Despite recent layoffs of more than 12,000 employees in their American offices, Google has been caught filing paperwork with the U.S. government to import thousands of cheap H1-B visa laborers to take up new positions with the company. Google is far from the only tech company that has been conspiring to take advantage of the H1-B program. Other Silicon Valley offenders caught undercutting American jobs include Facebook, Amazon, Salesforce, and Microsoft.
Big Tech Resumed Hiring Foreign Workers Just Weeks After Layoffs
By Lee Fang; May 16, 2023
Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, wrote a solemn letter in January, announcing his company’s decision to lay off 12,000 employees.
”I have some difficult news to share,” wrote Pichai. The layoff, he continued, “weighs heavily on me,” and was forced by “economic reality.”
Just one month later, Pichai’s firm filed applications for low-paid foreign workers to come to America and take highly specialized tech jobs. Google filed dozens of applications for foreign workers to serve as software engineers, analytical consultants, user experience researchers, and other roles. Waymo, the self-driving car company owned by Google, also filed and received visa applications for engineering jobs. Many of the Google visas are for new employees, with some starting as soon as August 17th.
Newly disclosed data released yesterday by the Department of Labor shows thousands of recent H1-B foreign worker visas requested by firms that just underwent massive layoffs this year, including Facebook/Meta Platforms, Amazon, Zoom, Salesforce, Microsoft, and Palantir.