Why I moved to USA!

 

Why I moved to USA!

Brief description :

Live now in Mountain House, CA after retirement from the University in NC!!

     I came for higher studies at Yale University, USA as a graduate student with a fellowship and no intention to settle down. I arrived in New Haven Connecticut in August, 1969. My wife and son joined [me] a year later.

    This is the story of an immigrant who went through various phases of settling down in USA. Both countries, USA as well as India have changed a lot since 1969. I have never regretted my decision.

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Live now in Mountain House, CA after retirement from the University in NC!!

 

    Let me start with why I came to USA in the first place. I came for higher studies with no intention to settle down. Therefore, I was on a student visa named F-1. Here’s the reason! I was lucky to get a university faculty position with first class M.Sc. (honors) only because there were not many Ph.D. candidates available in India at that time. After little over a year, I started feeling that without Ph.D. I will not get too far in the university. The possibility of getting Ph.D. in my university was not good because it was a new university. I started applying for studies abroad and was accepted at Yale University, USA as a graduate student with a fellowship. I resigned from my job at the end of 2 years and I arrived in New Haven Connecticut in August, 1969 just under a month before classes started.

 

    It was quite a change from University faculty position at young age of 23 to be a student and adjust to new culture, new food, new environment, lot of studies, limited income but good enough to live. My wife and son joined me a year later. I noticed here in USA people trusted you more and you were treated fair and well irrespective of your position; whether you were student, faculty or staff. At JFK airport in New York where I landed, I told the guy that these are my bags and like to take these. “Why are you asking? Take these.” In India they would not have let me take away without some identification and verification. Even the clerk in bank will not cash your check unless he/she knows you or know someone common. Small event but it did make an impact on me. At Yale, I received fellowship on very first day without any questions. I needed money to settle down and was thankful for their gesture. My school administrative welcomed me very warmly and told that my adviser was asking about my arrival. Dean came out and shook hand. I never experienced anything like this as a student at Panjab University, Chandigarh. These were very small events but were creating an impression on me as I compared Indian and American society.

 

    Anyhow with ups and downs I received my Ph.D. degree, the reason for my coming here in USA. I could stay as part of the training after graduation for one and half year on F-1 student visa. I got postdoctoral fellowship with Professor Dr. Graeme Berlyn.  By this time, my wife and I started liking the clean environment and comfortable living condition and were not in a rush to go back. The problem was the Visa. I had to go back at the end of one and half year and the visa was renewed every six months as long as I have a job. In 1969 any college graduate and professional of Indian origin could get a permanent resident visa called green card and flood of Engineers and other professionals left India for USA.  But I had no intention of settling here at that time and chose to come on student visa. Situation for permanent residence has changed by the time I graduated and it was lot more difficult to get green card. But my wife and I really wanted to stay here in USA. I talked to my Professor Dr. Berlyn and convinced Yale to sponsor me. It took lot of paper work and recommendations but finally managed to get my green card for permanent residency within a year. It was very happy day for my family. We didn’t have to worry about visa, packing things and going back to India.

 

    I got faculty position at a University in North Carolina worked for over two decades and took early retirement to move in Mountain House, California to be near my son, daughter-in-law, and two grandsons. My son is a high tech with MBA from Wharton School of Business in Pennsylvania and his wife is also in high tech. He wanted to be in Silicon Valley and convinced us to move here. We miss our friends in North Carolina but like the weather in Northern California, the only thing we really like about this state.

 

    As an Indian immigrant in the USA, I still wonder why did I decided to stay in USA when I clearly came only to do graduate studies at Yale University. It certainly is not about money in our case because not only I had job in India but also significant property assets. So do my wife.

 

    One thing I realized was that people are treated for their intellectual knowledge and hard work rather than whom you know or anything else. I realized that USA is the place to be for good research and developing your skills that are appreciated. Indian education system is geared more towards making a living; whereas US education system is more flexible and geared toward research and development and innovation.

 

    Indians in USA have won almost same number if not more Nobel prizes as compared to India with fraction of population. Indians are CEOs of big corporations such as Google and Microsoft and it’s just a small sample from huge list of their achievements here.

