Reverse brain drain
The reverse brain drain is here to stay. I had written earlier about the H1B bottleneck being an opportunity for India/China to attract talent back to India. At a recent gathering of the Think India Foundation, when polled, over 2/3rds of the audience stated that they would like to return home. It is no longer only about green cards or citizenship. It has got much more to do with the opportunity back home. Even with lower salaries, the quality of life is much better. The returning techie also gets a career booster – he is much more likely to be at a more senior role than what he or she would have in the valley.
The trend is noticeable eve with young graduates. An overwhelming majority of this subset would want to settle back home, albeit with a few years of professional experience in the US. With the US economy slowing down, while India and China (Chindia?) growing fast, this group which has fuelled the valley’s innovation engine does not want to get caught on the wrong side of global economic forces.
Reverse brain drain in China and India is definitely happening right now, especially with the recent financial situation that hit the US the hardest. Not only are the Chinese and Indian flocking back home to seek opportunity, European and American are starting to move to China to seek for opportunities (in fact, some find it easier to find jobs in China than back home in US, where the job market is down). See the following article by techcrunch http://www.techcrunch.com/2009/10/17/beware-the-reverse-brain-drain-to-india-and-china/