[Indians were relatively welcoming of Mr. Trump’s victory, and many here express admiration for his business empire and promised crackdown on terrorism. But even before Wednesday’s shootings, that optimism had been diluted by fears that America might no longer welcome immigrants.]
By Ellen Barry and Nida Najar
 |
|
A church service in
Olathe, Kan., in honor of two immigrants from India
who were shot in a bar. Credit Amy Stroth for The New York Times
|
NEW
DELHI — Jeena Sharma, 25,
was applying for a work visa to the United States when news came that two
Indian engineers had been shot in a Kansas bar by a man who drunkenly
questioned their immigration status.
News of the shootings, which took place last
Wednesday, was quickly eclipsed by other developments in Washington, and even
in Kansas, but the same cannot be said of the Sharma household of Mumbai, where
Ms. Sharma has received emphatic maternal lectures about her plans to move,
starting first thing in the morning.
“She asked me: ‘Why do you even need to go to
the States? Why do you need to go to a country that doesn’t want you? I’m going
to be scared for your life every day,’” Ms. Sharma said.
Even as she endeavored, patiently, to convey
to her mother the difference between Kansas and New York City, where she hopes
to move, Ms. Sharma felt her own apprehensions growing, as the days passed and
President Trump made no statement on the crime.
“It’s definitely very scary for me at the
moment,” she said. “It’s almost as if a brown person is dead, like it doesn’t
matter.”
The body of Srinivas Kuchibhotla, the
32-year-old software engineer fatally shot in the Olathe, Kan., bar, was
expected to arrive by Monday in Hyderabad, a technology hub where immigration
to the United States has long been viewed as the surest path to success.
Indians were relatively welcoming of Mr.
Trump’s victory, and many here express admiration for his business empire and
promised crackdown on terrorism. But even before Wednesday’s shootings, that
optimism had been diluted by fears that America might no longer welcome
immigrants.
India is second only to China as a feeder to
American colleges, with around 165,000 students enrolled in the 2015-16 school
year, according to the Institute of International Education. Indians are the
largest recipients of temporary skilled worker visas, known as H-1B visas,
which the Trump administration intends to cut back. And close to half a million
Indians, who mostly went to the United States legally as students or tourists
or on work visas, have stayed on after their visas expired, the Pew Research
Center estimates.
Reports of rising American hostility toward
immigrants have stunned many Indians, said Alyssa Ayres, a senior fellow at the
Council on Foreign Relations, who visited Hyderabad recently.
“I had a guy on a plane sitting next to me,
who turned to me and said, ‘Is it true, what they say about America under
Trump?’” she said. “There is a kind of confusion: What is happening to the
United States? People can’t believe what they’re reading.”
Ill treatment of Indian immigrants has, in
the past, caused serious damage to bilateral relationships. In 2009 and 2010,
reports of racially motivated crimes against Indian students in Australia set
off demonstrations outside the Australian Embassy in New Delhi, where
Australia’s prime minister was burned in effigy. After that, the number of
Indians applying for student visas plunged by nearly half, with severe costs to
Australian educational institutions.
The diplomatic effect of the shootings in
Kansas has been muted so far. Prime Minister Narendra Modi has not commented on
them, though the subject will certainly be raised this week, along with the
thorny issue of curtailing H-1B visas, when Foreign Secretary Subrahmanyam
Jaishankar visits Washington.
Some Indians who had planned to go to the
United States said they were hesitating. Manavi Das, who is considering several
universities, said she was “constantly looking to see if the school is in a red
state, or has witnessed a shooting in recent times.
“After a certain event in November,” she
said, “I have found my apprehensions turned up a notch.”
Sunny Choudhary, 23, said he had decided not
to apply to graduate engineering programs in the United States, because “recent
conditions, they are turning into, I think, hostile conditions.” After Mr.
Trump was elected, he added, “my parents said: ‘No, you should not go there.
Now we won’t let you go there.’ ”
He said that, like many of his friends, he
had narrowed his search to Europe.
And some Indian parents could use their
persuasive talents to encourage their children to return home. “For this
four-year period, after the transfer of regimes, I think Indians can come back
and serve their country,” said Suguna Kadiyala, 73, whose daughter has been in
the United States for 20 years.
Nageswara Rao, 71, whose son and daughter
work in the software sector in the United States, said he was “not much
worried,” though he does dispense regular advice on safety measures.
“It is always better to keep away from bars,”
he said. His children are safe, he added, “because they don’t go to these bars
where white people are more.”
He continued, “I give them advice to be a
little bit careful and don’t get into a wrangle with anybody. Just have your
own peaceful life.”