Over recent decades the phenomenon of return migration has been a topic of intense discussion among academics and policy makers. Return migration is viewed as a potential development channel for the least developed countries and represents an opportunity to reverse brain drain into the brain gain. During the last two years, interest in this topic has taken Renata Invanova, a 5th year PhD student at CERGE-EI as far as India and the US, pursuing the theoretical and empirical aspects of return migration that form the basis of her dissertation.
“India astonishes you with the mixture of sounds, smells, and scenery from the moment you step off the plane on kilometers of carpets that cover the entire Indira Gandhi International Airport in New Delhi. It astonishes you by the dramatic inequality, an overwhelming poverty in the midst of which you never see a gloomy face, but only smiles. By its desire to outpace China in population by the year 2014. By the fact that everyone speaks English, which makes the country so attractive for foreign professionals and tourists. By the power of the caste system, which still permeates life and determines, for instance, admission quotas to high schools and universities, as well as possibilities for marriage. And by rush hour traffic at 10pm when the streets are packed with BPO (business process outsourcing) employees rushing to be at their jobs by the time America and Europe wake up,” says Renata. “It was the adventure of a lifetime.”
Continue reading Building the future by going back: research on return migration in India
