It is certain that Trump will harm America by imposing restrictions on Indian youth who have mastered technology, be it economic or technical. Closing the doors of America will not eliminate all options for Indian students.
The history of prejudice of western countries towards India is not new. For centuries, India’s image remained as the ‘country of snake charmers’. Due to the revolutionary changes in the field of science and technology in the twentieth century, developed countries made unprecedented progress, but even during that time their perception towards India did not change. In their eyes, India is becoming an economically weak third world country. However, there was a change in the attitude towards India due to Gandhi’s historic non-violent movement against the British imperialist rule between the First and Second World Wars and the smooth implementation of the democratic system in the country after independence. But no one expected that India would ever be able to match western countries in the field of technology. Today India can compete with any developed country on this criterion and is counted among the economically strong countries.
In fact, after independence, during the tenure of Jawaharlal Nehru, excellent institutions for engineering and medical studies were established to provide high level technical education to the students. After passing out from the same institutions, hundreds of doctors and engineers from India left the country to work in America and European countries, where they proved their talent. When the Internet revolution emerged in the nineties, India started being considered the country of technically proficient youth across the world. In the Internet era, Indian youth played an important role in bringing digital revolution around the world, especially in America. Over the next two decades, computer engineers from India were so dominant that they even graced the top ranks of many multinational companies, including Google and Microsoft. Obviously, this would not have been possible in a democratic country like America without intelligence. This ‘alliance’ proved to be a ‘win-win situation’ for both the countries. When the Indian youth contributed in strengthening America’s economy in the digital era with the help of their talent and skills, America became the leading country in providing excellent opportunities to the youth. Every year, American companies like Google, Microsoft, Amazon started giving opportunities to the best Indian youth to work in them and even today they do so. But what are the conditions now? Is it going to change? Is this the beginning of the end of the ‘Great American Dream’ of Indian students and youth?
In fact, last week US President Donald Trump increased the fee for each new H-1B visa to one lakh dollars, which is several times higher than before. On the basis of this visa, most of the Indian youth get the opportunity to work in American companies. Due to this decision of the Trump administration, it is feared that the Indian youth will suffer the most because they get 71 percent of the visas. Experts believe that it will no longer be possible for American companies to employ as many Indian youth as they used to do earlier.
Trump says that he took this step so that American youth can get more and more jobs and American companies should give jobs through this visa to only those skilled people from India or other countries, who are not available in their own country. There is no doubt that Trump has his own politics behind this step. In the last few years, voices were raised in America and some other countries that the jobs of the youth there are being snatched away and given to foreigners. America has also been facing the brunt of unemployment in the last few years, but will Trump’s move solve it? Will big tech companies be able to provide all those jobs to American youth, which were earlier given through H1-B visa? Trump hopes this, but it is difficult to say at the moment.
However, it is certain that Trump will harm America by imposing restrictions on Indian youth who have mastered technology, be it economic or technical. Closing the doors of America will not eliminate all options for Indian students. It is not in the interest of the American industry to ignore the Indian youth who have achieved great heights on the strength of their talent in the digital age. Therefore Trump needs to reconsider his decision.
