The Big Story: Immigration blues

And now, a bill that proposes to cut legal immigration to the United States by half. The Reforming American Immigration for Strong Employment Act, introduced by two US senators, proposes to reduce the number of green cards issued every year from a million to about half a million. These documents allow permanent residence in the US. The move could affect thousands of Indians waiting for years to get green cards in employment-based categories. Together with recent proposals to tighten the non-immigration H1-B visa programme by doubling the minimum pay requirement for applicants, the new bills floated in the Trump administration appear to send out a strong message. Indians, along with other immigrant groups in the US, are no longer welcome. The myth of the model minority seems to have been busted.

The most obvious impact is economic. Indians account for the majority of H1-B visa holders in the US. Apart from American tech giants that depend on this constant flow of cheap, highly skilled labour, Indian firms such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services and Wipro, which outsource thousands of coders and engineers every year, will be hit badly. But Indian firms have been budgeting for visa cuts for years and are prepared to make changes to the business models. As for US companies struggling to fill mid-level posts with qualified Americans, the new raft of legislation could force them to look at offshore operations. That would only inflict pain on the US economy, observers feel.

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But there is also likely to be a political impact. For Indians, the current wait for a green card ranges between 10 and 35 years. Now it could get longer. Many Indians living and working in the US face an uncertain future. It could shrink the rather large pool of support that President Donald Trump had found in the non-resident Indian community in the run-up to the polls.

During the US election campaign, some NRIs seemed to believe themselves exempt from Trump’s vicious, xenophobic rhetoric against immigrants. Well-heeled, highly qualified professionals who powered US businesses could not have anything in common with the “bad hombres” and Islamist radicals whom Trump railed against, it was felt. This NRI base was largely Hindu, which Trump seemed to equate with Indian. He cultivated this community with rousing statements such as “I love Hindu” and promises to favour the “Indian and Hindu community” once he was elected. But the realities of the new administration seem to be quite the opposite. What would Hindus for Trump and the Hindu Sena here, which held havans for his victory, make of the proposed immigration bills?

The Big Scroll

Ashwini Tambe points out that Trumps threats to cut down H1-B visas should remind Indians in America of vulnerabilities they share with other immigrant groups.

Political pickings

  1. In Tamil Nadu, VK Sasikala herds members of the legislative assembly into farmhouses and hotels to insulate them from the rebellion launched by acting Chief Minister O Panneerselvam.
  2. The Jammu and Kashmir government has sacked its legal counsel for failing to challenge Supreme Court judgment that the state had “no vestige of sovereignty” outside the Indian Constitution.
  3. Shiv Sena chief Uddhav Thackeray speaks of a “grand alliance” of regional parties to take on national parties.

Punditry

  1. In the Indian Express, Rohit Dhankar on the need for a child-centred approach in India’s education system.
  2. In the Hindu, Neera Chandhoke on how the post-ideology mobilisations of players like the Aam Aadmi Party and the Samajwadi Party are changing election rhetoric.
  3. In the Telegraph Krishnan Srinivasan revisits the Israel-Palestine question and explores what the trump regime could mean for it.

Giggles

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Anita Katyal on Congress anxieties in western Uttar Pradesh:

“The BJP is not out of reckoning in this region. It is making a valiant attempt to stay in the fight by playing the communal card and also consolidating the non-Yadav Other Backward Classes and the upper castes. As far as the Jats are concerned, the Ajit Singh-led Rashtriya Lok Dal is back in favour with the community, which regrets having switched loyalties to the BJP in the last general election. At the same time, the Dalits are returning to the Bahujan Samaj Party which has always enjoyed a strong following in this region. In addition, the minorities will also gravitate towards the BSP if its candidates are perceived to be best placed to defeat the BJP.

The Samajwadi Party-Congress alliance, on the other hand, has no core support base in western Uttar Pradesh. But the two parties hope that the buzz created by their partnership and Akhilesh Yadav’s popular image will be sufficient to cut across caste lines and also endear them to the minorities who have always been favourably inclined to the two parties. But it is also clear that the minorities will not waste their vote if the alliance is not in a position to beat the BJP challenge.”