Issues of Kuwait Expat Quota Bill and USA’s H-1B Visa and their Implications on Indian Diaspora

Context

Eight lakh Indians could be forced to leave Kuwait as its National Assembly committee has approved a draft Expat Quota Bill seeking to reduce the number of foreign workers in the Gulf country.

Background

The Kuwait expat draft law calls to introduce a quota for expats in the country to reduce the percentage of foreigners in the country. It proposed to reduce the number of expats (Foreigners) from 70% to 30% of 4.3 million populations in the country; presently whose numbers surpass the local population in the country.

The current population of Kuwait is 4.3 million, with Kuwaitis making up 1.3 million of the population, and expats accounting for 3 million.

The expat quota bill will now be referred to the concerned committee for consideration. The bill, once passed by the Parliament will not only force many Indians out from the west Asian country but will also impact remittances.

Amid a slump in oil prices and the Corona pandemic, there has been a spike in anti-expat rhetoric as lawmakers and government officials call for reducing the number of foreigners in Kuwait.

Kuwait's Population problem

Kuwait has a real problem in its population structure, in which 70% are expats, and what is more notable is that 1.3 million of the 3.35 million expats “are either illiterate or can merely read and write”. Obviously, the people of Kuwait do not really need them.

The draft law will propose to impose a cap on the number of expats, whose numbers must decrease gradually by stating that this year expats will be 70 per cent, next year 65 per cent and so on.

Implications on Indian Community in Qatar

According to the Indian embassy in Kuwait, there are about 28,000 Indians working for the Kuwaiti Government in various jobs like nurses, engineers in national oil companies and a few as scientists. The majority of Indians (5.23 lakh) are employed in private sectors.

Kuwait is a top source of remittances for India. In 2018, India received nearly $ 4.8 billion from Kuwait as remittances.

The bill proposes to reduce the number of Indians, the largest expatriate community, to 15% of the population. Similar quotas have been fixed for other nationalities.

If the Expat Bill becomes the law, then India will be severely affected as this may force about 8,00,000 Indians to leave Kuwait.

Most of the Indian workers in Kuwait are native to Kerala, so it would be highly affected by the proposed Expat Quota Bill.

Reasons behind the Decision

• The six countries that make up the Gulf Cooperation Council are Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman and Qatar sometimes take these austerity measures in order to pacify the local population.
• The expat quota bill intends to introduce a 'quota system' for employing foreigners in Kuwait in order to address what the Kuwait’s law-makers term as a 'demographic imbalance'.
• Foreigners have accounted for the majority of Kuwait’s COVID-19 cases as the disease spread among migrant workers living in overcrowded housing.
• According to latest data from Johns Hopkins University, more than 49,000 cases of coronavirus have been reported in Kuwait. Globally, more than 5 lakh people have died and over 11 million have been infected by COVID-19, simultaneously the slump in oil prices have collapsed the economy of Gulf countries resulted in speeding up the legislation.
• In April, 2020 the Kuwaiti Government had also announced a 'pardon plan' for illegal migrants to encourage them to leave Kuwait. The Plan offers the illegal expatriates exemption from punishment and provides free home return flights.

India’s Response to the Act

On 9th July, 2020, External Affairs Ministry spokesperson said that the Ministry is closely following developments relating to the proposed expat quota bill by Kuwait that could severely impact the Indian community as it seeks to significantly slash the number of foreign workers in the Gulf country.

Department of Non-Resident Keralite Affairs (NoRKA) spokesperson said that they are aware of the move and awaiting details from Kuwait as If the expatriate Indians are reduced to 15% of the population, Kerala will be the worst affected.

Similar wave in USA

On 7th July, 2020, the US agency Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced that foreign students pursuing degrees in USA will have to leave the country or risk deportation if their universities switch to online-only classes in this fall, referring to the September-to-December semester.

To put it simply, if a US university goes completely online because of, an outbreak of the corona virus, foreign students at the university will have to head back to their home countries (the current guidelines say nothing about possible travel restrictions that might exist back home).

This also means that Indian students who are set to attend the new semester cannot enter the US (if their university goes completely online) under the new restrictions.

The rule applies to holders of F-1 and M-1 non-immigrant visas, which allow non-immigrant students to pursue academic and vocational course work respectively.

Students from India and other countries will suffer through these restrictions.

India has raised this decision with the US. Sources said that the US side took note of it and said they will keep the best interests of the Indian students in mind, and would try and mitigate the impact of the decision. It also conveyed to India that detailed guidelines for implementation of the decision are yet to come out.

US H-1B Visa issue

H-1B is a non-immigrant visa category that allows highly skilled people to work in the US, and has been used by software companies to take skilled IT professionals from India. At present 90 per cent of applicants for the H-1B visa are from India. There are a total of over 4 lakh H-1B visa holders in the US, and over three-fourths are Indians.

There are also a significant number of Indian L-1B Visa holders in the US. The L-1B visa is also a non-immigrant visa category that is designed to allow multinational companies to transfer their employees from foreign branches to locations within the U.S.

In the last week of June, Trump had issued a proclamation to suspend H-1B visas, a move which is expected to affect a lot of Indian IT professionals, along with other foreign work visas for the rest of the year. Trump said the step was essential to help millions of Americans who have lost their jobs due to the current COVID-19 induced economic crisis.

The move is expected to impact a large number of Indian IT professionals and several American and Indian companies who were issued H-1B visas by the US government for the fiscal year 2021 beginning October 1.

Way forward for India

This bill as not practicable as Kuwait is largely depending on expatriate workers who are engaged in every sector of Kuwaiti economy. This kind of localisation policy has been brought by many Gulf States but has never been successful in reducing the size of expatriate workers in the GCC countries.

It is also observed that Indian workers are preferred by the Gulf states due to their hard work, sincerity and non-involvement in any political activities in the host Gulf countries. Hence we can conclude by saying that the presence of Indian workers is not going to be affected in the Gulf countries especially in Kuwait in the long term.

As far as US visa issue is concern, there are no proper guidelines till date, some experts suggest that the propose restrictions would never be implemented, because of lack of wider political support. Also it can adversely impact the credible image of US as a destination for higher studies.

Connecting the dots

Question for Prelims

Consider the following statements:

1. H-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US Universities to give admission to foreign nationals.
2. L-1B visa is a non-immigrant visa that allows US Companies to employ specialized workers.

Which of the above statements is/ are correct ?

(a) 1 only
(b) 2 only
(c) Both 1 and 2
(d) Neither 1 nor 2

Question for Mains

‘The significance of globalization has been declining in the recent years and nations prefer to follow anti-immigration policies.’Comment.