Indian Americans' Surprising US Visa Response

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Transcript

00:00Why have Indian Americans been so silent about the Trump administration's recent policies?

00:04After all, an enormous number of them use these very H-1B visas to enter the country.

00:09That's the big question right now here in New Delhi, because India finds its relationship with

00:14the U.S. at its lowest point in decades, and our diaspora in the U.S. doesn't seem to care.

00:20This is not how it is supposed to work. Indians in India thought that Indian Americans were an

00:25asset, proof of our shared values, a natural bridge between our two nations.

00:31So what explains their silence in this crisis?

00:33For one, people of Indian origin may feel a new insecurity in American society.

00:37The atmosphere in online right-wing spaces is definitely much more hostile for South Asians

00:43than it was just a few years ago.

00:45Even full members of the MAGA movement, like Vivek Ramaphani, have learned that the hard way.

00:51It might also be that Indian Americans just don't think India's plight is quite that bad

00:56or existential.

00:57After all, it falls well short of what's going on in Ukraine or Israel or Gaza.

01:03Indian Americans may not also feel quite as attached to their motherland, other than as

01:08through some family or religious ties, both of which weaken as time goes on and generations

01:14pass.

01:14We already know that they don't invest in India.

01:17China's rise to power and prosperity was underwritten by the savings and effort of overseas Chinese.

01:23Our diaspora has not put in even a fraction of what theirs has.

01:27That's disappointed us.

01:28The simplest explanation for their silence, however, is that there's nothing to explain.

01:32New Delhi was always too optimistic about what the diaspora could or would do for the home

01:37country.

01:38Through their choices and their silence, Indian Americans have proved that they're Americans

01:43first and Indians not at all.