By Kunal Bose
What is brain waste? The term is used in reference to immigrants in developed countries whose educational achievements, professional distinction, language skills and legal status are often undervalued leading to their underemployment or unemployment. It is not that their native born peers are never victims of being overqualified for the jobs they hold. But percentagewise, the natives fare much better than the immigrants in the job market, underlining discrimination, consciously or not.
According to a study by OECD (The Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development) for its constituent countries and European Union member states, about one-third of the highly educated immigrants are found overqualified for their jobs. For the affected immigrants, this translates into their income not in alignment with their qualifications. The fallouts of overqualified immigrants not finding jobs of their standing are low productivity caused largely by wounded morale. At the same time, the host country’s exchequer loses out on higher tax collection in the absence of equal opportunities for natives and immigrants.
Yet another study points to the disturbing fact of over 2 million highly skilled immigrants in the US experiencing underemployment or unemployment. It furthermore says 25 per cent of highly skilled immigrants with the right foreign degrees experience skill underutilisation, translating into denial of right placement in work places and remuneration. In comparison, 18 per cent of US born highly skilled workers encounter identical challenges. The US Census Bureau data for the year 2022 shows 35 per cent of all 40.7 million adult immigrants (25 years and older) held a bachelor degree or more with the largest number (14 per cent) coming from India.
No wonder, among all immigrant communities, the Indians are found to be the most successful in the US holding positions of eminence in fields of education, science, government and business (a good number of Fortune 500 companies, including Microsoft and Google are led by Indian origin Americans). Not only is India a major source of international students in the US universities, but Indian nationals receive the majority of employer-sponsored H-1B visas for highly skilled workers. Indian Americans have become the richest ethnicity in the US, making significant contribution to the US economy and social life.
Whatever that is, the fact is as Satya Nadella, chairman & chief executive officer of Microsoft, says the US policy on immigration and H-1B visa will be based on perception of how foreigners could aid “American competitiveness.” In any case, in spite of divisions within the country, of late quite sharply, on the desirability of allowing foreigners to come in, settle permanently and work there, the US demography is perennially marked by “an element of talent coming in” and this phenomenon will persist, says Nadella. The world is aware that India is a rich repository of human capital embracing all disciplines and Nadella makes the point that “anyone who does not tap into India’s human capital is making a choice to not be competitive, in some sense.”
All that brings us back to the debate now raging in the US about the desirability of welcoming immigrants. Who but President elect Donald Trump himself has made some observations on this sensitive subject causing considerable dissonance within the Republican Party and his supporters who stood by him through good and bad times! What is this that Trump said on immigration that is not going down well with the ones part of the MAGA (Make America Great Again) nativist political movement. From his Palm Beach estate Mar-a-Lago, the President elect said: “I have always felt we need to have the most competent people in our country. We need smart people coming into our country and we need a lot of people coming in.”
It requires a lot of courage for a politician, specially is he/she is staunchly conservative and puts America first in all actions, to take this kind of liberal stand on immigration. Was Trump encouraged to make the bold statement because of the falling rate of US unemployment? The US unemployment rate was down to 4.1 per cent in December from 4.2 per cent in the previous month. Trump in his trademark buccaneering fashion said in support of keeping the US door open for a certain kind of immigrants “we’re gonna have jobs like we’ve never had before.” Sections of US conservatives create the scare that arrivals of foreigners for jobs and then staying back permanently will rob the locals of jobs and at the same time, the availability of extra human resources could bring down wages.
At the same time, a recent report by the American Immigration Council says immigrants are a boon for the US economy, driving job creation, keeping the economy dynamic and globally competitive. The Council director Nan Wu believes the US is “stronger and richer, thanks to those who’ve migrated here, we need our policymakers to recognise that reality.” This is reinforced by the report finding that as of 2024, 46 per cent of all Fortune 500 companies, including Apple, Amazon and DoorDash employing 15.5 million people worldwide are founded by immigrants or their children. “We know that immigrants are far more likely than U.S.-born Americans to start their own business. This generates a ripple effect of more opportunities and greater prosperity for our communities,” believes Steve Hubbard, the Council report co-author. This reality leads Hubbard to say that the US politicians will be advised to welcome immigrants to negotiate future challenges to the US economy such as labour shortages or an ageing population.
Politicians’ stand on immigration changes over time. Take Trump once an immigration hardliner is now ready to welcome “smart people.” (He, however, remains steadfast in getting rid of illegal immigrants.) This change in stand on an issue that has created a schism in the Republican Party may be due to the counselling by Tesla chief and the world’s richest man Elon Musk who bank rolled Trump’s election campaign with over a quarter of a billion dollars. Musk favours immigration because there does not exist enough home grown talent in the US to take care of high quality human resource needs of the economy, particularly high technology driven companies. His campaign for allowing relevant talents from abroad to work in the US has the support of other tech moguls. Now that the President elect has appointed Musk along with Vivek Ramaswamy to lead a new department of government efficiency, it is more than likely Tesla boss will have Trump’s ear.
While Musk has fallen foul of far-right US activists, the latter have expressed strong reservations about Trump’s selection of Indian American venture capitalist Sriram Krishnan as adviser on artificial intelligence policy. They fear people like Musk, David Sacks (to be the czar of AI and crypto currency in the new administration) and Krishnan will create policy environment for “invaders from the third world.” Their hope about keeping America safe from third world invaders rests on known immigration hawks Stephen Miller and Tom Homan who will oversee the President elect’s immigration policy. (IPA Service)
** The writer is former Editor of The Economic Times, Kolkata