Just think about all that money leaving America via the legal and illegal alien workers then.
Mexico sends $20 billion out of our economy every year.Now India is getting much more aggressive for that kind of money too.
India’s ‘remittance’ income from the US rising : CII study
India’s remittance income from the US (attributable largely to Indian professionals in the US) stands at US$ 4.5 billion in 2003, according to a study done by Confederation of Indian Industry (CII).
The study titled “India and the United States - Economic Analysis and Trade Security,” says this figure of $4.5 billon roughly corresponds to 21 percent of reported “cross border” services exports of India in the same period and around 7.5 percent of India’s total goods exports earning for the same year. Thus, the importance of such labor exports (skilled, as well as semi-skilled) for India is clearly underlined, says the CII study.
The CII study also adds that the US remains India’s largest single market for such exports, remittances from US being almost double to that from EU.
Remittances from the US grew by 28.5 percent over the period 2000-03, the corresponding figure for the EU being 25 percent, the study points out.
According to the study, remittances from the skilled Indians in the US are largely tantamount to export earnings in terms of Mode 4 (Movement of skilled labor), and India gains substantially from such remittances. The US also gains in this process, says the CII study.
According to the study, India has contributed the largest number of skilled professionals to the US during the period 1985-2000. While a substantial proportion of such skilled persons was a part of the IT boom in the 1990’s, estimates suggest that the IT workforce does not comprise the majority of skilled Indians working in the US.
The CII study has found that contrary to popular imagination, the skilled Indian work force (green card holders and H1B visa holders combined) in the US shows greater diversity in the terms of sectors and functions engaged in. Indian presence in the US includes laboratory research in Natural Sciences, Pharmaceuticals, Biotechnology and Applied Technology like Industrial Design etc. Medical, Legal, Financial and Education sector also employ large numbers of Indians in the US, the CII study says.
The CII study comments that given the growing importance of services trade in a host of service sectors, the presence of large number of Indians in such a wide range of high-end services in the US is a good indication of India’s global comparative advantage.
Outsourcing of skilled services and knowledge related jobs from the US to India is rapidly increasing. The CII study says that while ‘outsourcing’, effectively Mode 1 (cross border trade in services) will be one avenue for the exports of skills from India; the other will be Mode 4 (movement of skilled workers). The future will see the US imports of Indian skilled labor strike strategic balance between Mode 1 and Mode 4 based business optimization, the study predicts.
The study, however, says that in view of the fact that both India and the US stands to gain from this interaction of skilled people, it is imperative that both the countries establish a mechanism that sets out the rules of such an engagement in a transparent and explicit manner. The existence of such a mechanism will remove uncertainty among stakeholders and enable a successful and wide-ranging relationship.
According to the CII study, the issues which needs to be addressed are:
1) Mutual Recognition and Certification for Indian and US professional and academic degrees and diplomas.
2) Transparent Visa Regime
3) Tax revenue sharing agreement that avoids double taxation
4) Mutually acceptable basis for contractual labor services
5) Special ‘economic’ visa for contractual on-site work with clearly delineated frame.
Illegals I quite agree about. Remittances by legal residents I see nothing wrong with, it is their money.