Amid Trump’s visa crackdown and fears of racism, young Indians eye Canada, Ireland and elsewhere

Rahul Kolli was all set to head to the US for a Master’s degree in data science with admission to Michigan Technological University and a 2.7 million rupee (US$42,000) student loan in place. 

Then Donald Trump was elected president and promised a crackdown on work visas that he says undercut salaries for Americans. Kolli has since changed tack and is instead going to the University of Dublin in Ireland, where he says the total cost would be half of what he’d budgeted for in the US and where he plans to work after his studies.

For 27-year-old SAP consultant Rohit Madhav, it’s recent attacks on people of Indian ethnicity in America that made his parents cautious about his higher-education plans. They’ve asked him to widen his search beyond the US - to Canada, New Zealand and local institutions as well, he said.

Such concerns are driving a decline in applications at some US universities as Indians reconsider what has long been their first choice for overseas study, fueled by the success of immigrants like Sun Microsystems Inc Co-Founder Vinod Khosla and Google Inc Chief Executive Officer Sundar Pichai.

Now, safety and doubts about a path to employment are being weighed instead as the Trump administration begins to reform the H-1B foreign worker visa program that’s used more by people from India than any other nationality.

“The recent spate of racists attacks on Indians is fearsome,” said Mumbai-based Madhav, who plans to pursue a management degree and fund his studies with a loan. “If I stay back in the US for work, then I can repay the loan amount in two-to-three years. But, if I come back to India for work then it may take me seven-to-eight years.”