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Back to India

yugal.me

201–210 of 382 posts

Re: Back to India

#201
post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's correct. I live in Bangalore, India and there are a lot more issues than just quality of life. 1. Since, I am from North India, Bangalore treats us like foreigners i.e. if you don't speak the native language, you will be at a significant disadvantage when requiring the assistance of police. 2. Rather, the police has been known to discriminate against `outsiders`. You can even head over to r/bangalore to know m…

Not trying to prove / disprove things, but here are some observations. 1. Yeah the language barrier can be a lot - but no matter which city I lived in - I have always had people help me out with the local language. In smaller villages/towns - it can be harder to find people who can do that for you though. 2. I can't say much about this because I didn't have to deal with this in a meaningful way. 3. I think it is more…

> As a point of reference - the street food vendors (pani puri guys for eg.), the uber drivers, the blue collar workers and sometimes even the house help i talked to - they all made more money than the "IT people" they provide services to.

Don't know about Bangalore, but in Pune (another IT City in India), this is not true at all. These people might be earning more than fresher programmers and Testers just starting out but as soon as these freshers get 2-3 years of experience, their salaries get doubled and tripled quite easily. Also quality of life of a programmer working from a AC office and a Uber driver driving for 10-12 hours a day are 2 very different things. Also after 5 years this programmer will be earning much more than this taxi driver.

Re: Back to India

#202

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think that you've made your point clear already regarding the literal interpretation of the immigration laws but I think that affected parties such as H1-B visa holders have the right to push for immigration reforms and pressure policy makers for a better outcome for their livelihood.

Sure, what else can they do? I’m just describing how the current system works, because I think a lot of people don’t realize how thin their legal rights under the H1B system really are.

I think then we're on the same page. They have the right to fight for their own interests and see what they can come up with in the end. whether path to citizenship or the nearest international airport, but to just ask them outright to pack up and leave because the law says so turns the whole discussion unnecessarily negative.

Re: Back to India

#203

Good for you but there’s no real advantage professionally in moving back, but no disadvantage either. Sure you’re saying H1B restricts but does it really? Have you truly explored all immigration options? Or did you just balk at all the extra beauracracy and said I’ll go back to india? Which is fine, but do note the irony of moving to india to avoid bureaucracy lol. Apply and do your GST, run between five different br…

The main advantage of India for me personally is a sense of community that I felt when I went back there after 8 years. Everyone in the society (i.e: I'd say equivalent to a street or a suburb) knows you and greets you. You go to the temple in the morning, and pickup some snacks along the way. In the evening, people go out to eat, meet their relatives, etc. There are pros and cons of this sense of community as well,…

> sense of aloneness

I think this is the biggest difference - economic differences are quite large in nominal terms but life always goes on, there's going to be food on the table and roof over your head.

Coming from East Asia a lot of my friends are not used to this - but I find myself enjoying the loneliness of it all - being on a boat in the middle of the lake at the middle of the night with no one around you in 2 miles radius is a blessing.

For a similar reason, I never liked New York, SF or LA in the US.

Re: Back to India

#204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There will always be subjective differences between India and the USA and not everything is hunky dory, but there are some things India is IMO better than USA for an Indian expat: 1. Climate: India is definitely sunny and enjoys predictable weather patterns all year round. Climate change might upset the equation, but it is still bright and sunny. 2. Biodiversity: India is 7th largest country with lots of great places…

> There is house help readily available There is house help readily available in the U.S. - the caveat is that you can't afford it unless you're super-wealthy relative to the average population. Incidentally, that's the same in India.

> Incidentally, that's the same in India.

In India anyone earning Rs. 75K a month, (around 1K USD) can easily afford house help for cleaning dishes, and sweeping floor and cooking food. My personal expenses on these 3 things are Rs. 7500 per month (around $100).

