vietnamese descent.
Just working my way through this article and wanted to say thank you. I knew that this objection..that some call racism.. has come from somewhere and I’ve been trying to get to the root of it.
I've seen this at startups. The visa holders were all yes men because they could be kicked back in minutes. Their managers loved them because, as you pointed out, they could be exploited.
I didn't understand until an Indian (US born) pointed it out. They H1B were worked like slaves.
I should add, so were everyone else because they could be replaced by an H1B
If I had to choose Bernie Sanders or Ezra Klein to source my politics I would probably kill myself.
This lines up with my analysis. Immigration isn't a top issue for me, but it's obvious that exploitation happens both at the legal and illegal levels. A certain type of purported liberal-minded or libertarian-minded business class person wants to undercut wages, and immigration is the best tool for that. Not to mention, as you noted, immigrants tend to be more pliant as workers because they have to be.
I too don't see anything particularly progressive about trying to build a serf caste stateside. Especially not via black markets (illegal immigration and open boards), but increasingly not via legalizing predatory arrangements either.
"The reason we’re not Indian is straightforward — we didn’t grow up there and don’t have the cultural context, and our parents’ conception of India is frozen in the 1970s."
Interesting point. I think one sees something similar in many Americans of Vietnamese descent.