The Indian illegal immigrant
The San Jose Mercury News notes that the fastest growing group of illegal immigrants comes not from a Spanish-speaking country but rather from India. A recent report [pdf] from the Department of Homeland Security shows that their numbers jumped 125% since 2000, up to 270,000 (though the Merc cites Pew Hispanic Center's Jeffrey S. Passel putting the number closer to 400,000). By comparison the numbers from Mexico, the country from which most illegal immigrants originate, rose 37% to 6.6 million.
The Indian number may be small and out of the public eye (at least until, say, a particularly heart-wrenching deportation story, or until tech workers start standing around office parks hawking consulting services), but these growth trends are likely to continue as long as there's no immigration reform. Without easier H1-B visa and green card access, more Indians will let their visas lapse and become illegal immigrants. And bigger border walls will keep more Mexicans home.
Without reform and with the downtrending economy, nativists and the economic isolationists may have to duke it out. What's worse, the Indian illegal immigrant or the Indian outsourced job holder? If outsourcing's your bogeyman, time to enact that immigration reform and fix H1-B visa laws. If it's immigrants you fear, keep on outsourcing, and fewer and fewer Indians will want to move here as their standard of living improves and job opportunities rise. And if you hate both? Better start finding Americans who can and will work tech jobs for fewer dollars. A lot fewer.
*Photo of a Hewlett-Packard employee in Bangalore, courtesy Associated Press.
For the information of one and all , India has about 20 million illegal aliens from bangladesh and pakistan. They have cards akin to your social security cards without much ado just the so called SECULAR congress made sure they all are enrolled as votes and get the SScards.Ofcourse the ruling congress is a puppet government run by the USA.
Posted by: raja reddy | May 11, 2009 at 11:45 AM
You can't win an arguement with an Indian, which proves they don't even understand Democracy let alone have one. Take the poster claiming India has elected a woman, a South Indian an Italian and so forth. She was a Gandi, a Gandi and a Gandi. Look at the way the poster words her comments like Americans are part of some lower caste beneath her.
Posted by: Frank | July 29, 2008 at 02:25 PM
Indian are all over US. They taken your job by sending H1B and L1 Visa here. You cannot get in because Indian also favored Indian. So many Indian owned a recruiting agency in US. Somone told me that they are H4 who are not allowed to work
Posted by: John Smith | April 27, 2008 at 09:32 PM
Without reform and with the downtrending economy, nativists and the economic isolationists may have to duke it out. What's worse, the Indian illegal immigrant or the Indian outsourced job holder?
Economically the obvious choice is outsourcing the job, as all the externalities of bringing another person/family here to the US are avoided. But the choice is a bit of a false dilemma, as the dynamics of H1-Bs show that they can serve to actually increase competition from abroad in the long run, as some workers return home with the skills and experience gained here, or use ethnic networks to encourage the transfer of work over seas anyway. And it has to be repeated over and over, the golden age of US computer technology was born and made it to adolescence during a when the immigration wave was but a ripple -- one wonders if Gates, the Woz, or Jobs would have even gone into the field if they knew it would be flooded with what are basically indentured foreigners.
It is always instructive to look at how the "homelands" of who want us to increase immigration handle the issue themselves. India has a policy that explicitly favors people of Indian descent but excludes Pakistanis and Bangladeshis and their descendants (many of whom have ancestors born within the present borders of India) That is, they have a policy that is based on ethnicity, much like the US used to have -- although much more narrow. You can use your search favorite search engine to find "Person of Indian Origin" (PIO) visa.
Posted by: Mitchell Young | February 25, 2008 at 11:24 AM
George Thomas,
Your ignorance astounds. India for all its faults, is a participatory democracy. A multilingual, multi cultural, multi religious secular state that has had as its head of state (president) a Sikh, a woman, An Individual of a so called Backward caste, a muslim. In terms of elected leaders, India has had a woman, a backward caste, a South Indian, and were it not for her excusing herself, would have had a foreign born(Italian native) as Prime Minister, Instead India has a Sikh. Sikhs are less than 2% of the Indian population. You ought to educate yourself about the founding father of the country Gandhi and his secular beliefs, perhaps that would enlighten you significantly.
America is a great country. We can all agree on that. However when you denigrate other nations as being elitist, you first ought to look at their record of secular progressive voting there which ironically America has yet to achieve, before you mouth off your ignorant rant. America I am sure will get there one day in that regard, it is far too great a country not to do so. She may yet take a huge leap in that direction with Mr Obama in 2008. However those of your ilk need to be ignored before that day arrives.
Once again your ignorance of the facts astounds.
Posted by: gene | February 24, 2008 at 04:53 PM
Migration from India cannot be stopped as long as India continued to be a fake democracy for the sake of elite hindu class
Posted by: George Thomas | February 23, 2008 at 08:54 AM
oh, that kind of Indian . . .
I was thinking of all the indigenous "illegals"
Posted by: Laura | February 21, 2008 at 10:38 PM
Please tell me why we need immigration reform rather than enforcing the laws already on the books.
Posted by: Jim Shafer | February 21, 2008 at 04:51 PM
The same rules need applied to everyone equally all the time with no exceptions. Illegal Aliens in our community come from some 200 nations. Arrest and deport them all. And while that is going on arrest and jail the criminal employers of them.
Posted by: tucanofulano | February 21, 2008 at 11:11 AM