 

    Both countries, USA as well as India have changed a lot since 1969. I have never regretted my decision even in old age. We see lot of people and immigrants talking about cars and roads now in India and so on. In fact I liked India when I left it in 1969, especially if you had some money or reasonably good job. It was clean and people were more affectionate and families cared about each other before the material race started and more things became available.

 

    There are lots of people who want to come on student visa or work visa these days with the intention to settle down abroad. However, they often seek advice if it is worth the efforts. Is life better in the US than in India? Permanent visa is there but quite limited and most people take advantage of chain migration through relationships. Marriage perhaps is the easiest route for permanent residence or green card. Those who are permanent residents with green card normally become citizens within five years; and those who are citizens don’t need any advice on migrating back to India or stay here in USA. Most of US citizens have life-time visa for India in the form of OCI (Overseas Citizens of India) card. Some call it dual citizenship. They can live in either country with no problem. They got best of both worlds. I don’t know any but if someone decides to go back and stay in India have the benefit of collecting social security and other government benefits offered for US citizens.

 

    I will spend most of the time on pros and cons for benefit of those migrating from India or any other country to USA. I have lived in both India and USA with liking and disliking for each country.

 

    Emotional attachment to your mother country is natural but those who compare India with USA in terms of material comforts, standard of living and advancements are living in fool’s paradise. India is part of the third world and a developing country. USA is not only the first world developed country but number one economy in the world. Third world is offensive term but yes, India is considered a third world country as well as a developing country. The nation has high rates of poverty, corruption, an out-of-date caste framework, child malnutrition, high levels of air pollution and gender inequality. Although it is well industrialized but has a long way to go.

 

    The US is an extremely large country. When you consider the population of the USA as compared to India, the size is magnified even further. The US is about three times the size of India but only has a fourth of the population.

 

    The big thing we often hear people talking in India as well as Indians here is servants. No doubt no one can afford servants even in richer homes in USA as people can afford in upper middle class or even middle class in India. No Indian including me wants to face the truth that servants are a third world phenomenon. The opportunities in countries like India and Africa are limited and people are willing to do menial work at low wages in homes. We get cleaning lady once a month and she charges over $100 for less than two hours work here in USA. More than many servants are paid per month in India. The basic living standard of the cleaning lady is as good as any other person, she drives nice car, live in centrally heated and cooled place, eats food from the same grocery stores and dresses like many others. The day India will be part of the first world developed countries will be when there will be no more servants. Every Indian will have high standard of living with running water, centrally heated and cooled houses, drive similar kind of cars, wear similar clothes and so on. It is hard for me to vision in near future under the current situation.

 

    India has caught up in certain fields such as mobile phones, internet, online banking because these services are not influenced by overpopulation or density of population and are cost effective.

 

    Public transportation is much better in India than it is in the USA. You almost certainly need a car (or two) in the US whereas in India, a car is more of a luxury. Cars in India have not worked as well as mobile phone, internet and online banking. In addition to pollution, there are limited parking spaces and is hard to keep up with roads to accommodate new appetite for cars. India needs to follow after Japan; a developed country with fast trains and fewer cars.

 

   The biggest and shameful negative for USA is their health care system. It may be best in the world for those who can afford but in such a rich country every citizen not having open access to health care is shame. It is all due to legal corruption called lobbying and hope someone like Senator Bernie Sanders succeed to get affordable if not free access for every citizen of USA. Pharmaceutical companies are big part of this shameful health care system. For someone like me who was employed with the university and now retired it works fine.

 

    High crime rate due to free availability of weapons is hard to fix due to 2^nd amendment that allows freedom to carry weapons. I don’t know: what is the solution except changing laws that make it hard to buy weapons. I myself don’t carry any weapon but have thought of buying many times.

 

    Let me add for those who seek advice to settle in USA from India. It’s simple if you are in line to become US citizen then you can get OCI card and have best of both worlds as I mentioned earlier. Those who come on student or work visa, their decisions are not in their hands and will be determined by US immigration service after they come in this country. It’s quite competitive to get permanent visa and settle in USA unless you do something like marrying a US citizen. It is much easier to get permanent visa for countries like Canada, Australia and New Zealand.

