NEW YORK: US President Donald Trump's proposal for a
merit-based immigration system has the potential to benefit Indians, a large number of whom have high levels of education and
skills.
But this will ultimately depend on the finer details of how
the proposal is implemented.
In his State of the Union Address to a joint session of
Congress on Tuesday night, Trump said the US should give out green cards using a merit-based system similar to those of Canada and
Australia in place of its current "outdated" programme.
"Nations around the world, like Canada, Australia and
many others -- have a merit-based immigration system," he said.
"It is a basic principle that those seeking to enter a
country ought to be able to support themselves financially. By not following such a system, he said the US was
"straining the very public resources that our poorest citizens rely upon.
"Switching away from this current system of
lower-skilled immigration, and instead adopting a merit-based system, will have
many benefits: it will save countless dollars, raise workers' wages,
and help struggling families -- including immigrant families -- enter the
middle class," he said.
Trump did not make any mention of those working in the US on
temporary professional work visas known as H-1B.
In earlier speeches, he had said that he would root out
abuses in that visa category and restrict them if they were to throw Americans out of work.
Those who qualify for H1-B visas under more stringent
conditions either imposed by the Trump Administration or by a bill introduced jointly by a Republican and a Democratic in Congress would
likely have a leg up in the merit system.
Any drastic reform of the immigration process will be a
difficult undertaking for Trump.
A way out for Trump might be to barter the merit-based reform
for allowing some illegal immigrants to stay on in the country.
In Canada, applicants for immigration are given points for
different qualifications like education, skill levels, employ ability, language and family ties.
They would have to meet a minimum score to be allowed to
immigrate. Currently, the US immigration system restricts the number of
people who can immigrate from each country to seven percent of the total number allowed in except for immediate relatives of
citizens.
This has led to several years' wait for Indians to get their
green cards.
There is also an annual limit of 140,000 on employment-based
green cards.
Because of the limits, most professionals from India have to
wait as long as 12 years for a green card and those with "exceptional qualifications" nine years, according to the State
Department visa availability data for March.
A merit-based system has the potential to cut down the wait.
How the reform would ultimately affect Indians could depend on
how country limits and the cap on the number of employment visas are retained or handled and also on the retention of the
immigration privileges for brothers and sisters of citizens and their families.
The reform may
also affect the ability of brothers and sisters and elderly parents of citizens
to immigrate if they are subjected to a points system.
"I believe that real and positive immigration reform is
possible as long as we focus on the following goals: to improve jobs and wages for Americans, to strengthen our nation's security, and
to restore respect for our laws," Trump said.
He appealed to the Democrats for bipartisan support for
immigration reform.
"If we are guided by the well-being of American
citizens, then I believe Republicans and Democrats can work together to achieve
an outcome that has eluded our country for decades," he
said.
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