New Delhi : In a bygone America, Indian migrants were considered a “model minority”. Any Indian who worked hard and kept her head down was welcome. Indian immigrants were broadly perceived as industrious and good at maths. But today, even Indians migrants in the US and other parts of the Western world cannot escape racism.
In September, far-right American trolls targeted Indian migrants with a campaign they called “clog the toilet”. After US President Donald Trump changed the rules for H1-B work visas (about 70% of which are held by Indians), the trolls urged Americans to log on to travel sites and put India-US flights in their online carts, without completing the booking.
They were aiming to block seats on these routes, sullying the plans of frantic Indians on H1-Bs flying back to America overnight.
While anti-immigrant sentiment seems particularly virulent in an increasingly polarised America, the US is a magnified version of a phenomenon that is also occurring elsewhere.
Since July, massive anti-immigration protests have swept the UK, Australia, and Poland. The ominous tenor of some protests is particularly worrying. One investigation found that the March for Australia protests were under the clandestine control of neo-Nazi groups.
Migration today is a tug-of-war between two forces. While anti-immigrant racists call for fewer immigrants, their countries are often in need of immigrants to fill job shortages, as their populations are ageing out of the workforce.
How can India manage migration governance amidst these competing factors?
Anti-immigrant prejudice has many causes, moulded by local contexts. At play are working-class frustrations and economic hardship, perceived cultural differences, racism, and the (often-mistaken) belief that low-wage migrants are stealing jobs.
For India, the takeaway is clear. Merely securing jobs is inadequate: New Delhi must also ensure decent working conditions and worker wellbeing.
A recent welcome development is India’s use of Migration Mobility Partnership Agreements – bilateral agreements that commit to a broad, mutually beneficial migration agenda.
Unlike narrow memoranda of understanding for specific sectors that India previously signed, Migration Mobility Partnership Agreements cover a range of factors from visas for students and apprenticeships to bridging labour market shortages.
These agreements shift India’s focus from labour alone to comprehensive migration governance. An agreement with France in 2018 set the precedent: it covered long-term visas, youth programmes and work across sectors, while also aiming to curb irregular migration.
Since then, India has also signed such agreements with the UK, Germany, Italy, Austria, Denmark and Australia.
Around the world, the highest number of migrants are from India. According to the Ministry of External Affairs, there are around 15 million Indian migrants overseas, of whom 9.3 million reside in the Arab Gulf alone. The US is home to an estimated 2.07 million Indian migrants. In 2023, India received the highest amount of remittances in the world – $125 billion.
These migrants are a microcosm of Indian society – they are as diverse as the country is. To do them justice, India must shift its mindset on migration governance from shortages to sustainability.
Every migrant – whether a postgraduate scholar, welder or plumber – must have the opportunity for upward economic mobility, with policies centring their needs. If New Delhi does this, migration could both help Indians get decent jobs while bridging labour market gaps in another country.
To manage all this successfully, India must also assess existing migration patterns.
Indians migrate practically everywhere, but two corridors dominate the contemporary migration story. Low-wage migrants typically head to West Asia, while higher-wage migrants to the US. In both places, the visa regimes are uniquely flawed.
Gulf states have long been criticised for their two-tier labour system, where the low-wage migrant workers who form most of their workforce, face discrimination in policy and practice. This kafala system involves an employer-tied visa sponsorship system, with different laws and policies for migrant workers versus Gulf nationals. While the laws are different in each Gulf state, low wage migrants are essentially treated as indentured.
The rampant abuse of low-wage migrant workers in Qatar was evident in the run up to the 2022 football world cup. Rights groups and unions extensively documented the severe exploitation of workers involved in the construction of stadiums.
India’s habitual response to worker abuse has been to restrict emigration. This ranges from placing restrictions on low-skilled workers emigrating to the Gulf and other countries, to banning migration for domestic work.
But restricting emigration can cause even further harm to migrants, particularly low-wage workers. Stopping emigration does not solve workers’ livelihoods needs. Instead, it often pushes migrants to irregular channels. Migration via irregular pathways renders workers even more vulnerable to abuse by middlemen, employers, and traffickers.
A far better alternative would be for India to do the opposite: to promote the migration of workers via safe and secure pathways. India must also ensure decent working conditions in destination nations.
America too has its own problematic labour regime that leaves workers short-changed. A good example is the interminable wait for holders of H1-B temporary visas for “green cards” that would allow them permanent residence. Hundreds of thousands languish in queues, frustrated and unable to exit the US while processes are underway.
For a sense of scale, the US Citizen and Immigration Services, the agency that oversees immigration, reported that its net backlog against all types of applications was 4.3 million as of the end of the 2023 financial year.
Of course, the lives of low-wage and high-wage migrants cannot be equated. An H1-B worker in California is more privileged than a low-wage construction worker in Riyadh. Still, both the H1-B holder and the construction worker cannot exit their countries of destination at some points of their migration journey.
It is time for India to diversify its migration strategy away from the Gulf-US binary. While migrants should be able to emigrate wherever they please, new partnerships are imperative. Despite ballooning anti-immigrant prejudice, there are several positive developments to consider.
In 2023, Canada opened up 10,000 permits to H1-B holders in the face of US restrictions to “continue to be a world leader in attracting foreign talent”. The recent H1-B fee hike by the US prompted the German ambassador, Philipp Ackermann to New Delhi to suggest that “highly skilled Indians” emigrate to Germany instead.
India’s Migration Mobility Partnership Agreements with European Union states are the result of these countries needing to compensate for demographic changes such as ageing populations and workforce shortages. It would vastly help aspiring migrants if Indian diplomats were to remember that the country’s talented migrant workforce is a mammoth asset for countries with growing workforce shortages.
Historical power imbalances rooted in colonialism often mean that migrants’ hard labour in the US or European Union rarely receives the treatment or recognition commensurate with their contributions. However, India is well-placed to upend this cycle.
For instance, as India cooperates on reducing irregular migration, it could also emphasize to European Union states that making their countries more amenable and less racist towards Indians is as important as Indians assimilating and learning new languages.
Ensuring that workers can always exercise their freedom of association rights, wherever they are, is also imperative for a worker-friendly agenda.
