I was intrigued to read a thoughtful and detailed account in Little India of how some Indian Americans are heading back to India to seek attractive career opportunities. The author, Naomi Abraham, tells the story of a successful young American Express executive, New Jersey-born Sapna Chadha, who shocked her Indian immigrant parents by moving to India to take a job as the marketing director of American Express. The move came when her husband, Indian-born and raised but a 20-year resident of the United States, was recruited to join a software start-up in New Delhi.
Today’s Indian returnees (like their diaspora counterparts from China and other countries), are actively recruited by the government, which is seeking all the talent it can find to keep its economy competitive. Thus, conventional trajectories are being reversed. Some immigrants have always returned home, of course. But as Abraham explains, earlier generations of returnees often came home because they were disillusioned by their new country, “notably because of discrimination and other obstacles.” By contrast, today’s reverse-commuters are returning home (or to their parents’ home countries) because fast-growing economies open up so many possibilities.
To read the full, original article click on this link: Reverse Brain Drain: How Much Should the U.S. Worry? - WorldWise - The Chronicle of Higher Education
Author: Ben Wildavsky