Trump is a 'friend' of India, but is he a friend of Indian H1B workers?

[JANASENA]

NEW DELHI: Donald Trump, the President-elect of the United States, has said in the past that India-US ties will have a "phenomenal future" with his government, but he's also said that H1B visas were "decimating" US workers.

Which Trump will Indian professionals - many of whom are hired on these visas - get to see once he assumes office in January?

H1B visas are, of course, used by US companies to hire skilled workers from India and other countries.

In October last year, Trump said he was in favour of bringing skilled foreign workers into the US, as long as they come legally.

Then in March this year, he averred: "We need highly skilled people in this country and if we can't do it, we get them in...And in Silicon Valley we absolutely have to have." Later that same month, Trump even specifically mentioned Indians while saying smart foreign students educated in the US should be allowed to remain there.

"You know, they go to Harvard, they are first in their class and they're from India they go back to India and they set up companies and they make a fortune and they employ lots of people and all of that," Trump said.

"Many people want to stay in this country and then want to do that. I think somebody that goes through years of college in this country we shouldn't kick them out the day they graduate, which we do," he added.

At the same time, Trump has advocated increasing the prevailing wage paid to H1B workers to put pressure on US companies to hire domestic talent.

"More than half of H-1B visas are issued for the program's lowest allowable wage level, and more than eighty percent for its bottom two," a policy proposal on Trump's campaign website says.

Increasing the prevailing wage will "give...coveted entry-level jobs to the existing domestic pool of unemployed native and immigrant workers in the U.S," and "improve the number of black, Hispanic and female workers in Silicon Valley who have been passed over in favor of the H-1B program," the proposal says.

In fact, soon after he said in March that America needed highly skilled foreign workers (when he was asked about H1B), Trump released a statement saying he'd been asked about high-skilled immigration, that the "H-1B program is neither "high-skilled nor immigration," the Washington Post reported.

H1B workers are "temporary foreign workers, imported from abroad, for the explicit purpose of substituting for American workers at lower pay," the report quoted him as saying.
"I will end forever the use of the H-1B as a cheap labor program," he said.
Trump has also proposed that American companies that use visas like the H1B be required to hire American workers before hiring foreigners.
India's $146 billion IT industry depends heavily on the US government's H1B program. Earlier this year, the US government was believed to have received a staggering 2,50,000 H1B visa applications for the 2017 financial year (a number significantly higher than the cap of 65,000), mostly from Indian IT firms or from companies with a major presence in India, PTI reported.

[alpachinao]

Ante intiki povalanta man h1b vallu

[Quickgun_murugan]

Screw H1bs.. Vomerican economy bagundaali first.. thokkalo coolies .. veellu kakapothe chala mandi chala countries nundi ostharu..

[alpachinao]

Just now, Quickgun_murugan said:

Screw H1bs.. Vomerican economy bagundaali first.. thokkalo coolies .. veellu kakapothe chala mandi chala countries nundi ostharu..

Man see flowers and figures man chala violent ga vunnav

[JANASENA]

1 minute ago, alpachinao said:

Ante intiki povalanta man h1b vallu

Emo myan ee sump gaadu em chesthadoni andaru valla valla vattalpattuykoni koorsunru

[SwamyRaRa]

2 minutes ago, Quickgun_murugan said:

Screw H1bs.. Vomerican economy bagundaali first.. thokkalo coolies .. veellu kakapothe chala mandi chala countries nundi ostharu..

Amazing zing zing 

[Quickgun_murugan]

Just now, JANASENA said:

Emo myan ee sump gaadu em chesthadoni andaru valla valla vattalpattuykoni koorsunru

@mekapichal_mnthmkora

 

[Luke]

2 minutes ago, alpachinao said:

Man see flowers and figures man chala violent ga vunnav

[Quickgun_murugan]

1 minute ago, alpachinao said:

Man see flowers and figures man chala violent ga vunnav

Roju kathi laanti figures ni chudochani Trump thatha ni gelipicha @alpachinao ...

Ivanka melina.. racha rambola..

[Quickgun_murugan]

Just now, Luke said:

mee kcr rules a maa trump  thatha pedithe tappantarendi andaru?

[Luke]

6 minutes ago, Quickgun_murugan said:

mee kcr rules a maa trump  thatha pedithe tappantarendi andaru?

[micxas]

11 minutes ago, alpachinao said:

Man see flowers and figures man chala violent ga vunnav