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."
As the U.S. becomes more and more socialist, there will be more and more of a brain drain. It has happened to other countries that were once known for freedom and innovation -- if we make the same mistakes, it WILL happen here, too. The fact that our educational establishment has worked for decades to dumb-down the populace makes our decline almost inevitable. The question remains whether or not we will be able to catch ourselves and reverse these trends. This will require reform more radical than most people are comfortable with, so things will get worse before they get better -- if they ever do.
My son-in-law is from Pakistan and has many relatives still living there. He says crime is horrible there, and one crime that is common and has happened to his relatives is that if you take money from your bank account or jewelry from your safe-deposit box, when you get home, robbers will be there and will take it from you before you get in the door. They have been tipped off by bank employees.
Yes, they are leaving and taking all our jobs with them.
Hello. Actually, I wrote the Criminal Investigation Division here in Austin, TX, detailing the owner's name according to property records, his employer according to two trucks that swing by to pick up the aliens at 6am or so, and similar relevant details of address, etc.My request for an investigation did not stop there. I asked the division to investigate the plumbing company (I looked it up in property records, too. Ain't the Internet grand??).
All my correspondence took place around six months ago. Let's see if I ever get a response.
Thanks for the apt reply; now I can get set on the licensing angle.
Best wishes as always.
Penny
What the hell does being black have to do with getting into Australia?
100% correct and I get called racist whenever I mention this.
Isn't this keeping within the new guidelines set by the recent US Supreme Court ruling on Affirmative Action that says the US will have Affirmative Action for another 50 years "to level the playing field?"
Many of these immigrants reject western values and hate America.
Why are they here in the first place ?
They are just following the jobs off shore. Many of these foreign workers are getting caught up in the downsizing that has been taking place over the past decade. Many of these folks think they can return to Pakistan/India and start their own companies to fill the outsouring of the high tech jobs. Of course they will pay their fellow countrymen a fraction of what they will receive.
I'd like to know if they will be able to retain a dual citizenship role.
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