India's Aspiration Paradox: Lessons From Vietnam & China In The Global Talent Race

Every society aspires. But in India, aspiration has long been framed through the prism of exit. For many in the middle class, success means leaving—whether on a temporary work visa like the H-1B, through a Golden Visa that trades long-term residency for a sizeable economic investment, or symbolically through foreign validation. Here, ‘leaving’ is cast as ‘arrival’—proof that one has broken through the constraints of the domestic system. Families boast of children “settled abroad” as a badge of honour.

When a country announces visa-free entry for Indians, social media lights up with hashtags and headlines, celebrating it as proof of India’s rising global stature. Yet, beneath the euphoria lies a deeper contradiction—one exposed by the US’s $100,000 H-1B visa fee for new applicants, effective from September 21, 2025. The Trump administration’s move disproportionately affects Indian nationals, who make up over 70% of H-1B holders, and tosses India’s projected $280-billion tech services industry and thousands of skilled workers into uncertainty. What began as patriotic pride quickly turned to personal grief, as the rhetoric of self-reliance collided with the reality of exclusion from a system many Indians aspire to join.

For decades, the H-1B visa symbolised Indian ambition: the engineer in Silicon Valley, the consultant in New Jersey, the family “settled abroad”. In recent years, more and more of India’s wealthy have been moving out. And not just to the United States. As Sanjaya Baru notes tellingly in his book, Secession of the Successful: The Flight Out of New India, “It is a comment on our times and on the values that have come to define the power elite of the so-called ‘New India’ that many among them view this flight of the wealthy as a sign of progress.”

The H-1B fee hike changes the game. By pricing out startups and smaller firms, it forces US companies to reconsider hiring strategies—prompting some to offshore roles or relocate to friendlier hubs like Toronto and Singapore. These cities are actively courting top talent to strengthen their innovation ecosystems and stay globally competitive. Singapore, for instance, offers top professionals flexible, long-term visas through the Overseas Networks & Expertise (ONE) Pass and attracts senior tech talent—entrepreneurs, technical experts, and leaders—with its Tech Pass. Meanwhile, Canadian immigration consultancies report increased interest from Indian applicants seeking faster, more stable alternatives.

For India, this is a critical juncture. While there is much talk about the rise of Global Capability Centres (GCCs) and returnees, questions remain. Mobility of India’s skilled professionals is an emotive issue and vital to services exports, which account for nearly half of the country’s total trade in goods and services.

Today, global professionals are no longer just chasing jobs—they are chasing lifestyles. As the US tightens its visa regime, Germany has emerged as a top destination for Indian students and STEM professionals, offering stable migration policies, lucrative opportunities, and a clear path to residency.

It is worth examining what China and Vietnam are doing to retain indigenous talent and attract global professionals to power their innovation ecosystems. China’s new K-Visa, operational from October 1, 2025, offers five-year stays, no sponsor requirement, and subsidies for young STEM professionals. It is not a standalone gesture but part of a broader strategy. “While China’s Young Thousand Talents (YTT) program has fallen short of recruiting the highest-level foreign-educated Chinese STEM researchers back to China, generous support allows returnees to later surpass their peers, who stayed abroad in publishing productivity,” noted scholars Dongbo Shi, Weichen Liu and Yanbo Wang (Science, 2023). Qiming, a Chinese state-backed initiative, now funds chip-tech experts with grants ranging from 5 to 8 million RMB (renminbi).

Vietnam is quietly building its talent base. In September 2025, it enacted Decree 249 to attract overseas Vietnamese and foreign experts in strategic tech fields, offering up to $100,000 in grants, fast-track citizenship, housing support, and access to national R&D infrastructure. The National Innovation Centre in Hoa Lac, 30 kilometres west of Hanoi, anchors this effort, driving AI and semiconductor innovation and repatriating dozens of overseas scientists with research funding and lab access. Complementing this, Vietnam’s new digital technology law—passed in June and implemented in September—protects intellectual property and simplifies work permits, making it easier for global professionals to contribute to its innovation economy.

India’s “brain gain” narrative remains fragile. Bureaucratic hurdles and domestic dysfunction deter many returnees. Unlike Vietnam’s quiet pragmatism or China’s calculated scale, India’s emotional nationalism—celebrating exit while preaching swadeshi—undermines its claims.

There is another deeper issue—it is liveability. Indians with globally in-demand skills are no longer just looking for jobs. They are looking for lifestyles. And that means demanding a baseline quality of everyday existence: clean air, safe streets, reliable infrastructure, and rule of law. These are emerging as critical factors in shaping global mobility.

Most Indian cities fail this test. Curated campuses and gated complexes may offer temporary comfort, but they cannot substitute for well-functioning cities.

India must build a real ecosystem for global talent—one that matches aspiration with infrastructure, policy with predictability, and pride with pragmatism. In a world where talent is mobile and innovation drives competitiveness, other Asian countries like China and Vietnam are not waiting. They are designing systems that attract the best minds and offer them appealing lives. The global talent race is unforgiving. India has the scale, ambition, and ingenuity to lead it, if it can align aspiration with everyday opportunity.

Patralekha Chatterjee is a writer and columnist who spends her time in South and Southeast Asia, and looks at modern-day connects between the two adjacent regions. X: @Patralekha2011

Published on: Monday, September 29, 2025, 11:29 AM IST