Entertainment giant Walt Disney has laid off about 250 employees and replaced them with Indians holding H1-B visas, raising new questions on how outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas to bring immigrants into technology jobs in the US.
The layoff comes amid the debate over immigration reform in the US as the temporary work visas are at the centre of a fierce debate in Congress over whether they complement American workers or displace them.
The H1-B visa programme has also been criticised for being used to bring in immigrants to do the work of Americans for less money, with laid-off American workers having to train their replacements, The New York Times reported.
The layoff caused huge resentment among the Disney employees, who said they were required to train their replacements to do the jobs they had lost.
“But the layoffs at Disney and at other companies are raising new questions about how businesses and outsourcing companies are using the temporary visas, known as H-1B, to place immigrants in technology jobs in the US,” the report said.
The programme has created a highly lucrative business model of bringing in cheaper H-1B workers to substitute for Americans – Ronil Hira, Professor of Public Policy at Howard University
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