H1b Visa and Asia

Recently, American president George Bush calledcurrency. Secondly, the Indian workers help to
for increasing the number of H1B Visa so thatuplift the image or goodwill of India as a country
more skilled professionals can come from acrosswith abundance professionals with high technical
the world for scientific and high tech jobs in USA.and English language skills. This paves way for
This call is in a way a surprising matter asmore recruits from India in the coming days. The
American economy is right now not at its bestthird benefit is that the workers who work
condition. Rising oil price and Iraq war have put thethrough H1B Visa get real experience in working in
American economy in the back foot for the lastUSA- the most competitive economy in the
few years and rate of unemployment is graduallyworld. After completing their works, many of
becoming a major cause of concern for thethem return to India and use their experience and
American people. American workers are losingthis has greatly benefited the Indian technology
manufacturing jobs to China and technology jobssector. Now, India is not only a country with a
to Indian workers. Therefore, the call forhuge pool of talented techies but also is gradually
increasing the number of H1B Visa may seem tobuilding a very stable and solid leadership in the
be a shock to many.Why Bush wants to increasetechnology world. In other words, Indian
number of H1B Visa?President Bush emphasizedtechnology sector is gaining its inner strength.Let
on the need for America to remain highlythe market demand ruleIndian government and
competitive in science and technology. USAthe technology industry have taken the matter of
emerged as the world's richest country after theH1B Visa very seriously and are going to lobby
Second World War and it continued to rise andhard with US administration when George Bush
grow all the time. Perhaps the main factor behindvisits India in the coming days. Indian technology
this constant growth is highly skilled workforceleaders will urge US president George Bush and
and entrepreneurs. On the one hand,others in the American Administration to let the
entrepreneurs like Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, Jeffmarket demand determine the number of visas
Bejos almost single handedly and out of nothinginstead of binding it to a fixed number.What about
managed successfully to build world classthe other countries in Asia?China has already
companies like Microsoft, Apple and However,established its own presence in the technology
they could expand because they always had thesector of USA. China is pursuing very aggressively
best workers. Their workers had variedits own goal of improving the English language skills
backgrounds and came from different parts ofof its students so that it can be at per with India
the world. To allow US companies get bestin the software field. The other countries in Asia
workers from abroad, American Governmentthat can take advantage of any increase in
introduced H1B visa under which US companiesnumber of H1B Visa are Pakistan, Sri Lanka,
can recruit highly skilled professionals from otherMalaysia, Hong Kong (under China), Singapore,
countries. Currently the number of H1B visa thatBangladesh, Philippines etc as these countries are
US government issues annually is 65,000 and itpursuing their excellence in the Information and
was 195,000 a few years ago during the time ofCommunication Technology (ICT) sector and also
dotcom boom.Dotcom crash and H1BThings didtheir workforce are more or less skilled in English
not go very well for the American technologicallanguage.What next?Right now US administration
companies in the last 5 years and a number ofand Congressmen are with a very peculiar
companies (especially dotcom companies) weredilemma. On the one hand, they are not very
shut down. However, it seems now that theenthusiastic to increase the quota in H1B visa as
worst is really over and the US government isunemployment figure in USA is not very rosy. On
also getting keen to see USA remain as thethe other hand, USA needs influx of the most
market leader in the technology sector. That istalented and skilled workers from around the
why most probably, we will see an increase inworld to keep its leadership in the technology
H1B visa in the near future. Even if it does notsector intact in the long term. George Bush has
take place this time it is most likely to happenalready stated his own inclination towards
next year. Any increase in this number will have aincreasing number of H1B Visa. Now it is up to the
positive impact on the Asian economy countriesmembers of Congress to take the final decision.
like China and India are the leaders in getting H1BWhatever way they choose it is going to make
Visa.Indian success:In the last one decade, Indiasome people unhappy- no doubt about that.I am a
was the major player as its workers received theReseacrher and Freelance journalist here in Dhaka,
largest number of H1B visas. Good technical knowBangladesh. Right now, I am writing my M Phil
how coupled with high level of skill in Englishthesis on Role of English Language in Information
language have helped Indian technologicalTechnology Sector of Bangladesh. I am a Member
professionals to shine in the US market. Decreaseof Editorial Board of the leading ICT Magazine of
in the number of Visas from 195,000 to 65,000Bangladesh, Computer Bichitra . Besides this I
did not help India at all as the number of peoplehave some past expereince of Teaching English
studying in technological fields is increasing all theLanguage in the UNiversity level and also being a
time. At the same time, those professionals whoResearch Assistant for MBA department in a
go to USA with H1B Visa benefit the IndianUniversity. I have been writing in newspapers and
economy in 3 ways. First of all, they get goodmagazines for the last 10 years and I have
salary and when they send a considerable portionpublished more than 400 artilces, featuures,
of their income to their families in India, Indianreports, interviews, and tranlsations on various
economy is blessed with the arrival of hardtopics.