Maybe for some, but I'm working in the US because of the higher wages only. And I'd probably hustle my way to a even higher salary if I could compete by freely switching job. So I was curious if there's data around that. It seems to me more like the natural balance of offer and demand with H1B is broken, as an employer can get high skilled workers, and then lock them in for multiple years without needing to compete salary wise anymore.
I think there's a lot more H1B workers who are attracted to working in the US because of those high wages and not because they want to flee their shitty country. High skilled workers are not refugees. They could go to Canada or any other western country, but they flock to the US if they can because of the high salaries.
So my point is, I don't think it's that they accept a lower wage, the wage offered to them is the highest they can get, it's more then in any other country. The issue seems to be that the H1B artificially lower the American wages, by not giving fare market competition on recruiting, which caps out salaries for H1B workers. If that wasn't the case, the H1B workers might even boost salaries, if companies tried to compete even more aggressively for the highest skilled.
