An engineering manager at DoorDash has offered a personal account of how the composition of the technology workforce in the United States has changed over the past decade, arguing that Indian professionals have become more visible as some Chinese engineers have returned to China for senior positions.
Karthik Hariharan said that when he was hiring software engineers in San Francisco about 10 years ago, Indian and Chinese engineers were represented in roughly equal numbers among the H-1B workers he encountered. The balance has since shifted towards Indian professionals, he said, potentially making them more exposed to criticism from opponents of immigration.
Hariharan shared the observation amid growing scrutiny of employment-based immigration under US President Donald Trump, whose administration has intensified its focus on foreign-worker programmes and employer-sponsored green cards.
His comments, reported by The Times of India, offer an individual perspective on the changing workforce. They do not establish the relative numbers of Indian and Chinese H-1B workers across the United States, for which broader immigration data would be required.
Why Indian and Chinese Engineers Followed Different Paths
Hariharan attributed part of the change to differences in the career choices of the two groups.
He said several Chinese engineers he had hired had subsequently returned to China and progressed into senior leadership positions, including vice-president and chief technology officer roles in Beijing, Shanghai and Shenzhen.
He suggested that language barriers in the United States may have influenced some of their decisions, while opportunities to advance professionally in China made returning home attractive.
By contrast, he said, many of the Indian engineers he had hired remained in the United States and progressed into senior engineering management and director-level positions.
That difference, in his assessment, has contributed to the greater visibility of Indian professionals in the American technology workforce.
However, the explanation remains anecdotal. Establishing whether language, domestic career opportunities, immigration constraints or other factors account for the different trajectories would require additional evidence from workers, employers and immigration statistics.
Hariharan also pushed back against attempts to explain differences in workplace performance through ethnicity.
Responding to a comment about the quality of Indian technology workers, he argued that similar patterns could be observed among engineers from Eastern Europe, Latin America and other parts of East Asia.
He said the more relevant factors were hiring standards and performance expectations, rather than ethnicity or culture. His response placed the emphasis on how companies recruit, assess and manage employees instead of treating national origin as a reliable indicator of professional ability.
US Green Card Restrictions Add to Immigration Uncertainty
The discussion comes as the Trump administration has tightened scrutiny of employment-based immigration.
On October 8, the US Department of Labor announced the suspension of new and pending Permanent Labor Certification, or PERM, applications involving eight technology and IT services companies: Microsoft, Adobe, Cognizant, Infosys, Tata Consultancy Services, Wipro, HCL and Capgemini.
The administration cited alleged misuse of employment-based immigration programmes and concerns about protecting American workers. Those allegations should not be treated as established violations without supporting findings.
PERM is a key step in the process through which employers sponsor eligible foreign workers for many employment-based green cards. The suspension affects that route to permanent residency but does not, by itself, cancel existing H-1B visas.
The distinction is important for Indian technology professionals. An H-1B visa permits eligible foreign workers to take specified employment in the United States, while a green card provides permanent resident status. The two processes are related for some workers but are not interchangeable.
The restrictions could create additional uncertainty for employees whose permanent residency plans depend on employer-sponsored labour certification. The consequences for individual workers will depend on the status of their applications and any subsequent developments in the policy.
Infosys said in a statement filed with Indian stock exchanges on October 10 that it did not anticipate a material impact on the organisation from the suspension. The company also said it remained committed to working with US authorities and complying with applicable laws.
The wider debate over skilled immigration therefore involves several distinct questions: how employers recruit foreign professionals, whether immigration rules are being followed, how workers advance in their careers and how the United States balances its demand for technical expertise with domestic employment priorities.
Hariharan’s account adds a workforce perspective to that debate. It suggests that the visibility of Indian engineers may reflect not only recruitment patterns but also decisions about where professionals choose to build their careers. It does not, on its own, establish why the overall H-1B workforce has changed or demonstrate that Indian workers are being targeted because of their growing numbers.