Trump upsets NRI applecart

The US President, Donald Trump, upsets the applecart of Ramya Gogineni, a BTech final year student from Bharati Nagar in Vijayawada in AP, at a time when she was planning to weave her dreams overseas – she was planning to go to the US for the Masters Programme after obtaining a good score in the GRE (Graduate Record Examination) – the Trump’s curbs on immigration policies came as a rude shock for her.

“What is the point in sending anyone to the US for studies by investing lakhs of rupees when there is no scope for employment there,” asks her father Venkateswara Rao, justifying his plans to drop her overseas studies.

Like Ramya’s, the dreams of thousands of students from AP, mostly from the coastal region, came crashing with the change of guard in the US White House.

According to rough estimates, AP has been witnessing an exodus of around 1 lakh students to the US in pursuit of greener pastures every year.

The student migration is now expected to come to a halt in the upcoming academic year from AP as students and parents feel jittery over the Trump’s hostile postures.

Rajitha from Mandapeta in East Godavari district, who was working in a mobile company in Seattle in Washington State, on a part-time basis after completing her Masters in a US university, surfaced landed up at home with a `pink slip,’ given by her employer, meaning loss of her employment and deportation.

Her return has caused much anguish to her parents as they spent huge amounts on her overseas education, hoping she would get a cozy job in the US.

Sindhu, a native of Krishna district and a F1 (student) visa holder, was denied permission to re-enter into her university by immigration authorities in the US.

She came home on a vacation and was sent back from a US airport without any valid reasons.

Opulence in the coastal Andhra is linked up to the flow of dollars earned by a large number of native people who migrated to the US and made good fortunes there over generations.

It is not surprising to say that there is one NRI in almost every alternate household and dollar-induced wealth could be seen in the form of palatial buildings and realty in the region.

The IT boom in the late 80s triggered the first wave of migrations involving fresh engineering graduates from the coastal districts. When the youth from middle class families were feeling disillusioned over dwindling job opportunities on their native soils, the IT boom offered them lucrative careers in the US. As they set the trend, scores of others followed the suit since then.

Interestingly, private engineering colleges in AP, surviving with the US craze all these days, are also expected to feel the heat of Trump’s hostile US immigration policies.

According to Student Federation of India (SFI) general secretary Noor Ahmmad, admissions in all the 375 engineering colleges will witness a drastic fall in the student intake. Most of the students seek admissions in engineering courses with the feeling that the US is their next destination.

An official from a consultancy firm predicts that the Andhra students may have to look at Australia, Latin American countries and Singapore as an alternative destination after the entry doors for the US remain almost closed.

The NRI Telugu people who already made the US a home after home with the privilege of having green card are also not a happy lot after the beginning of the Trump era, according to S. Jayachandra Naidu, a member of Telugu Association of North America (TANA) from Chittoor district.

The permanent stay facility being enjoyed by the Telugu Diaspora is subjected to a fresh review now.

Driving his point home, he quoted the experience of an NRI housewife from Hyderabad with a green card facility. She has secured the green card as the spouse of an NRI employee in the US and is staying with her husband.

She came home recently only to land in troubles while on her return. The immigration authorities denied her entry into the US and forced her back home from the airport where she landed.