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Why is India so concerned about "H1B"
A bipartisan group of four U.S. lawmakers, including Indian-American Ro Khanna, today introduced a legislation in the Congress to reform the current H-1B and L1 work visas and end its abuse by foreign companies.
The H-1B and L-1 Visa Reform Act of 2017 introduced by Congressmen Bill Pascrell, Dave Brat, Khanna and Paul Gosar is in addition to the nearly half a dozen similar legislations pending in the U.S. Congress – either the House of Representatives or the Senate – all of whom seek to close loopholes in the H-1B and L visa programmes to reduce fraud and abuse, provide protections for American workers and visa holders.
Interestingly the latest move from four Congressmen come a day after a NASSCOM delegation concluded its trip to U.S. during which they met a number of U.S. lawmakers to sensitize them about the importance of H-1B and L1 visas.
A significant chunk of U.S. political leadership believes that Indian companies are major beneficiaries of this foreign guest worker programme and allege that this resulted in displacement of American workers.
Among others it proposes to prohibiting companies from hiring H-1B employees if they employ more than 50 people and more than 50 per cent of their employees are H-1B and L-1 visa holders. This provision of the bill would majorly impact Indian companies.
"This legislation will offer reforms that eliminate the abuse of the H1-B visa programme. As the son of immigrants, I know that immigrants strengthen our nation and economy. But we cannot allow for companies to underpay foreign workers and use them to replace American workers," Khanna said.
"Instead, we need American companies to invest in our own workforce. The bill will prevent the exploitation of foreign workers while still recognising the contributions immigrants make to our economy," he said.
Congressman Pascrell said abusing the visa system to get cheap labor hurts the American middle class and is something he cannot accept.
"The critical reforms in this bill will support American workers and create safeguards against the exploitation of visa workers," he said.
"Too often companies capitalise on the loopholes in our immigration system to displace high-skilled American workers in search of cheap labor. This bipartisan legislation presents a real opportunity to prevent fraud and abuse in our visa system so it better serves the American worker," Brat said
The US market accounts for over 60 per cent of the Indian IT sector exports, and any clampdown in the visa regime is expected to result in higher costs and shortage of skilled workers for the $110 billion Indian outsourcing industry. However, it will not be the first time that such a responsive move could be in the offing between the two countries when it comes to exports. Back in 2007, the US received its first batch of mangoes from India in nearly two decades. The mango imports from India were opened up reportedly after the government allowed shipping of American manufactured motorcycles into the country. Till 2007, India had not specified any emission standards for motorcycles with engine capacity above a certain threshold, which effectively meant that the two-wheeler vehicles of certain manufacturers were not allowed in the country.
A private member’s Bill was introduced in the US Congress last month, which proposed to double the minimum wages of H1B visa holders, which could in turn significantly increase costs for IT companies. A delegation led by Indian IT industry body Nasscom will also visit the US to urge to their lawmakers and corporations to urge the administration to not let the crackdown happen. “We will wait for the Nasscom delegation’s visit to happen. If that does not yield any result, the government will step in,” the official cited above said.
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