Are Indian immigrants on US agenda?

Nagpur, Nov 5

Even as a new President is formally elected and there is still quite a suspence about who between Donald Trump and Joe Biden will be president, the immigrant population, particularly Indians in the US have been on tenterhooks.

Between 2000 and 2018, the Indian American population grew by nearly 150 percent, making it the second-largest immigrant group in America. However, there are many Indians in the US who face a variety of problems, one of the major issues being that of H1-B visas.

Lokmat Times interacted with a few Vidarbhites (in Maharashtra) residing in the various parts of the US to know about the US elections from their point of view.

Interacting with Lokmat Times, Mayur Gadhikar, working in cancer research, a resident of Houston, Texas said, "I anticipate a political drama to play out on ballot counting in the coming days. I feel the Indian diaspora would welcome a change as NRIs despite benefiting economically under the current regime have been put off by the unpredictability in policy making. The President''s distasteful remarks against India during his speeches, at times racial taunts and increasing restrictions on H1-B immigration visas haven’t pleased NRIs working here. If there is a change in the administration, NRIs will hope to have some of the immigration related issues to be addressed and favorably resolved.

Another Vidarbhite, residing in Austin, Texas, Aditya Sardeshpande, a senior analyst said, "The Trump administration has made getting an H1-B visa more difficult than ever before. New guidelines on salary requirements, speciality occupation and more scrutiny has made it quite difficult. This is an extremely slow Green Card process for employment based immigration and has made many Indians cross borders. Joe Biden campaign promises to be pro-immigrants. He promises to modernise the immigration system for good. If Biden wins, it might bring relief for many Indians on F1 visas (student), H1-B, H-4 and even for those waiting for their Green Card. However, it will be interesting to see how quickly he can undo some of the policy changes by the trump administration."

Sumedh Sathe, a Software Engineer working in Seattle anticipated clashes as the security had been beefed up there. In his opinion, Indian voters are traditionally the supporters of Democrats however, due to the Indo-US ties and due to the influence of Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, they have an inclination towards Donald Trump. He also pointed out that the Americans are not happy with Donald Trump and the way his administration handled the coronavirus pandemic.

Pushkar Kulkarni, a software Engineer from Washington, noted that there are several factors including the handling of the pandemic, behind Donald Trump''s anticipated defeat. In his opinion as far as the Indians are considered, the support goes for both Donald Trump and Joe Biden. In his opinion the Indians won''t be bothered much about the outcome of the elections, since both have always talked positively about the Indian community.

Archana Deshmukh (name changed), a resident of North Carolina, while talking to Lokmat Times said, "The bottomline remains the same, no party will help legal immigrants, especially those who have backlogged. In my opinion Donald Trump is against immigration and this might have an impact on the Indians. The main reason behind people probably not supporting the current President is his inclination towards spreading hatred".

Sudesh Keskar, a technical analyst and a resident of Philadelphia, presented an interesting point of view while talking to Lokmat Times. "I understand why people vote for Trump, it is probably not because they like him but because people think he is protecting the American culture. Similar to how things work in India. The people here seem frustrated because it does not appear to be the traditional America that they want. And the more I think about it, I feel they are right, because every country has a right to save their culture. Their identity is tied to it. Irrespective of who wins, the US is set to witness a change," he said.