Indian immigrants enticed to go home

[varun]

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2007/02/05/indian_immigrants_enticed_to_go_home/

Stronger economy, old ties beckon
By Jehangir S. Pocha, Globe Correspondent | February 5, 2007

MUMBAI -- Lured by the booming Indian economy and fed up with living as outsiders in a foreign society, many Indian and other South Asian immigrants in the United States are returning to their homeland -- and bringing with them cutting-edge American skills.

"This is a happening place," said Ader Gandi, 49, a Pakistani-American mortgage broker from San Francisco who decided to become an art photography dealer in Mumbai, India's chaotic commercial capital, after arriving as a tourist two years ago. "Everywhere you look there are things coming up and happening that just weren't there two years ago -- there's just so much growth."

Spurred by market reforms and a dynamic entrepreneurial class, India's once-sluggish economy has been growing by about 7 percent a year for the last decade, faster than every country in the world except China. Many salaries have almost doubled since 2005, as has the country's stock market index.

This has opened vast new opportunities in multiple fields and infused much of urban India with a tremendous sense of possibility and optimism. Coupled with India's traditionally rich social life that's been made all the more rambunctious by prosperity, this offers returnees an intoxicating mix of professional and personal satisfaction...

[JCMach1]

1. The Indian dream is largely illusion... you still have over

3/4 of a billion people living in abject poverty. Salaries even for middle-class workers are tiny compared to the US, or Europe.

Mostly people return for cultural and family reasons...

I will give you an example. Indian educated engineers line-up to come to the UAE. Average salary? 2000 AED per month. That's around $500.

That's high compared to what they would get in India!

[rockymountaindem]

2. Don't tell that to Tom Friedman

Who thinks that the Indian economy and their low-wage, long hours ways are the best things this side of the Garden of Eden. If you tell him, he might whine at you.

I had to read his "book" for a class and as you can see the shock is still fresh.

[bananarepublican]

4. At least there is more choice on where to go than in the days of 'the Red-Indian'!

The extermination of the American 'Indian' population could well have provided Hitler with the inspiration to undertake the Holocaust!!!

He 'merely' industrialized (with the help of I.G. Farben, and others) the 'ethnic cleansing' process.

[pampango]

6. Yes, a huge majority of their population still lives in poverty.

Not as many as 20 years ago, but way too many. It may take another 20 (or 40) years of growth to reduce poverty levels to anything even half as good as the West. But I do not begrudge them the progress they are making.

Has some of their progress come at our expense? Sure. But if I am outraged by the fact that a corporate executive can make 100 times what his or her blue collar worker makes, am I not also concerned for the Indian worker who makes 100 times less than an American worker? Or is my concern for low-income workers supposed to stop at our borders?

Also, the example of Indians returning to work in their own country for pay that is much lower than they can make here, may show that immigrants to our country may prefer to stay home or go home, when the opportunities there have only marginally from an American's perspective. We may wonder why Indians may return home, but if an 8% growth rate provides them with the motivation, I can only hope and work for the same growth in Mexico and Latin America.

[varun]

3. it's a trickle...

...that can turn into a tide very soon.

Indian workers to enjoy highest pay hikes in '07

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/Good_news_Indian_workers_to_enjoy_highest_pay_hikes_in_07/articleshow/1566807.cms

SINGAPORE: Asian workers are expected to enjoy the highest pay hikes in the world in 2007, thanks to robust economic growth, talent shortage and lower inflation, a survey showed on Tuesday...

...According to the survey, which compares 45 countries, workers in India are set to enjoy the sharpest jump in real wages across the globe this year at 7 per cent.

Workers in Indonesia and China come in a close second and third, with real wage increases forecasted at about 6 per cent.

In comparison, salaries for workers in Slovakia may grow by 3.5 per cent in real terms this year -- the fastest expected pace of growth outside Asia -- while American workers may only see their wages inch up 1.1 percent...

[Greyhound]

5. Glad to read that our jobs are making their lives "better". n/t