 

    There are many people with money in India who are moving to these above mentioned countries now. The reason: living conditions in these countries are better and cleaner. These rich Indians have money to visit India anytime. They can spend summer abroad and winter in India, if they want. India has produced lot of rich people due to open economy and corruption. People can start any business or institution usually by bribing officials in many of the cases. Their percentage may not be high but still quite a high number due to large population. India’s poor are suffering and will continue to suffer unless there is big revolution or some kind of miracle.

 

    Many of these comments seem very negative but are facts that you can see from abroad only having lived in both countries. This allegory is a good example for why you can see problems in India better from abroad. I can see better like this example. The high wave is coming in a river that can drown the man in the river. The man in the river even being right there in the river cannot see that wave coming. A man on the bank of river is outside but can see the wave coming that will drown this man. I am like that man on the bank. Many in India with false hopes are like a man in the river.

    These days rich kids in India do not know what to do with their parent’s money and so they find way to go abroad and have fun. People, who were in India since their birth, want to explore this world and one important tourist/fun place happens to be USA. The next step is their focus on how to stay permanently in USA.

     The reality is I am not the only one who has decided to settle back in USA. There are many students even today who go for studies abroad and never like to go back. Their reasons may be different than mine but most common reason for sticking in USA in their own words: “The standard of living in USA is better than India. Even if you do a counter clerk job, you will be able to enjoy a better standard of living than an IAS officer in India. Countries like the US have much better facilities and are developed.”

    They continue in their words. Most of the Indian students want to settle in USA because the facilities that they are getting there are unavailable in India. It is indeed a matter of concern because this is what brain drain is all about.

    They don't want to come back to India because they get better job offers over there resulting in earning more in dollars than Indian currency.

 

    No matter what the reason many students even today like to stay in USA after graduation if they get an opportunity to do so.  Individuals feel that their talent isn’t being recognized.  Indians love to boast about living abroad and having many facilities at their disposal.

 

    Indian students, when they reach that distant shore, slowly start realizing the difference in the quality of life, which they know that they’d miss if they come back. It’s true that many problems are cropping up in the US society in recent times but meritocracy is still prevalent in the professional sector, and that maintains the quality of education here. An excessive stress on quota in the Indian system has ensured that India will never recover from this and hence once there, very few find any reason to come back.

 

    These are some of the examples expressed by Indians at various sites on the internet. Here are some more opinions of other people from India, not necessarily mine. It’s not surprising when they see Indians heading top companies like Google and Microsoft…

     Why are the Indian students so fixated on going to US for higher studies or in general, Indian people so attracted to US?

 Top notch universities: More than 75% of the world's top universities are in the US. The standard of education, quality and breadth is extremely good. The assets of Harvard University alone are more than the total amount spent on higher education for the whole of India. This provides a lot of resources for research.

Jobs: People go to grad school to eventually get into a job or start a company. For either of these two, US is the best place in the world. The variety of jobs and variety of options to start a company is quite high.

Immigrant friendly: USA is a land of immigrants. This allows people to fit in much more easily than any other country. Only a handful of developed nations have better visa policies than the US. Another Indian Replied, perhaps working in USA: Yes, it is country of immigrants but US has very tough immigration laws. Are you aware of the H1B lottery? (That is 1 in 3 chance of getting a H1B even if you get a job). And people from India have to wait 10+ years to get a green card even though they are working in high skilled jobs. Not to mention dealing with immigration officers is a tough experience in most cases.

Family/Cultural ties: You take a flight from India to the US and in the flight you will find predominantly Indians. Then you walk into a grad school - Indians there. Walk into a hospital/office, Indians there. For many Indians there are more family members in the US than in India. I (a participant in discussion on internet) have for instance 7 cousins in the US and 3 cousins in India. More than half of my classmates at school and college are in the US. Almost every city has a nice temple and Indian store. This makes US a very familiar place and a default choice.

English speaking: Among the developed nations, only US, UK, Canada, Australia and New Zealand are English speaking. Non-English speaking Germany, France and Japan are much more difficult to manage.

