Reverse brain drain to India, China

I just read an Internet posting that talked about an ongoing reverse brain drain to India and China. The post was by Vivek Wadhwa, an entrepreneur turned academic who is now a Visiting Scholar at UC-Berkeley, among other positions. He talked about attending a meeting organized by the Think India Foundation, a think-tank in Silicon Valley where he was surprised at how strong the reverse migration phenomenon has become.

The meeting held in Sunnyvale was essentially for Indians living in Silicon Valley to include many new arrivals. He said he “was shocked to see more than three-quarters of the audience raise their hands…when they were asked how many planned to return to India.”

The older Indian immigrants were likewise surprised. The present reality is this: “Large numbers of the Valley’s top young guns (and some older bulls, as well) are seeing opportunities in other countries and are returning home. It isn’t just the Indians. Ask any VC who does business in China, and they’ll tell you about the tens of thousands who have already returned to cities like Shanghai and Beijing. The VC’s are following the talent. And this is bringing a new vitality to R&D in China and India.”

The big question is why? “Why would such talented people voluntarily leave Silicon Valley, a place that remains the hottest hotbed of technology innovation on Earth? Or to leave other promising locales such as New York City, Boston and the Research Triangle area of North Carolina?” Wadhwa’s team of researchers at Duke, Harvard and Berkeley polled 1,203 returnees to India and China during the second half of 2008 to find answers to exactly this question.

They learned that these workers returned in their prime: the average age of the Indian returnees was 30 and the Chinese was 33. They were really well educated: 51 percent of the Chinese held masters degrees and 41 percent had PhDs. Among Indians, 66 percent held a masters and 12 percent had PhDs. These degrees were mostly in management, technology, and science.

“Clearly these returnees are in the US population’s educational top tier – precisely the kind of people who can make the greatest contribution to an economy’s innovation and growth. And it isn’t just new immigrants who are returning home, we learned. Some 27 percent of the Indians and 34 percent of the Chinese had permanent resident status or were US citizens. That’s right – it’s not just about green cards.”

They found out that these young Indians and Chinese returned because they feel they have better professional opportunities back home. “And while they make less money in absolute terms at home, most said their salaries brought a ‘better quality of life’ than what they had in the US.”

Social factors also came into the picture: 67 percent of the Chinese and 80 percent of the Indians cited better “family values” at home. Ability to care for aging parents was also cited. It’s much harder to bring parents and other family members over to the US than in the past. For the vast majority of returnees, a longing for family and friends was also a crucial element.

Aside from the people who had already left, they also surveyed 1,224 foreign students from dozens of nations who are currently studying at US universities or who graduated in 2008. The majority told them that they didn’t think the US was the best place for their professional careers and they planned to return home. Only six percent of Indian, 10 percent of Chinese, and 15 percent of European students planned to settle in the US.

Butch Garcia, a classmate of mine at UP Prep who now lives in Silicon Valley confirmed first hand the findings of this survey. When I posted this article on Facebook, he reacted: “talked to an Indian neighbor the other day. When he first came here, he said the salary differential was 20 to 1. Now it is 2 to 3. And with that 2/3 salary, one lives like a king in India. He is tempted to go back.”

What is happening in China and India today should show us what could be done if we just put our minds to it. We cannot forever use the excuse that we are just a poor country that cannot hope to keep the best of our people home even if patriotism is invoked, just about the only thing our government is doing to entice the best of Pinoys who are now working abroad.

After EDSA 1, there was this window of opportunity that for a while made me think that this shared renewed faith in what we can accomplish as a people brightens our future. Tita Cory, because she was someone we could respect, inspired us in a way that made us want to be part of the national renewal that was happening.

The first half of FVR’s watch continued what Tita Cory started and we saw concrete results in terms of increased international confidence in our economy. FVR’s last two years was a downward spiral as scandals started to sprout from the centennial projects to the questionable power generation contracts now at the root of our uncompetitive high power rates. The next 12 years of Erap and Ate Glue brought out the worst in us… setting us back even as Thailand and Malaysia overtook us decidedly.

And so the Filipino Diaspora became our people’s self-preservation response to the failure of the national leadership to bring economic progress at home a reality. Now we hear the Chinese and the Indians are coming home. It would be nice to have our scattered people come home too but that won’t happen for a while to come. Maybe, if we elect the right President next year, someone like Tita Cory with no taint of corruption, a reverse brain drain back to the Philippines will happen sooner.

I am sure that for most Pinoys now forced to work abroad, they would rather be home. I am sure they look forward to the day when just like the Chinese and the Indians, they too will have the option of earning a living and getting professional fulfillment right in their own country. –Boo Chanco (The Philippine Star)