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  • The Migration of Indian Human Capital: The Ebb and Flow of Indian Professionals in Southeast Asia"
  • Kate Golebiowska
The Migration of Indian Human Capital: The Ebb and Flow of Indian Professionals in Southeast Asia". By Faizal bin Yahya and Arunajeet Kaur. London: Routledge, 2011. Pp. 304.

This book examines the motivations and experiences of Indian professionals who have migrated to four Southeast Asian countries: Indonesia, Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia. The authors have focused on arrivals from the 1990s onwards and present rich empirical data on Indian professionals working in industries such as ICT, finance and insurance, telecommunications and manufacturing. While the migration of Indian professionals to the United States and Europe is reasonably well covered in the literature, much less has been written about their recent experiences in Southeast Asia, where India has historically had a presence. To make up for this scarcity of recent research, the authors have made a formidable effort to conduct extensive interviews in four countries and review a large amount of media reports and government documents to produce a book which attempts to fill a gap in our understanding of this area of migration studies.

Transnationalism provides the overarching framework for the book and the major works in transnational studies from the mid-1990s to early 2000s are recalled at its outset. However, since studies in transnationalism have continued to develop, some of the more recent works should have been acknowledged. The authors propose that the recent breed of Indian transnationals can be referred to as "Global Indians" and describe them as having loyalties and ties across borders as well as enduring connections to India. The book is organized into eight chapters with four core chapters presenting the interview material collected in each of the countries under review. The mobility motivations of individuals and their expectations from employment abroad as presented in those chapters are based on complex considerations that reflect employment opportunities at home and abroad, personal, family, and lifestyle factors.

The context for the interviews is set out in two initial chapters where strategies for attracting, selecting and retaining Indian professionals in India and for exporting Indian talent abroad are described by representatives of Indian businesses, recruitment companies and educational institutions. For readers who are unfamiliar with the domestic situation in India, this part of the book offers a fascinating flavour of intra-India differences in education quality, employment opportunities, business strategies for replenishing talent that has emigrated, criteria for entry into skilled jobs domestically and abroad, comparisons of Indian and international salaries, and so forth. This information makes an invaluable contribution to the book. Another somewhat minor thread woven into these first two chapters and one which perhaps deserved a separate section, are motivations for returning to India and the professional and personal adjustment required of returning Indian professionals. On the whole, as much less is [End Page 259] known about highly skilled returnees than about highly skilled immigrants, a section dedicated to Indian professional returnees could have been a useful feature of this volume. The discussion of all these topics is set against the global demand for Indian professionals and the lifestyles that they can obtain overseas and at home.

Each of the core interview chapters commences with a useful discussion of the historical, cultural and economic relations between India and the country in question and reviews the policies of their respective governments in relation to regulating flows and residency of foreign skilled labour. The authors present a vast array of topics in the four core chapters, including economic motivations for migration, employment experience, the nature and role of transnational networks in facilitating this migration, social and professional connections with India, family life in the country of residence, engagement with the local Indian community and the local peoples, presence and perceptions of India in their country of residence, their overall satisfaction with lifestyles and their further mobility intentions including return to India. Some interviewees were asked for their understanding of and opinions on the phenomenon of "Global Indians".

All of this rich material could have been presented in a more reader-friendly way. In each core chapter (and the two initial chapters), the authors have chosen to present material...

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