How Tech Layoffs Threaten Silicon Valley’s Immigrant Workers

Silicon Valley relies on a huge foreign born workforce, mostly from India and China, to provide specialized skills in fields like engineering, biotech, AI and computer science. But after the most recent round of tech layoffs, visa holders have 60 days to find a new job, or lose their residency in the U.S.

 

Tech reporter Pranav Dixit has been paying attention to the outsized role foreign born workers play in companies like Google, Meta, and Amazon, who have laid off more than 26,000 employees in 2023, and thousands more at the end of 2022. In the course of his reporting, Dixit has found that these drastic cuts have left immigrant programmers and computer scientists wondering if it’s worth staying in the U.S. “People are really using this time to reevaluate their priorities and their relationships,” said Dixit, “with both the US and their own country in many cases.”

 

Read more of Pranav Dixit’s reporting for Buzzfeed: Laid-Off Tech Workers On H-1B Visas Might Be Forced To Leave The Country

 

And check out his past appearance on the program: Podcast: Why Farmers are Fighting in Modi’s India - World Affairs Council 

 

Guest:

 

Pranav Dixit, tech reporter at Buzzfeed

 

Host:  

 

Ray Suarez

 

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