Amid the chaos caused over the H-1B visa fee hike, a former Amazon employee who returned to India has shared their take on the current situation, and also explained why “Americans hate Indians taking up jobs” in the US.
In a Reddit post on r/India, the Indian professional painted a picture of alleged exploitation and favouritism within sections of the Indian diaspora in the US tech sector.
The user, who claimed to have worked at Amazon USA until last month, wrote that one of the primary reasons behind their return was the “toxic behaviour” of Indian managers who exploit employees on visas.
“They know how complicated and vulnerable the situation is since they themselves went through it. Many hire Indians, only to abuse them and their visa status. Americans won’t tolerate such exploitation because they can sue, so managers prefer hiring Indians,” the Reddit user alleged.
The problem, according to the Reddit user, extends beyond one company. It singled out Walmart for having “Telugu managers and employees” and Intel for a hiring culture allegedly dominated by Gujaratis.
“Obviously, Americans will be angry if they see this kind of favouritism. They’re not stupid,” the user said, adding that the tightening of H-1B rules could help reduce such practices.
In conclusion, the user clarified that their decision to return to India was personal and not solely due to workplace issues. They acknowledged the benefits of living in a first-world country and said they “got some really good opportunities” while abroad.
Read the entire post here:
The now-viral post drew sharp responses from other Reddit users. One comment read: “You know what’s worse? The ones who abused the system to get the GC and Citizenship will never be the ones punished. It’ll always be the hard workers who don’t come from certain Indian states.”
Another user explained how favouritism sometimes goes beyond region and language, extending to caste: “I have an older relative who’s a manager at a tech firm. She interviewed two people for a role—an American and an Indian. She said she hired the Indian because she was ‘our caste’. I wanted to throw up.”
The debate around workplace culture comes at a time when Donald Trump’s announcement of raising H-1B visa application fees to $100,000 has unsettled thousands of skilled workers, many of them from India.
The White House later clarified that the hike would apply only to new applicants, not existing visa holders, but the uncertainty has already added to anxieties within the Indian tech diaspora in the US.
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