Expat Indians look homewards for employment

Expat Indians look homewards for employment

NEW DELHI: The global economic problem is slowly turning into a migration crisis. Thousands of expat Indians are set to return home from developed and emerging geographies in the West, SouthEast Asia and West Asia, where governments are coming under increasing pressure to salvage the jobs of the local population.

A back-of-the-envelope calculation shows that nearly 50,000 Indian software professionals work abroad. These jobs may be at stake, with the US senators – Dick Durbin and Chuck Grassley – planning to introduce a legislation that makes it mandatory for Indian outsourcing firms such as Tata Consultancy Services, Infosys and Wipro to hire American employees before filing for H-1B visas for their Indian employees.

“While it is hard to predict the outcome of a recession of this magnitude, fears are rife that the number of the US visas will be curtailed,” said Dharmakirti Joshi, principal economist at rating agency Crisil.

India’s export sector is already reeling under massive demand destruction in the developed world. And, if industry lobbies are to be believed, the attrition levels have climbed to nearly a million.

The return of migrants to India would put further pressure on the local job market. “There could be greater pressure on agriculture as construction workers return from abroad to join the large number of laid-off domestic laborers,” fears Mr Kumar.