An Indian-origin founder in Canada commented on the rampant targeting of H-1B visa holders in the US and explained that the situation is more complex than how MAGA portrays it. Vijayan Swaminathan, an Indian-origin tech leader in Canada, said it is not as simple as millions of Indians randomly waking up one day, booking flights to America and then starting to take jobs which are meant for Americans.“These are not random people picked off the street. They are often engineers who have already spent years working on the exact product the company depends on,” Swaminathan said.“In many cases, American corporations themselves spent years and millions of dollars building offshore development centers, either directly or through partner firms. Certain projects become so deadline driven and market sensitive that bringing over one or two engineers who already understand the systems, architecture, and business logic becomes the fastest and most efficient option,” he said.
Ask your corporations why they hire Indians
As Swaminathan objected to Texas whistleblower Sara Gonzales’s pointed hatred towards H-1Bs, he said it is a fair question to ask that why one particular job was not given to an American and was offered instead to an Indian. But the question should be directed at the corporations making those hiring decisions and not the individual worker who came to the US leaving his family — and the process is generally initiated by the US firm.\
Americans love Indian mangoes
Swaminathan said Americans enjoy Indian mangoes and butter chicken and the rest of the world enjoys Hollywood, American innovation and that’s what should happen in globalization. “The H-1B who came to the US may have grown up watching Hollywood movies. After watching a movie back home, maybe they celebrated the weekend with Pizza Hut or KFC with their family, contributing to American businesses long before ever stepping foot in the country. Little did he/she knew that the so called “American Dream” wasn’t meant for a brown person from India,” he wrote.
