Hi everyone, thanks for fostering this open-minded community! I had a question I wanted to ask.
I'm a student from a poor country, I got a large scholarship to study in the US, and I'm graduating soon. I always wanted to stay on with a work visa, but recently I've started to rethink the situation.
Around 300,000 people each year compete for 60,000 visa slots, and that's just to apply. If you win, you pay huge processing fees ($1500-2500 depending on how soon your employer needs it), and after all this, they could simply reject your application anyway.
Even if you win, it gives your employer a lot of power. If they fire you during your 3-year visa period and you can't find another job (I've heard it's extremely difficult), you have to leave the country. It's effectively threatening you with deportation and could last for decades, due to how backlogged green cards (permanent residency) are. Corporations frequently abuse and systematically rob work visa employees, because speaking out is too much risk. Trump campaigning against us being greedy, fraudulent leeches didn't help, because it biased public opinion enough to think that we're actually the exploiters.
My home country isn't as rich as the US, but I have the option of moving back with my family and have to earn very little to support myself, snce we live quite frugally. There are toxic work cultures here too, but I would never have to be worried about being kicked out of the country.
Am I correct in being jaded? My peers have told me that I'm just being defeatist but I'm genuinely uncomfortable with the risks of exploitation and the threat of deportation.