Your tax dollars:
Although this particular program doesn’t involve refugees, I wanted to mention it because it continues on the theme we have been writing about regarding refugee labor. The AP story, hat tip Whuptdue, begins:
SANTA CLARA, Calif. -Even as the economy collapsed last year and many financial workers found themselves unemployed, the dozen U.S. banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages requested visas for tens of thousands of foreign workers to fill high-paying jobs, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.
The major banks, which have received $150 billion in bailout funds, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for senior vice presidents, corporate lawyers, junior investment analysts and human resources specialists. The average annual salary for those jobs was $90,721, nearly twice the median income for all American households.
The numbers of visas sought by the dozen banks in AP’s analysis increased by nearly one-third, from 3,258 in the 2007 budget year to 4,163 in fiscal 2008.
The AP reviewed visa applications the banks filed with the Labor Department under the H-1B visa program, which allows temporary employment of foreign workers in specialized-skill and advanced-degree positions. Such visas are most often associated with high-tech workers.
Although no doubt there are many do-gooders involved in the open borders and refugee movements, there is also a business component that this AP story confirms.
Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.
Now in the old pre-bailout days, businesses were certainly within their rights to hire whomever they wanted assuming the employees were here legally. Everything has changed since some businesses have signed a pact with the devil (the federal government!). Every business that is now wholly or partially owned by the taxpayers will be scrutinized constantly, by people with all sorts of axes to grind, on such issues as CEO bonuses, what sort of planes they are flying, whether they are redecorating offices and whether they are hiring Americans or not.
Do you think American businesses will be doing much business under the circumstances?
By the way, I meant to mention that last week British workers were protesting the hiring of foreign workers in the UK.