Diaspora is rocking it, from tech to politics
Child of Indian immigrants, Harvard and Yale Law graduate, finance and biotech billionaire Vivek Ramaswamy is presently in The Donald’s good books. But what’s more amazeballs than the former president saying that Ramaswamy could make a “very good” veep is around 10% of Republicans telling pollsters that they plan to vote for Ramaswamy for president! However far he goes in this race, he is already the new poster child of how far the desi diaspora is going.
They have been raising the unicorns and CEO-ing the MNCs, doing the tech and driving the trucks, our Patels run the motels and our Florence Nightingales nurse the hospitals. In the Global North academia they are professing STEM and the liberal arts without discrimination. And now there is their ascending visibility in media and politics. Interestingly in the US, the increase in Indian American representation is less tied to districts where they are a majority than is the case with Latino and Black representation. The diversity-management skills one gets in desh are helpful in building coalitions in videsh.
An earlier era lament about brain drain has sensibly given way to knowing that Indians doing well abroad is good for India. The increasingdemographic heterogeneity in departures is also worth celebrating. Even when better job opportunities get created here, for the fine desi worker the world should still continue to be her oyster.
This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.
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