By Rajan Narayan
THE United States of America, the land of the free, the land of unlimited opportunities, will now be shut to Indians, Chinese, Mexicans and all other colored migrants. This is because the American people voted Donald Trump and the white racists to power with a comfortable majority. Ironically, the Latinos, the blacks and the 2.6 million US citizens of Indian origin voted for Donald Trump. It is a case of locking the doors after they have themselves become true green card-holding citizens of the United States.
Migrant citizens who have secured American citizenship do not want more migrants, some of their kind, to come and enjoy the same privileges they enjoy. The immediate victims of the just over presidential election voting in Donald trump election of Trumph are the migrant people awaiting their US green card citizenship. No longer will children born to them be automatically granted American citizenship. Trump seeks an amendment where only children born to American citizens will be entitled to US citizens.
It gets even worse as the number of visas issued to highly qualified professionals called the H1B visas will be limited. The large number of illegal migrants from India, estimated to be above seven lakh, are likely to be deported back to India. Even before the results were announced plane loads of illegal Indian migrants were send back to India. Indian students studying in the US will also be badly affected. They may not be allowed to get practical training after they finish their education in the United States. The tenure of their visas will come down sharply. Never mind that the wife of the new Vice President JD Vance is a second generation migrant Usha Vance (nee Chilukuri, her family hails from Andhra Pradesh in India). Fortunately, Usha is a citizen because she was born in the United States.
A GREATER concern is the fact that the United States has also become more isolationist. The US which has been a melting pot so far will now keep out undesirable migrants from jumping into the melting pot. Till Donald Trump came to power the only thing that mattered was merit. Caste, community, color, religion, etc, were ignored with the US wanting to attract the best minds from around the world.
TECH MOGHUL ELON MUSK
INTERESTINGLY, tech Moghul Elon Musk of Tesla and the space X rockets fame and fortune, is himself a migrant from South Africa. From the sound of it Elon Musk played a major role in the USA presidential elections and has contributed majorly to the return of now President of USA Donald Trump. But Elon Musk comes from white European migrant stock from South Africa (with its apartheid history) and is neither a black or a brown citizen of USA.
As in the case of many countries in Europe like Germany and France it looks like even the US is now becoming a closed society. That is a society where citizenship will be dominated by the European white skin. There is been a sense of strong resentment against the colored workers in the US this is widely perceived now as outsiders taking away the jobs of Americans. A leading software company has been accused of discriminating against Americans when it comes to recruitment. There have been allegations that US companies like Microsoft and Google are hiring cheaper Indian software engineers, depriving native Americans of these highly paid jobs. Indians are accused of accepting jobs at lower wages.
Unfortunately, the fact remains that some of the biggest American companies are headed by people of Indian origin. For example, Sundar Pichai of Google and
Satya Nadella of Microsoft, are both of Indian origin. Similarly, the CEOs of over ten major American companies are people of Indian origin. Just as there is movement in Europe, as Germany for Germans and France for the French people, Trump’s main winning election slogan was America for Americans. In his election campaign speeches Trump claimed that some migrant communities like those from Haiti in the Caribbean were eating dogs and cats, the beloved pets of American families. Despite this allegation Trump got 54% of the Latin vote and 50% of the black vote.
WOMEN’S LOSS
TRUMP may have lost some American women’s vote because of his nasty cavalier comments about Kamala Harris. Indeed, all the top American women celebrities from famous and much loved TV host Oprah Winfrey to celebrated pop singer Taylor Swift and Lady Gaga endorsed Kamala Harris, not to forget Michelle Obama, former First Lady of USA. As in other countries there is growing resentment against women getting top jobs in America even if they’re equally or more qualified than their male competitors. Perhaps President Donald Trump just believes that women should go back to the kitchen and stay at home to breed babies like his best friend Elon Musk. The upsurge in the fortunes of women has given many white men women in the US an inferiority complex. Not surprisingly, the mass of white Americans and particularly the less educated men voted in large number for Donald Trump.
Given Donald Trump’s background and credentials as super wealthy, facing several felony and criminal charges, his return as president of USA may be may prove to be dangerous for peace in the world. The perception is that Donald Trump, the superman all-powerful president, is all set for an open confrontation with China. In his victory speech he announced that tariff on imported Chinese goods will be hiked to 60%. The US is likely to ban cars made in China.
Trump believes that US companies have deprived Americans of jobs by setting up factories abroad. The number of blue collared jobs has shrunk sharply in the US. It is a matter of record that the most successful brand in the United States, Apple, gets its iphones manufactured in China and India. By imposing steep import duties Trump is hoping to force US companies to set up the factories in the US. The war in Palestine is likely to intensify as Trump is a great supporter of Israel.
The US is likely to extend even greater support to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. Conversely, Trump has decided not to support Ukraine, giving the advantage to Russia. With the return of Donald Trump as the president of the United States of America the US is likely to trigger wars to recover its lost reputation as the only super power in the world.
There are many parallels between Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s India and Donald Trump’s USA. Modi has tried to convert India into a Hindutva nation for Hindus first only. Trump wants to convert United States into a white America for Christians only perhaps. Modi has started a war against minority communities and especially Muslims. Modi is also against an Islamic world and the perception is that a war may be launched against Iran. Trump is against all migrants whether from Mexico or China or India or anywhere else. Only migrants from the European countries may be favoured while migrating to the USA.
WHAT’S CLIMATE CHANGE?
AGAIN, Trump does not believe in fighting climate change because he thinks nothing is wrong with the climate. Reversing the trend he is likely to support fossil and fuel like petrol and diesel instead of solar and wind energy because it’s all there in the USA (refer to his “liquid gold” talk in his speeches). Indirectly, he will support tech giant Elon Musk who is the biggest manufacturer of electric vehicles and has interplanetary aspirations by way of future colonisation in space and faster supersonic travelling around the world. Indians who are green-card holding American citizens and those who may acquire citizenship of the US may still play an important role. This is because Donald Trump’s Vice President Vance is married and hopelessly in love with his Indian origin wife Usha.
An Indian supporter of Trump, Kash Patel, is expected to take over as director of the US Central Intelligence Agency. So Indians in the US may still get a lot of respect though not so important Indian migrants may find the door to migration shutting in their face. The moral of the Donald Trump victory is that “brash” and “trash” talk can always get the mainstream votes in the USA and also in countries around the world, the kind of world that we are seeing emerging anew.