S Jaishankar Defends Global Workforce Reality as Trump's H-1B Visa Fees Impact Indian Professionals

Foreign Minister S Jaishankar has emphasized the necessity of a global workforce, stating that many nations cannot fulfill their labor requirements solely through local populations. His remarks appear to respond to US President Donald Trump's recent H-1B visa policy changes.

Washington:

As India faces trade and tariff challenges with the United States, Foreign Minister Jaishankar's comments come at a critical time when Trump's stringent immigration policies, including a newly implemented $100,000 fee on H-1B visas, are significantly impacting Indian professionals who constitute the majority of these temporary work visa recipients in America.

In his executive order, President Trump has alleged that the H-1B program has been "deliberately exploited" to replace American workers with lower-paid foreign labor, predominantly Indians, and represents a "national security risk." He has defended the unprecedented fee increase as necessary to address what he termed as 'systemic abuse'.

Speaking at the event 'At the Heart of Development: Aid, Trade, and Technology' organized by the Observer Research Foundation during the UN General Assembly session on Wednesday, Jaishankar advocated for developing a more acceptable, modern, and efficient global workforce model.

"Whether that global workforce is housed and located may be subject to political debate. However, examining demand versus demographics reveals that many countries cannot meet their labor requirements solely from their national populations," he stated.

"This reality cannot be ignored. So how do we establish a more acceptable, contemporary, efficient model of a global workforce, situated within a distributed, global workplace? This represents a significant question that today's international economy must address."

The Foreign Minister observed that regarding technology, trade, connectivity, and workplace dynamics, "we will transition to a markedly different world in a very short period." He emphasized that in today's "highly turbulent" environment, large countries particularly need to develop self-reliance capabilities, asserting that this represents "very much" the focus in India.

India sends approximately 2.5 million emigrants overseas annually, making it the country with the highest yearly emigration rate globally. India also hosts the world's largest overseas population, with roughly 35.4 million non-resident Indians and persons of Indian origin, according to the Foreign Ministry's May 2025 data.

In the United States, technology companies heavily rely on H-1B and similar visa programs to recruit engineers, scientists, and programmers from overseas, particularly from India. Indian immigrants have dominated the H-1B program recently, comprising over 70 percent of recipients.

Currently, executives of Indian origin lead several prominent US corporations, including Google, Microsoft, and IBM, while Indian doctors constitute nearly 6 percent of America's physician workforce.

The newly imposed $100,000 H-1B visa fee by President Trump, added to existing substantial filing and legal expenses, threatens to make the skilled worker migration program prohibitively expensive and impractical for both applicants and employers, especially affecting migrants from lower-income backgrounds.