As someone who immigrated to Canada from an H1B, I feel the difference in treatment and perception. I can demand fair salary, take promotions, even take vacations without fear. I respect Canada in giving me the opportunity.
Their sentiment is “Canada is a great country, excellent healthcare, however housing is unaffordable (Vancouver outskirts) and it still makes sense to drive down to Seattle and work in US, tech salaries are so much better here in US”
The other part of this insanity that I have much less sympathy for is cheating. When I heard about Amazon’s remote interview process that involved taking over your computer and requiring specific camera angles I thought it was outrageous however I started to see why they did that after a few interviews where the person that showed up wasn’t the person we interviewed. They were of course the same people but upon arrival they had a completely different mind and (much less) knowledge. It was eerie. The only theory I can come up is that they had others listening in and either typing or speaking answers to them. While I don’t approve of that the reality is that exploitive companies put up with it, something they’d never do with market rate employees.
There are some that know their shit but in my experience the ones that do don’t usually take a lower salary because they don’t need to. They’re not really part of this terrible equation.
That's exactly what I was trying to do with the comment. I agree with what you wrote fully.
Consider an alternative where companies hire foreigners for their superior skills. Those people will be respected because of their talent. People value being respected and, combined with an option to immigrate (if they want it), it's possible to build good will around the world. Instead of people teaching their children "America took advantage of me, but I benefited enough to make it worth it for our family", it can be be "America gave me a great opportunity."
People know when they're being cheated and if kids grow up watching their parents get cheated by a form of government endorsed exploitation they'll respect your country less and be more susceptible to propaganda and radicalization. IMO, exploiting foreign workers is bad foreign policy and has a negative effect on the long term reputation of a country.
Shame on all the companies that do this. It's bad for the foreigners, it's bad for the locals, and, worst of all, it's bad for future generations that grow up resenting each other based on nationality.
Every time you see an article like this, make sure people understand that foreigners aren't taking our jobs. We're all being mistreated and exploited by the same greedy companies.