At sixteen, working an oilfield crew in Port-Gentil, Gabon, I was made supervisor — not because I’d earned it, but because Gabonese law reserved ordinary labor jobs for Gabonese nationals and only let foreigners in through supervisory work-permit slots. That rule is still on the books today: Gabon’s oil and mining sector runs on a legal 85% domestic-workforce floor. The H-1B program has no floor at all.