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Stay involved in politics and continue to be active: Congressman Thanedar
Tracing his roots and of a person who failed to get an F-1 visa in Mumbai multiple times before being successful, Thanedar stressed that he was unapologetically pro-Hindu, pro-India and someone working for a strong India-United States relations
Stay involved in politics and continue to be active: Congressman Thanedar / X/@RepShriThanedar
The broken immigration system of America would have to be fixed if the country is to keep its edge in technology, innovation and discovery as a skilled workforce makes a huge difference in productivity and GDP growth, Congressman Shree Thanedar of Michigan told a gather a gathering of academics that included a large student body at Stanford.
“We are starting to lose our skilled immigrant workforce to places like Canada and Australia, about 10,000 of our H one Bs who could not change their status, have gone to Canada and Australia and other countries are trying to get them. And this is going to be a huge loss. And I'm fighting in Congress to change those laws to create opportunities”, the Congressman, who sits on the House Homeland Security Committee, said.
“ I'm working a lot on our broken immigration system. As you've seen, businesses are hurting for not having enough H1B visa, green card holders, people taking decades to get their green cards. A lot of stress for families. We are losing talent. We are losing skilled engineers workforce to places like Canada and Australia because our immigration system is broken”, the Democrat told the Stanford India Leaders of Tomorrow conference.
HAPPENING NOW: Rep. @ShriThanedar is among a group of leaders speaking to students at the Stanford India Dialogue as presented by @sipec_stanford @MotwaniJadeja. Full coverage exclusively on #DiyaTV! #StanfordIndia pic.twitter.com/cbMFIx7mJy
— Diya TV (@DiyaTV) March 2, 2024
“ I've introduced several bills. One of my bill, with an advanced degree you could get around the visa system country quotas. I'm trying to get rid of the country quotas and there's a lot that I'm trying to raise the number of H1 B visas so that America remains competitive. America continues to keep its edge in technology and innovation and discovery as these skilled workforce make a huge difference in America's productivity and America's GDP growth”, Thanedar told the conference organised by Stanford India Policy and Economics Club in partnership with the Motwani Jadeja Foundation.
Tracing his roots and of a person who failed to get an F-1 visa in Mumbai multiple times before being successful, Thanedar stressed that he was unapologetically pro-Hindu, pro-India and someone working for a strong India-United States relations. “ And I'm just proud to be as an immigrant who came with nothing to this country”, he said making the point that even in the face of hate and bigotry the community is seen to be remaining passive.
“… the kind of phobia, the kind of hate bigotry that we start seeing, and we don't have an answer to that… Indian communities are largely passive, largely because that is how we were grown up. Not to fight, not to hurt others, live peacefully, but sometime believing peacefully being passive is seen as a sign of weakness, really a sign of weakness that, and these attacks when they happen, there is no coordination in terms of fighting those” he said.
“…And that can only happen through active involvement in politics of active involvement in civic issues…we need to stay active… We have today some prominent members. We have a vice president, Kamala Harris of Indian Origin, and we have several other prominent people in the politics. But Indian Americans continue to need to stay focused, stay involved, and not be ignored, forgotten or left aside”, Thanedar maintained.
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