Trump's H-1B Visa Fee Dashes Indian Workers' American Dreams - Big Take Asia

[SouthBayDem]

Oct 2, 2025 Big Take Asia
President Donald Trump’s H-1B visa fee has sent shockwaves through India’s workforce, which makes up roughly 70% of recipients.
On today's Big Take Asia Podcast, host K. Oanh Ha and Bloomberg’s Sankalp Phartiyal unpack how the policy could disrupt careers, reshape global talent flows and shatter the American dream for tens of thousands of workers.

Transcript - Phartiyal questions the myth about H1-B workers being at the expense of American citizens, at the 8:00 mark:

There may be few who are undercutting American skilled workers, but the whole idea revolves around the fact that America has a dearth of STEM talent...and Indians or Chinese seem to be more skilled on those aspects. This is a very conservative approach to say that these people are taking away American jobs, because when these people go to American companies, they're also creating more jobs. They're paying Social Security, they're paying taxes, so that's fueling the economy as well. The way to look at this is that this is essentially putting breaks on a moving car that was doing well for the US. And if you don't bring H1-B workers to the US to work for companies, that means you're essentially raising the costs for American corporations as well, because these people go there specifically to work on the demand of American corporations.

Phartiyal concludes by suggesting that India should do more to keep its talent onshore, for instance businesses providing better pay, benefits, and time off. He points out (14:21) a "majority of businesses in India are family run" and "not professionally run".