Re: Back to India

#205

Fuck the H1b visa. Yes I understand that we have created a huge GC backlog by immigrating here in large numbers but that doesn't mean we should be dragged around like a toy. This is sadly the impression I've formed these days. Our entire lives here revolve around that visa and we could basically be holding on to it for 30 to 50 years before we can get a GC lol. In the meantime, maintaining our driver's licenses, bein…

[deleted]

Re: Back to India

#207

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure why you keep repeating the talking point that Americans don't want legal and skilled immigration anymore without any evidence to back up your claim because as Gallup poll [1] suggests that dissatisfaction with immigration levels (legal or illegal) was on a downward trend and hit an all-time low last year. [1]: https://news.gallup.com/poll/389708/dissatisfaction-immigrat...

What your chart shows is that only 9% of Americans want to increase immigration levels, which would be both the actual and perceived effect of any effort to create a real permanent immigrant system for skilled workers.

What the chart reveals is that there's no general dislike for immigration and more specifically immigrants themselves as your previous comments might suggest.

Re: Back to India

#208

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It can be easier and cheaper to hire locally, compared to sponsoring a work visa to a foreigner. For highly skilled specialists, the minimum wage for a German work Visa is 56,800 EUR (EU Blue Card) and 44,304 EUR for shortage jobs. (1). So at an individual level, wage suppression might not always happen. (Back when I was offered jobs there, my colleagues there were earning less). That being said, at scale, the increa…

>It can be easier and cheaper to hire locally, compared to sponsoring a work visa to a foreigner. Depends how you define cheaper. The visa sponsorship is a one time sunk cost, but if the candidate you sponsor aggress to work for several thousands or even tens of thousands less per year than the local candidates, then the saving for the company are obvious. It's an opens secret that companie in Germany/EU usually spon…

> Depends how you define cheaper. The visa sponsorship is a one time sunk cost, but if the candidate you sponsor aggress to work for several thousands or even tens of thousands less per year than the local candidates, then the saving for the company are obvious.

What i meant was for the same Embedded Linux/C++ jobs - they were willing to pay me 65k/year in Germany - while similar jobs in Netherlands or even other smaller towns in Germany were offering me 36-40k back then. So my old company could have easily scooped up the people from Netherlands as opposed to jumping through hoops to get me a Visa and still save up on a lot of money. But people were reluctant to move there/in general harder to find apparently. I do know what you mean about the "candidates from low wage places". I have seen that happen a lot too. In fact I am seeing it happen a lot more these days because more companies are getting used to remote work and the competition is driving down the wages quite drastically.

> 44K/year seems pretty low for a so called "shortage job", and even more so if you consider the rampant inflation in the past couple of years. AFAIK 44K is pretty much around or sometimes even far less than a new grad makes in a skilled field at a good company. So, IMHO such low wages for supposedly "shortage jobs" are there for wage suppression and nothing else. If we had something like 70-80k/year as the bar for a shortage wage then we'd be talking sense.

Yeah My German Colleagues coming from smaller cities were making around 45k/year even with 4-5 years of work experience back then. Later on they moved to the big cities and got those 75-85k/year Devops jobs (this was around 2020). The companies which paid the bare minimum to sponsor a work visa were usually the ones like yet to be funded startups in Berlin, hectic jobs in Games industry etc...

And Yep. Too much of a good thing can be bad too. There needs to be infrastructure growth to keep up with the incoming population. Real Estate market - it is crazy. People had to be on waitlist for months to rent an apartment even in little cities. God knows how long they have to work there to be able to buy a house.

Re: Back to India

#210
> the insane opportunities available in India now [3].

> India’s rising startup and tech wave

> Massive switch from wealth accumulation mode to wealth creation mode.

> And the amount of VC funding in India combined with the startup ecosystem’s energy here is absolute fire

> The collective risk appetite has never been higher.

> The step after the ‘American dream’ is the ‘Indian dream’.

This is great to hear about India. The more developed and economically successful the world’s largest democracy is, the better for the world in general. The US, Europe, and allies should be doing whatever we can to support this.

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