[Assam] India style outside/local labor unrest rising in West?

[umesh sharma]

Hi,

A lot has been said about the unrest among local youth in Maharashtra, Assam etc - where some local youth are agitating against outsiders (North Indians, Biharis etc) who muscle in (using political power and large numbers) to compete for jobs.

I witnessed this first hand, while awaiting my train (NorthEastern Express) to take me from Allahabad ( I had already taken a dip in the Holy Ganga river ) to Delhi, after taking the GRE exam - conducted online from the US. The train reached the city after a 12 hour delay and the people inside were in a state of shock. The train had been stopped in Bihar and a young girl (from NE) sexually assaulted, men beaten up . Many other trains from NE had been similarly taken to task. The passengers told me that. The next day I read all about it in the papers. I had mentioned that incident on Assamnet. 

That was a sort of retaliation against the assault on candidates from Bihar going to Assam to sit for the regional positions in the govt owned railways. Strangely, railways run by central govt only recruits locally - it has exam and recruitment centers only in that region - but you can go from anywhere to sit for the exam. Recently, Mumbai saw similar agitation- which is becoming uglier as we go along.

It seems Britain is facing such a situation - though socially things haven't become that bad. Being part of European Union it cannot say no to East Europeans coming in for jobs. But unions aren't liking it.  
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/01/30/AR2009013002392.html

USA hasn't seen such open agitation - even against millions of  illegal immigrants who are generally unskilled and come in a million a year, voices are being raised at top corporate level but against the H1B skilled workers who come in about 100,000 per year (incl those recruited by quota exempt nonprofits/univs).  US  politicians whose voter base is mostly non-immigrant (read MidWest)  are after skilled foreign labor.  Some netters on online forums  are suggesting that all foreign workers be sent home (like Saudi Arabia has done to Indian workers recently). Illegals can ofcourse remain .

http://www.businessweek.com/bwdaily/dnflash/content/feb2009/db2009021_893728_page_2.htm

http://grassley.senate.gov/news/Article.cfm?customel_dataPageID_1502=18922

Reminds me of the time when US immigration in 1920s was criticized and finally stopped - during Great Depression era - most immigrants at that time seem to be coming from non-West European nations: http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/immigration/dates.html  )see 1920s -to 1940s). This time (2009) is being considered similar to Great Depression era.

A view: http://www.sfu.ca/~wchane/sa345articles/Bashi.pdf 

http://www.sparknotes.com/history/american/depression/summary.html
http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=a1ARTA0003425

Mexicans repatriation - even legals and citizens:

"As the Depression became more severe in the early 1930s, millions of people 
        were jobless and being aided somewhat by the first faltering attempts 
        at public welfare. Throughout the Southwest and such cities as Gary, Indiana; 
        Detroit, Michigan; Toledo, Ohio, where there were large concentrations 
        of Mexicans and Mexican Americans, public officials decided that it would 
        be cheaper to send the Mexican legal aliens back to Mexico than to carry 
        them on the public welfare rolls. Thus, a system of repatriation began.
      

        During the first four years of the 1930s, well over four hundred thousand 
        Mexicans were repatriated to Mexico. Most of those repatriated Mexican 
        citizens were legal residents of the United States; many were American 
        citizens-that is, Mexican Americans. Some had lived in this country thirty 
        or forty years and had established their homes and their roots here.. Many 
        families were broken up, for in some cases either the father or mother, 
        or both, were alien, but the children, having been born and raised in 
        this country, were American citizens and allowed to stay while their parents 
        were repatriated. To be sure, some Mexican aliens departed voluntarily, 
        but those who were forcibly removed and those whose families were disrupted 
        suffered enormous hardships during this period."

What is India doing about its 200million illegal Bangladeshis, maybe only when recession sets  in  - God forbid!!


Any comments?
  
Umesh Sharma



Washington D.C. 



1-202-215-4328 [Cell]



Ed.M. - International Education Policy

Harvard Graduate School of Education,

Harvard University,

Class of 2005



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