♤ terminated the racist 1924 Johnson-Reed Act,

♤ abolished national-origins quotas, and

♤ Made it possible for high-skilled immigrants, including Indians, to gain legal, permanent residence in the United States.

♤ The migrants were able to bring their family members as well.

As in the United States, new immigration legislation that opened the doors to highly-skilled immigrants triggered significant immigration of Indians to Canada. In 1968, Canada introduced its points system, which assigns value to qualifications rather than a person’s ethnic or national background. As a result, Indian immigration to Canada boomed.

The 1990s software boom and rising economy in the US attracted Indians by the boatload. The US Immigration Act of 1990, effective from 1995, facilitated this process further by introducing the H-1B temporary worker program, allowing US businesses to hire foreigners with a minimum of a bachelor’s degree in “specialty occupations” including doctors, scientists, engineers, and IT specialists.