INDIA - MIGRATION IN 2000

India has firmed up its role as the world’s major provider of IT technicians.  Aside from the traditional US market (the US consulate in Chennai has issued 25 percent of all H-1B visas for the US), India’s highly skilled technicians have been wooed by Germany, Austria and Singapore. Some expressed fears of a brain drain in this sector, considering that the demand for IT technicians rose by 24 percent. However, fears of a talent squeeze have been allayed, considering that India can produce 178,000 software engineers every year. On the lower end, the export of migrant workers to the Middle East continued. However, the ban on the deployment of house workers in Kuwait was reinforced. It is estimated that out of 285,00 Indians in Kuwait, 100,000 are domestic workers. In the meantime, irregular migration from Bangladesh to Assam continued, raising security concerns, as forces in Assam asking for political independence have surfaced. The state is also experiencing ethnic strife between the aboriginal Bodos and Adivasi tribes. To increase control of its borders, India decided to complete the fencing of the remaining 797 kilometers of border with Bangladesh. It might not be sufficient to stop irregular immigration, as the police estimate that perhaps 300,000 Bangladeshis enter India irregularly every year. Irregular immigration was experienced also from Burma, while India remained opened to offer shelter to Tamil refugees escaping conflict in Sri Lanka. About 70,000 Tamils are in refugee camps.