With the United States (US) President Donald Trump suspending new H-1B and L-1 visas for temporary workers until December, the main immigration highway from India to the US is closed, hopefully temporarily . More than half of the visas go to Indians. The orders do not affect the underlying visa law. But their action is a warning that immigration is a sovereign issue, visas will inevitably be caught in the anti-globalization uplift, and highly skilled migrants are no longer immune to political pot-shots. Mr. Trump’s motivations are clear. His poll numbers are sagging. He has raged against illegal migration since he was elected, and turned his guns on unemployment to a record high, as well as legal migration.
The economic cost to India will be limited, but the real disadvantage is that it calls into question the Indian-American immigration story. About half of Indian immigration to the US is linked to skill-based work visas. Indian-American citizens are a recent phenomenon; In 2015 their number crossed the one million mark. They have emerged as model immigrants. India has also benefited from his success. Indian-Americans are among the largest sources of remittances. And they have emerged as advocates of a strong Indo-US relationship. This is why New Delhi needs to be more proactive in institutionalizing the immigrant relationship, for example, by including the H visa quota in a future trade deal, rather than leaving it to Donald Trump’s craze.
.
