The Washington Times Visa program robs U.S. technology workers of jobs, 
dignity By Rachel Konrad Published August 11, 2003

SAN JOSE, Calif. - Scott Kirwin clung to his computer programming job, but 
it was tough for him to relish his final assignment: training a group of 
workers from India who would replace him within a year.

"They called it 'knowledge acquisition,' " the Wilmington, Del., resident 
said. "We got paid our normal salaries to train people to do our jobs. The 
market was so bad we couldn't really do anything about it, so we taught our 
replacements."

Laid off from a large investment bank in April, Mr. Kirwin, 36, sent out 
225 resumes before landing a temporary position without benefits at a 
smaller bank and swallowing a 20 percent pay cut.

Mr. Kirwin is among a growing number of American technology workers 
training their foreign replacements - a humiliating assignment many say 
they assume unwittingly or reluctantly, simply to stay on the job longer or 
secure a meager severance package.

Their plight can be seen as an unintended consequence of the nation's 
non-immigrant visa program - particularly the L-1 classification. The L-1 
allows companies to transfer workers from overseas offices to the United 
States for up to seven years ostensibly to familiarize them with corporate 
culture or to import workers with "specialized knowledge." It also lets 
companies continue paying workers their home country wage.

Indian workers receive roughly one-sixth the hourly wage of the average 
American programmer, who makes about $60 per hour in wages and benefits. 
Large technology companies say the L-1 also helps them staff offices in 
less-developed countries with workers who understand the needs of a global 
corporation.

Some labor analysts say out-of-work programmers should stop complaining and 
focus on their own retraining, just like the Rust Belt assembly line 
workers whose factory jobs migrated to Mexico and Asia in the 1980s. But 
unemployed tech workers contend that so many good jobs are going to places 
like India and China that honing their technical skills is futile. The 
research firm Gartner Inc. says one out of 10 technology jobs in the United 
States will move overseas by the end of next year.

"Once I figured out what was going on, I was disgusted," said Kevin 
Sherman, a 47-year-old programmer and technical author from Worthington, 
Ohio, who was working for Manifest Corp., an information systems consulting 
firm in Upper Arlington, Ohio.

Mr. Sherman held on to his $62,000-per-year contract job while he taught 
several dozen Indian workers how to build and maintain computer databases 
in 1999 and 2000. He quit rather than take on his next assignment: 
repairing the newly trained foreigners' personal computers. He has been 
unemployed for two years.

Nancy Matijasich, Manifest president and chief executive, said she no 
longer employs L-1 workers like those Mr. Sherman has trained, because the 
threat of the year 2000 bug has passed and the company has less need for 
programmers.

"There was a shortage of skills in the '90s," Miss Matijasich said. "But we 
haven't processed visas in a long time."

The State Department issued 28,098 L-1 visas from October to March, the 
first half of fiscal 2003. That is an increase of nearly 7 percent from the 
same period in 2002. But the number of L-1 workers in the United States is 
likely much higher, said Charlie Oppenheim, the State Department's chief of 
immigrant visa control.

Each L-1 lets a worker enter the United States multiple times over several 
years. There is no limit on the number of L-1 workers companies may import 
each year.

Legislation introduced last month by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, Connecticut 
Democrat, would set an annual limit of 35,000 L-1 workers nationwide. By 
contrast, tight controls govern the H-1B visa, which requires companies to 
pay workers the prevailing American wage. The H-1B cap is scheduled to be 
reduced from 195,000 workers to 65,000 per year on Oct. 1.

Tech bellwethers including IBM, Hewlett-Packard, Cisco Systems, Oracle and 
Microsoft use L-1 workers but won't disclose how many they import. Many 
bring in workers through consulting firms, usually Indian companies such as 
Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys Technologies and Wipro Technologies.

Intel spokeswoman Gail Dundas acknowledged that the world's largest chip 
maker relies on Americans to train L-1 workers who staff the company's 
offices in Russia, India, China and other high-growth markets. But she says 
the Intel training program does not result in American layoffs.

"If someone does something really well, we want the person who's going to 
perform a similar function abroad to learn from the master. Then the person 
in the United States will continue to do their job just as before," she said.

Intel provides cost-of-living adjustments if the L-1 workers are at the 
Santa Clara headquarters or elsewhere in the United States. Intel pays for 
housing, cars, return trips to the workers' home countries and full medical 
benefits - a package that ends up costing significantly more than hiring an 
American, she said.

Copyright © 2003 News World Communications, Inc. All rights reserved.


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