Proposed U.S. Immigration May Dent India-U.S. Relation: Report

By siliconindia   |   Friday, 21 March 2014, 01:56 IST   |    3 Comments
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BANGALORE: The India-U.S. ties don’t seem to get better any time soon and the fresh conflict over the proposed U.S. immigration reforms is a clear indication of the same, reports the Live Mint.

The proposed U.S. immigration reforms are aimed at reducing dependency on skilled non-immigrant workers to safeguard American jobs.  And if it is taken forward and passed it would weaken the mutually understanding between the countries and cost Indian information technology and the services industry a whopping $118 billion loss.

The Indian Council for Research on International Economic Relations said, “The U.S. immigration reforms reflect a host of unsubstantiated biases, protectionist instincts and personal agendas of lawmakers that nullify some of the gains of the Senate bill with regard to non-immigrant visas.”

The main reason for tabling this bill is the lack of skilled workers within the U.S. and in order to gain this the government wants to attract individuals by further expanding the annual caps on H-1B visas and employer-sponsored green cards. But it completely stops some of these gains by putting down a number of highly restrictive conditions on the employment, deployment and salaries of foreign workers under the H-1B and L-1 categories.

India’s ambassador to the U.S., Jaishankar, said “We think this is actually going to be harmful to us. It would be harmful to the American economy and, frankly, it would be harmful to the relationship between the two countries.”
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