Indians not
happy about hike in visa fee by US
The Barack Obama administration has
made a decision to raise the visa fee for skilled professionals seeking
temporary work in the U.S. This is set to hit Indian companies in the IT
sector. The expected losses could be at about $400 million a year. However, Some Indian IT majors such as Infosys have said the American move will
not impact the sector much.
The hike in the visa fee could be owing
to Americans fearing about jobs ‘going to foreigners’. But the hike has raised
concerns in India. Although India has the options to take
retaliatory steps or move the World Trade Organisation’s dispute settlement
panel, the best course would be to amicably resolve the issue at the diplomatic
level.
Just as there is a labour-surplus in
India, the capital-rich U.S. has a looming labour shortage. Let us try to see
from American point of view. Although it could be argued that hike in visa fee
is a measure taken in light of the US elections, it also needs to be thought as
a measure that there is adequate skill pool in US to carry out the tasks and
therefore higher fee is needed to be paid if Indians are to go to the US. As
the saying goes - Supply and demand needs to be balanced. If there is enough
supply locally and not too much demand why get workers from overseas. This is a
measure to restrict the flow of Indians to US and this could be thought as
there is not enough demand to get the Indians at low visa fee and therefore
there is a reason to hike the visa fee.
On the one hand it is strange how every
Indian IT company thinks it cannot survive without access to the US market
while economists are telling us how the US economy is in decline. Also, with an
aging indigenous population, sooner or later the USA is going to be forced to
import Indian workers. Why not wait for them to do so on their own?
Another thing is India is a
better choice for the USA as a powerful ally in the Asia-Pacific region rather
than Communist Dictatorship China. Hence
USA should not provoke India by hiking the visa fee. The US should acknowledge the contribution of Indian IT companies for
the welfare of American citizens. Visa fees can be controlled to support talent
exchange between two countries. And the fact that Indians play a major role in
US across all the sectors should not be ignored by the policymakers.
But before accusing US for the hike in
visa fee, we should not forget that America is giving us free internet and free
Facebook. Hence we should think thousand times before accusing America although
it gives freedom to accuse as well. This is authentic democracy. Here is something for India to learn.
No comments:
Post a Comment