Xenophobia hurting India and China economic growth, says Biden

US President Joe Biden has called India, China, Japan and Russia “xenophobic” and said it was “xenophobia” that was hurting the economic growth of these countries. Biden made remarks suggesting countries, including India, didn’t accept migrants.

“One of the reasons why our economy’s growing is because of you and many others. Why? Because we welcome immigrants,” Biden was quoted as saying at a fundraising event by Reuters.

“Why is China stalling so badly economically, why is Japan having trouble, why is Russia, why is India, because they’re xenophobic. They don’t want immigrants. Immigrants are what makes us strong,” Biden said.

Despite predictions of a global economic slowdown in 2024, India’s economy is projected to grow at a robust 6.8%.

Biden’s remarks came at an event in Washington to raise funds for his 2024 re-election bid. He made the remarks on May 1, which marks the start of Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.

Immigration has remained a hot and polarising issue in the 2024 US presidential campaign.

People named immigration as the top problem in the US for a third straight month, according to the latest Gallup survey.

“A steady 27% of Americans say the most important problem facing the US is immigration, topping Gallup’s open-ended trend for the third consecutive month, the longest stretch for this particular issue in the past 24 years,” said the Washington DC-based analytics and advisory firm.

GLOBAL ECONOMIC SLOWDOWN PREDICTED FOR 2024

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) predicts a global economic slowdown in 2024 compared to 2023. Their forecasts range from a modest 0.9% growth in developed economies like Japan to a robust 6.8% in developing nations like India, according to Reuters.

The IMF also predicts a growth rate of 2.7% for the United States, a slight improvement from its 2.5% rate in the previous year. Economists attribute this better-than-expected performance in part to the expansion of the country’s labour force through migration, reported Reuters.

However, concerns about irregular immigration have escalated, emerging as a key issue for US voters ahead of the upcoming presidential election in November.

President Biden, who has criticised his Republican opponent Donald Trump’s anti-immigrant rhetoric, has been actively pursuing broader economic and political alliances with countries such as Japan and India.

This strategic engagement aims to counter global influences from nations like China and Russia.