Banks Importing Foreign Workers!

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Banks Importing Foreign Workers!
19
Sun, 02-01-2009 - 5:27pm

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/hotstories/6241230.html



Banks sought foreign workers as Americans were laid off

By FRANK BASS and RITA BEAMISH Associated Press
Feb. 1, 2009, 11:22AM









SANTA CLARA, Calif. — Major U.S. banks sought government permission to bring thousands of foreign workers into the country for high-paying jobs even as the system was melting down last year and Americans were getting laid off, according to an Associated Press review of visa applications.

The dozen banks now receiving the biggest rescue packages, totaling more than $150 billion, requested visas for more than 21,800 foreign workers over the past six years for positions that included 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.


As the economic collapse worsened last year — with huge numbers of bank employees laid off — 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.


It is unclear how many foreign workers the banks actually hired; the government does not release those details. The actual number is likely a fraction of the 21,800 foreign workers the banks sought to hire because the government only grants 85,000 such visas each year among all U.S. employers.


During the last three months of 2008, the largest banks that received taxpayer loans announced more than 100,000 layoffs. The number of foreign workers included among those laid off is unknown.


Foreigners are attractive hires because companies have found ways to pay them less than American workers.


Companies are required to pay foreign workers a prevailing wage based on the job's description. But they can use the lower end of government wage scales even for highly skilled workers; hire younger foreigners with lower salary demands; and hire foreigners with higher levels of education or advanced degrees for jobs for which similarly educated American workers would be considered overqualified.


"The system provides you perfectly legal mechanisms to underpay the workers," said John Miano of Summit, N.J., a lawyer who has analyzed the wage data and started the Programmers Guild, an advocacy group that opposes the H-1B system.


David Huber of Chicago is a computer networking engineer who has testified to Congress about losing out on a 2002 job with the former Bank One Corp. He learned later the bank applied to hire dozens of foreign visa holders for work he said he was qualified to do.


"American citizenship is being undermined working in our own country," Huber said in an AP interview.


Beyond seeking approval for visas from the government, banks that accepted federal bailout money also enlisted uncounted foreign workers, often in technology jobs, through intermediary companies known as "body shops." Such businesses are the top recipients of the H-1B visas.


The use of visa workers by ailing banks angers Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa, the senior Republican on the Senate Finance Committee.


"In this time of very, very high unemployment ... and considering the help these banks are getting from the taxpayers, they're playing the American taxpayer for a sucker," Grassley said in a telephone interview with AP.


Grassley, with Sen. Richard Durbin, D-Ill., is pushing for legislation to make employers recruit American workers first, along with other changes to the visa program.


Banks turned to foreign workers before the current economic crisis, said Diane Casey-Landry, chief operating officer for the American Bankers Association. The group said a year ago that demand exceeded the pool of qualified workers in areas like sales, lending and bank administration. Now with massive layoffs, the situation is different, Casey-Landry said.


The issue takes on a higher profile as the government injects billions of dollars into the economy and President Barack Obama pushes for massive government spending to create jobs nationwide, on top of the $700 billion already approved for the ailing banks.


"You're using taxpayer dollars and there's an expectation that there are benefits to the U.S.," said Ron Hira, a national expert on foreign employment and assistant public policy professor at the Rochester Institute of Technology. "What you're really doing is leaking away those jobs and benefits that should accrue to the taxpayers."


But New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg believes more access to "worldwide talent pools" will better position U.S. financial companies against global competitors, spokesman Andrew Brent said.


The U.S. Customs and Immigration Service declined to disclose details on foreign workers hired at the banks that have received federal bailouts. The AP has requested the information under the U.S. Freedom of Information Act.


Nearly all the banks the AP contacted also declined to comment on their foreign hiring practices. Arlene C. Roberts, spokeswoman for State Street Corp. of Boston, which has received $2 billion in bailout money, said the company has reduced H-1B hiring in recent years, and just hires for specialized positions.


Jennifer Scott of Yreka, Calif., a retired technical systems manager at Bank of America in Concord, Calif., said in 2004 she oversaw foreign employees from a contractor firm that also sent overnight work to employees in India.


"It had nothing to do with a shortage, but they didn't want to pay the U.S. rate," she said, adding that the quality of the work was weak. "It's all about numbers crunching."


Frank Bass reported from East Dover, Vt.





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iVillage Member
Registered: 01-04-2009
Sun, 02-01-2009 - 6:28pm

Arrrrrrrggggghhhhhh!!!!


Sometimes I get so angry about this type of

 

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Sun, 02-01-2009 - 6:46pm

Reading that just turned my stomach....

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-18-2000
Mon, 02-02-2009 - 8:55am

"why wasn't this brought up before they got $800 billion?

 


Photobucket&nbs

iVillage Member
Registered: 03-26-2003
Mon, 02-02-2009 - 2:07pm
I think Bloomberg means that by hiring foreigners for high-level jobs the US company can gain access to knowledge and expertise it might not otherwise be able to get easily. It could be that you want to hire someone away from a specific foreign bank, for example, to get some inside dope on said bank, or that you want to hire people with established networks in a foreign market that you want to enter. It could also be as simple as wanting to hire at least one high-level French speaker or Chinese speaker for a team. 20,000 people over 6 years for the banking industry is really not that many people and given that you need to pay a law firm to get the H visas for the workers, I really doubt the main motivation is to save money.
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-01-2008
Mon, 02-02-2009 - 2:10pm
How can the Government allow such a thing? Which is worse giving visas to foreigners to get our high paying jobs or allowing some illegal Mexicans to come through our borders? Seems like everyone is up in arms about the border issue, but our main concern should be our companies hiring foreigners and outsourcing our jobs... My main concern is that our young people no longer are wanting to get degrees in medicine, engineering, computer programing etc, because they figure they don't have a chance in the workforce. And you know what? They are right!
iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Mon, 02-02-2009 - 4:05pm

I have a different take on this. My nephew is engaged to a Canadian woman that worked for two large banks for about the past ten years setting up all their internet communications/interfacing. It is an incredibly monumental task. She is an incredibly brilliant young woman. She was a Nintendo champion for her region of Canada for some absurd number of years as a child. She is VERY HIGHLY QUALIFIED and competed in a VERY SMALL pool of people qualified for the position she holds. If America isn't turning out the quality of tech people, with the work ethic behind them, willing to work for the entry level wage offered, then what are we whining about? She didn't just get these jobs this year



iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Mon, 02-02-2009 - 4:57pm

... and given that you need to pay a law firm to get the H visas for the workers, I really doubt the main motivation is to save money. ...


Did you read the same article I did?


I haven't worked for a bank, but I've worked for large corporations and they had their own lawyers on staff.

iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Mon, 02-02-2009 - 5:18pm

It *may* take a little longer to find qualified candidates, but they're here in America.


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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-30-2002
Tue, 02-03-2009 - 1:18am

***It *may* take a little longer to find qualified candidates, but they're here in America.***


Are you sure? My example is anectdotal and slightly OT, but an example I can use from my personal life. I have a painful disability that requires I use a teaching hospital as my best option for state of the art treatment and care. My neurosurgeon and the head of the neurosurgery department at this university hospital is from Holland. My primary care physician is from Sweden. The Drs. that did my EMG studies this past year were from Vietnam and China. The Drs. and residents that I saw during



iVillage Member
Registered: 12-24-2006
Tue, 02-03-2009 - 4:10am

I don't know why there are more foreigners in medicine than Americans.

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