Immigration: Even if the Welcome Mat is Frayed, America's Allure Remains Strong

Just as some countries are dealing with immigration, many others – like India – are grappling with emigration.

Just as some countries deal with the challenges of immigration, there are countries that deal with the challenges of emigration. Is India in the latter group?

(Photo: Kamran Akhter/The Quint)

Regardless of who wins the 2024 United States election, one thing is clear: immigration is not going away. Not only because people will continue to move there from other countries, but because this age-old trend will remain a highly charged political issue. Even as outbound migration continues from nations like India, there will be opposition to inbound migration in places like America.

Unauthorised border crossings get a lot of attention, but it’s clear that in the Age of Anger, to borrow Pankaj Mishra’s book title, legal immigration is in the crosshairs as well.

In the early 1990s, just as the heady days of globalisation were getting underway, the slogan “It’s the economy, stupid” gained currency with politicians trying to win national elections.

It was the heyday of neoliberals. Lately, however, neoliberals have been mugged by reality, to tweak a famous quote by writer Irving Kristol, who actually said: “A neoconservative is a liberal who's been mugged by reality.” The second sentence of his quote, which is hardly mentioned, reads: “A neoliberal is a liberal who's been mugged by reality but has refused to press charges.”

The rise of right-wing populism in the West, fueled by economic challenges, inequality, demographic change, and technology, has paved the way for what could be the new slogan: “It’s immigration, stupid.”

Even when the economy remains robust, as it is now in the US compared to other Western nations, support for immigration will face headwinds in the coming years.

And if there’s a recession, we can be certain that scapegoating won’t go out of fashion – meaning, the slogan will still be “It’s immigration, stupid.” Remarkably, this is happening in countries that have a history of immigration, countries that have benefitted – and continue to benefit – from immigration.

The door is unlikely to close in the US, but internal pressures will keep it only partially open.

Why Many Nations Don't Welcome Immigrants

Then there are other prosperous nations (Japan comes to mind) that won’t accept immigrants, at least in appreciable numbers, despite a shrinking, ageing population and a growing need for labour. They’re unused to immigration. Politics, language, culture, and identity can be stumbling blocks even when the advantages of accepting qualified immigrants become obvious. Mainstream leaders hesitate to open the door, because they’re wary of provoking right-wing nationalists who play on the fears and prejudices of the local population.

Maybe this shouldn’t surprise us. After all, even a country like India, which exports rather than imports people, is not immune to ethnoreligious nationalism, as we’ve seen over the last decade.

Some would look on the bright side and argue that there’s been progress in this century. Remember 'Kinder statt Inder' ('Children instead of Indians')? Coined in 2000, the slogan captured the harsh reaction in Germany to the introduction of a permanent resident card scheme to attract high-skilled immigrants.

The Wall Street Journal, in a 2002 article about the experiences of newcomers, summed it up with this headline: “Indian Immigrants Discover Germany Is No Promised Land.” Fast-forward two decades, and it’s a different story. As the BBC noted, “Indians now rank as the top immigrant earners in Europe’s largest economy.”

In 2022, Indians received 17,379 German work visas, the highest share among all foreigners. In addition, an estimated 43,000 Indians are pursuing their studies at German universities.

But it’s also true that Germany is struggling to recover from recent economic setbacks – and to make matters worse, the Alternative for Germany, which is gaining ground, became the nation’s first far-right party to win a state election since the Nazi era. It doesn’t bode well for pro-immigration policies.

The Challenges of Emigration

Just as some countries deal with the challenges of immigration, there are countries that deal with the challenges of emigration. Is India in the latter group? Unlikely, one would think.

With a population of 1.43 billion, India has a lot of people to spare! And yet, it’s worth asking why so many talented, not to mention affluent, Indians are leaving a nation that is, as the government and media keep reminding us, thriving and rising to “great power” status. Last year, according to the Ministry of External Affairs, 216,219 Indians gave up their citizenship.

Not surprisingly, because of the mismatch between supply and demand, too many well-qualified people fail to fulfil their potential in the world’s most populous country.

Hence, even if the welcome mat is frayed these days, the allure of the West remains strong. There could be other, more immediate reasons for leaving their homeland – higher education, displacement, family unification – but for most Indian migrants, the main draw is better economic opportunities.

The draconian Immigration Act of 1924 kept “undesirable migrants” like Asians out of the US for four decades. Nevertheless, 1,692 Indian nationals still managed to obtain legal permanent resident status in the 1940s, according to the 2020 Yearbook of Immigration Statistics. In the 1950s, that number was 1,922 – but after the restrictions were lifted in 1965, immigration to the US from India grew steadily. It reached 623,919 between 2010 and 2019. The path is bound to become steeper, though it’s unlikely to stem the flow of immigrants.

The Age of Migration

Humans have been migrating from the time they appeared on Earth, and regardless of borders, that will not stop. The biggest spike in migration (100 million) occurred in the first two decades of this century. By 2020, around 272 million people were living outside their country of birth.

As for the US, according to a Pew Research Center analysis, more than 70 million immigrants arrived on these shores over the last six decades, following the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965. Immigrants currently account for about 14% of the US population. A century ago, the largest immigrant populations were from Germany and Italy. Now, as Pew points out, Mexico (23%) and India (6%) account for the biggest sources of all immigrants.

The author Sam Miller, a former BBC journalist, is a migrant. Long married to an Indian woman, he has lived in several countries and cities, including Delhi, about which he wrote a book. His latest book, now out in paperback, is titled Migrants: The Story of Us.

Arguing that, historically and culturally, migration is a crucial element of the human story, Miller notes how it “has, in fact, become a modern proxy for a whole range of other issues that impinge on our lives and our thinking: identity, ethnicity, religion, ideas of home, patriotism, nostalgia, integration, multiculturalism, safety, terrorism, racism.”

(Murali Kamma is a writer and managing editor based in Atlanta, Georgia. This is an opinion piece and the views expressed are the author’s own. The Quint neither endorses nor is responsible for them.)