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Headline: People like us don't move back to Goa
By Vivek Menezes.
Source Herald. 23 November 2004 at http://www.oherald.com/modules.php?name=Sections&sop=viewarticle&artid=281
Full text:
It's not a generalisation, but closer to an actual physical law. Young Italians may settle in Arpora by the dozen, Brazilian families may take Konkani lessons and put down roots in Panjim, entire clans from India's cow belt may start construction on permanent family compounds near Colva, but thirty something Goans who have grown up in the West never return permanently to Goa. Yet, here we are.
Two decades plus in the West under our belts (we were moved there as children) and my wife and I find ourselves improbably back in Goa with two small Indian-American sons in tow and a firm desire to participate and contribute in this time of tremendous change in our homeland.
It's no longer a particularly unusual phenomenon when looked at in the broader Indian context. Long-time Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) are steadily trickling back to places like Bangalore and Hyderabad, attracted by explosive economic growth, the belief that India is now firmly set on a positive track for development and the desire to give their children a permanent and unshakeable sense of identity.
People of Indian Origin (PIO) cards and the possibility of dual citizenship hold out the promise that you can genuinely keep yourself fully connected to both East and West. But Goans don't come back from the West, and the outward flow of economic migrants has been unstemmed since the beginning of the last century.
There are many reasons for this, and most people in Goa can give you specific anecdotal evidence for the migration of family members and friends. One universal justification is greater opportunity afforded those who cross the oceans and leave forever.
It's inarguable that in the USA, at least, Indians are the most successful immigrant group in the history of that country. In two generations, Indians have achieved the highest education level of any ethnic group, the highest per-family income and the best levels of employment. Whole segments of the economy including health-care, small hotels and motels, and software development, are heavily dependent on Indians in the USA.
Goans, particularly in the most recent generations, are well represented in these fields, and some Goans are among the most visible Indians in the diaspora.
Which leads me back to the question of why my wife and I seem to be the only youngish Goans anyone can remember having actually decided to move back to raise children here after comfortably assimilating in the West.
The main part of my answer is a bold prediction, get ready, we're only the first of many.
There are converging social and technological trends which are going to bring many more of us prodigals home in the coming decades.
The main side effect of the success-story that Indians have created for ourselves in the West is economic reward. This generation of NRIs is achieving financial security at a far younger age than previous generations managed. Paradoxically, this economic freedom comes alongside a volatile employment marketplace. It is now largely unheard-of for professionals to stay with the same company for longer than a few years and even civil servants often switch between public and private sectors repeatedly in the course of a career.
Today, it is common to see skilled workers and executives crisscross a particular country chasing increasing opportunity, switch countries and continents without batting an eyelid, and to re-assess all their lifestyle choices constantly. This fluidity is in large part created by another major trend of rapid technological advance.
Aided by satellite technology and mobile telephony and the ubiquity of the Internet, it no longer makes any difference whether most work tasks are executed in Boston, Budapest, or Bangalore, or even Benaulim. Most skilled workers can now physically locate themselves anywhere decently served by communications infrastructure and interact with colleagues in a virtual environment.
So, when our thirty somethings in the West sit down to spreadsheet their options after yet another career twist, they find that Goa is suddenly starting to pop up as a viable potential option. The eternal reasons for expatriate nostalgia are not too degraded or beyond redemption.
There are some fine schools and the health care scenario is steadily improving. And while the infrastructure is still maddeningly backward, there has been steady improvement in the last few years. There is work to be done, the positive developments are merely the hint of what has to happen before we can see the steady outward flow stemmed and eventually reversed.
But it can happen here as surely as it is happening in Bangalore and Hyderabad. I'm here, aren't I?
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