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More Indians move to America for skilled employment than any other nationality. But a string of racially-motivated attacks — spurred, some say, by anti-immigrant sentiment under President Donald Trump — is prompting a rethink.
"Silicon Valley's a dream for many people, to go and work there," said 19-year-old Raghav Sarin, an economics student at New Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology.
"I hope to go there, somewhere, there's a lot of talent, a lot of good work there," he said.
But perhaps not right now.
"Its kind of scary, it's just a general feeling of fear," he said.
Following America's temporary ban on entrants from majority-Muslim nations, Indians in the United States have been targeted in a racially motivated attacks.
In February, two Indian engineers were shot in Kansas by a man who had questioned their legal status.
One died while the other and a good Samaritan who tried to stop the attacker were both wounded.
Last month, a Sikh man was shot and wounded in Washington state, by a masked attacker who then told his victim to "go back to your own country".
In India, outrage boiled.
Home Minister Rajnath Singh told Parliament, "what has happened is extremely painful, unfortunate and can't be condemned enough".
Opposition Congress MP Mallikharjun Kharge went further, linking the violence to the anti-immigration sentiment under Mr Trump despite, he said, the country's reputation for "transparency, democracy and a lack of racial discrimination".
"Such incidents have increased after the new US President has taken charge," Mr Kharge said.
Jobs in the balance
India's politicians however were measured in their criticism, as Mr Trump weighed the future of America's skilled immigration program.
Nearly a quarter of a million Indians, most of whom are tech graduates, apply each year for what are called H1-B visas — similar to the now-defunct Australian 457.
And 70 per cent of the 85,000 visas go to Indians.
While campaigning, Mr Trump was heavily critical of the H1-B visa.
"It's very bad for business and it's very bad for our workers, and we should end it," he said.
This week, he instead announced plans to reform it, doing away with the lottery element and calling on several federal agencies for further ideas.
India's $200-billion-a-year tech sector is rattled — companies like Infosys, Wipro and Tata consultancies are all expecting cuts to the number of workers they can take to America, hurting their competitiveness.
The National Association of Software and Service Companies (NASSCOM) which represents them is appealing to Mr Trump's business sense and Scottish heritage.
"Immigrants have been very successful," NASSCOM's vice-president Shivendra Singh said.
"You have dozens of examples in the US — who've come in and run multi-billion-dollar companies."
Among the success stories are Google's Indian-born CEO Sundar Pachai, and Microsoft boss Satya Nadella, both role models for subcontinental students who hope to make it in America.
Mr Nadella recently said his career was made possible by "an enlightened [American] immigration policy".
Still the land of opportunity?
But among the current generation of students, America's pre-eminence as a liberal minded destination for entrepreneurial talent is in now in question.
"I feel the whole thing of Silicon Valley as a melting pot — a place for people to come from everywhere and really work — I think that image is going to be tainted a bit," Mr Sarin said.
"Going to that place to fulfil our dreams, that is difficult," said PhD student Sucharita Sethy, also from Delhi's Indian Institute of Technology.
Sandeep Roy, now a Kolkata-based writer, spent 20 years living in America as a software engineer and writer before returning to India.
Mr Roy said the combination of racially-motivated violence and expectation of fewer work opportunities was reshaping Indians' impressions of America.
"The latest events have put a pause button on people's views of that golden American dream," he said.
"People start wondering, 'hmm, is it really worth the risk?'" he said.
In addition to fearing the extreme violence, Mr Roy said, Indian friends in America were reporting an increase in what he termed "garden-variety go-back-to-your-country" type racism.
But he said he hoped there was a silver lining for India in the unease and declining opportunities abroad, pointing out that the rapidly-developing nation stood to benefit if more of its budding entrepreneurs chose to apply their talents at home.
Topics: world-politics, donald-trump, immigration, united-states, india