The Great American Brain Drain: Advantage India

Immigrants have historically provided one of  America’s greatest competitive advantages.They have been the backbone of what we globally know as the great American Dream.Between 1990 and 2007, the proportion of immigrants in the U.S. labor force increased from 9.3 percent to 15.7 percent of which  nearly 45 percent of the work force consisted of immigrants.Immigrants have co-founded firms such as Google, Intel, eBay, and Yahoo and they hold nearly a quarter of U.S. global patent applications.This great contribution of immigrants to America’s stupendous growth story is now sharply under threat from a reverse brain drain resulting due to the ongoing economic crisis.A recent  Duke University survey has brought the worst fear of many industrialist's and business houses in America alive.the survey shows sharp inclination of most of the immigrant community comprising of Indian's & Chinese to head back home.America is no longer the only land of opportunity for these foreign-born workers. There's another, increasingly promising, destination: home.

What propelled their reverse migrations? Most of the Indians surveyed  cited professional opportunities. 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 U.S.Other key factors were quality-of-life concerns, better infrastructure and facilities, and better compensation for set of specific job skills acquired by an American education degree.The commonest professional factor motivating workers to return home was the growing demand for their skills in their home countries.

The current global recession may further increase the trend toward returning to one’s country and make it more difficult for the U.S. to retain these persons or draw most of the Indian immigrants back.In summary, if the U.S. Government and the business community could find better ways to offer good jobs in tandem with less restrictiveness in visa policies for talented immigrants, the U.S. might be able to recapture many of these immigrants and their potential to serve as a much needed growth engine for the U.S. economy.If many of the policy changes are not implemented in time it may very well be the beginning of the end of the road for U.S as a dominant power in times ahead.