“If you have a good job and bright prospects, and you are generally happy in India, do not move overseas.”
In a viral post on LinkedIn, Vinay Aggarwal, the Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Indovision Services Private Limited, has candidly urged Indians to stop their plans to move to the West.
The post comes after a string of violent attacks and racial harassment of Indian immigrants in Ireland, as well as rising anti-migrant sentiment in the USA, that have sparked widespread outrage and grief across borders.
“You will face discrimination at the workplace. You will have to work twice as hard for half the rewards as your colleagues. Your juniors will be promoted over you. At shared lunches, nobody will touch your food,” Aggarwal stressed, expressing his opinion of Indian workers overseas.
The CEO further added how even the hard-won achievements of Indians are not truly appreciated by those living in the West.
“Each time India sends a spacecraft to the moon, they will say you are a poor country wasting money. The representative picture of India in the media will be slums and shanties. Your culture and country will be mocked. You will see Goddess Durga caricatured as an ogress in the local media,” Aggarwal stated.
Aggarwal further talked about the difference in the societal norms in India and the West, stressing how living in a foreign land can be lonely and disappointing. The lack of familial and familiar support, he said, can be challenging.
“And finally, the kids will grow up, become woke, marry foreigners and drift away from you,” Aggarwal opined. “Then you will be truly alone. Because you will have lost all your friends back in India. You will be in a Trishanku state – neither here nor there.”
To all those who do plan on moving overseas, Aggarwal suggested that they should start by taking a two-week holiday to the country and see how things truly are. “Unless you are fleeing from the police and loan sharks or you are desperately poor,” he quipped, “you will come back to India.” He added how discussing a move with those based overseas is not the way to go as “they will always give you a false picture of life there.”
“If you have a good job and bright prospects, and you are generally happy in India, do not move overseas. Moving to the West today is like coming to a party at 3.00 AM. The good times are over,” Aggarwal mused at the start of the post, which he ended with “better to live as 1st class citizen here then being 2nd class or 3rd class immigrant abroad.”
What the Public Thinks
Aggarwal’s post has sparked a conversation about the contentious topic of Indian workers moving abroad. Many have expressed their agreement to the CEO’s sentiments, adding their thoughts to the same.
“Vinay I’m with you, you are right word by word!” said Jagjit S. Dhaliwal, Senior Lecturer in Periodontology-School of Medicine and Dentistry at Griffith University, Australia.
However, others have outright rejected his claims, some calling it “exaggerated” and “one-sided.”
“Very prejudiced thoughts! From what personal experience are you saying this? It’s all relative. It makes total sense to take a calculated risk and realize what one is getting into but this post is a bit extreme,” Sidharta Gupta, a biomedical professional based in Austria, commented on the post.
