World’s richest man Elon Musk, whereas talking on Nikhil Kamath’s WTF podcast, mentioned the US has benefitted immensely from proficient Indians who moved there and contributed to its progress.

Musk, who runs Tesla, SpaceX, and X, and xAI, praised Indian engineers, scientists and entrepreneurs for his or her robust position in shaping America’s know-how and enterprise sectors, emphasising that the nation’s success is deeply linked to expert immigration.

“I believe America has benefited immensely from proficient Indians who’ve come to America. America’s been an immense beneficiary of expertise from India,” Musk mentioned.

Through the dialog, Nikhil Kamath spoke about how India has traditionally referred to large-scale migration of expert employees to the West as a “mind drain.” 

Musk agreed and famous that many Indian-origin CEOs main international corporations spotlight the size of that contribution. Nonetheless, the dialogue quickly turned to how the immigration narrative within the US has modified in recent times.

The Zerodha co-founder requested why the sentiment round immigration seems to be shifting and why the US appears extra skeptical or restrictive right this moment.

Musk responded by saying that differing political positions within the nation have created rigidity across the concern.

“There are completely different faculties of thought. Underneath the Biden administration, it was principally a complete free-for-all with no border controls… and until you’ve acquired border controls, you’re not a rustic,” Musk mentioned, including that the surge in unlawful immigration created what he referred to as “a adverse choice impact” resulting from monetary incentives driving illegal entry.

He argued that the political left favors open borders no matter background, whereas some on the precise imagine immigrants are taking jobs away from Individuals.

Musk mentioned he disagrees with the latter perspective based mostly on his personal expertise constructing corporations.

“My direct statement is that there’s all the time a shortage of proficient individuals. We’ve got plenty of problem discovering sufficient proficient individuals to get tough duties executed. Extra proficient individuals can be good,” he mentioned.

‘Misuse of H-1B visa program’: Elon Musk

Musk additionally highlighted considerations about misuse of the H-1B visa program by some outsourcing companies, saying reforms are wanted to stop gaming of the system.

“I believe there’s been some misuse of the, you realize, H-1B programme. It could be correct to say that there is, you realize, like a number of the outsourcing corporations have sort of gamed the system on the H-1B entrance, and we have to cease the gaming of the system,” he mentioned.

Nonetheless, he strongly rejected calls to close down this system totally. “I’m definitely not within the faculty of thought that we should always shut down the H-1B program. That may really be very dangerous,” he mentioned.

Musk reiterated that his corporations rent globally and pay nicely above common as a result of innovation requires one of the best expertise, no matter nation or origin.