| At present, nearly 65,000 Indians come to the United States every year and get jobs, mostly in California's Silicon Valley, and if this ban is enforced, immigrant analysts warn that America could face major employee shortfalls in the hi-tech and computer- related industries
According to the legislation's chief sponsor, Thomas Tancredo, who spoke exclusively to ANI on the issue, his sponsoring of this legislation has nothing to do with a specific group, especially Indians, whom he acknowledges and describes as a very hardworking people with significant competency levels.
"What I say to them (US Congress and his constituents) is that it's got nothing to do with India. It's got everything to do with American workers. You are right that we have a large amount of people here from India. Um, that's a testament to their capabilities, more than anything else because I think there's a general understanding and a broad-based acknowledgement of the fact that they are hard-working people with a very significant competencies, and that they will work for less. And so they are prime candidates for someone to import," Tancredo, a US Republican Representative from Colorado, says.
In 2002, nearly 65,000 Indians won H1-B visas, a special permit to work in the United States. That's about a third of the total of nearly 200,000 H1-B visas granted annually. House of Representatives Resolution 2688 is designed to end this special immigration programme that presently allows foreign workers to come to the US for a limited period of time.
"It's a very simple bill. Its says that essentially we don't need this visa category and we're going to eliminate it. "I'm the chairman of the Immigration Reform Caucus. One of the things that we have noticed over the past ten years especially, but more in the past few years, is an incredible amount of fraud in this particular programme, in this visa category," says Tancredo.
"As the economy of the world has been globalised, it becomes apparent that what corporations are doing here in the United States anyway is using this visa category to bring people in from other countries and displace American workers, because foreign workers will work for less," he said.
"And, even though, the bill is set up so this is not supposed to happen, it does. It happens in huge numbers. And so, that's the reason why I think we need to eliminate it," Tancredo added.
The Republican Party leader is in no doubt that the H1-B issue is an economic one that needs to be addressed to ensure employment safeguards for Americans.
"Totally an economic issue. I have people in my neighbourhood, know, I have literally thousands of my constituents who have been thrown out of work because they have been displaced by foreign workers, who will work for less. That's the bottom line.
That's the way it has turned out," Tancredo said.
"Now, am I supposed to just sit there and say to them, like it or lump it? You're going to have to get used to it. Yah! You're going to lose your house, you'll lose your way of life, and maybe you'll have to start doing something that you for that you are not trained, such as flipping hamburgers, but that's just the way it is. Tough, the government isn't going to try to help you. Now, I'm not about to say that to my constituents, I'm going to say that I'm going to try my best to help," he adds.
"What's happening is that a lot of people are being brought here under H1-B and L-1 visa categories, trained and then they go back and take the job with them. My thought is that this is not a very good idea for American workers."
"This bill does not stop that except to the extent that it does stop someone who is coming here just for the purpose of learning just what the trade is, to learn the ins and outs of the business and then to take the business back, lets say to India or to any other place in the world. It's something that we're going to have to work through, it's very difficult," he says.
"It's going to be a question as whether or not Americans are willing to surrender their standard of living in order to accommodate the needs and desires of American corporations in the high-tech sector."
Immigration analysts, however, say, converting this legislation into law is a bad idea. They argue that H1-B visas are necessary to fill jobs where there aren't enough trained Americans, especially for the Silicon Valley, which is home to America's high-tech and computer industries.
Since the fall of the dotcom era in the US, the American economy has been struggling to get back on its feet. While there are signs of recovery, the rate of unemployment in the US remains stubbornly high, with an estimated nine million people out of work.
What really makes this a political issue for US representatives is that some of these workers lost their high-paying jobs two years ago, and cannot find comparable employment, says Tancredo.
Tancredo would also like to see an end to the outsourcing of American jobs to places like India. (Source : Hindustantimes ) Read more at |
