Latest news with #India-born
San Francisco Chronicle
10 hours ago
- Politics
- San Francisco Chronicle
These Bay Area communities are most vulnerable to Trump's immigration crackdowns
With the Trump administration clamping down on immigration, experts say some Bay Area immigrants may pursue one of the surest ways to protect their ability to remain in the country: becoming a citizen. That is, if they want to — or even can. Just 25% of Bay Area residents born in Guatemala, excluding children of American parents, are citizens. The same was true for 35% of Mexico-born residents. Meanwhile, nearly 60% of residents born in China and Nicaragua are naturalized. Still, overall more than half of the Bay Area's foreign-born population has already won citizenship, 2023 data from the U.S. Census Bureau's American Community Survey shows, similar to the national figure. That means many of the region's immigrants are likely protected from deportation and scrutiny from border officials, said Bill Hing, a professor of law and migration studies at the University of San Francisco — though there have been some exceptions. As President Donald Trump continues to restrict immigration, more people who are eligible for naturalization will likely pursue that option, Hing said. It might not be the first time — naturalizations rose during Trump's first term. Naturalized citizens are less likely than lawfully present immigrants to report fearing detention or deportation, though about 1 in 4 say they are worried for themselves or a family member, according to a recent Kaiser Family Foundation poll. Hing expects a particularly large surge in people born in Mexico, Central America and South America to seek U.S. citizenship, hoping to avoid getting caught in Trump's mass deportation plans. Many immigrants from those countries who can pursue citizenship often don't, due to a variety of factors. Deportation fears could change that for some immigrants. 'The kind of enforcement that's going on right now is racially profiling those groups,' Hing said. The reasons some groups have relatively low naturalization rates vary, said Eric McGhee, a senior fellow at the Public Policy Institute of California. Many immigrants from Honduras, for example, arrived in the past two decades, meaning they've had less time to seek citizenship. Even among groups for whom naturalization is more common, such as China- and India-born immigrants, few of those who came to the U.S. in the past two decades are citizens. Indian immigrants in particular can face long wait times for permanent legal status — the longest of any nationality, according to some research. Naturalization applicants must have a green card for at least five years or be married to a U.S. citizen or permanent resident for at least three years, with exceptions for members of the military. Even with those hurdles cleared, there are often others, including language barriers. And undocumented immigrants are, of course, completely ineligible to become citizens. That likely explains why so few people among certain foreign-born groups, such as those born in Guatemala, are naturalized, McGhee said. While the Trump administration has targeted immigrants who are in the U.S. lawfully, such as by targeting international students, the crackdown will undoubtedly affect undocumented immigrants the most. 'There's a lot in flux and in play, but there's no question that the flexibility and range of options for the Trump administration are greater on the undocumented side,' McGhee said. There are additional reasons immigrants from some countries might be more likely to be citizens than others. Bay Area nonprofits previously encouraged Chinese-born residents to become citizens so they could gain the right to vote and become a political force, Hing said. The effort, made possible by the repeal of the Chinese Exclusion Acts in 1943, was a success. More than 90% of Bay Area Chinese-born residents who immigrated to the U.S. from 1970 to 1990 are citizens. Whether immigrants seek to become citizens also depends on the situation in their home country, Hing said. For example, Taiwan's political upheaval in the 20th century, and now its tensions with China, may give immigrants born there more of an incentive to seek naturalization. But those factors may matter less for immigrants from wealthy, stable countries like Japan, Singapore and Australia, especially for those who plan to travel often (or ultimately return) to their birth country. But anti-immigrant sentiment can also lead to an increase in naturalization, as Hing predicts will happen again. After California Proposition 187 was passed in 1994, cutting undocumented immigrants' access to social services, the state saw a surge in naturalization applications.
Hindustan Times
6 days ago
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
New Zealand immigration minister says she never replies to emails from Indians
New Zealand's Minister of Immigration Erica Stanford has come under fire for comments that appear to stereotype Indians. Stanford was responding to a question in parliament on May 6 when she made a passing reference to Indian migrants. Her remarks may have flown under the radar, if not for Priyanca Radhakrishnan, an India-born Labour MP, who called Stanford's remarks 'careless at best and prejudiced at worst'. According to a report in The Indian Weekender, Erica Stanford recently admitted to forwarding official correspondence to her personal gmail account. The New Zealand National Party cabinet minister was responding to a question in parliament about this misstep when she made a remark about Indians that many found distasteful. The Kiwi immigration minister said she never opened emails from Indians, comparing them to spam. 'I have complied with the Official Information Act. I have also made sure that everything is available to be captured and have forwarded everything that I've needed to to my parliamentary email address,' said Stanford. 'I will acknowledge, though, in a very similar case to Kelvin Davis, I receive a lot of unsolicited emails like, for example, things from people in India asking for immigration advice, which I never respond to. I almost regard those as being akin to spam, and so there are those ones.' Chennai-born Radhakrishnan accused Stanford of playing up negative stereotypes about Indians. 'Comments like these serve to reinforce negative stereotypes against an entire community of people,' Radhakrishnan told The Indian Weekender. She added that it was unacceptable for a minister to single out people from one ethnicity. Stanford, however, has defended her remarks, claiming she was misunderstood. 'I did not say it is automatically considered as spam,' she clarified. 'I said 'I almost regard those as being akin to spam'.'
