WASHINGTON, FEB 23: The Clinton administration is considering a proposal to increase immigration quota for foreign professionals by nearly 50 percent. The move will have a significant impact -- both positive and negative -- on India, a principle source of hi-tech white collar work force for the United States.Under the current law, the United States allows up to 65,000 skilled foreign professionals into the country each year under a visa category called H1-B. Up to 20 per cent of this quota is taken up by Indians, mostly by workers from the computer industry. But because of a severe shortage in the information technology industry and intense lobbying by the US infotech industry, the administration now plans to hike this quota to as much as 100,000 per year, according to reports in the infotech industry.
The shortage of qualified personnel in the infotech industry was so acute last year that the H1-B quota of 65,000 was filled up in late August, well before the start of the new fiscal year in October. Infact, the consulates in Bombay and Madras temporarily suspended giving H1-B visas in September last year because of this problem. This year, the H1-B quota is expected to run out in May or June.
American hi-tech companies, including Bill Gates' Microsoft, which depend heavily on foreign workers from India, China, Russia and other ``surplus'' countries, have been lobbying heavily with the administration to increase the inflow.
According to the Information Technology Association of America, there are 3,46,000 vacancies in the field, representing 10 per cent of all the jobs for computer programmers and engineers and systems analysts. A Commerce department study projects that the United States will need more than 1.3 million infotech workers at a rate of 1,38,000 per year in the coming decade. India churns out some 2,50,000 assorted computer professionals annually.
For India, the US move will be a double edged proposal. While increasing the H1-B ceiling will allow perhaps up to 20,000 or more Indianprofessionals to go to the US each year (resulting in greater brain drain but possibly more foreign exchange remittances), it will also mark an American move to stem the outflow of technology, capital and jobs to foreign countries, which is what the shortage of labour is causing them to do.
In fact, US infotech industry's lobbying effort has found some favour on the Hill -- which has to pass the laws to increase the H1-B ceiling -- precisely because of this. Lawmakers are worried about industries and jobs moving offshore.
``If American companies cannot find home-grown talent and if they cannot bring talent into this country, some of them will move their operations overseas, taking American jobs with them. That is why I am going to use my position to propose that we increase the number of higher-skilled temporary workers we allow into the US,'' Senator Spencer Abraham, Chairman of the Judiciary Sub-committee on Immigration, was quoted as saying in The New York Times.
The US infotech industry'smove to up H1-B visa quota is however opposed by American labour unions which feel the figures of worker shortage are exaggerated. Opponents of the move argue that many high-tech companies are looking for cheap labour and often discriminate against Americans who demand higher salaries. There is a general feeling that foreign nationals accept lower salaries in exchange for the prospect of becoming permanent residents of the United States.
Many companies hire foreign students graduating from American universities on H1-B visas. Other employers bring in foreign workers on H1-B, and if they perform well, sponsor them for Green Card. ``Getting an H1-B is now almost as good as getting a Green Card,'' agreed one Indian professional, who naturally wanted to remain unidentified.
Copyright © 1998 Indian Express Newspapers (Bombay) Ltd.
