Why are Immigrants blamed?

A normal statement I hear these days whenever I say that I’m off to US or UK for further studies is “You are not going to come back.” When I do nothing to protest, I get weird stares and the same statement “So thinking of settling abroad already, huh?”

I hate pretending. There are many reasons which can be given to assure why life abroad is better than in India. I won’t bore you with those reasons. What really pricks me is this question: “Don’t you feel you should do something for India?”

What do people mean by do something for India? What have they done till now? Tried to cut down on income taxes, bribed government officials for their work, sat in AC cars and completely overlooked the plight of people around, thrown garbage out of their windows thinking what harm would it make to a country full of garbage, wasted power, badmouthed the politicians, had a good laugh over infrastructural facilities…

I don’t say everything of this has been done by everyone, but most of it is…I’m sure you’ll agree. So now tell me…what’s wrong if I go abroad do some good research, may be become someone renowned in the field, take Indian students under me, send good money back home…I’m helping India in my own ways. At least I’m not pretending to do something just by staying in India.

Our country is way behind the developed nations in terms of infrastructural facilities, health care facilities, entertainment facilities; public transport…the list goes on. To all these good things Indians use one argument to thwart-it-all: “We have culture…which they don’t have”. To this no one can completely disagree, nor do I. But after living in a developed country, UK, for 3 months I realize that we can maintain our Indianess wherever we go. People respect it, rather they try to imbibe it. And frankly, there is quite a lot that Indian culture can absorb from the western culture which will enhance our culture and not bring disgrace to it.

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