Come Back Home

Amid massive layoffs in the West and abundant growth in the East, it is time to consider what you call home.  

Why it is important:

Amid the insurgence of layoffs in the US in the past few weeks, laid-off employees face a tough time in a foreign land. People struggle to make ends meet, from finding a new job in limited time to keeping up with everything to maintain work permit status.  

On one side, the US is trying to strap every talent strand in its homeland; it cannot compensate for the value these employees bring to its economy. But conversely, eastern economies are booming and offering better growth opportunities for their citizens. So this article is drafted to highlight the current and future shift in global power dynamics, to give insights to foreign staff to return home! 

Introduction:

A home is not necessarily where you are born. It is where you live, create memories and build a lifestyle around. Home can be a person, place, or feeling that comforts you. 

The same is true for the thousands of employees deported in America amid the recent wave of layoffs in Google, Microsoft, Meta, and Amazon. These employees considered the US their home, which is asking them to vacate it with merely 60 day's notice period. So although foreign-born employees are knocking on every door to stay a little longer in the country, it is time to consider what they call home!

As per the media reports, nearly 30-40% of the laid-off staff is Indian, which is undoubtedly a great asset to the American tech sector. As a result, US lawmakers are writing to immigration agencies to halt the deportation of thousands of tech staff. As per them, the deportation will jeopardize the future of the US economy in the long run. 

We agree with the statement, but the US cannot afford to keep thousands of unemployed labourers amid the economic crunch. Additionally, halting the migration of employees without compensating them for their value addition to the economy will completely insult their talent. The talent, which can be better utilized and compensated at other locations such as their hometown in India, is growing vastly even amid financial gloom in the West.

So through this article, we urge all the foreign staff to migrate back to their hometowns, not because it is the only option, but because it is the right one.

The US economy is built on foreign shoulders

Over 28 million people, which comprise 17% of the total workforce in the US, are foreign-born, and why not. Over the years, the US has garnished the world's image as a tech hub. Silicon Valley alone produces more output annually than some nations, and if Silicon Valley were a country, it would be among the world's richest countries.

But, with the recent flood of nationwide layoffs, the image of the tech hub is tarnished. In the past few months, more than 200,000 IT staff lost its job in the US.

But the concerning part is that most of the workforce in Silicon Valley is foreign-born, mostly from Asia. 

As per a news article, in India's economic times, 30-40% of the laid-off staff is Indian, all fearing deportation after the loss of jobs. 

And the US is worried about the massive loss of foreign talent. Hence, US lawmakers, notably Congressmen Zoe Lofgren, Ro Khanna, Jimmy Panetta, and Kevin Mullin, have written a letter to Ur Mendoza Jaddou, the director of US Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCI), asking the government to halt the deportation of these employees. 

The letter highlighted that this group of immigrants is highly skilled and talented, whose loss with hamper the growth of the US economy in the long run. 

Why the US is laying off employees: A detailed analysis

War in Ukraine strapped off the oil supply of the US

Russia’s invasion of Ukraine took a toll on the global economy. The ripple effects, however, are felt mainly by Russia’s trade buddies in the West. Before the invasion, Russia was the world's second-largest exporter of crude oil after the UAE. And the United States, being industrialized and economically progressive, consumed one-fifth of the total global consumption of crude oil each day.

So, the war dented the US’s supply of crude oil because Russia had a limited supply of crude oil to export amid the war, topped by the US supporting Ukraine in the war. As a result, the US struggled for every last drop of oil, crunching the economy. 

In the East, the impact of war is the opposite. Asian nations like India are importing oil at slashed prices. Amid a decline in supply to the West, Russia straightened its trade relations with India, meeting more than one-third of its total oil demand for the past six months, energy cargo tracker Vortexa highlighted.

But in the West, especially in the US, the dip in oil supply brought clouds of recession. Economists say the United States is the most prone to upcoming economic downtime. 

And breaking down the US economy sector-wise, the service sector, which comprised 77.6% of the nation’s GDP in 2021, is the worst impacted. 

The service sector of the US comprises tech industries, financial services, and professional and scientific services, among others. This explains why the service sector is shedding the majority of its employees in the US. 

The other reason is the pandemic.

During the pandemic, remote working, which highly depended on tech, was the only way to keep businesses afloat. This led to a rise in demand for tech labour. Over the next two years, businesses bloomed, and the tech sector stood at the forefront. And keeping in mind the growth prospect, many companies over-hired employees for a potential rise in demand in the future. 

But now, the fear of the upcoming recession jolted companies to cut costs and save every penny they could. Over-hired staff became the easiest way. Hence, most of the companies in the West are losing their employees. 

How layoffs are impacting migrated workers

Hundreds of migrated workers in the US, who have been fired, fear deportation. The remaining staff lives in constant fear of losing their jobs. Migrated workers are panicking, frantically looking for an alternate job amid fear of deportation. But for many employers in the US, the situation comes as a vivid opportunity to exploit foreign workers. As per Reuters, the feeble condition of migrated workers makes them prone to labour abuse, such as employers paying lesser wages or workers being hired for a junior role than they deserve.

Mandakinee Gupta, program manager with Amazon, told Reuters, “Being immigrants, we deal with almost everything to protect our job. So, there is enough room for exploitation.” 

But eastern nations are growing leaps and bounds.

As noted above, the war is shifting global power dynamics. On the one hand, the US is struggling amid a financial crunch; on the other, eastern countries are growing leaps and bounds.

As per the report of an Indian investment platform, Groww, the top ten fastest-growing economies are either Eastern or Asian. The list is attached below. 

And the noteworthy thing is that the growth of Eastern countries is not a recent phenomenon, contrary to what the recent pact with Russia suggests. On the contrary, as per Australia's reserve bank, eastern Asia has witnessed growth since the 1960s, most of which is accounted for by long-term wealth accumulation. 

Delving at the particular case of India, the country has grown so massively in the past decade that it has recently surpassed the United Kingdom in terms of GDP to score fifth rank in terms of the largest economies in the world.

In recent years, India has given the world a digital payment interface (UPI), through which India only undertook more than 70 billion transactions in 2022. The contagious payment interface is even now adopted by other nations such as Singapore.

Even in terms of employment growth, from 2019 to 2022, India witnessed the highest pace of job creation over a minimum of three years. 

India is not perfect, but it might offer better opportunities.

We are not saying that India is perfect and is shielded against the economic crunch; we are simply saying that India might offer better growth prospects for US’s laid-off staff. 

Amid the global recession, India’s tech sector is bound to grow by 8.4% this year, a report by IT industry body Nasscom projected. By next year, the Indian tech sector will swell to $245 billion. 

Even in 2023, the IT sector added 290000 new jobs in the industry, growing the size of the industry to 5.4 million people.

Laid-off people from America can have job and growth opportunities in India. 

Come back home

Instead of facing humiliation in a foreign land, laid-off employees should closely inspect their prospects to decide wisely. But as per our observation, migrating back home is the wisest and the most dignified option. 

A home is a place that gives a sense of safety and security. Amid the current scenario, it is the right time to evaluate the options of migrating back home.  

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