The Truth About ‘Skilled’ Immigration

Parsing Immigration Policy

The latest episode of “Parsing Immigration Policy” highlights skilled immigration policies, their impact, and ways to improve the legal immigration programs. Featuring Dr. Norman Matloff, emeritus professor at UC Davis and a leading expert on the H-1B visa program, this episode breaks down how current policies are reshaping the U.S. labor market, undercutting American workers, and benefiting major tech companies at the expense of bringing the true “best and brightest” to the U.S.
Key topics covered:
The H-1B Visa System: Why America’s leading tech companies, like Intel and Google, are more harmful than the “body shops” that contract out cheap foreign labor.
The Green Card Process: The green card process is badly flawed. How sponsorship by big tech artificially expands the workforce, limiting opportunities and lowering wages for Americans.
The Myth of “Best and Brightest”: The reality behind claims that H-1B visa holders are exceptional talents—and how companies game the system. How can true talent be identified.
Age Discrimination & Wage Suppression: How H-1B policies favor entry-level workers, leading to lost expertise and lower salaries in STEM fields.
Foreign Students & Green Cards: Are we admitting too many? How universities exploit foreign student labor and what changes are needed.
Fixing the System: Ideas for reform, options explored include limiting green cards to top PhDs, implementing merit-based testing, numerical caps on students
Host
Mark Krikorian is the Executive Director of the Center for Immigration Studies.
Guest
Norm Matloff is an emeritus professor at UC Davis.
Related
How the H-1B System Undercuts American Workers
Norman Matloff on the H-1B Program and Related Issues
Why Legal Immigration Numbers Matter
Does America Need More Foreign Tech Workers, No
To Get the ‘Best and Brightest’ H-1B Workers, the US Must Reform the Program
Musk Is Right About H-1Bs
A Look Behind the Curtain at One H-1B Body Shop
Intro MontageVoices in the opening montage:

• Sen. Barack Obama at a 2005 press conference.
• Sen. John McCain in a 2010 election ad.
• President Lyndon Johnson, upon signing the 1965 Immigration Act.
• Booker T. Washington, reading in 1908 from his 1895 Atlanta Exposition speech.
• Laraine Newman as a "Conehead" on SNL in 1977.
• Hillary Clinton in a 2003 radio interview.
• Cesar Chavez in a 1974 interview.
• House Speaker Nancy Pelosi speaking to reporters in 2019.
• Prof. George Borjas in a 2016 C-SPAN appearance.
• Sen. Jeff Sessions in 2008 comments on the Senate floor.
• Charlton Heston in "Planet of the Apes".