External affairs minister S Jaishankar on Thursday spoke about the importance of a global workforce, days after the US administration took a tough stand on immigration, announcing big changes to the H-1B visa allocation system.
Jaishankar asserted that the need for a global workforce is a reality that cannot be denied, and called for the model to be made more acceptable, contemporary, efficient
“This is a reality. You cannot run away from this reality. So 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,” Jaishankar said addressing an event on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session.
Jaishankar’s remarks on the importance of a global workforce especially assume importance because of its timing. Last week, the Trump administration introduced big changes to the H-1B visa system, that stands to mainly impact Indians.
The H-1B visa fee was hiked for $100,000, up from the usual $1,700 to over $8,000 per worker. Thereafter, it announced an overhaul of the H-1B lottery system to give an edge to higher-paid applications.
Indians account for more than 71% of the visa system’s beneficiaries, making them the group most likely to be impacted by the proposed changes.
While EAM Jaishankar didn’t directly reference the Trump administration’s announcement on H-1B visa, he did bring to attention what a global workforce means for the world.
“Where that global workforce is to be housed and located may be a matter of a political debate. But there’s no getting away. If you look at demand and you look at demographics, demands cannot be met in many countries purely out of national demographics,” he said.
Amid the ongoing trade negotiations between India and the US, the external affairs minister also asserted that all trade complications can eventually be sorted out, and that it is “easier to trade today” for physical and digital reasons.
“So for all the obstacles and complications that may arise, I also think they will be countered in some ways or mitigated in some ways by what will happen in the great domain,” he said. His remarks came weeks after US President Donald Trump imposed 50% tariffs on India, half of them as penalties for doing oil trade with Russia.
Furthering India’s self-reliance pitch, Jaishankar also said that the “very turbulent” atmosphere today calls for countries to build capacities to be more self-reliant.
