How the Visa Debate for Foreign Workers Fuels Racism Against South Asians [View all]

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https://www.nytimes.com/2026/02/16/us/politics/h1b-visa-debate-racism-south-asians.html

https://archive.ph/Zs8ns

How the Visa Debate for Foreign Workers Fuels Racism Against South Asians
A dispute over the impact of H-1B visas on U.S. workers has been overshadowed by racist rhetoric, with troubling echoes of the great replacement conspiracy theory.
By Amy Qin
Feb. 16, 2026 Updated 7:01 p.m. ET

The floor was open at a regular City Council meeting in Frisco, Texas, and several speakers, riled by a recent viral video over visas for specialized foreign workers, wanted to make their views known. They did not mince words about the program.

The visa, called H-1B, had led to an “Indian takeover” of their city. The program, some said without citing proof, was full of “fraudsters” and “low-quality scammers.”

A few people claimed an even broader racist conspiracy theory, accusing Western elites and corporations of seeking to replace and disempower white Americans.

Created in 1990, the H-1B program allows up to 85,000 foreign workers to fill specialized roles in the United States every year. In 2023, around three-quarters of the 400,000 or so approved H-1B applications were for workers from India, according to Pew Research Center. That same year, Dallas-Fort Worth ranked fourth among metropolitan areas for approved H-1B applications. Many of these visa holders work as software programmers and computer engineers.

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