Hiring someone on this kind of visa puts them under your boot. They can't ask for much or make waves without risking their whole life being upturned. If a citizen gets fired that sucks, but if you're on a work visa you might have to leave the country (breaking your lease, leaving your partner, etc). I think you get 60 days. Given how bad the job market is, that's not very long to find a new job. Also given how ICE is abducting people and sending them to a death camp, people are extra cautious.

It's similar to how coupling health insurance to employment gives the employer extra power against labor. Are you really going to make a big deal about your boss pressuring you to work unpaid overtime when getting fired means you lose access to your life saving medicine?

[–] shawn1122@sh.itjust.works 1 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

For context, every wealthy nation has work visas like this. It is not unique to H1bs. Dubai was essentially built on this framework with the added aspect of confiscating passports.

It can be used well in some cases, especially in attracting a workforce to an underserved area. For example, immigrant doctors and nurses make a up a huge proportion of the hospital workforce throughout the US (upwards of 1 in 3 in some urban areas) but even moreso in rural areas.

The problem is when it's misused, especially in the tech sector.