Are Indian-Americans “too successful”? If Trump wins, expect a backlash

If you are in charge of formulating official anti-discrimination policies concerning employment, education, etc., you can thank some anonymous Canadian bureaucrat for coming up with the term ‘visible minority’. This umbrella term is a perfect descriptor of people who do not fit the ‘norm’ in western society, the norm being white, Christian and male. So, if you fit one or more of these categories -- female, disabled, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Hispanic or African, sport a turban, hijab, yarmulka or deadlocks, wear a sari, sarong or caste mark on a regular basis -- you are covered. Facial recognition systems can spot you from a mile away. However, they are not (yet) good at ascertaining if you are a vegetarian or vegan since that requires harvesting and analysing your social media postings and spending habits. From a technical perspective, this is a no-brainer for the newest AI systems coming on the market.

In the upcoming US presidential election, irrespective of who wins, an American of South Indian heritage -- Kamala Harris or Usha Vance -- will be in the spotlight. Whether this is good or bad, only time will tell. But this much is certain -- a sizeable segment of the US population will resort to name-calling and perhaps even engage in violent acts, much of it directed at the Indian-American community.

When Donald Trump became President in 2017, he appointed Stephen Bannon as chief strategist in the White House and Stephen Miller, his principal speechwriter and adviser on immigration. Come November, these two men are expected to play key roles in the new Trump administration. Much like their boss, Bannon, currently in prison, and Miller are given to making extremely offensive remarks on the ‘visible minority’.

Bannon has suggested that there are already too many Asian tech CEOs in Silicon Valley. “When two-thirds or three-quarters of the CEOs in Silicon Valley are from South Asia or from Asia, I think . . .” Bannon said, “A country is more than an economy. We’re a civic society.” In case readers are not aware, ‘civic society’ is newspeak for white nationalism. Bannon’s comments make clear that if there is such a thing as being too successful in America, it only applies to people of colour.

Of the top 50 IT companies in the US, there are only four South Asian CEOs -- Sundar Pichai (Google/Alphabet), Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe) and Arvind Krishna (IBM).

Bannon’s antagonism toward foreign labour has enormous implications for the tech industry. In all likelihood, the H-1B visa programme, whose principal beneficiaries are IT workers from India, will be terminated, should Trump regain the White House this November.

Bannon and Miller wish to privilege native-born Americans over even the most entrepreneurial (and legal) immigrants such as Pichai and Nadella. Elon Musk, the white South African, however, is exempt. If Bannon and Miller had their way, even legitimate green card-holders would be in jeopardy since their policy proposals would not just prevent new people from coming, they would also change the rules for people who are already here legally.

Stephen Miller was the architect of the family separation policy which resulted in parents being deported while their children were held in cages in the US. He justified his actions by stating that he was protecting Americans from being killed by immigrants and refugees. Miller’s own grandmother believed that he had unleashed what she labelled a Pandora’s box of hatred which was going to be very difficult to contain.

Miller’s major priorities for a second-term Trump administration are the following: limit the granting of asylum to refugees, expand the travel ban from Muslim countries, place new limits on work visas, and tougher visa screening protocols which would include vetting the “ideological sympathies or leanings” of visa applicants by talking to people close to applicants about their beliefs. He has said a second-term Trump administration would seek to expand “burden-sharing” deals with Honduras, Guatemala and El Salvador that cut off pathways to the US for asylum-seekers. “The president would like to expand that to include the rest of the world,” Miller added. This is starkly reminiscent of Britain’s recently rescinded policy of sending asylum applicants to Rwanda while their applications were processed.

Stephen Miller, who is Jewish, seems to forget that his own ancestors escaped from southwest Russia (what is now the newly independent State of Belarus) when the Jews were being persecuted in the early 20th century.

Given the prevalence of white nationalism and white resentment in the US, if you think Indian-Americans, even the legal ones, cannot be deported, you are mistaken. Hundreds of thousands of longtime Indian residents in Uganda and Myanmar were kicked out overnight for being too successful. Would America, under Trump, be any different?