Backwards Brain Drain: Highly Skilled Migrants Returning Home

Editor's Note: Vivek Wadhwa has been tracking the effects of globalization on labor markets as a professor at Duke University's Pratt School of Engineering and Harvard Law School's Labor and Worklife Program. A survey he authored with the Kauffman Foundation and released today polled more than 1,200 Indian and Chinese high-skilled immigrants and found a reverse brain drain back to their home countries. NAM editor and New America Now radio host Sandip Roy spoke with Wadhwa about the trends and future of labor markets.

Vivek Wadhwa, so who is going back? What's the typical profile?

The typical profile is that they are 35 years of age, they are highly educated, the majority of them have Master's and PhD’s, and all of them have been successful here and they are doing better back home.

On average, how long have they lived here?

Apparently five to 10 years. We didn't actually ask that question in our hour interview. It varied.

What kind of numbers are we talking about in terms of the numbers of people going, is it too early to call it a “reverse brain drain”?

This is where you have to get into estimation mode, because there is no data available, because no one keeps track of how many people go back as tourist or who go back to work and so on. But based on all the research I've done, my guess is over the last 20 years you've had 50,000 each going back to India and China. Before I used to say that 50,000 more will go in the next five years. Based on the economic downturn, my prediction is that 100,000 skilled workers will return, both to India and to China, over the next five years or so. I call this a reverse brain drain.

You found these people for your survey using something like LinkedIn?

Yes, in fact what we did was we tried many ways to get in touch with returnees, and what we found was that the vast majority that are going back from here, still stay connected through their colleagues here, and LinkedIn happened to be a good source for tracking them down.

Many of these immigrants came to the United States for professional reasons or for education, and then they stayed on. What's pulling them back now? Are they unhappy with their lives in America or just impressed by what's going on in India and China?

It's been changing over the last decade or so. Initially they were going back for family reasons: they felt homesick, they had relatives back home, and they had obligations to their families. A lot of people went back home because of family reasons. Over the last five years or so, many people have gone back for two reasons, number one, they see huge economic opportunities back in China and India, number two, they are having visa problems over here.

The separate discussion is the visa backlog of skilled immigrants in the United States. Right now there are over one million skilled immigrants and their families in the USA, waiting for green cards. They are stuck in immigration limbo, and if you're an Indian in particular, there are probably about 350-400,000 Indians waiting for green cards. Only 8,400 per year are given, which means you could be waiting a long time for a green card. When you look around and see how well you're friends who return to India are doing back there, why would you put up with the abuse of having to be stuck in the same company, making lousy wages when you can be a superstar back home? That's the mindset of a lot of people.

And are they really ending up being superstars back home? Are the streets really paved with gold?

Well, for example, in our sample, what we found was that 10 percent had senior management jobs in the U.S. and when they went back to India, 44 percent were promoted to manager. When you ask them how they are doing relative to how they did over here, about 60 percent said they are doing much better back home than they did over here.