Here's something you probably don't want to share with your High-Tech friends (Intel). India estimates that the loss of their Indian engineers to the United States costs the Indian economy billions of dollars a year. Indian engineers in America are called NRIs in India (Non-Resident Indians). They rarely return to India with the knowledge and skills acquired working in America. Indians actually have little respect for them and make pointed remarks about their desertion of their 'home country' except for the occasional rare holiday visits. The Indian Government has taken note of the mass migration of their finest engineers and high-tech people. There have been several articles in the newspaper about the loss of morale and creativity among those who remain in India trying to contribute to a higher living standard. There is an emerging middle class, but honestly, I don't see much evidence. Of course, there are foreign companies in India and I think Intel is based in Bangalore. Does anyone know why companies like Intel recruit so many Indian engineers to America? I've heard that it's because there aren't enough trained engineers in America, but I have a hard time believing that is true. PLEASE, if you're reading my blog and you work for Intel or your husband works for Intel, PLEASE do not share this blog with your Indian counterparts. I'm sure they would be quite defensive. India views NRIs in a very negative light and resents the huge financial loss to their economy. What do you think? I'm just reporting what I read in the English Indian Newspapers.
Betty I would imagine the problem, as usual, is MONEY. My husband works for a software company in Hillsboro which is owned by an Indian, and they have a branch in India. The salaries there for the same positions that they have in the Portland office are much lower. MUCH lower.
ReplyDeleteBethany - thanks for the comment. It's definitely a touchy subject in India. The people live on so little here. "Tuition" for attending the school I am teaching for is $20 A YEAR, and that pretty much eliminates every child except for a very, very few. Most of the children have sponsors from the U.S. that help with expenses - and even then, it's a bare bones operation. Yes, it doesn't help much to outsource work to India or keep a plant or an office in India and pay much lower salaries. That benefits the company more than it helps the employees. But it's a start. It's easy to start when the starting point is zero.
ReplyDeleteThe bad side of this, outsourcing is costing lots of Americans their jobs. Our son and a bunch of his co-workers lost their jobs at AOL when they outsourced the jobs they were doing to India!
ReplyDeleteSuch a complicated situation...what organization sets up sponsors for the students? Maybe some of us out here could do that....change the world one child at a time...diane
ReplyDeleteSo my son was involved in MESA in High School which was sponsored by INTEL. The goal was to get more High School kids into math and science careers. (MESA stands for Math Science Engineering Achievement.) What they told us when we went to MESA events was that they were projecting a shortage of engineers and needed more kids to go into engineering fields, so thus the program. He is now in college studying to be a chemical engineer and they are telling him the same thing. So according the what I have heard is there is or will be a shortage of engineers.
ReplyDeleteSandra - I'm going to have the letters in the mail by tomorrow at the latest. It is taking FOREVER. The students' reading and writing aptitude levels are so poor. I start out with the simplest of everything. In India, every subject is taught by rote memorization, so you get a lot of learning gaps and a lot of parroting. Thanks for the information on engineer shortages. What in the world are students majoring in? But if a person doesn't have an interest in or an aptitude for engineering, it's kind of a difficult sell. Somebody's got to be a teacher. Right? :)
ReplyDeletefrom what I hear, from my Intel hubby, the schools in the USA are not keeping up with teaching the kids the math, science they need to become engineers. Most kids want money, so they major in business. There is a huge engineer shortage in america, only because our colleges and schools aren't teaching the right things and kids aren't sold on it. It's our own fault. Intel would not have started hiring foreigners if they had enough brain power right here. It's sad, but don't know how things will change. Intel quit recruiting at BYU (my hubby was very involved with that for years) because they changed their curriculum with the engineering program and the students didn't know the right things to contribute to Intel and the high tech industry. That's why INtel is so involved in the schools here in helping their curriculums and getting computers for school, sponsoring science fairs, etc.
ReplyDeleteWhen I worked at Intel, I had a number of Indians that worked with me. They were mostly younger folks. It seems like their intention was to return to India once they had sufficient knowledge and experience. I'm not sure any of them ever moved back over the years that I was associated with them. The last group I managed had a number that wanted to return after an appropriate amount of time. Maybe the stigma is causing them to state this as a goal.
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