> A tech worker with citizenship is able to negotiate pay increases by threatening to defect to Amazon or Google, but the worker with the H-1B visa is forever bound to Microsoft under penalty of deportation.<p>That is definitely not true. An H-1B worker can switch employers, as long as the new employer is willing to sponsor the candidate's H-1B.<p>The only thing that somewhat "binds" an employee is the Green Card process, which must be reset when switching companies. But even that is not true in all cases, since at a certain point in the GC process one can "port" their application to a new employer with no need to reset the process.