After Shootings, Indians Are Wary of Coming to U.S.

NEW DELHI — Jeena Sharma, 25, was
in the process of 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 a 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, as he said, “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 has 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.”
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