Hindustan Times
21-05-2025
- Business
- Hindustan Times
Woman roasted for mistaking random stranger in Bali for Indian-origin CEO: ‘He had your charms right on'
A Singapore woman's long account of meeting the former CEO of DBS Bank was refuted by the man himself. Janney Hujic took to LinkedIn one day ago to share a lengthy post about meeting Piyush Gupta unexpectedly in Bali. She even shared a photograph with a man who bears a remarkable resemblance to Gupta - the former CEO of DBS Bank. Unfortunately, a resemblance is all it was - the real Piyush Gupta commented on Hujic's post to set the record straight. 'Sorry to disillusion you. That isn't me!' wrote Gupta, the India-born millionaire who served as chief executive of DBS Group between 2009 and 2025. The exchange has gone viral on social media, leaving thousands of people in stitches. In her LinkedIn post, Janney Hujic said she had a chance encounter with Gupta at a cafe in Bali. Hujic, who has worked at DBS Bank, wrote about being struck by his humility, despite his stature as a respected business leader. 'I glanced across the room and thought, That looks an awful lot like Piyush. Curious, I walked over — and sure enough, it was him. Piyush Gupta, the former CEO of DBS Bank. Casual. Composed. Entirely unassuming,' wrote Hujic in her LinkedIn post. The two spoke about women's empowerment, the importance of rest and renewal, and her work organising transformative, all-women travel expeditions — including an upcoming 105 km trek across a frozen lake in Mongolia for charity. In her post, the Singapore-based entrepreneur praised Gupta's humility and 'quiet conviction.' At the end of the meeting, the man pretending to be Gupta even posed for a picture with Hujic. What Hujic did not realise at the time – and even as she wrote the post – was that the man in Bali was a complete stranger who just happened to resemble Piyush Gupta. The real Piyush Gupta set the record straight himself. 'Sorry to disillusion you. That isn't me!' he wrote in the comments section. 'Oh gosh, I've seen you when I was at DBS couldn't tell the 2 apart. Kudos to him. In his defense he had your charms right on and he said all the right things,' Hujic wrote in response. The exchange has left tens of thousands of people amused. 'LinkedIn has peaked for me, nothing will ever top this,' wrote one person on Threads. 'I am HOLLERING! that man was just having his coffee. 'No entourage. No airs.' Because it's a random uncle ma'am,' another wrote. 'Hilarious! This seems straight out of an episode of The White Lotus,' a person on LinkedIn added.
Time of India
19-05-2025
- Business
- Time of India
Indian-origin Howard University professor says H-1B visas have no connection to US worker shortage
Howard University professor Ron Hira said H-1B visa programs that allow US companies to hire skilled labour from outside the country have no connection to merit or shortage of US workers for those specific jobs. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Ron Hira, whose parents were Indians and came to the US on similar visas has long been a critic of the H-1b visa programs as he argued that companies misuse these programs to outsource cheaper employees instead of giving work to US graduates. In 2016, he gave a testimony in the Senate on immigration and detailed that both his parents were from India and his wife is an India-born. And hence to testify against this visa program was very meaningful to him personally. Amid the ongoing H-1B row, triggered by the release of the latest H-1B figures of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services, Roh Hira said that H-1B workers get selected by a random lottery and not the best and brightest. The USCIS revealed that the administration selected 120,141 H-1B visa applications for 2026, which is the lowest since 2021, but US tech workers claim that the number is huge given the massive layoffs that are happening in companies. USCIS makes selections by lottery every year when the agency receives more H-1B electronic registrations than permitted. The annual H-1B limit is 65,000 plus a 20,000 exemption for individuals with an advanced degree from a US university. The H-1B figures for 2026 have puzzled MAGA, as they expected a crackdown on H-1B from the Donald Trump administration. During the major H-1B row that involved Elon Musk, Vivek Ramaswamy supporting the program, President Donald Trump said he was in favor of H-1B, though he has taken a stern stance on illegal immigration. Tired of too many ads? go ad free now Republican leader Virgil Bierschwale questioned whether the 2026 H-1B figures reveal that the employers have already chosen the employees they will fire as no new jobs are being created. "This 2026 visa approval gets me. Over a year ahead of the current date, they already have approved visas. And they must have a job to have a visa. Which means the employer has already picked out the employee they plan on firing since they are not creating new jobs. How is this not fraud at every level?" Bierschwale wrote. "A huge chunk of H-1B petitions are for jobs that don't even exist. Indian IT body shops are notorious for hoarding H-1B workers, hoping to lease them out later. If there's no client, they get 'benched'—which is illegal. But exploiting desperate migrants is a business model too profitable to quit," X handle US Tech Workers wrote.
Bloomberg
15-05-2025
- Business
- Bloomberg
Billionaire Mittal Said to Buy ‘Beverly Hills of Dubai' Home
Updated on Takeaways NEW Lakshmi Mittal, among Britain's richest residents, is the buyer of one of Dubai's priciest mansions, people familiar with the matter said. The India-born billionaire snapped up a palatial home in a gated community known as the 'Beverly Hills of Dubai,' said the people, who didn't want to be identified speaking publicly about the purchase, adding the home sold earlier this year.
