[OC] The H-1B Visa Holders Joining America’s Top Research Instituions in FY 2025

16 comments

1. Sounds like these R1 Research Institutions will have to pivot to hiring Americans or pay up

2. Way too many and I’m looking forward to those numbers dropping. American Computer Engineering graduates have one of the highest unemployment rates in the USA. The vast majority of H1-B holders are here for…you guessed it…computer engineering.

3. Or we could maybe train the many Americans that would love these jobs and let them have a better life. Is that asking too damn much? I sure remember multiple family members being paid to get degrees by their work in the 80s and 90s. That doesn’t happen near as often anymore though because they can just ship in people from around the world who had access to much cheaper education.

4. To reply to all the people saying institutions should just hire Americans I think there is a point that people are missing. In research institutions the pay for a typical H-1B holder is about 50-70K a year. Most Americans with the right qualifications, typically meaning a graduate degree, have a lot of student debt to repay and they are in the phase of life where they might want to start a family or buy a house, so they are not very attacted to these kind of jobs unless they’re very very passionate about science. The result is that there just isn’t a large enough pool of Americans wanting these jobs. It might be different in the tech sector but that’s the reality in academia.

5. is this just cities where jobs are (aka another population map)

6. On one hand, the dataset is interesting and it’s something that should definitely be more well known. On the other hand, this way of presenting the data feels very r/PeopleLiveInCities.

7. How many idiots this thread don’t understand the types of specialized jobs we are offering H1-B holders and how they can’t simply be replaced like a checkout clerk at Walmart.

   Here’s an analogy for the especially slow— there are only so many Einsteins and Hawkings in this world. Either we get them or someone else does. Losing out to the technological edge that made us a superpower so you can give Arnold the Average that researcher slot is not putting “America First” it’s making us more average to appeal to some xenophobic riff on affirmative action.

8. This comment ironically, is a prime example of the deterioration of critical thinking and reading comprehension skills in America – and exactly why we need the H1-B program

9. Is reddit suddenly on the side of H1-B abuse simply because Trump is pushing against H1-Bs?

   Which btw, he ran on ending H1B abuse back in 2016, so it’s not like it’s new.

10. The chat is going to be blank soon.

11. This is conflating the issue people are upset about. Most people aren’t mad that post docs are doing research at a university or government research facility they have an issue with the IT consultancy groups (Tata, Infosys, Cognizant, etc) committing fraud. These groups use cap exempt slots to bring in low level IT workers from India taking jobs from recent college grads. They use something called a bench system where they fraudulently apply for a slot that only exists on paper, only to amend the position and name of the employee later after they auction it off so a client. This is a gaming of the system that lowers wages and prevents entry level jobs being taken by recent college grads.

    The Trump Admin is doing this in a hamfisted way that hurts legitimate uses but I don’t see any alternatives being presented. I don’t see any agreement from either side that the current immigration regime is hurting native born citizens. The H1B debate is part of a larger cycle of corporations and institutions telling us that we need to comply and accept our jobs being undercut by cheaper workers.

12. What does “quasi-public” mean in this context?

13. H1B holders doing important research at universities: yes. Absolutely.

    H1B holders filling medical jobs that don’t have local applicants: yes, absolutely.

    H1B holders underpricing American workers out of generic tech jobs: no, this is an abuse that needs to end.

14. I am one of those. Switched from TN to H-1B, going into effect 10/1. I’m kind of regretting it, considering…

15. Get them outtttttt please

16. Yeah, Indians are ‘stealing’ jobs — by paying 2–3× higher out-of-state tuition at U.S. universities (tens of thousands more than locals) just to qualify. Then they work on H-1B visas that legally require paying the prevailing wage, not some ‘cheap labor’ rate. In fact, Indian-Americans and many Indians on visas earn above the U.S. average in tech, they’re not undercutting anyone.
    They also pay into Social Security and Medicare, even though most will never see a cent back if they’re forced to leave because the U.S. and India don’t have an agreement to transfer benefits. That’s billions flowing into the system that props up American retirees.
    And the so-called “loyalty trap”? It’s the broken green card system: Indians face 10–15+ year waits (sometimes longer) because of outdated per-country caps. Companies use that backlog to keep them tied down, while Congress refuses to fix it.
    So tell me again: who’s gaming the system? Indians who pay more to study, get paid more to work, pay into taxes they may never benefit from, and then wait decades for residency? Or Americans who shout ‘job theft’ while benefiting from the skills, taxes, and innovation immigrants bring? Or are we simply racist, which is easy to say, especially looking at the current political situation.

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