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A Shadow in the Valley

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DQI Bureau
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Should you visit Silicon Valley anytime soon, stay alert.

There are so many pendulums reversing course around here that you could get

smacked clear to Seattle. It’s almost funny, for example that VCs now

practically demand six quarters of profits and a Malcolm Baldrige Quality Award

before they’ll fund a seed round. But there’s nothing amusing about an

about-face that could threaten one of the coolest things about Silicon Valley:

the region’s ethnic diversity and tolerance.

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For decades here, brains and hard work–not race or class–have

been the key to success. Tens of thousands of immigrants, particularly from

India and China, have been valuable employees and have helped launch hundreds of

companies, including Yahoo! and Sun Microsystems. Their friends and families

have enriched our culture with restaurants, shops, houses of worship and even

cricket leagues. One Sunnyvale area is so packed with Indian eateries and other

shops that locals fondly call it "Gandhinagar," or Gandhi Town.

But skilled immigrants are experiencing a wrenching shift.

Just a year ago, tech executives were crying more, more, more! They said they

couldn’t stay competitive unless they hired more immigrants–since our own

schools weren’t producing. They pleaded for, and won, an increase in temporary

H1-B visas from 115,000 to 195,000. (Some 138,000 had been approved by July 25,

2001, and typically more than half go to tech.) But even as they lobbied for the

increase, layoffs were sweeping through Dot-commia, and within a few months even

the biggest tech companies were cutting all kinds of workers by the thousands.

The H1-B situation is complex and controversial. Critics, for

example, charge that many companies embrace it to avoid re-training older

workers. Whatever your opinion, there’s no doubt the economy’s demise has

left thousands of H1-B workers in a pickle. Without a job they are "out of

status," and must find new employee sponsors or leave. Indian business

leaders say up to 2,000 Indians have returned home in recent months. Storefronts

of Gandhinagar now are plastered with "For Sale" signs for cars,

stereos, and other items sellers need to unload fast. Says Kailash Joshi,

president of The Indus Entrepreneurs organization: "H1-B visas were

designed with only upside in mind."

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It’s unfortunate that we invited thousands of new

immigrants here just in time to experience the economic hangover of our big

Internet party. But it’s downright tragic that since September 11 a few

ignorant bigots have been harassing some of them and others based on their

looks, dress, or last names.

As the year dawned, Aman Singh, 27, had a thriving cab

business in Sunnyvale. Then the tech slowdown hit. "I’m getting so many

calls," even from H1-B programmers who need work, he says, but he can’t

offer any. The drop-off in air travel has idled half his 30 cabs. Most

depressing is that Singh recently had to summon the police when a group of white

men started menacing one of his turban-wearing Sikh drivers. The cops arrived in

time.

In the post-September 11 world, we realize a paradigm shift

involves a lot more than a new button on a browser. So do our immigrants.

"When there is fear and uncertainty, there will be insecure people who need

to vent anger," sighs Lata Krishnan, co-founder of chip company Smart

Modular Technologies.

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Fortunately, that minority is still outnumbered by the

open-minded and good-hearted: Krishnan heads a local foundation originally

formed to send resources and technology back to India. It has temporarily

suspended that activity so that it can raise $1 million for the children of

victims of the September 11 attack.

Harassers, what have you done for your country lately?

BusinessWeek. Copyright 2001 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc

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