I have to WHOLEHEARTEDLY disagree with rickair777 and texaspilot76.
Before I continue with my rant, which other country other than the United States have you turned in an application for work at an airline and been turned down? Your arguments hold no water at all.......and as a matter of fact, it is a whole lot easier for American pilots to gain employment outside the United States than it would be for a foreigner to make it into the industry here.

First off, there is no airline in the United States that sponsors foreign individuals to obtain visas to work as crew at a 121 carrier. USCIS will not let that happen because there is an abundance of pilots that hold citizenship and can take on those jobs.
And besides all that, in order to get hired on as a pilot with any US carrier, you must have Permanent Residence Status or a work permit at the very least.
On the other hand, I can name airlines like, Etihad, Emirates, Ethiopian, Air Deccan, Air Asia to name but a few that have hired American pilots without demanding work permits. I say this with all confidence because I personally applied to a few of the above. The above carriers are the real reason that you had movement in the industry in the US. Senior Captains at the majors here lured by big tax free pay and they flooded the middle East and Asia and that was the reason that the majors here were able to hire Regional Captains and so the regionals went into a hiring frenzy.....and so on and so forth.
Take some time and look at the job postings on various websites and you will not fail to find foreign carriers seeking american pilots. Once you meet the requirements, they will take you in and sponsor you for a visa and what not.
I am just dumbfounded that there is such ignorance in the field of aviation. The field of aviation by it's very nature is supposed to provide exposure to even the most close minded, but obviously such is not the case.

And based on what texaspilot76 is spewing......... we have a long way to go. I guess you just can't take Texas out of some people. And I can't believe you are blaming the foreign students that come to these big flight schools......I take it you either ditched economics in high school or you just don't get it!
Are you going to start kicking paying customers off your flights because they are taking up seats that could be occupied by american citizens? Oh my God, I just can't believe it..........