In a pointed remark seemingly aimed at US President Donald Trump, External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Thursday said that the world cannot ignore the need for a 'global workforce', stressing that many countries cannot meet labour demands from their own populations.
His message comes amid trade and tariff challenges, as well as Trump’s hardline stance on immigration, including a new USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visas that largely affects Indian professionals, who make up the majority of beneficiaries.
Speaking at an event hosted by the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session in New York, Jaishankar said, “There is a reality. You cannot run away from it. Where the global workforce is to be housed and located may be a matter of political debate. But there is no getting away. If you look at demand and demographics, demands cannot be met in many countries purely because of national demographics.”
The External Affairs Minister also called for a contemporary, efficient model of a global workforce that can be distributed across different regions. “How do we create a more acceptable, contemporary, efficient model of a global workforce which is then located in a distributed, global workplace? I think this is a very big question today which the international economy has to address,” he said.
The H-1B visa programme has long been a lifeline for Indian workers in the US technology sector. Indians account for nearly three-quarters of all recipients of the visa, which allows companies to hire skilled foreign workers in fields such as IT, medicine, and engineering.
Trump’s new USD 100,000 fee, on top of already steep filing and legal costs, risks making the programme prohibitively expensive and unviable for both applicants and employers.
Source: India Today