Letters from Readers
H-1B visa not a ticket to
the American dream
By its very provision, H-1B visa is temporary for
3-6 years (Khabar cover story, "H-1 and H-4 Blues! and The Plight of DALCA Children", July 2018). Sorry to say that people
know fully well what they get into before uprooting
the entire family and moving to America. Most Indians
come to America not for the same reason as the Latin
Americans or the fellow Indians that go to Gulf
countries. The young children’s predicament is entirely
because of their parent’s action. Except for the brutal
and inhumane parent-child separation, the administration
is absolutely doing the right thing.
You know when the entire annual quota of H-1B visas gets filled in just one day (mostly with Indians), there is something wrong with the picture. The quota usually gets filled because of clever maneuvering and widespread cheating. Third-party recruiters are the major culprits. It is widely known that since Y2K tech migration, many people with little or no experience came to the U.S. with embellished and falsified resumes with the help of middlemen. There has been abuse at the local level in India, consular posts in India, and here in the U.S. Don’t for a second think that the U.S. State Department and the Labor Department do not know this. According to some reports, nearly 23 percent of Indians come to the U.S. illegally! Many born and raised Americans have lost their job because of lowly paid H-1B people. Of course, corporate America loved it.
H4 visas are also temporary. The spouses came to this country despite the law saying that it is temporary. They should not start a business or buy a house knowing that it is temporary. Nobody made the spouses become forcefully unemployed. The administration is taking the right action. Now it is time to go home.
A. Nayak
Suwanee, GA
Those living in the U.S. should not lose sight of the fact that the H-1B system was rigged and abused by large Indian body shops like Infosys, Tata Consulting, Satyam, and others who trampled on the lives of U.S. citizens, forcing them to train their Indian H-1B replacements in their jobs to even receive their severance and termination pay. Perhaps you can chronicle the sufferings and tensions that these U.S. citizens suffered and endured in their lives.
V. Srinivasan
Dallas, TX
Great opportunities await returning Indians
Being uprooted is heartbreaking and disruptive in many ways. However, going back to India, even after many years of stay in the U.S., may not be all negative. Many of us, including myself, adjusted pretty well in the U.S., after growing up in India. Further, I returned to India after 25 years here and spent 14 most glorious years there. There were no problems in adjusting. India is a well-developed, if overpopulated, country. It offers all modern amenities. Opportunities for highly qualified people abound. What is more, returning citizens can make great contributions to the many socio-economic needs of India. As much as I hope that those affected will get their grievances met, I do not see their lives being “destroyed” if they have to return to India.
A. N. Sengupta
Smyrna, GA
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Helping India is good, despite what officials think
Your interview with our Atlanta Consul General was refreshing (Khabar, July 2018). No doubt all the Consul Generals who have served here have done an excellent job. They have come here after serving in various capacities in different parts of the world. Their commitment to service is commendable.
The Consul General’s advice to us to engage in public life is worth emulating. However, when our Consul General says, “India doesn’t need your charity…. we don’t need them to build toilets…,” that sounds arrogant. NRIs have poured millions of dollars into many commendable, successful, and worthy causes in India. Reasons for such generosity are not esoteric, but obvious: loyalty to their birthplace, commitment to service, paying for the benefits they received, and expressing their great debt of gratitude to their motherland. Even the U.S., which is the greatest and largest donor to the world, encourages and entertains charities to improve local conditions.
We should encourage all Indians both to get involved here and to continue their heart-desired projects in India.
H. N. Ramaswamy
By email
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