In mid-June a young Indian student of University of Massachussets Dartmouth was severely beaten up by four white racists. The attackers were shouting, “Go back to Iraq.”
The victim, Saurabh Bhalerao, pleaded he was not a Muslim from Iraq but
a Hindu from India. His pleas fell on deaf ears. Bhalerao was hospitalised for
days after the attack.
There are several questions regarding the nature of and intent behind
the attack. Was this young graduate student attacked merely because he looked
like a Muslim from Iraq? Are average Americans (bigots or not) unable to
understand that an Iraqi is not an Indian, nor a Hindu is a Muslim by any
stretch of imagination.
Of late considerable resentment has been growing among working class
Americans threatened by growing joblessness. There have been cases of American
companies retrenching employees who are US citizens and hiring Indians brought
in on L-1 visa at lower salaries and minimum perks. US citizens seeing their
jobs taken away from them to be ultimately handed over to non-citizens have
reason to feel angry and frustrated.
Working groups have lobbied politicians, who in turn, are proposing
legislation to protect American jobs. The downslide in US economy is continuing
raising fears and uncertainty among the working class. At a time like this, it
is very easy for racist groups, xenophobes and common frightened Americans to
turn the 1.8 million Indian community into a scapegoat.
Indians also generate envy by merely being one of the most prosperous
communities in the country. As many as 250 Sikhs have been attacked since
September 11, 2001 ostensibly because they look like Osama bin Laden and his
men. Although Sikh groups in the US have tried to explain that Sikhs are not
Muslims, nobody seems to understand, much less the attackers.
Amnesty International has pointed out that for every hate crime
reported, nine go unreported because foreign workers are not sure of their legal
status. Sikhs have gone to the extra length of publicly explaining how their
turbans and beards are markedly different from those of the Arabs (and Osama’s).
This has not really worked.
US Congress member from Connecticut Rosa Luxemburg Rosa L DeCauro is the latest to serve notice for legislation to impose restriction on companies bringing in relatively lower-paid workers from India to replace better paid employees who are US citizens.
Delauro’s bill seeks to limit annual L-1 visas to 35,000. The annual L-1 visas grew from 75,315 in 1992 to 328,480 in 2001. The Bill also seeks to ban blanket petitions to bring in L-1 workers. Under the bill, no American company that has laid of an American worker in the six months before or after filing an L-1 visa application will get it.g
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