No, I'm not talking about struggling coders in India who dream of a life in Seattle. I'm talking about the really hand-to-mouth poor who apparently rely on seasonal H-1B visas to feed their families.
For example, there was a report on Radio New Zealand this week about how dirt-poor Samoans can't get H-1B's to go to American Samoa to work in its last fish cannery because all of the American visas have been slurped up by the mainland tech industry.
I know H-1B's are supposed to be for specialists, and according to Wikipedia: "A specialty occupation requires the application of specialized knowledge and a bachelor's degree or the equivalent of work experience."
But I suspect that the "specialist" requirement is lifted for U.S. territories so they can get the workers they need. There are a great number of mainland labor rules that are relaxed, voided, or otherwise not valid in U.S. territories, so I wonder if this is one of them.
Anyway, something to ponder.