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Business News/ Opinion / Why being an expat in India is no fun
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Why being an expat in India is no fun

The trick is for governments to keep raising quality of city life for everyone. Once India does it, when the commonplace becomes enjoyable, it will automatically climb up the index for expats

How expats experience a country or a city should matter to the men and women who run that place—not only do expats help keep the motors of the economy whirring but, far more importantly, they can be your global ambassadors if their experience as an expat is good. Photo: Hemant Mishra/MintPremium
How expats experience a country or a city should matter to the men and women who run that place—not only do expats help keep the motors of the economy whirring but, far more importantly, they can be your global ambassadors if their experience as an expat is good. Photo: Hemant Mishra/Mint

Work-life balance? What’s that?"

That’s a line many professionals in India like to throw wearily at their colleagues whenever the subject of holidays comes up. Now they have the weight of research data to back up this knowing incomprehension. And Indians are not alone in their frustration. India, it seems, is one of the worst places in the world to be an expat in, not least because of this skewed work-life balance.

Several reports published this month show that in most respects expats find India a far from pleasing place to work in and bring their families to, even if for a few years. Many end up leaving in less than a year.

Having worked as an Indian in two western cities—London primarily, and New York—I can see why Indian cities aren’t much fun for expats.

They are not much fun for women, especially if you are white, even more so if you are single and/or like to enjoy and discover a city by yourself. If you’re a working woman, you may find familiar prejudices magnified many times over.

They aren’t much fun either for kids who like to run around in parks and cycle around the neighbourhood. And they aren’t fun for men if they are working, because, apparently, that’s all that they end up doing—working.

There are many positives, mostly to do with a low-cost labour economy. Many expats I know have chauffeurs to drive their cars, maids to do their shopping and cooks to make their meals, not entirely unlike upper middle class Indians. What many expats lack in Indian street smartness—tactics to avoid getting ripped off or being given the runaround—they make up through the services of fixers.

The politeness of the average Indian, especially to foreigners, is exemplary. Unlike people on the streets of New York City, they will take the time and try their best to give you accurate directions if you don’t know your way. If they don’t speak English, they will find someone who does, unlike say in Hong Kong.

But none of these clear positives can make up for the absence of those intangible qualities of city life—the freedom to roam around without being harassed or worse; to enjoy a spot of tranquility in a patch of green or public sport and recreational services; to be able to spend time with friends and family.

Expats working full time in India put in 46.5 hours a week, three hours more than the global average.

Should emerging India care about any of this? I believe it should. India is home to around 30,000 expats. According to one estimate, they include the second largest proportion of expats (18%) drawing a salary of $250,000 or above annually, after China (29%).

How expats experience a country or a city should matter to the men and women who run that place—not only do expats help keep the motors of the economy whirring but, far more importantly, they can be your global ambassadors if their experience as an expat is good.

As things stand, it isn’t.

The InterNations Expat Insider 2015 index, based on responses from 14,000 people, places India at 55th place among the 64 nations it surveys. This makes India among the 10 worst places for expatriates to live in.

India does particularly badly when it comes to the quality of life it has to offer, ranking 58. It does equally badly in the sub-categories of leisure, health, safety and well-being and travel and transport. “Evidently, expatriates are finding it hard to explore the many things this vast and diverse country has to offer," says the survey.

This is not surprising: an outsider’s perspective can be radically different from those of an insider in all kinds of surprising ways. A middle-class, gourmet food-loving Indian, for instance, loves shopping in INA Market, a bustling covered market in south Delhi that is much favoured for its fresh fish, vegetables and imported cooking ingredients.

But the same market is described as “filthy" by a Frenchman who runs a popular, upscale organic vegetable and poultry farm on the outskirts of Delhi. Expats love his produce (Indians, too) as they do the fish found in INA Market. But expats who crowd shops that stock French Farm produce every weekend are not likely to head to INA Market. That’s the cook’s job.

India does quite well in matters of personal finance and cost of living, where it is placed 9th and 11th. Yet, expats in India are twice as likely as the global average to stay in their host country for less than a year.

However, the evidence is more mixed than this particular survey shows.

An HSBC report published last year says expats favour India for a variety of reasons, mainly to do with low costs. “One of the main benefits of raising a family in India is that many find it more cost effective, with 44% of expats reporting that the cost of raising children there is lower than in their home country, well above the global average of 17%," the report said.

A big part of this is the low cost of childcare and education. But then, the ranking is pulled down by low scores for children’s health and experience—something that was brought out forcefully this summer by the valedictory report of a New York Times correspondent in Delhi.

Gardiner Harris’s piece, Holding Your Breath In India, prompted many Delhi residents to nod in agreement but also sparked furious allegations of biased writing by a wealthy expat.

At the end of the day, life in democratic cities everywhere is stressful. That’s in their nature. They are magnets for migrants from different cultures, classes and societies.

Cities breed poverty and crime, but generate wealth and jobs, too. They are melting pots, stirred round the clock. And that is precisely why city governance—the best sort that is—largely involves devising, introducing and enforcing regulations that can bring an element of order and discipline into the inevitable chaos.

Expats do not hanker after an extraordinary experience in their host nation or city, although no one would sniff at that. The trick is for governments to keep raising the quality of city life for everyone. Once India does that, when the commonplace becomes enjoyable, it will automatically climb up the index for expats.

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Published: 28 Aug 2015, 01:21 AM IST
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