Last month, a digital battle erupted on X (formerly Twitter), splitting US president-elect Donald Trump supporters into two camps over immigration. One faction is calling for strict controls on all immigration while the other advocates for exceptions, particularly for highly skilled technical workers.
The debate centred around the coveted visa for skilled workers known as the H-1B. The unlikely target of anger: Silicon Valley’s Indian engineers.
Along with East Asians, Indians have long been hailed as a model minority in the United States. Many of them are highly skilled, work hard, stay out of trouble and integrate into American society. Nonetheless, they have become a target for the American far-right, raising questions about the US’ ambitions to maintain its superpower status.
In the 1960s, the US began loosening immigration laws, partly to attract talent from across the world. This process led to the entry of significant numbers of Indian scientists, doctors and eventually software engineers.
Despite being only 1 per cent of the population of the US, residents of Indian origin were over-represented in the tech industry by 2021, comprising about 6 per cent of Silicon Valley’s workforce. Indeed, Indian Americans are also at the helm of several major software companies with Satya Nadella, the CEO of Microsoft being the most prominent example.
Securing the H-1B visa is the legal pathway for many Indians coming into the US. A total of 85,000 are given out every year. More than 70 per cent of them have been issued to Indian nationals while 12 per cent have been issued to applicants from China.
Illegal immigration – one of the major planks of Trump’s presidential campaign that led him to victory – was one of the top issues for right-wing voters. Another conversation has now emerged around legal immigration through the H-1B visa.
This represents a new chapter given that workers coming to the US on H-1B visas are often seen as responsible, contributing members of society.
However, while this debate has caught the attention of many commentators, it is important to realise that it is symptomatic of larger problems in the US economy affecting most people in the country, including conservatives.
The US economy is good at creating wealth, but it is not particularly generous when it comes to distributing it. Using the estimates in a 2020 RAND Corporation paper, Nick Hanauer, founder of think tank Civic Ventures, calculated that the top 1 per cent took over US$50 trillion from the bottom 90 per cent of the American population over half a century.
Wealth inequality in the US is among the highest in developed Western countries. While there has long been a high level of disparity in American society, deepening inequality has begun to affect the middle class.
For example, the US faces a cost-of-living crisis with many unable to afford necessities such as housing, which can eat up between 30 to 60 per cent of people’s incomes. This is apart from the fact that housing is scarce; the country had a shortage of about 4.5 million homes in 2022, according to one estimate.
In addition, about half of the US population struggles to pay for healthcare. Americans often go into debt to manage expenses and emergency costs, collectively racking up credit card debt worth more than US$1 trillion.
This does not take into consideration the US’ crumbling infrastructure. Close to half of all major roads and bridges, as well as many of its water systems and electricity grids, are in need of immediate repair. Taxpayer money is expected to fund such projects, but many of these needs are not being met in a timely manner, leading to immense public dissatisfaction.
In times like these, it is common to see people taking up more right-wing positions on issues such as migration. The fact that the tech sector has grown the most in the last couple of decades – alongside the H-1B visa being linked to higher-income jobs relative to other industries – has perhaps led some to feel a particular sense of deprivation when perceived outsiders take up these positions.
Trump’s strident anti-immigration rhetoric does not help allay such sentiments. The shift in focus from illegal immigration to legal immigration should not come as a surprise.
Regardless of the debate and brimming dissatisfaction among Trump’s supporters, the incoming administration seems slated to support the existing visa. This is due to the competition between the US and China to modernise their economies and dominate the field of artificial intelligence.
Attracting the smartest talent in the world is a necessary part of that modernisation process, which explains why Trump and his closest advisers such as Tesla founder Elon Musk, who has benefited from the H-1B visa, have been vociferous in defending the programme.
This incident reveals the tensions within the US’ competitive capitalist economy. On one hand, the US vies to attract the best talent while, on the other, it must deal with discontented citizens who feel neglected. As artificial intelligence threatens to further disrupt their livelihoods, more debates may soon emerge in the public sphere.
