As a US Captain, granted I choose to no longer work fulltime on one yacht but manage many. I am not biased, at all, when it comes to crew nationality. I have had mates from various parts of the world.....even one from Belize. However, I have seen some Kiwi, South African, and Aussie Captained boats, and more then a few, that will ONLY hire their kind and they are blantant about it and state it right in the post or ad. More so on the sailing yachts, then motoryachts from what I have seen. I also know of US documented yachts, and my friend runs one, that only hires US crew because it spends over half it's time in US waters and the boat is owned by a US corporation and legally he has to. But, the crew he hires have been from anywhere such as a Venezualan stew as long as they are permitted to work in the US. I have found that an insecure Captain, generally likes their own kind because they think someone of a different nationality might go over their head or something like that.
Crew Visas for Non-US Flagged vessels Here is one of the best discussions of the "Crew Visas for Non-US Flagged vessels" that I have seen: http://www.immihelp.com/visas/c1dcrewmenvisa.html