Bengaluru: Gone are the days when the US and UK were ultimate destinations for Indians seeking better job opportunities and way of life abroad. A recent study shows that there is a decline of 38% and 42% in Indians looking to work in the US and UK respectively during 2016-17.
“India has one of the world’s largest pools of IT talent and has historically seen a steady outflow of IT professionals to the US, UK and Australia. This new data shows an apparent reversal of that trend. The steadily growing Indian economy and political uncertainty abroad have persuaded highly skilled Indian talent to stay at home to find jobs and this in turn has fostered a thriving start-up scene,” said Sashi Kumar, managing director of Indeed India. The report also attributes the decline to Brexit and Trump’s anti-immigrant stand.
The changing political scenario and the drastic change in the worldview are also the reason for the decline. “The increasing trend of hate crimes towards anyone who is not a native has forced me to rethink my plans of seeking a job outside India. Countries like the US have made the process more complex, which clearly shows that they are not encouraging immigrants. Companies too are not encouraged to recruit foreigners like us, “said Mathew George, a designing graduate.
The study, which is based on online job searches, also notes that an overall 5% decrease in Indians looking for job opportunities abroad. The United Arab Emirates (UAE), which was another popular job destination, too has seen a decline of 21%.
On the other hand, there has been a 25% growth in the number of people from the UK searching for jobs in the subcontinent. Also, there is a whopping 170% increase in job seekers from the Asia-Pacific region interested in working in India. Mr Kumar attributed the growing popularity of India to government initiatives and the changing Indian mindset. “With government initiatives like ‘Make in India’, which has made doing business here easy, our country is becoming popular as an employment destination. Indians working in the UK or the Asia-Pacific region expressing their desire to return can also be predicted from the figures,” he said. But Germany has seen a 10% increase in Indians looking for jobs, while Ireland too has seen an uptrend of 20%. Despite the decline, the US and UAE are still the top two destinations in the list of countries Indians like to migrate to, the report stated.
