'Will be net losers': EAM Jaishankar on US, Europe 'restricting' skilled immigration
Jaishankar said economies need skilled people as they swiftly move towards advanced manufacturing and the demand cannot be fulfilled organically at the required rate.
External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar on Wednesday said the United States and the countries in Europe will be doing harm to their own interests and will end up being "net losers" if they decide to hinder the movement of skilled workers by imposing curbs on immigration.
When asked about the increasing political and social pushback against immigration in various countries, EAM Jaishankar, speaking at India's World Annual Conclave 2025 in New Delhi, said the mobility of talent across the countries is of mutual benefit and it had happened because several nations have allowed their businesses to relocate over the past few decades.
“A lot of these are issues which they have to resolve because, in many cases the actual crisis has nothing to do with the mobility of the incoming workforce. If there are concerns, let us say, in the United States or in Europe, it is because they very consciously and deliberately, over the last two decades, allowed their businesses to relocate. It was their choice and strategy. They have to find ways of fixing it, and many of them are,” he said.
"The part which concerns us is to convince them that mobility, the use of talent across boundaries, is to our mutual benefit. That they would be net losers if they actually erected too many roadblocks to the flow of talent," he added.
Cannot meet demand organically, says EAM Jaishankar
Jaishankar said economies need skilled people as they swiftly move towards advanced manufacturing and the demand cannot be fulfilled organically at the required rate.
"As we move into an era of advanced manufacturing, we will need more talent, not less, and talent cannot be developed organically at a high rate. There is a certain structural impediment out there. In their own societies, you can see the tension," he said.
US crackdown on immigration
The United States has introduced a number of visa restrictions in recent years, many of which have disproportionately affected immigrants. Individuals on H-1B visas, in particular, have experienced significant impacts from these policy changes.