H-1B visas: Don’t blame Trump

The world was in a tizzy over Donald Trump being elected as President of US. The Mexicans were bristling at the suggestion that they may be asked to share the cost of the wall the Republican candidate promised to build to keep migrants out. The Trump phenomenon has caused ripples in many countries and organisations, from Pakistan through West Asia to Nato. India would have been hoping to come off better than most in a Trump presidency with many optimistically pointing to his more positive assessment of the country and the contribution of Indians to modern US. But his principal animus against foreigners as immigrants and job seekers is bound to come out in his stay at the White House.

The feeling against “Bangaloring” — a derisive term for offshoring of technical jobs, with India being the leading player as the IT back office of the world — had been gaining currency in the US with Barack Obama himself expressing concerns. Where the US can hurt the Indian IT industry the most is in denying H1-B non-immigrant visas, of which companies like Infosys, TCS, Cognizant and Wipro are the most frequent users.

Mr Trump cannot be faulted for trying to create jobs for Americans as well as restoring jobs they have been in danger of losing to H-1B specialty workers. There is certain logic to opposing moves such as those by Disney World in cutting costs by hiring foreigners and asking their retrenched staff to train their replacements. The “sons of the soil policy” of no nation can be argued against even in the age of globalisation. Indian IT firms must simply find better ways to sustain and enhance their US businesses.