&gt; If there are indeed programmers skilled enough to take high paying jobs, why haven&#x27;t they already been hired and brought into the country?<p>Immigration caps. You don&#x27;t think that there are millions of programmers in less developed countries capable of handling high paying jobs in developed countries? China and India alone have over 2 billion people. They have plenty of competent programmers who want to move to the west.<p>Why do you think big companies like google are pushing to lift the H-1B visa cap--it&#x27;s because they want to do exactly what you propose hire them and bring them into the country.