Spare the H-1B visa programme

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections has come on the back of support from a very diverse coalition

Donald Trump’s victory in the US presidential elections has come on the back of support from a very diverse coalition. His allies include the owners of cutting-edge technology and financial companies and some of the poorest and also nativist sections of the US economy and society. It is only natural that their aspirations from the new administration will be very different. One of the most important conflicts between Trump’s diverse allies concerns a matter which is of great economic concern for India; the H-1B visa programme. The H-1B visa is issued to high-skill foreign workers, including Indian IT companies’ employees.

TH-1B is a key (although not as key as it once was) pillar of the business model of the IT industry in India. / AFP PHOTO / OZAN KOSE (AFP)

H-1B is a key (although not as key as it once was) pillar of the business model of the IT industry in India and a source of great upward mobility for Indian professionals, many of whom have built lives and raised families (children born to them are US citizens on account of the birthright concept) in the US. To be sure, the H-1B visa has been a mutually beneficial programme and it has allowed the US to maintain its supremacy in innovation and services at large despite losing its dominance in manufacturing. This is why the likes of Elon Musk want the programme to stay.

However, a section of the American society, and Trump’s core alliance, believes that programmes like the H-1B have only added to the misery of the American working class by giving some of the best jobs in the US to foreigners. This is why people like Steve Bannon are asking that the programme be scrapped. Trump, like all politicians, is trying to balance these contradictory aspirations. He has praised the H-1B programme on the one hand but also set in motion actions that will make it less attractive, even cumbersome, such as ending the US’s longstanding policy of naturalised citizenship.

Politicians like to play the balancing game between shrill rhetoric and saner policies, and Trump is the master of this game. But what Trump and his nativist allies need to realise is that reviving the fortunes of the US working class needs a very different set of policies than going after skilled immigrant workers in the US. The former are suffering because they are poorly educated, and unlike their earlier generations, face an acute negative educational premium in the US labour market. Addressing this systemic challenge is far more difficult than targeting immigrants.