The New Tech Informal Order of the World
And Indian professionals represented an incredible 72.3% of all H1B visas in 2023 (Business Today, 2025). But deep reforms to H1B visa policies by 2025 – driven Trump’s America-first bias – could change all that. What happens when the United States tightens the gates? And can India’s tech empire survive the storm? And might Pakistan step up as a hungry competitor in the tech room as India faces its comeuppance?
The new H1B rules represent a divided reality. For India, it’s a wake-up call to re-evaluate its reliance on American markets. For Pakistan, it provides a small but crucial window to fast track its tech ambitions. And for the US? It is another chapter in the exploitation of South Asian labor while scapegoating immigrants. But this isn’t just a question of policy or economics: It is a matter of justice, equity and the future.
The h1b Crackdown Reveals American Hypocrisy
How New Rules Change the Landscape
The client-focused lottery and on-shore renewals, which were implemented in 2025, were presented as steps toward progress (American Immigration Council, 2025). They sought to cut abuse of the lottery process — which saw registrations plummet by 38.6% — and make it easier for people who already have visas to transfer between them. Yet this has ironically had the perverse effect of disproportionately impacting South Asians (CPTDog, 2025), given closer scrutiny of hiring practices, in particular relating to Indian IT firms.
And, predictably, this change dovetails with an America-first rhetoric. Under Trump’s “hire American,” lawsuits filed against firms such as Meta claimed they had given preference to H1B holders in hiring at the expense of domestic workers. The H1B visa refusal rate, which had shot up to 24% under Trump 1.0, emblematizes the larger, overarching act of aggression against foreign talent (American Immigration Council, 2025).
Economic Short-Sightedness
Here’s the hypocrisy. As global STEM talent is pushed to other parts of the world, so is US innovation, a source for continued job security (Economic Times, 2025). H1B workers do not take away jobs; they make them. The US, meanwhile, exploits South Asian labor not as partners in innovation but as severely underpaid placeholders. The H1B visa holder also has to undergo wage discrimination and fear of dependency as well. But for all the bluster, America’s tech dominance still depends on the labor it systematically devalues.
The H1B Vulnerability of India
A Nation Built on Outsourcing
India’s IT sector is a beneficiary of an environment that’s driven by the H1B stronghold. With 72.3% of the H1B visas going to Indians in 2023, companies from Infosys (which got as many as 8,140 visas) to startups are highly dependent on this pipeline (India Today, 2025). India’s supremacy in the outsourcing industry, an economic cornerstone, is financed by the U.S. tech market.
But this dependence exacts a price. More stringent visa regimes are a danger not only to families of temporary migrants, but also to India’s $194 billion outsourcing industry (New Indian Express, 2025). Relations with the US are strained, so the country’s leaders are desperately seeking a new policy. The Indian government is mounting a serious campaign in Washington to ease these restrictions (Business Today, 2025). But if the doors don’t begin to reopen, India’s house of IT cards could fall apart.
A Worker’s Perspective
Central to the problem are Indian workers, whose income from jobs abroad frequently supports extended families in India. But the reality for these workers is one of exploitation, with employers commonly underpaying their H1B hire relative to what they would pay a US-born worker (CPTDog, 2025). So the real question becomes this: Can a nation logically call itself a tech powerhouse when its empire is vulnerable to foreign policy and is constructed on top of unjust systems?
Pakistan’s Tech Dreams Are No Longer on Ice
The Gulf Formed By India’s Difficulties
On the other side of the border, Pakistan’s $3.5 billion IT export industry can’t compete against India, but a small fish appears to finally be growing as regional waters swirl. The H1B limitations have begun to direct US companies to move away to alternate tech centers, and Pakistan’s outsourcing ability is suddenly redhot on corporate wish lists (South Asia Investor, 2025).
Challenges and Opportunities
Pakistan’s IT industry has a huge potential but several hurdles need to be removed before it can compete internationally. One barrier is there’s no system in place to handle a tenfold increase in volume. Frequent blackouts, unreliable internet and an underinvestment in tech-friendly policies also make it difficult to attract large-scale international projects to the country. Add to this that the education system also remains overly focused on engineering and IT and does not do a good enough job developing the advanced skills necessary to succeed in industries that are on the cutting edge.
Conversely, the burgeoning young population, rising smartphone users and globalization of technology offers a unique opportunity. And with government programs like the Digital Pakistan Vision and new tech incubators cropping up in cities like Islamabad, Lahore, and Karachi, the nation has an opportunity to emerge as a serious player in the worldwide IT outsourcing space. And if Pakistan can solve its structural problems and take advantage of its abundant talent, the country could potentially unlock a future of long-term, sustainable and competitive advantages in an increasingly digital economy.
Pakistan’s strong group of English-speaking young workers and avid freelancers are finding a global market. Add to this Islamabad’s various domestic IT initiatives, including tech parks and tax incentives for startups, and the country has sown seeds to enable fledgling growth.
Reality Check
But hope alone will not be enough. Pakistan has some glaring challenges. Political corruption, intermittent instability and education gaps are among the obstacles to its tech transformation. The state cannot seek too much opportunity offshore because of its $70bn debt and its dependence on the IMF (Al Jazeera, 2025). Without addressing these systemic problems, Pakistan’s ambition is doomed to falter.
Tech Collaboration Is Rewriting History
A Call for Unity
South Asia’s questionable H1B opportunity H1B restrictions offer South Asia an improbable gambit. An opportunity to no longer compound India-Pakistan tensions but instead to be the catalyst for solidarity. India’s know-how, paired with the breath of Pakistan’s ambition, could become a South Asian tech bloc to be reckoned with. Cross-border joint ventures, talent exposures and regional technology programs could enable the subcontinent to emerge as a resilient alternative to fill the world’s innovation requirements.
Past Geopolitics, to Humanity
But collaboration requires trust, and accountability, too. India and Pakistan have to reckon with the systemic iniquities that define their divergences as well as confluences. More critically, no more passing the buck: Global tech conglomerates need to be held to account for fair wages and ethical employment.
The bigger picture is not about visas, markets or G.D.P. It is about the dignity of South Asian workers and rejecting the reward-driven exploitation embedded in the global H1B narrative.
Where to, South Asia?
US’s H1B curbs are not mere bureaucratic changes They are seismic moves that risk to upend regional tech ecosystems while underscoring the world’s reliance on South Asian labor.
India has an important reckoning ahead, one that will require it to innovate with an indigenous approach and address structural exploitation in its labor pipeline. Pakistan has that window of opportunity — but aside from luck, its tech future will depend on systemic reform and national stability.
More than anything, this is South Asia’s time to rewrite the region’s tech narrative — from divided competition to daring solidarity. “The H1B crackdown is not just another round of politics-as-usual,” wrote Collins. That’s an opportunity for a wake-up. More Will we rise together or are we all going to fall?