Comments on: Let the “brainy Indians” come in?

By: Slumcat

Slumcat — Thu, 26 Feb 2009 12:28:57 +0000

If ever I want to read India bashing, I visit sepia. Amazing how much many of u hate browns/Indians and esp Hindus. India now has good living for more and more people and I am not surprised so many of u want to visit/ return. Must be terrible hating your color/origins so much esp as so many of you and your parents received highly subsidized education in India which stood u in good stead and helped with work habits, jobs and yes, good correct English. And many realized they knew more than then their colleagues, work wise….

By: PresidenToor

PresidenToor — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 09:22:55 +0000

I suprisingly agree. Of course our family owns a gas station and of course we employee people. The gas station is a direct result of our family’s ability to capitalize on [high-paying] jobs, then leave their respecitve industries to start their own businesses.

By: ashok CD

ashok CD — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 08:12:25 +0000

Look at what Fredman and Gupta is saying “We will work for 18 hours and save a lot of money and then buy the houses” Right? The implication here is, its not necessary to import two million indians, its their work culture which americans need. If Americans work for 18 hours a day and save lot of money, then can revive their country without importing the biological entities

By: Priya

Priya — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 19:16:20 +0000

I think you are expecting too much from govt. officials. Typically, making someone a permanent resident (through work) takes many years. It is not as simple as someone applying to become a permanent resident and the official gives the permit after just one interview (like they do for temp. visas).

Oh ya...I forgot abt. security concerns especially post-9/11 !

By: smarty pants

smarty pants — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 14:17:45 +0000

"Then you will have less Lou Dobbs and more Cesar Chavez (with national health care, to boot).

Will the unfair Lou Dobbs bashing ever stop here."

Question is, who's going to pay for it?

I don't listen to Lou Dobbs but I can gather what he's about from the "bashing" that goes on. As for Chavez, if he's the one I'm thinking of, he was a Mexican American activist, great friend poitically and personally of RFK, and worked his heart out for the migrant workers--the legal ones. He was deeply discouraged and depressed towards the end, about the influx of illegal Hispanics. He knew they would undo all the work he'd done for his cause.

By: Suki Dillon

Suki Dillon — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 09:05:49 +0000

Then you will have less Lou Dobbs and more Cesar Chavez (with national health care, to boot).

Will the unfair Lou Dobbs bashing ever stop here.

By: Ummm

Ummm — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:44:36 +0000

NV,

I live in the NYC area and we do have some South Asian communities, relatively speaking… One great thing about the increase of Indian population in the US is the availability of good (South) Indian vegetarian food compared to even early 90.

By: NV

NV — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:21:22 +0000

@ UMMM

I think the size of America's Desi community is probably about just right for my tastes. We're big enough that we can have services tailored to us (grocery stores, places of worship, theaters that will play bollywood movies sometimes, etc.) but not so big that we put the majority on edge.

We could probably stand to be just a tad bit bigger. We don't have self-sustaining ethnic enclaves the way many other groups do (or maybe that's just a sign of the times since most of the "model minorities" are basically assimilating into non-existence). That plus given our rates of exogamy we'd need a much larger population if we want a sense of Desi culture to propagate into the future instead of fade out within 3 or 4 generations (which giving decreasing immigration from home it probably will at this rate). That is if we want to retain some Desi identity. It's entirely plausible that most of us aren't especially attached to it, or at least not attached to it enough to want to impart it to our children.

By: melbourne desi

melbourne desi — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:09:40 +0000

I think Indian companies are skillful in exploiting the various immigration visas. They used to exploit H1Bs a lot and when they got a lot of bad press, moved into the L1 visas silently. Actually they prefer L1 because they have a tighter control over their employees in L1. But then anti H1Bs haev wisened up to that too and are now making noises about L1.

I started off many years ago on an L1 and then was switched to H1B. Left once I realized that becoming a citizen is a nightmare!!! Australia any day is much better- bar the fires and floods

By: Ummm

Ummm — Fri, 13 Feb 2009 06:09:36 +0000

Should there really be more immigration? Cream of the crop will always get in but a significant portion of those who came in during the IT influx of the 1990s are not the 'best and the brightest' of immigrants. They are not much better than average American IT workers and they indeed contributed to the lowering of wages which has lead to resentment, for example, of Indian immigrants among many 'native' IT workers.

I don't see why sharing a common cultural background should mean a desire for having more of 'us' in the country. For example, the 'illegal immigrant' problem has negatively affected earlier immigrants from Central America and the Carribbean though many of these earlier immigrants are for letting more in without considering the implications. This has affected the improvement of earlier immigrants since, for example, a lot of schools are more crowded and, in the current economic climate, social services may not get the highest priority...

For similar reasons, the South Asian immigrants who came in during the 90s may be the one who may be affected most if even more IT workers come into the country and worsen their wages. I am not saying that South Asians (or other recent immigrants) should argue for shutting the door but, until the current economic climate changes, further flooding of the job market will not improve anything.