The slow but steady reverse brain-drain.. Did we see this coming?

Of late, there has been a fare amount of focus on the reduction in volumes of approval of the H1B visas that enable less expensive skilled Indian labor to replace the local workforce in the US. My post here today aims to focus on another trend that is not much talked about but is steadily growing nonetheless.

Recently a colleague-friend of mine went to Paris on a brief vacation. As expected, she found the onward flight pretty scantily populated, given the recent spate of events. However, what surprised her was the fact that the return flight was full, but not full of Indians returning to India but French nationals and other Europeans coming to India on work, to Delhi and onward from there to various Indian cities. She herself is a US citizen, working alongside me in Hyderabad, India. There are six others like her in my team alone, all French-speaking US or Canadian citizens.

This is a relatively recent trend, that began quite imperceptibly somewhere around 2005-2006, of India being looked upon as a coveted destination by job-seekers, not only from developing countries like Cameroon, Benin etc., but also from countries of the so-called developed first world like the UK, the US and Canada. This new wave is made up mostly of well-educated migrants from wealthier, more developed countries, leaving behind slow-sluggish economies in search of job prospects and opportunities they can’t find at home.

For the last year or so the surge in numbers (more than doubled I have been told) has been quite phenomenal in the number of visas granted to Americans to work in India and this does not include special visas given to Americans of Indian origin who enjoy the OCI (Overseas Citizenship of India) in any case. Even in countries like China, Korea and Singapore, there have been significant increases in the number of visas being approved for working in India. 

Traditionally, India has exported software engineers to the US and other western countries. So what is the demographic of this influx of expats into India? They are coming mainly to work in creative fields like advertising, journalism and in specialized professional services like legal services etc. Some expats are even looking at India as a destination for setting up their own businesses. This especially says a lot about the 'ease of doing business' factor that is the result of more than a decade of liberalization of the Indian economy.

On the bright side, we need not really wonder to figure out the reason behind this sudden spate of interest in India as a work destination, need we? India's steady growth story has been pretty much consistently been in the news for the last three quarters at least. It was not the least bit surprising that the Indian Stock Markets showed resilience in the face of the Greek Crisis or even the Chines stocks falling like nine-pins in July-Aug 2015. The GDP growth in India at present is nearly 7.4% year on year in the quarter ending September. These figures were better than market expectations. The rise in the growth rate suggests the growth of the economy. The financial policies and the monetary policies are able to sustain a stable growth rate.

These figures, statistics, data, forecast etc. are in the domain of the Ministry of Finance and the Gurus of Market Analysis. The common man, however, hardly ever cares about data, rather he goes by his perception about what's happening in the world around him. What changes popular perception is media and social media, where the tempo was set already for this in mid-2014 when the Indian Parliament saw the first majority government taking oath for the first time in three decades. The India of "too many poor people and too much corruption" suddenly had a strong charismatic leader. In subsequent months, there was steady focus on marketing of brand-India, what with Prime Minister Narendra Modi's speeches at the Sydney Stadium and the Madison Square reinvigorating many non-residents so much so that they declared on live television that they wanted to come back to India saying that they no longer feared being unemployed in their own country.

We all know that all is far from perfect, the road to 'real' development is still ahead and has many impediments. However, certain ground realities are undeniably good. We finally have roads that we can really drive in. The modern 4-laned highways have made inter-city commuting quite hassle-free. At least within its gated communities and swanky malls, India has become quite clean. Money or employment is seldom the problem for the urban middle class at least, compared to the dark eras in the '80s or '90s. We have modern, organized retail come in. The likes of Landmark, Lifestyle, Future Bazaar have brought modern practices in retail and allowed for more job opportunities for the middle class. Economically upwardly mobile Indians are no more enamored by things that are merely foreign. Our attitude towards the world is evolving to become more confident and more mature now.

The corollary to this improved 'self-image' of India is the new spate of expats flocking to India seeking employment and an opportunity to explore 'the new world'. The future is here they are saying among themselves. A relatively better pay package than one hopes to land back at home, better standards of living  at lower costs (including easy availability of domestic help for cooking, cleaning, etc), are factors that whet the appetite for "trying out India" as a work destination. Not to forget that India has always been seen (and will continue to be seen) as the land where unbridled materialism or mindless consumerism have not really cast the same grim shadow that it has over Western countries. 

Oddly enough, not all but quite a few of these expats come with a heavy head on their shoulders as if still carrying the 'White Man's Burden' of having to civilize the 'uncivilized' until of course their burden is somewhat lightened by the likes of me (the author of this piece) who gently but unmistakably remind them, if required of course, that this is the 'new world' where the old equations have become defunct. A few of them are also remarkable people, realistic and humble, ready to learn as much as to share. 

Slowly but steadily the immigrants are creating or finding their comfort niches even in the India of heat and dust. Over-populated, chaotic cities like Mumbai and Hyderabad have rooftop hookah clubs where the expats regularly haunt to chill out, or stores like Q-Mart where they can buy their cheeses, quinoa, and couscous. The sensible ones quickly learn to invest in attire suitable to India thereby avoiding attracting undue attention to themselves when out on Indian roads. Quick on the trails of this trend, fashion brands like Global Desi and Akriti have customized their products lines for this new niche segment with a relatively fatter wallet  [http://krittika-retail-enterprises.shopclues.com/]

We Indians are ever ready to play the hospitable host and I wouldn't like to spoil the pretty picture, nor sound like a naysayer, but history has made us wary of foreigners coming to India with apparently innocent, innocuous reasons. It wouldn't be a bad idea for Indian education sectors to re-look at their curricula to see where the deficit is being created in training Indians to become adept in the fields where the expats are coming in to fill in a gap in locally available resource, or, even for parents to wake up to the fact that 'science' and 'math' may no longer be their ticket to prosperity.

[Browse: Kraftee @ http://krittika-retail-enterprises.shopclues.com/ ]