Reverse Brain Drain

Last year my office started outsourcing 3D rendering services to a company in China. While I've done a fair amount of rendering in-house, this is a service that we've traditionally hired local independent designers to do. Now my boss wants to try out-sourcing some of our CAD drafting to India. Since these working drawings require a far greater knowledge of local codes and building practices than merely drawing pretty pictures, it remains to be seen how successful this experiment will be. But the hand-writing is on the wall. Drafters here are definitely feeling threatened, and for good reason.

India has a burgeoning population of well-educated English speaking technicians, and while some leave to work in Europe or North America, those quotas fill quickly the vast majority stay home to form the base of the local tech industry. To top it off, once those visas expire, the lottery winners often head back to their homeland to start up businesses to compete with their old employers, hiring up their old classmates.

However, the high-tech boom in India is having another effect. American and European expatriates are starting to follow these new jobs to India. The numbers are relatively small for now, but they are growing. Some are executives of multi-national companies or entrepreneurs looking to capitalize on cheap labor. Some, however, are individuals looking for adventure and career opportunities.

...the greatest surge in expatriate workers is occurring among mid level professionals, especially in the technology sector. Last year, CNN reported that Monster.com India listed 3,000 foreigners seeking work in India. Delhi-based Technovate eSolutions, a BPO in the travel space, boasts that nearly 10 percent of its 700 employees are drawn from all over Europe. The leading Indian software companies Infosys and Wipro both employ hundreds of foreigners.

I'm fascinated to see what the future holds. Someday we may hear Indian talk-show hosts railing against American and European immigrants taking their jobs and not learning Hindi.