An American dream gone sour

Indian professionals can bid goodbye to their dreams of working in the US this year. If the soaring unemployment figures and the negative economic sentiment in the US were not enough, the curbs on H-1B visas have sent out clear signals that foreign professionals are not welcome in the US.

Early February, the US Senate barred recipients of the government bailout from hiring Indians and other foreign workers through the skilled worker visa (H-1B), if they had laid off US employees in the previous six months. H-1B visas are capped at 65,000 a year at present. Indian professionals, mostly from the IT sector, account for a majority of these. What has prompted the US move is the deteriorating job climate and the alarming unemployment figures for January 2009. US employers eliminated 598,000 jobs in January and the unemployment rate shot up to 7.6 per cent, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics of the US Department of Labor.

So, how will the curbs impact Indian techies? Says Ganesh Natarajan, Chairman, NASSCOM: “The immediate impact on Indian techies will be minimal. But what makes the situation worrisome is that the demand continues to be weak. Secondly, from the directional point of view, the move is not good.” The issue is much bigger. Indian IT majors, the biggest recipients of H-1B visas, are unlikely to send as many employees as in the previous years because the IT sector, both in India and the US, has slowed down. Secondly, in the midst of mass layoffs, professionals with H-1B visas are without jobs, triggering a reverse migration. Thirdly, the banking sector in the US—recipient of TARP (The Troubled Asset Relief Program)—will not hire these professionals due to the curbs. “It’s a bad year for anyone who aspires to go to the US,” says Kris Lakshmikanth, Founder CEO, The Headhunters.

What’s more, the Senate move is unlikely to spur hiring for Americans in the US. Vivek Wadhwa, Senior Research Associate, Labor and Worklife Program, Harvard Law School says: “The hiring limits will have no effect on hiring or create any new jobs for Americans. But they will damage the reputation of the US as a land which welcomes the world’s best and brightest and these people will go elsewhere.” Already, tens of thousands of highly skilled workers are beginning to return home from the US to countries like India and China, he says, adding that there are over 1 million in the US on visas like H-1B waiting for green cards. “Even though thousands are coming back, there are tens of thousands more who want to come but the opportunities aren’t here anymore,” he says. Britain has been quick to follow the US by putting in place new immigration restrictions on professionals from India and other non-EU countries. The labour pangs, it seems, are here to stay.

— Saumya Bhattacharya