Bloomberg published a commentary on October 5 titled "Why Are Indian Americans So Silent on U.S. Visa Restrictions?" which argues that Indian Americans are not stakeholders in India's domestic economic development or the strengthening of U.S.-India relations, so this group did not voice support for India as expected against Trump's tariff policies. The author of this article, Mihir Sharma, is a senior researcher at the Observer Research Foundation in New Delhi and a Bloomberg columnist.
Over the past year, U.S.-India relations have dropped to their lowest point in decades. The Indian policy community generally believes that the collapse of U.S.-India relations is due to Trump's tariffs and visa policies. Surprisingly, this move by Trump has not been widely opposed within the U.S., with many U.S. officials even expressing more radical views than him, and figures such as Secretary of State Marco Rubio who sympathize with India have not refuted it.
However, what particularly shocked the Indian side was the silence of Indian Americans. This large, wealthy, and influential group remained indifferent when the relationship between their homeland and host country deteriorated. The Modi government had assumed that the Indian American community was an important asset and a stable voting bloc, capable of serving as a bridge to strengthen U.S.-India relations and as a driving force for bilateral relations. For example, the Modi government repeatedly emphasized "people-to-people connections" and intentionally showcased the image of Indian communities being popular in Western countries. To the surprise of India, Indian Americans, who have always loudly supported Modi, chose silence when India needed the most support. Even when the Trump administration raised the threshold for H-1B visas, hindering Indian citizens from developing in the U.S., the group did not protest. It is reported that one U.S. congressman clearly stated, "I haven't received a single call asking me to speak for India."
The main reasons for the silence of Indian Americans on U.S. policies are threefold: First, this group faces new insecurities in American society. Currently, the right-wing online space in the U.S. shows higher hostility towards South Asians than a few years ago. Individuals like Vivek Ramaswamy, who fully support the MAGA movement, have also expressed shock at the nationalist rhetoric surrounding H-1B visas. Second, this group believes that the Trump administration's pressure on India does not pose a survival threat to India. Compared to serious issues that prompted political mobilization among Ukrainian, Arab, and Jewish American communities, the U.S. approach to work visas, tariffs, and occasional official condemnation of India is relatively lighter.
Third, the overestimation of the capabilities and willingness of the diaspora is the most fundamental reason for the group's silence. For Indian Americans, apart from some family or religious ties, the group may not have any substantial emotional attachment to the "homeland," and these ties tend to weaken over time and with generational changes. In particular, this group is not a genuine stakeholder in India's economic growth or U.S.-India cooperation - very few Indian Americans are involved in India's economic development. In the face of worsening immigration conditions in the U.S., some groups in India had hoped that talented Indian individuals would "return home" to drive key industries like IT to climb up the value chain. The Reserve Bank of India specifically emphasized providing more investment channels for overseas Indians, but in fact, this "return wave" is almost impossible to occur - most Indian Americans would rather choose to go to Canada or other places instead of returning to invest in India. Indian academia has long pointed out significant differences between the Indian diaspora and influential immigrant groups like the Chinese diaspora.
The silence of Indian Americans has proven that this group is first and foremost Americans, and almost not Indians. India's reliance on this group is unreliable, and such unrealistic expectations should be stopped immediately.
Original: www.toutiao.com/article/1846004582571075/
Statement: This article represents the views of the author.