India’s foreign minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar rejected US President Joe Biden’s recent comment that “xenophobia” was hobbling the South Asian nation’s economic growth.
Jaishankar said at an event on Friday that India’s economy “is not faltering” and that it has historically been a society that is very open.
“That’s why we have the CAA (Citizenship Amendment Act), which is to open up doors for people who are in trouble … I think we should be open to people who have the need to come to India, who have a claim to come to India,” Jaishankar said, referring to a recent law that allows immigrants who have fled persecution from neighbouring countries to become citizens.
Earlier this week, Biden had said “xenophobia” in China, Japan and India was holding back growth in the respective economies as he argued migration has been good for the U.S. economy.
“One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden said at a fundraising event for his 2024 re-election campaign and marking the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
With his remarks, Joe Biden implied that the robust economy of the US is attributable to how it has embraced immigrants, contrasting with economic challenges faced by countries like India, China, and Japan due to their “fear” of immigrants.
“They don’t want immigrants,” Joe Biden said.
While the comments were not politically correct, the US has definitely tried to tone it down, saying the comment meant that America was a nation of immigrants. National Security Council spokesman John Kirby said, “The president was merely trying to send a broader message that “the United States is a nation of immigrants.”
