H-1B Angst Is A Tempest In A Teapot

American visas for skilled workers are determined by market forces and legislated by the US Congress. Despite political posturing at times, the numbers never shrank

- K P Nayar

The H-1B visa issue now consuming a considerable amount of newsprint in India is a storm in a teacup. It has never been anything more than that.

During the nearly 15 years that I was a foreign correspondent in the US, my desk was periodically buffeted by demands related to the H-1B issue. Most of the demands from special interests who regularly network with the Washington media were that I go on a patriotic crusade against those who want to eliminate H-1B visas or significantly reduce the number of Indians who take that route to America.

In the early years of my posting, I used to do painstaking legwork on the subject, assuming that it was an issue that could indeed curtail Indian immigration to the US. Over time, I realised that H-1B visas are subject to market forces. Supply and demand in the labour market ultimately determine what happens in the US Congress with H-1B legislation, and the inflow and outflow—yes, there is outflow of immigrants from the US, too—of H-1B personnel.

North America is a free market and its laissez-faire approach covers labour mobility as well. Few are aware that the H-1 programme began as long ago as 1952 in response to the post-World War II demand to fill specialised jobs. The hyphenated suffixes A, B and C were added to the H-1 tag later to differentiate between specific professional categories.

Over the decades, the scheme has only expanded; it never shrank.

There was a time towards the end of the Bill Clinton presidency and soon after when the H-1B programme faced an existential crisis. This was in adverse reaction to a legislation—the American Competitiveness and Workforce Improvement Act—that had resulted in larger inflows of high-skilled aliens.