ABSTRACTED from CNN
By Melissa Solomon

Kamen Spassov has already seen hope vanish. He's seen 100 percent inflation in a single day. He's seen computer factories shut their doors or get recycled into refrigerator warehouses. He's seen his homeland, Bulgaria, turn into a land of despair.

"After the end of the Cold War, it was all gone," he says. "At the beginning, there was great hope. But after a while, people just left. Who cares about buying computers at such a time? The vast majority of scientists and engineers came to the U.S."

Like his peers, Spassov, a former electrical engineer, IT magazine editor and IBM account manager in Bulgaria, packed up his wife and two children in 1999 and headed to the U.S. to find new hope for a better life. And he did. He earned an MBA, landed a well-paying job and secured an H-1B visa so he could keep his family in the country, long enough, he hoped, to get a green card. But in November, Spassov found himself back where he started -- unemployed, in Bulgaria with his family, wishing he could get to the U.S.

Welcome to the H-1B roller coaster. A year ago, foreign workers were in such demand that the government raised the cap on H-1B visas -- temporary work permits for highly skilled people, including IT professionals -- from 115,000 to 195,000. But as the economy continues its tailspin and more than 1 million American workers have been laid off, the national debate over H-1B visas has again picked up steam.

Critics argue that since there aren't enough jobs for Americans, the last thing the government should do is let more foreigners into the country to work. But H-1B proponents counter that cutting off the supply of H-1B visas is simple discrimination and that all workers -- foreign or local -- should be hired on the basis of their skills.

Meanwhile, as the debate rages on, many foreign workers have found themselves not only unemployed, but also forced to uproot their families once again and return home with their heads hanging low.

FULL Text - Read in the Point of View section of novinite.com

We need your support so Novinite.com can keep delivering news and information about Bulgaria! Thank you!