New York: The US has been an “immense beneficiary” of talent from India, SpaceX CEO Elon Musk has said, and voiced strong support for the H1B visa programme, cautioning that shutting it down would “actually be very bad” for America.
The US tech billionaire made the remarks in an interview with investor and entrepreneur Nikhil Kamath on his podcast ‘People by WTF’, released Sunday.
“Yes, I think America has benefited immensely from talented Indians who have come to America… America has been an immense beneficiary of talent from India,” Musk said.
On the H-1B visa, the Tesla CEO said, while there has been some misuse of the work visa programme, he strongly believes that it should not be shut down.
“It would be accurate to say that… some of the outsourcing companies have gamed the system on the H-1B front. And we need to stop the gaming of the system.
“But I’m certainly not in the school of thought that we should shut down the H-1B programme. That’s where some on the right are. I think they don’t realise that that would actually be very bad,” Musk said.
His comments come at a time when the US has launched a massive crackdown to check abuse of the H-1B visa programme, used extensively by American technology companies to employ foreign workers. Indian professionals, including technology workers and physicians, form one of the largest groups of H-1B visa holders.
In September, US President Donald Trump issued a Proclamation titled ‘Restriction on Entry of Certain Nonimmigrant Workers’ as an important initial step to reform the H-1B nonimmigrant visa programme. Under the Proclamation, Trump announced a one-time fee of USD 100,000 on new H-1B visas, a move expected to impact Indian professionals seeking to work in the US.
Responding to a question on whether the US “seems to have become anti-immigration to a certain extent”, Musk said there are different schools of thought on the issue, and there is no unanimity.
He, however, pointed out that under the Joe Biden administration, “it was basically a total free-for-all, with like no border controls, which, you know, unless you’ve got border controls, you’re not a country”.
Musk alleged there was “massive” illegal immigration under Biden, which created a negative selection effect.
“If there’s a massive financial incentive to come to the US illegally and get all these government benefits, then you necessarily create a diffusion gradient for people to come to the US just as an incentive structure. I think that obviously made no sense,” he said, stressing the need for border controls.
Musk said the left wanted open borders irrespective of the situation or “if the person coming in is a criminal”, while the right believed American jobs were being taken by highly skilled workers from abroad.
“I don’t know how real that is. My direct observation is that there’s always a scarcity of talented people. So from my standpoint, I’m like, we have a lot of difficulty finding enough talented people to get these difficult tasks done, and so more talented people would be good,” he said.
Musk noted that some companies are making it more of a cost thing, “where it’s like, okay, if they can employ someone for a fraction of the cost of an American citizen, then I guess these other companies would hire people just to save costs”.
However, at his companies, the tech billionaire said, they are just trying to get the most talented people in the world.
“We pay way above average, so… that’s not my experience, but that’s what a lot of people do complain about,” he said.
Asked what message he had for young Indian entrepreneurs, Musk said he respected “anyone who wants to build”.
“Aim to make more than you take, be a net contributor to society… If you want to create something valuable… pursue providing useful products and services… then money will come as a natural consequence,” he said.
“Are you a value creator? That’s what really matters,” Musk said.
