Indians have boasted one of the finest records of success in the international IT market for many years. IT-enabled services have also being more popular thanks to the giant Indian software services companies such as Infosys Ltd. & Tata Consultancy Services Ltd. who have earned billions in profits.
However, – and perhaps paradoxically (not really though) – CEOs of major American technology clusters are of Indian origin, Alphabet Inc., Microsoft Corporation, IBM, etc.
Over the past two weeks, political debates have exposed rifts within the Republican Party over the future of the H-1B visa program—a “critical pathway” for Indian professionals seeking temporary employment in the US.
The H-1B visa system, long criticized for its flaws, faces a new wave of opposition that appears less focused on reform and more concerned with whether Indian engineers are welcome at all. Senator Bernie Sanders, from the left lamented H-1B recipients as “low-wage indentured servants.”
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Indians, both at home and abroad, must now confront a new reality
This controversy appears quaint to those who know the contours of the geography of the new India, which has long come out of wage-cutting as the main value proposition.
Lack of trust in education curriculums, growth of digitalization and artificial intelligence means that many first-wave jobs are performed either online or are returned to their originals, meaning there is no need to send engineers abroad. This implies that the debate is not really about policy alone.
Why more profound anxieties about immigration?
The Indian diaspora in the US has considered itself a “model minority,” excelling in fields like medicine, engineering, and business while staying out of the spotlight.
However, Donald Trump’s nativist supporters and Silicon Valley leaders like Elon Musk, who defended H-1B visas, stated on X that they were essential due to “a permanent shortage of excellent engineering talent.”
Vivek Ramaswamy has also voiced strong disapproval of the current H-1B, calling it “bad for everyone involved.”
“Yup, I’ve long said the current H-1B system is badly broken & needs to be gutted. It shouldn’t use a lottery, it should be based on pure MERIT. It shouldn’t tether workers to just one corporation. Same principles I favour today,” he posted.
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Ramaswamy also asserted that Indian-born engineers were largely untainted by “an American culture of mediocrity.”
Surprisingly, Democrats have not uniformly supported the program either. Progressive Representative Ro Khanna, representing Silicon Valley, acknowledged the need for reform, stating it was important to ensure that “American workers are never replaced.”