India Calling

Immigrants tend to flow from poorer nations to wealthier ones, but on second thought, perhaps attitudes are more attractive than wealth. Indians moved to the West, escaping India’s constraints in the 1970s. But India’s economy has since enjoyed ample growth and its politicians matured, enacting policies that focused on privatization, liberalization and globalization. In recent years, the immigration flow has since reversed direction, with many second-generation immigrants leaving the increasingly pessimistic West and returning to their optimistic homeland. The returning generation learns yoga and Hindi, wears Indian clothing and acquires new customs, still sharing their parents’ appreciation for investment in education: “Our parents’ generation helped India from afar,” explains Anand Giridharadas, writing from personal experience for the New York Times. “They sent money, advised charities, guided hedge-fund dollars into the Bombay Stock Exchange. But most were too implicated in India to return. Our generation, unscathed by it, was freer to embrace it.” Indian parents traveled to the West hoping to find a better future, and their children now seek new opportunity in the country their parents left behind. – YaleGlobal