There will never be a pilot shortage in the US.

There will, however, be a shortage of pilots who speak English as their primary language.

You can quote me on that.

The non-english overseas operations cannot staff themselves without importing US/commonwealth pilots. There's no indication they'll be exporting pilots in the mid-term.

And even if they had large outputs of ultra-low time, ultra-cheap MCPLs who could obtain right-to-work in the US, I'm confidant that a rapid increase in safety events of the Colgan/AF/Asiana variety would cause public uproar in the US. Even US airline managers are not that dense...they know a couple of smoking-hole accidents would erase any possible payroll savings, plus trigger onerous FAA/congressional oversight and regs. Look what colgan got them...

Just as someone who deals with international students every day, getting an M-1 visa to do flight training in the US is difficult enough. Getting a visa to work in the US is extremely difficult. Also, many foreign pilots may not meet FAA ATP requirements.

Foreign pilots make so much more overseas taking a job with a US carrier would be an insult.