Folks, We are obviously Not Tech Employers, here, Here is a take from someone in the industry.
Danny Tran Director, Digital Marketing Automation (2008–present)
There are multiple reasons for this, I have worked in tech for over 12 years and worked with many H1B employees, offshore companies in India, Mexico and few more.
One of the main reasons is that there aren't’ that many qualified Americans in the US and with qualifications it also includes attitude, work ethic, expectations, etc. besides just the work itself. Tech is a very fast paced environment and the industry requires more and more from developers & software engineers. There used to be a time where you could be good in a few programming, scripting languages like Javascript, XML, PHP, etc. however in today’s world these companies look for “full stack” developers which really means that a developer has expert knowledge of a multitude of platforms, applications, programming languages, and environments.
When I started over a decade ago, you could be a JS developer and that’s all you needed but today they want you to know JS, .NET, SQL, Jira, Rally, SCRUM Methodologies, Salesforce, Splunk, Angular, React, Vue, GitHub, Bitbucket, Confluence, and so many more things, it’s an ongoing process even within those, you have to specialize most likely because your job requires it. You may come in as a developer but may work on a project that is built on certain tech stack, you need to know how to work with it .
Also, yes immigrants are completely obedient and controllable (might sound real douchey but that’s a fact I experienced in many organizations). They won’t question working more than 40 hours consistently, after hours, weekends, etc. H1B Visa holders can’t quit easily, if they do their Visa can get canceled and they have to go back to where they came from including their family.
Their job because their life. Americans always have something to do like going to a game, hang out, go to the beach, shopping, etc. They will jump ship much quicker because they can. They don’t have to worry about getting kicked out of the country. And their expectations are usually very high and always look where else they can go. So the investments are much better bringing in someone that dreamt their entire life to be in the US. You get more for your money because most won’t get paid as much initially as a US Citizen and what I mean by that that their salary expectations are not as high as Americans because where they come from their market value is probably a fraction of what they can get here.
So an American may frown at a Sr. Tech role barely hitting 100K where as an immigrant thinks this is hitting the jackpot also depending where you live. It is already said that if you live in San Fran, you need to be making about 160K just to survive.
Me personally, I worked with Offshore with I completely hate, it’s having team members that work out of their location in India or where ever they reside. The problem is language and cultural barriers. Their comprehension is not the same and you wind up explaining and going over thing many times. Also the time difference most likely if you work during the day, they will be working late nights.
But I think the main issue for companies are cost and return of investment. It’s easier to get things out of someone that is grateful just to be here and have this job vs. someone that has all the options available to them.
Here is an example, I just witnessed. One American refused to return back to work because they still collect unemployment (after the COVID furlough and citing not feeling safe to go back) and if they would go back it would cancel that easy money.
Supply and demand have answered it already, there is no need to "assume, I want US workers to be first also, Yet, the Tech community does not just hire good talent from abroad because it only more profitable, feel free to ask any Tech HR person why.
BS!!! they DO pay S.S. Tax Medicare and payroll tax. Hey I'm an America First also, Talk to any Tech HR person why they hire abroad.