
US president Donald Trump’s call to ban the entry of citizens from seven Muslim majority countries to the United States is causing panic around the world. Obviously, Indian tech companies that count on a large number of H1B visa holders to do their work in the US, are also jittery.
Indian tech executives usually tell the press that they are being ‘cautiously optimistic.’ The spiel is ‘Hey, this is political rhetoric.’ or ‘It’s an election year. Nothing will change.’
We, the Indian media, then line up a bunch of India born American CEOs like Sundar Pichai, Satya Nadella and Shantanu Narayen and say– hey, these immigrants make America great.
In that glorious tradition, I’d like to present three more hitherto unknown immigrants, who have added a ton of value to the American economy. But these aren’t CEOs. These are entrepreneurs.
Now you can say that the average American who voted for Trump didn’t get to see any of this money. Going by various accounts including this excellent prediction by documentary film maker Michael Moore, that may be true. But it’s definitely not an immigration issue.
India produces some of the best technology talent in the world. Back in the day, most of them would study hard and find their way to the US, because there weren’t too many options around. That’s changing. If America won’t have them, India will be happy to keep them.