Jaishankar Outlines Global Workforce Challenges Amid H-1B Fees And Trade Shifts

External Affairs Minister S. Jaishankar on Wednesday said the world’s changing demographics and economic demands make a global workforce inevitable, stressing the need for a contemporary and efficient model that can be distributed across countries.

Addressing the Observer Research Foundation (ORF) event ‘At the Heart of Development: Aid, Trade, and Technology’ on the margins of the UN General Assembly session, Jaishankar highlighted that many countries cannot meet workforce demands purely from national populations.

"Where that global workforce is to be housed and located may be a matter of a political debate. But there's no getting away. If you look at demand and you look at demographics, demands cannot be met in many countries purely out of national demographics," he said, according to PTI.

He framed the discussion in the context of ongoing trade challenges and US immigration policies, including the recently proposed USD 100,000 fee on H-1B visas, which disproportionately affects Indian professionals who form the majority of these temporary work visa holders.

Jaishankar suggested that the international economy must now address how to establish a globally distributed workforce that is acceptable, contemporary, and efficient.

The minister also predicted shifts in trade relations, with countries forming new partnerships and engaging in arrangements they may not have considered previously. "We will see, as part of this re-engineered world, new, more different trade arrangements between countries, countries which will make decisions which they may not have made in other circumstances, countries which today will feel the desire, sometimes even the compulsion, to have new partners and new regions," he said.

He noted that despite the uncertainties and challenges, trade remains relatively easier today due to improved physical infrastructure, shipping, and digital interfaces. "So for all the obstacles and complications that may arise, I also think they will be countered in some ways or mitigated in some ways by what will happen in the great domain," Jaishankar said.

Highlighting the speed of technological, trade, and workplace transformation, he said large countries must build national capacities to become more self-reliant, noting this is a key focus in India. Multi-polarity, he explained, will not happen naturally but must be constructed through national capacity building. He cited India’s Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) as a model increasingly relevant and adaptable for other societies.

Jaishankar also reflected on global volatility, unpredictability, and policy shifts. "When you predict something like that, people say, okay, so you predict what that means. Now, by the very definition of unpredictability, you don't know what you're heading towards. It's not an extrapolation of what has been there in the past. Clearly, it's disruptive," he said, according to PTI.

Referring indirectly to the US, he noted that expectations of continuity across presidential terms had proven uncertain. "A few months make a difference. A few weeks make a difference. So actually it's really quite the experience for the world to go through this level of policy changes, of practical impact of that, and also the fact that so much of it is done so publicly, it's played out in the full glare of the spotlight," he added.

Jaishankar further outlined the recent global focus on de-risking supply chains and diversifying production centres. He said this now extends to market access, with economies needing to guard against over-dependence on both supplies and markets. "In a sense, almost the entire economic chain has become far more riskier or far more difficult to assume in many ways," he said.

He concluded that modern diplomacy is increasingly centred on resilience. "How do you de-risk, how do you hedge, how do you become more resilient, how do you safeguard yourself against unforeseen contingencies, which again I emphasise by definition are unforeseen, and really build policy and plans around that. That's a very big challenge for the entire world," Jaishankar said.

(With inputs from PTI)