Camp of the H-1B Saints

[ad_1] <img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="a7241c4f04157a6e68c9047f0b3383b4" id="024fd" src="https://www.conservativereview.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWJsYXplLmNvbS9tZWRpYS1saWJyYXJ5L2NhbXAtb2YtdGhlLWgtMWItc2FpbnRzLmpwZz9pZD02MTc0NzI1MiZhbXA7d2lkdGg9MTI0NSZhbXA7aGVpZ2h0PTcwMCZhbXA7Y29vcmRpbmF0ZXM9MCwxMDcsMCwwIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTc3NzI1NzA4Nn0.9wyvxcwMhBvmRyV8yjr5XxN4g6KzdbXWTzjOqREiC5g/image.jpg" /> Jean Raspail’s "The Camp of the Saints" is a kind of books you may’t point out at a cocktail party with out setting off a minor warfare. It’s been denounced, suppressed, and maligned as a hateful screed. And but half a century after its publication, the guide nonetheless pops like a gunshot. Why? As a result of it asks the query that well mannered society has performed its finest to keep away from: What occurs when a civilization loses the desire to protect its personal entrance door?

The novel is a fable, a satire, and a warning abruptly. The plot is blunt: An enormous flotilla of migrants sails towards France from India, whereas Europe’s leaders wring their fingers, draft statements, and discover methods to not act. The solid is drawn as caricatures — professors, journalists, bureaucrats, clergymen — every one a stand-in for the establishments that when anchored Europe however now function props for its decline. Raspail spares nobody.

The poor on the ships are much less his topic than the highly effective on shore, who supply nothing however dithering and ethical preening whereas their home is overrun. The guide is brutal, unsubtle, and intentionally offensive. However it's also piercing, as a result of it forces the West to confront its smooth underbelly: its allergy to boundaries, its dependancy to slogans, and its lack of ability to say “no.”

If we wish to protect a center class, we should demand that companies practice and rent our personal graduates earlier than importing replacements from overseas.

And it's why, surprisingly sufficient, it has one thing to say about our present debates over H-1B visas and high-tech immigration. Raspail describes hordes of the destitute; the H-1B program is designed for extremely expert engineers, scientists, and docs. However dig deeper than the press releases, and you discover the identical theme: establishments taking part in make-believe, telling one story to the general public whereas the true story unfolds in actuality.

When the H-1B program was created, the pitch was easy. America, the world’s technological powerhouse, often wants entry to uncommon and distinctive talent units. If a rocket firm wants an aeronautical genius from Stuttgart, or a most cancers lab wants a researcher from Mumbai, the regulation permits a slender pipeline. The purpose was by no means to interchange American employees however to complement them, filling important gaps whereas American expertise pipelines caught up.

The truth, although, is one thing far completely different. Right this moment, the H-1B program is dominated not by Nobel-caliber minds however by large outsourcing companies and labor brokers who recreation the lottery system. They flood the applying pool with tens of hundreds of petitions, scoop up a large share of the slots, after which lease these employees again to American firms at cut-rate wages. The consequence shouldn't be a pipeline for the “finest and brightest,” however a labor arbitrage racket that undercuts American graduates whereas enriching a handful of consulting companies.

Even probably the most prestigious American companies have been caught utilizing the H-1B program to displace their very own employees, generally requiring these employees to coach their replacements earlier than letting them go. It’s the form of ritual humiliation that might have made Raspail nod grimly: a civilization too weak to defend its personal employees in its personal labor market.

RELATED: Jean Raspail’s infamous — and prophetic — novel returns to America

<img class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="9d58cb9d90ce4739b3b4067129659357" id="958f0" src="https://www.conservativereview.com/media-library/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vd3d3LnRoZWJsYXplLmNvbS9tZWRpYS1saWJyYXJ5L2plYW4tcmFzcGFpbC1zLW5vdG9yaW91cy1hbmQtcHJvcGhldGljLW5vdmVsLXJldHVybnMtdG8tYW1lcmljYS5qcGc_aWQ9NjE3NDcyNTgmYW1wO3dpZHRoPTk4MCIsImV4cGlyZXNfYXQiOjE3NzkzMjE3NDN9.CAAa7VWqGY-URhvNskbrVcAhNXV7ncXvAnhlbrshkXc/image.jpg" /> Photograph by Pascal Parrot/Sygma/Getty Photos

As an alternative of nuclear physicists and neurosurgeons, we see armies of mid-level coders and IT workers — precisely the form of roles American universities and commerce faculties might produce en masse if firms invested in them. As an alternative, companies reduce prices by importing cheaper labor, then spin it as a narrative of worldwide competitiveness. The rhetoric is lofty; the apply is tawdry.

Right here is the place Raspail’s chilly mirror issues. In his novel, Europe’s leaders by no means name issues by their correct names. They drown actuality in euphemism. The identical is true right now. Politicians and CEOs alike promote H-1B as a meritocratic jewel field, whereas insiders comprehend it has turn out to be a car for mass importation of mid-tier labor at low cost costs. The tech foyer, probably the most highly effective in Washington, spends lavishly to make sure that each try at reform is softened, delayed, or gutted. And so the system persists: a Potemkin coverage that serves shareholders on the expense of residents.

A visa program that truly admitted solely the actually distinctive — the researcher on the cusp of curing a illness, the engineer pioneering a brand new materials — can be defensible. A program that capabilities as a company again door for affordable labor shouldn't be.

Raspail additionally reminds us that admission shouldn't be an finish, however a starting. Those that come on visas ought to be anticipated to undertake the language, the civics, and the loyalty that make one part of the American venture. This isn't cruelty; it's hospitality with requirements. However when the majority of visas are funneled by means of outsourcing companies, newcomers are much less citizens-in-waiting than contract labor in transit, beholden to not America however to their sponsoring agency. That's not the way you construct a nation. That's the way you hole one out.

The reality is that the H-1B program, as presently run, is much less a gate than a hole archway — grand in look, flimsy in substance. It's offered as a crown jewel of American competitiveness, however in apply, it erodes wages, weakens coaching incentives, and mocks the concept of meritocracy. It's the form of coverage that Raspail would have acknowledged instantly: a logo of a civilization that can't even defend its personal professionals in its personal industries.

The armada in "The Camp of the Saints" is fiction, exaggerated and harsh. However the deeper theme — the failure of nerve, the give up of sovereignty, the refusal to inform the reality about what is occurring on the gates — is all too actual. Right this moment, it's not fleets of the poor however paper armies of visa functions, filed by company giants and labor brokers, that wash up at our shores. And our leaders, very like Raspail’s, favor to cover behind euphemisms slightly than face what they’ve allowed.

Literature earns its hold when it clarifies the stakes. "The Camp of the Saints" doesn't flatter; it doesn't console. It strips away illusions and forces us to see how rapidly a civilization can collapse when it forgets to defend itself. Our immigration debate, notably round H-1B visas, is in determined want of that very same readability. If we wish real excellence, we should shut the rip-off pipelines and admit solely these whose expertise are verifiably uncommon and indispensable. If we wish to protect a center class, we should demand that companies practice and rent our personal graduates earlier than importing replacements from overseas. Raspail’s novel insists on candor. It exhibits what occurs when a nation replaces arduous selections with smooth lies.