Head of India’s IT industry accuses US of labor rights discrimination

The president of India’s National Association of Software and Services Companies (Nasscom), Debjani Ghosh, has accused Donald Trump’s government of discriminating against Indian workers seeking H-1B visas to work in the US.

“We’re at a loss trying to figure out why we’re seeing the kind of discrimination when this is actually benefiting the US,” Ghosh said, as quoted by the Financial Times. He argued that Indian workers help to fill a vital skills gap.

Ghosh’s accusations come ahead of the US president’s visit to India this month. He has asked for a meeting with the Trump delegation.

Nasscom represents nearly 3,000 companies, including leading IT firms such as Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, and Wipro. The trade association says that most H-1B visas are actually taken by US firms such as Microsoft or Amazon, and that they enjoy higher approval ratings than the Indian companies.

Nasscom is lobbying to treat the movement of skilled Indian workers under the H-1B scheme as a trade issue, not an immigration one.

“We just have one request to [our] government, which is… talk to him, make him understand the importance of high-skilled talent mobility,” Ghosh said, referring to Trump.

“We have to ensure that he understands that this cannot be treated the same way as immigration, they’re two different things. That’s our biggest ask.”

The H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US companies to employ skilled foreign workers in specialized fields such as  IT, finance, accounting, architecture, engineering, mathematics, science, and medicine. Such visas are issued for a limited number of years.

The Trump administration has been raising concerns over what it calls the abuse of the H-1B scheme by foreign IT companies; it has issued tougher requirements for obtaining work permits, such as prioritizing applicants with US degrees.

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