US immigration reform bill – fingers crossed, elbows out

RASHMEE ROSHAN LALL May 15, 2013

180px-Statue-de-la-liberte-new-yorkSo far, almost nothing suggests that the US immigration reform bill won’t go through – eventually.

That said, it is a given that US  immigration reform cannot please everyone and that ongoing attempts to bring in the most sweeping changes in 30 years may impress Indian outsourcing companies least of all. They predict the loss of at least one percentage point in direct profits as well as other collateral damage.

But the Bill has something for everyone: protection for domestic job seekers; reassurance for the trade unions; ambitious and expensive security measures along the 3,000-km border with Mexico to placate hardline Republicans; the chance for American companies to recruit highly-skilled foreign workers and for American farmers and ranchers to legally hire unskilled foreign labour; the promise of cash or competence (or both) coming into the US through foreign entrepreneurs.

The Bill addressing everything and everyone. Thereby, of course, it pleases no one, but may perhaps displease too few to perish before it remakes the American dream.