By Tirthankar Mitra
The international migrant is a global pariah, if the takes on them of US President Donald Trump and some of the leaders of far Right political outfits in Europe are anything to go by. Both have immigrants on their radar.
The migrant is a vulnerable and unacceptable creature to the far Right parties witnessing electoral gains in Europe as well as the Republicans led by Trump. The common grouse against immigrants is that they eat up jobs and benefit of welfare schemes which the leaders opposing their entry argue should be the monopoly of the proverbial sons of the soil.
“The vast majority of the immigrants are not criminals ….I ask to have mercy, Mr President, on those in our communities whose children fear their parents will be taken away”. This was part of Bishop Mariann Edgar Budde’s direct appeal to Donald Trump, 47th President of United States of America.
Budde’s prayer service in Washington followed a slew of orders signed on Trump ‘s first day in the White House. Shutting the door on those seeking to enter US and holding the spectre of ejection on those already living there, Trump seeks to adhere to his poll pledge of Making America Great Again (MAGA)
To his voter base, sympathetic to rhetoric about “large scale invasion” of America by ‘illegal aliens’, these orders are those Trump meant to push through in his campaign speeches. Now he seeks to implement them.
Anti-immigration agenda is one of Trump’s top priority. In fact, his agenda is a mix of the old pertaining to his first term and new ones. Remember the wall in the Mexican border in his first term? But all is not well with this top priority.
First, post a few strokes of President Trump’s pen, American Dream of freedom and opportunity stands imperilled. Foreign born workers including legally admitted immigrants, refugees, temporary residents like students comprise 18 per cent of the US labour force.
A move to radically reduce their count could be economically damaging. Such plans could curb US GDP growth by $ 30 to $50 billion in 2025.Credibility is lent to this estimate as this is part of a joint study by American Enterprise Institute (AEI), Brookings Institution and Niskanen Centre. It can also blunt in much of what gives US it’s edge in leadership in innovation.
And it is not just in the technology sector. It is in areas like biomedical research as well. “Cleansing” America of immigrants involve mobilising US military to secure the borders together with accommodating the already overcrowded illegal immigrants’ detention centres with even larger number. There are legal and constitutional question marks as well.
Several states are suing to stop the birthright citizenship order. They contend that it violates a right enshrined in the US Constitution. The next moves of the Trump administration will be watched closely by India. Indian -Americans comprise 1.47 per cent of US population.
The newly signed orders of Trump are already causing disquiet. Indian workers are one of the largest groups of H-IB visa holders who would be vulnerable in the coming weeks and months as things change not for the better in Trump’s America.
Indians are eager to know how their Prime Minister with a 56-inch chest reacts to a long line of valuable foreign exchange earners making a homecoming. One must not be wishfully blind to the fact that in the event of their homeward journey, it is a return to roots under compulsion.
When the pandemic was raging, Trump then in Oval office had made a demand for medicinal products to India which made him sound like an enforcer. Was the quiet kowtowing then a foretaste of things to come? (IPA Service)