Summary
Tesla replaced many laid-off U.S. workers with foreign H-1B visa holders after a 2024 wave of layoffs affecting 15,000 employees.
These visas, tied to employer sponsorship, often lower compensation and give employers significant leverage over workers.
Critics argue this displaces U.S. employees, as senior engineers were replaced by lower-paid junior engineers.
CEO Elon Musk, while advocating for expanding H-1B visa caps, faces backlash, especially from conservatives, for “job-stealing” concerns.
Musk contends there’s a U.S. skill shortage, but critics highlight potential exploitation tied to Tesla’s demanding work culture and visa dependence.
Oh, of course. There are very stupid people in every nation, and very bright people in every nation. It’s not like Americans (or Indians) have some kind of innate talent related to software that no other people have, though I’ve often heard people opine for both positions, and man, is that stupid.
Also, I think I mentioned on this thread that I’ve worked with some people that just had no affinity for the field, many of them were definitely citizens. But maybe it was another thread.
As for the safeguards - I am unsure. I think a lot of things would have to be put in place to protect against exploitation of both citizens and foreign labor. I think the best option would be just to scrap the program entirely and instead make sure expedited immigration is easier. If companies want to help someone through that process, fine, but the individual is under no obligations to that company in the end state - they have permanent citizenship if they wish. No more driving down wages and no more throwing away workers at the end of 3 or 6 years like they are used tissues…
Yea that’s fair. Just decouple the two things I suppose. But knowing us we’d just get rid of it and not fix actual legal immigration.