    Most are so desperate to become US Citizens. Married women, in order to use citizen-by-birth law loophole  go to USA for visiting a relative or find some other way to go there in US – give birth to a child who now becomes US citizen by law. They want their children to be born in America so that they get US Citizenship one day. I personally know such cases.

    Most Indian Migrants to US are most eager to relinquish Indian Citizenship to acquire US Citizenship.

 

    The Indian migrants called NRI (Non-Resident Indians) who settle in USA or other countries go through some phases of experiences and adjustments that may be worth sharing.

 

    They find that US is much better in terms of bureaucracy - getting essential services is much easier (and almost entirely non-corrupt) as compared to India. Getting a driver’s license, passport or other essential documentation is pretty painless here. There are well-defined, though sometimes tedious, processes to be followed and if you follow these, you will get what you need.

 

    Traveling - especially within the country, is much easier in the US as compared to India. Foreign travel obviously depends more on the destination country, but there are more airports in the US than in India.

 

    If you are earning well or have other source of income you don't have to worry about anything in day to day life. Roads, infrastructure, police, hospitals etc are very good. You will have comfortable house and car. You will have mature and educated people around. Kids will have better infrastructure to study. Some hard working Indian kids will easily beat other US kids.

 

    Most immigrants or NRI generally go through various phases which are not the same for all of them. Every person’s life is different. No matter what the reason to stay here in USA, almost every immigrant goes through these phases to some extent. They go through first an excitement phase which starts right from India for many of them after getting the US visa. They arrive in USA and get really amazed with the best infrastructure of America and starts loving it. It is easy to get used to American life style with few hiccups. They start making some money and will have parties, shopping, vacation trips and realizes that life is very comfortable in the US. NRIs are very happy in this phase with lots of excitement and joy that American life brings in.

 

     They usually decide to go on the path of settling down in the US with a backup plan of spending sometime in India and some here in USA but most of them don’t think of completely going back and leave comfortable lifestyle.  

 

    With more time outside India, they stop thinking of going back because of kids who have no chance of going back. They start seeing that India is more polluted, air pollution, water pollution, congested and over-populated; food is less pure, stray dogs, cows, and other animals which are non-existent here in USA. Whenever they visit India they clearly see that family relationships and old friendships have faded away with time.

 

    After achieving higher income, higher savings, successful career, and more time in their hand, they start indulging deeply in social and charity activities to keep them busy and also for social recognition. Most of them are US citizens by this time.

 

    Most of NRIs work until 65 years of age and retire at the age of 65 when house and cars are usually paid off. After 65 years they start getting social security and healthcare benefits from government. But they continue to work in some retirement jobs to keep them busy or to earn some extra income for unknown expenses.

    Every NRI looks happy person but some may have a dark side story to tell. Life in the US rotates around profession, immigration process and kids. NRIs tend to “sacrifice their life for kids of next generation.”  Kids seem to be happy with no complaints about life as they are in young age and enjoy financial assets accumulated by their parents. The second generation, Indian-Americans, will have friends but might not have family relationships! NRIs don’t feel the same kind of affection between them and their kids as they felt between their parents and them.

 

    Most of these observations are not just for Indian immigrants or those coming to USA only and may be common for all the first generation immigrants. Later generations may have different issues like any other citizen.  

 

    For new aspirants, the situation is worse now with 70-years of green card backlog, meaning many of them might never be able to settle in USA. In the beginning we are young, don't think about family much but in 30s we start wanting to settle. The situation is worse for second tier immigrants, people who come here illegally, and people who are unskilled with false resume etc.

     There was time when people were coming abroad to make money. Now people with money are coming abroad. Because quality of life is deteriorating in India, even though there is material progress and more things available to make life comfortable.

    Hope some of the NRIs relate to these observations and those who plan to be the future immigrants will learn from these experiences. Everybody’s requirements are different. So just make a firm decision to settle abroad or stay back in India based on your own preferences, requirements and priorities, not what other NRIs are doing. I wish you all the very best for whatever you decide to move ahead in your life.

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Author Notes: This is the real story for autobiography of an author of Self-help and Spiritual books. https://www.amazon.com/Dr.-Sukhraj-S.-Dhillon/e/B004584DL0