Will the New H-1B Rules Create More Jobs for Chinese as well as Americans?

By David North on October 11, 2020

The caller was a reporter with the Mandarin Service of the Voice of America. She wanted to talk about the new, tighter H-1B rules announced by the government last week.

Then it struck me — if the Indian outsourcing companies are going to take a major hit, as I think they will if the new system is not instantly crippled in the courts — who is likely to benefit?

My hope is that it will open up jobs for some American workers and raise wages for all concerned, but if an employer is used to the program and wants to stay in it, might not that benefit the Chinese who make up the second largest delegation of H-1Bs?

If the Indian outsourcing firms (TATA, Infosys, Wipro, etc.) no longer make a huge portion of the hiring decisions, in which they routinely choose young people from southern India more than 95 percent of the time, would that not help Chinese workers seeking these jobs? I think it would — but only if the new program actually goes into effect.

We will see.