How Indians in the US are harmed by job losses at Google, Facebook, and other IT companies

 How Indians in the US are harmed by job losses at Google, Facebook, and other IT companies

As a result of a wave of industry-wide layoffs, Indian engineering manager Abir was in the middle of a performance review cycle when he was abruptly fired from his job at Google.

Abeer, 31, who requested to use a pseudonym in order to protect his identity, stated that "everything was going well." "I am aware of some individuals who were in fact promoted in October before being demoted. No one anticipated this would happen."



The lives of foreign workers like Abeer who are in the country on H-1B visas intended for "high skilled" occupations are changing as a result of a wave of tech layoffs at American companies like Meta Platforms Inc, Google, and Amazon.

Unless they can find another job or successfully change their immigration status, fired workers risk leaving the country in 60 days under the terms of their visas.

According to the US government, Indians will make up about 75% of special visa petitions that are approved in 2021, and industry estimates indicate that they lost close to a third of the nearly 200,000 tech jobs in the country last year. As a result, the lives of thousands of Indian workers have been completely upended in recent months.


Mandakini Gupta, 39, a native of Assam in northeastern India who divides her time between San Diego and India, told the Thomson Reuters Foundation over the phone, "It's a nightmare that I wouldn't wish upon anyone."

Gupta, who is currently employed by Amazon as a programme manager, claimed that while she was on H-1B visas, she had previously experienced several layoffs, which she described as "absolutely harrowing."

It was a "big deal" for her family to send her thousands of miles away to another country when she first moved to the United States in 2013 to pursue a master's degree in our business analysis and market researched at Georgia States University.


clock is ticking.
In 2021, the final year for which a comprehensive data report was available, US Citizenship and Immigration Services approved nearly 407,000 H-1B visa petitions.

According to Khanderao Kand, the organization's founder and president, the current wave of job cuts may represent many of the Indians who have obtained them's first experience with layoffs since arriving in the country.

He claimed that people seeking assistance are frequently terrified as they race against time to find a new job.

As a result, he said, "they experience emotional trauma and wonder what happened." The shock alone causes many of them to lose a week or two.

Other options, according to Kand, could at least temporarily permit H-1B holders to remain in the country but would not grant them the right to employment, such as applying for student visas or filing visas for the spouses of H-1B holders.

A non-profit organisation called the Foundation for India and Indian Diaspora Studies (FIIDS) is one of the organisations urging the US government to extend the grace period for workers past 60 days.

According to some, the current deadline puts migrant workers at risk of being exploited at work by dishonest employers who are aware of their precarious immigration status. These employers might offer less money or a less senior position than someone might otherwise request. Could

As immigrants, we are "extremely vulnerable because we pick at anything that comes our way to be able to maintain our status," according to Gupta. There is opportunity for abuse.

Although there are other job opportunities, they might be in a different location, pay less, or require people to move. Gupta claimed that throughout her time in the nation, she has moved between cities such as Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; Dallas, Texas; and Des Moines, Iowa.

A former Google engineering director who was recently fired said there are significant restrictions for those with L-1 visas while speaking on the condition of anonymity.


People who hold managerial or executive positions or whose jobs necessitate specialised knowledge typically receive those permits.

People with L-1 visas are intracompany transfers to the United States, as opposed to H-1B holders who can look for work at another company if fired.

According to the former engineering director, "L-1 visas are too restrictive because you are limited to a very specific role and you can only be in that box."

"You might pass up opportunities for promotions and benefits (compensation). However, you don't really have the same right to object because your visa would be seriously jeopardised."


options for reduction
According to labour experts, immigrants who survived the recent round of layoffs may also be impacted if corporate cost-cutting measures result in changes to their employment status or pay.

For instance, Google has declared that it is currently blocking some new applications for labour certification that might be included in immigration-related green card applications.

According to Tehmina Watson, a Seattle-based immigration attorney, individuals on the H-1B in the US can extend their stay beyond the initial six-year limit by three years plus three additional extensions if a green card application is submitted.


According to Watson, it will depend on which step of the process is being stopped. Because these players, who are in their prime by six years, will suffer greatly.

Due to workforce reductions in the tech sector, Google has decided to pause new applications. According to a Google spokesperson, this decision will not have an impact on current or future applications for other visa types.

The status of foreign workers' green card applications could be jeopardised, according to advocates, by a pay reduction or downgrade within a single company.

Abhishek Gutgutia, the creator of Zeno, a website that offers guidance to immigrants, said that if employers are making salary adjustments, they should be cautious.

While H-1B employees are paid competitively, they frequently have additional expenses that limit their ability to take even brief periods off from their jobs.

As an immigrant working a job, Gupta claimed that "a lot of the income that I or anyone makes... goes back into paying our parents back because they saved for [college] education or to repay the loans taken by us."

If they lose their jobs before the two-month deadline, these factors increase the pressure.