Elon Musk addressed concerns that talented immigrants are taking jobs from native-born citizens, saying he’s unsure about the validity of this perception. Based on his experience, he believes talented people are scarce, suggesting that skilled immigrants are filling gaps rather than taking jobs.
Tesla CEO Elon Musk has praised the contributions of Indian talent to the US, saying the country has “benefitted immensely” from skilled Indians. His statement comes amidst concerns over Trump’s anti-immigration policies, which have raised fears about the impact on Indian professionals and students.
Elon Musk emphasises need for ‘balanced’ immigration policies
In an interview with Nikhil Kamath, Co-Founder of Zerodha, Musk discussed immigration policies and entrepreneurship. “I think America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America. I mean, America’s been an immense beneficiary of talent from India,” he said. Musk’s comments highlight the value of diversity and the impact of Indian professionals in various sectors, including technology and innovation. Many individuals of Indian origin have made significant contributions to the US economy, driving growth and innovation.
He emphasised the need for balanced immigration policies, criticising the Biden administration’s lack of border controls.”I think there are different schools of thought. It’s not unanimous, but under the Biden administration, it was basically a total free-for-all with like no border controls. Unless you’ve got border controls. So you had massive amounts of illegal immigration under Biden, and actually, it also had like somewhat of a negative selection effect,” he said. Musk said that open borders were detrimental as they allowed even criminals to enter the US.”If there’s a massive financial incentive to come to the US illegally and get all these government benefits, then you’re going to necessarily create a diffusion gradient for people to come to the US. It’s an incentive structure that obviously made no sense. Like, you got to have border controls. It’s kind of ridiculous not to. Then that’s what the left wants to basically have: open borders. It doesn’t matter if someone knows what the situation is; it could be a criminal- doesn’t matter,” he said.
Elon Musk addressed concerns that talented immigrants are taking jobs from native-born citizens, saying he’s unsure about the validity of this perception. Based on his experience, he believes talented people are scarce, suggesting that skilled immigrants are filling gaps rather than taking jobs.”On the right, you’ve got a perception that somehow their jobs are being taken by talented people from other countries. I don’t know how real that is. My direct observation is that there’s always a scarcity of talented people,” he said.
Elon Musk on ‘misuse’ of H-1B visa
Further, Musk has expressed concerns about some outsourcing companies exploiting the H-1B visa system to hire workers at lower costs, but he also warned that shutting down the program would be detrimental to the US. “…some companies out there are making it more of a cost thing, where it’s like if they can employ someone for a fraction of the cost of an American citizen, then I guess these other companies would hire people just to save costs. At my companies, the issue is we are trying to get the most talented people in the world, and we pay way above average. So, that’s not my experience,” Musk said.
“I think there has been some misuse of the H-1B programme. It would be accurate to say that some of the outsourcing companies have kind of gamed the system on the H-1B front, and we need to stop the gaming of the system. But I’m certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H-1B programme, which some on the Right are. They don’t realise that would actually be very bad,” he added.
(With inputs friom ANI)
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