By Probir J. Mehta, Rahul M. Shah, and Rudhir B. Patel
©2004 NewKerala.com
May 11, 2004
The rhetoric surrounding the current debate over outsourcing has reached a fever pitch. On a daily basis, we have been inundated with commentators decrying or defending this economic trend or a new study that purports to show the effects on the US economy.
'Outsourcing' or 'offshoring' broadly refers to the movement of service-related jobs overseas, usually in response to lower labour costs. The responses to outsourcing have been swift; anti-outsourcing legislation has been introduced in a multitude of states. Outsourcing has even become fodder for late-night talk shows and editorial page cartoons.
Missing from the national debate, however, is the possible effects of the anti-outsourcing backlash on the South Asian community in the US. Indeed, incidents of racial and ethnic backlash against individuals of South Asian origin are approaching disquieting levels.
For example:
During his recent campaign, Rohit Khanna, a South Asian American candidate for the US Congress, received a veiled death threat in which the caller reportedly asked to speak to the "[expletive] dothead who's running," stated that "we're tired of you taking our jobs" and asked to "tell that dirty [expletive] to go back to India".
A Feb 9 article in Fortune magazine on "outsourcing" prompted one reader to write to the author and state: "If an enraged laid-off American engineer were to go up to his Indian replacement, and shoot him dead... if I were on the jury, the verdict would be not guilty."
The IT Professionals Association of America, an association for software professionals, has begun selling T-shirts bearing the slogan on its website: "My job went to India and all I got was this stupid pink slip."
We must ensure that community leaders and the media avoid the scapegoating of South Asians and South Asian Americans when discussing the 'outsourcing' of jobs to India and other South Asian countries. Such targeting of the South Asian community sadly reminds us of the racial and ethnic backlash during the early 1980s, when Asian Americans were wrongly blamed for the US automotive industry's struggle to compete with overseas automotive companies. We remember Vincent Chin, a Chinese American from Detroit who was presumed to be Japanese and brutally beaten to death in 1982 when attackers blamed Chin for the automotive industry's economic woes and consequential loss of jobs.
During this election year, it is essential that the South Asian community urge community organisations, labour and union leaders, elected officials, and political candidates to foster a civil and open dialogue about the state of the US economy and the role of international trade, free from racial and ethnic stereotyping and demagoguery.
The preconditions for the first wave of ethnic backlash today are eerily similar to the times of Vincent Chin. First, many of the job losses are clustered in certain areas where high tech companies are integral parts of the regional economy. Second, America's shift to a service-based economy was accompanied by a trumpeted belief that high-tech jobs were the future of the American economy and safe from the uncertainties of economic downturns.
Thus, many believed that their well-paid professional jobs were secure. Third, with over two million South Asians living in communities across America, the current climate of ethnic scapegoating is even more dangerous because expressing resentment towards a neighbour can be more convenient unfortunately than addressing the economic issues surrounding outsourcing.
The threat today, however, is even more alarming. Under certain provisions of the L-1 visa programme, a multinational corporation can make intra-company transfers of foreign workers for limited purposes. Accounts of US technology workers training their future replacements under the L-1 visa programme and then being promptly laid off are commonplace. This has increased the friction in the American workplace between US workers and those of South Asian origin.
Moreover, South Asians are often incorrectly perceived to be a "model minority", confined to traditionally profitable careers in medicine, engineering and the high-tech sector. In reality, South Asians contribute to all sectors of the US economy, including the service industries and manufacturing, and are found throughout America's socio-economic spectrum.
Historically, in times of national anxiety, public sentiment quickly turns against ethnic minorities. For example, in the first week following the Sep 11 attacks, the South Asian American Leaders of Tomorrow (SAALT) reported 645 incidents of backlash against Americans of South Asian or Middle Eastern descent. Much of the heated rhetoric regarding outsourcing has only added to the already elevated level of hostility towards South Asians and South Asian Americans.
To preserve our nation's commitment to diversity and a global community, we must encourage tolerance as we debate the issue of 'outsourcing' with our neighbours, in the media, and in the halls of US Congress. Together, we can prevent future incidents of racial intimidation, xenophobia and hate crimes against the South Asian community.
Probir J. Mehta, Rahul M. Shah, and Rudhir B. Patel are respectively serving as a Board Director, Vice President and President of the Washington D.C. Chapter of the South Asian Bar Association.
