Posted on 08/17/2003 12:38:55 AM PDT by Cincinatus' Wife
DENVER -- Yusuf Hussain, after spending seven years in Colorado, packed up his three-bedroom house in Littleton last week in search of a better life. He says he will find it in Pakistan.
The 39-year-old executive came here from Pakistan just as the U.S. tech economy was taking off in 1996. Today, he is being lured back by what he can't find here: Jobs, wealth and economic activity.
Many foreign nationals no longer view America as the land of opportunity. Economists, businesspeople and other experts say growing numbers of immigrants are moving back to their home countries of Pakistan, India, China, Singapore and Vietnam -- countries with job and economic growth sometimes double or triple that of the United States.
The U.S. government hasn't kept totals on emigration for several decades. But economists and immigrants say the anecdotal evidence of the trend is real.
"I get calls from friends left and right saying they are packing up and going back to China," said Hai Yan Zhang, a Denver-based Chinese business consultant who travels to China five times a year.
"I go to China and see people's eyes sparkling," Zhang said. "It's full of life and vitality there. In contrast to the U.S., where we're reaching a plateau, perhaps going down."
Economists say the exodus could hurt the U.S. economy because America is losing some of the world's smartest and most entrepreneurial people.
And it most likely will feed a controversial trend by U.S. companies to create jobs or move existing jobs offshore in search of cheaper and faster software development, manufacturing or customer service.
"Those people will have the talent to do the work in their home country, and they have the relationships with the companies they used to deal with," said Rich Wobbekind, an economist with the University of Colorado. "It's going to be easier for them to set up facilities in other countries."
Indeed, that's what lured Hussain to return to Pakistan.
Hussain, chief executive of Denver software firm Cressoft, plans to open a facility in Pakistan to provide faster, less expensive software development for U.S. companies.
"Offshore in my mind is the most high-growth prospect for the foreseeable future," Hussain said.
Today he sees climbing real estate values, an improving stock market and software contracts in Pakistan.
"I think you're seeing a bit of a movement," he said.
Almost all countries in Southeast Asia have higher economic growth rates than the United States. Much of that activity is fueled by U.S. companies outsourcing their manufacturing, software development and customer service needs.
China is experiencing the fastest economic growth of any country, expanding at 8 percent a year, according to statistics compiled by the Central Intelligence Agency. The country has become a key manufacturing center for companies across the globe, making everything from washing machines and clocks to chemical fertilizers and sugar.
India ranks No. 2, growing 4.3 percent last year. With its highly educated, English-speaking work force, India has become a prime spot for affordable customer-support call centers, software development houses and, more recently, technical support centers.
"I know a lot of Indians who are going back to India," said Zafar Khan, a Denver attorney and accountant who speaks six languages and has lived in five countries. "At the moment, there is a downturn. Companies are closing, and there's not a lot of work."
Khan said he is considering moving back to his native Pakistan to join Hussain's software venture.
"I'm toying with it," he said. "I'm an international guy. I can move anywhere there is opportunity."
Multiple forces may pull immigrants back home, said Bahman Paul Ebrahimi, a global business professor at Daniels College of Business at the University of Denver.
Some people arrived here a few years ago to meet demand from companies that desperately needed talented computer scientists to keep up with the booming economy. Today, their work visas have expired, and they're forced to go home because they can't find an employer to sponsor them, he said.
Ebrahimi said he also knows of foreign students who came for school but now are leaving because they couldn't find work after graduating.
Ebrahimi, who moved here from Iran decades ago, said he also perceives an anti-immigrant feeling here and a deep resentment from jobless Americans.
"No matter how long you live here, people will consider you a foreigner," Ebrahimi said. "There's a social stigma and backlash in this country. Sometimes there's subtle, even overt, hostility."
Still others, such as Hussain, crave being close to family and cultural roots.
"It's very work-oriented here," Hussain said. In Pakistan, he said, people focus more on family and have more of a sense of spirituality rather than materialism."
Yet there's a trade-off, said Zhang, the Chinese consultant. She said many people who spent enough time in America suffer from what she calls "re-entry shock" when returning home.
In China, houses typically are cramped and corporations are bureaucratic, offering little room for advancement or personal initiative, Zhang said.
And in India, simple things such as getting phone service, banking or receiving health care may take weeks.
As more immigrants leave, fewer come to the United States on temporary work visas these days.
Outside of retail pharmacies and health care employers, job-slashing corporations no longer salivate over foreign nationals as they did a few years ago to fill vacant tech jobs.
Plus, the government has tightened restrictions on immigration because of homeland security concerns, said Bill Strassberger, a spokesman for the U.S. Bureau of Citizenship & Immigration.
Requests to receive H-1B temporary work visas fell 41 percent from October 2001 to June 2002, according to Economy.com. And the number of those visas actually doled out dropped 53 percent to 60,500 over the same period.
"I think it's a loss for the long run," said Wobbekind, the economist. "Over the centuries, that's what made our country great, having a melting pot of different cultures and talents. We're accidentally exporting some smart people who could easily compete with us."
Most came to this country in the Carter years. Tough times. They worked as cab drivers, auto detailers, janitors, anything to make a dollar. Gradually they built their own ladders to success. All were bright but none were brilliant.
Meanwhile there were millions of native-born Americans with every advantage who pissed it all away. It was there for the taking but it was the foreigners who had the drive and determination to take it. All of the crayola creativity of our schools has delivered us a bland uniformity that I think dangerous.
LOL. Let's set up a country on that individual (or that corporation)
The world hates us, blinded by a hatred that is equal parts greed, envy and the dire effects of commercially motivated Hate-America propaganda, much of it originated by status-crazed yuppy fifth-columnists like the piece of garbage who penned this article from the Chronicle. Let them hate us and, by all means, get these arrogant authoritarian carpetbaggers out of the country and encourage them to take their greedy little sycophants with them. As for me, I will never leave, never.
Bump!
Now, I'm waiting for GWB to order the deportation of 8-11 million illegal aliens.
My neighbor, a plumber from Mexico, owns a $130,000 house, has four new trucks in his driveway, has seven or so illegal aliens sleeping on rugs in his house every night. You get one guess on whether the INS has heeded my telephone and written inquiries about the suspicious activites and the owner's ability to acquire the wealth he seems to have doing day labor.
Best as always,
Penny
Been in similar situation and it always humbles me, these guys work crappy jobs for ten years, then buy a beat up greasy business run it for another ten, all the while buying run down rental property.........all the while I've been working on my elegant 'career'...........but in the end the crappy job and beat up business wins out every
Now if we can only impart that wisdom onto our offspring
Which benefits no one but politicians catering for votes. We should throw those bums out. Opportunity is here for all.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.