Escape routes
Professional Indians are uprooting themselves for a better life in Canada and Australia. But it’s a test of perseverance, writes Veer Arjun Singh
Navraj Singh wants to buy a Range Rover. It’s a fair aspiration for a mechanical engineer whose first employer, Tata Consultancy Services, is valued at over $100 billion. Except that the cheapest Range Rover costs over ~50 lakh and Singh is only three years into his career. Assuming his career graphs like some of his successful seniors in India, Singh estimates it would take at least five years for his annual salary to reach that figure. “Imagine Delhi’s traffic and its toxic air five years from now,” says Singh. The 28-year-old would rather buy a righthand drive. In Canada.
According to a report by the Energy Policy Institute at the University of Chicago, if Delhi had Canada’s air its residents would live nine years longer. So when Canada offered Singh a permanent residence (PR) visa in July last year, he quit his job at TCS and landed in Toronto. Two months later, he was hired by Hudson Bay, one of Canada’s largest retail companies, as a quality analyst. His starting annual salary of 50,000 CAD is roughly the cost of a new Range Rover Evoque in Canada.
A Punjabi boy’s Canadian dream come true? Except that it hasn’t yet. Singh uprooted himself to create a new life in welcoming but cold Canada. But he hasn’t bought his favourite car yet. The opportunity is fraught with challenges every step of the way.
Indian working professionals are a rapidly increasing migrant population. Over 15.6 million Indian citizens now live outside India — it’s the largest diaspora population in the world, according to the 2018 World Migration Report.
Canada is seventh on the World Happiness Index (India ranks 133). And, while it may be a happier country, it’s a rapidly ageing one. In 2016, its 5.9 million seniors outnumbered the 5.8 million children, according to census data from Statistics Canada, Canada’s national statistical agency. During the same period, the country’s fertility rate stood at 1.54 (births per woman). To correct this imbalance, Canada declared it would admit 1 million immigrants by 2021.
The country started its Express Entry programme four years ago. This is a points-based system that ranks an applicant’s profile on the basis of age, education, work experience and proficiency in English, and attracts highly skilled immigrants. The Canadian government releases the cut-off CRS, or Comprehensive Ranking Score, in a fortnightly draw. The last was 444 out of 1,200. If you are in your 20s with at least a bachelor’s degree, three years of work experience and fluent in English, there’s a fair chance you’ll make it. There are additional points for knowing French, having studied or worked in Canada and for a sibling living in the country. Applying to a single province through the Provincial Nomination Program (PNP) can garner additional points.
In 2016, Canada invited 36,782 people to its shores through this programme. The number more than doubled, to 86,022 in 2017. Of these, 36,310 (or 42 per cent) invitations were issued to Indians— an over 200 per cent increase from 2016 when 11,037 Indians were invited. Over 7.5 million immigrants make up 21.9 per cent of Canada’s population and nearly 1.5 million of those are Indian.
Canada and Australia are fast becoming professional Indians’ preferred countries, especially since the US government clamped down on the employer-sponsored H1B visa. According to a US Citizenship and Immigration Services report, till October 5, 2018, 80 per cent of all H1B visa holders were Indians. But America’s protectionist policies under Donald Trump and an unstable H1B are helping Canada attract the crème de la crème of the world’s migrant population. As too, Canada’s much-vaunted liberal attitudes and multi-cultural demographics. Its prime minister poses in Indian wear and celebrates Diwali; its immigration minister, Ahmed Hussen, came to Canada as a refugee from Somalia at 16; the country’s cabinet has four Sikh ministers.
Canada and Australia are also among the few developed economies that allow Indians to apply directly for PR. “Getting a PR (in Canada or Australia) is like buying insurance,” says Xavier Augustin, CEO of Y-Axis, an immigration consultancy based in India. “It’s the best return on a ~2-3 lakh investment for a working professional.” He says that a lot of Indian professionals work in countries like Singapore, China and Germany on work visas, but a direct PR confers all the benefits of a citizen except the right to vote.
Google trends suggest that search query “Canada PR” in India has been growing sharply since October 2016. More people are appearing for language assessment tests, IELTS and TOEFL, mandatory for applying for PR and work visas. Over 15,000 people appeared for the IELTS exam through British Council in a single session in July last year, up from 11,000 in the same month in 2017, said a British Council examiner on condition of anonymity. Max Med Centre in Delhi, which conducts medical tests for immigration for Canada, Australia, the US and UK, attended to 1520 per cent more people in 2018 compared to 2017.
Sahil Makkar, 34, once a Delhi-based journalist, would have liked to live in the US, but moved to Australia last year. He prefers the country’s four seasons to Canada’s two: summer and winter. Most skilled migrants secure Australian PR through Skilled Independent (subclass 189), State Sponsored (subclass 190) and Employer Nominated visa (subclass 186). This, too, is a pointbased system, but the approvals depend largely on the applicant’s profession, and whether it is listed on the Skilled Occupation List (SOL) or not. As a journalist, Makkar got through, and moved to the Australian capital, Canberra.
Canada requires an applicant to have reserve funds at the point of entering the country — 12,699 CAD (approximately ~7 lakh) for a single applicant. Australia has a different, slightly more relaxed system, which requires one to file a statement with a breakdown of one’s own estimate of monthly expenses and a declaration of having the required funds.
Indians account for almost 1.5 million of Australia’s 24.4 million population, but it’s no Canada. Even though the country’s annual inflow of permanent migrants was capped at 190,000 from 2011, only 163,417 were admitted in 2017. And Australian Prime Minister Scott Morrison has, more than once, suggested reducing the number to decongest cities like Melbourne and Sydney. A further reduction in these numbers is likely to hit India hardest: Australia’s immigration bureau says that 38,900 Indians were given PRs in 2017, the highest for any source country that year.
Augustin of Y-Axis says that people end up spending a lot of time in front of a computer after moving to a new country, rather than before. “Finding prospective employers, fixing appointments, joining forums etcetera in advance will get you going as soon as you arrive,” he says.
Makkar spent months doing his homework, researching the country’s economy, weather, employers, neighbourhoods, expenses... “But things often don’t go as planned,” he says. While Makkar did find a job in his profession within two months of landing in Australia, he had to move out of Canberra to a council (city) called Bathurst, 200 kilometres north-west of Sydney.
As important as planning is the need to be flexible about work options, especially in the initial months. “I have seen well-educated people exhausting their life savings looking for a job in their preferred line of work,” says Makkar. Singh, in Toronto, had taken a job of light-packaging at Canadian burger chain Harvey’s before he found a job in IT. “People take all kinds of jobs, at retail outlets and gas stations,” he says. “This is how you pay your bills to start with.” Makkar says it can take up to two years to find your footing. Ashesh Bharti, a 33-year-old banker who moved to Canada four years ago, echoes them: “Unless you are willing to give up your profession and take up a job like truck driving, it’s an uphill task.” He applied in August 2014 when Canada had just opened its Express Entry programme, got married in February 2015 and moved with his banker wife, Priyanka Saini, in July that year.
The first challenge that confronted Bharti was finding a home. “The natives understand you have just arrived but they are sceptical of renting their house if you don’t have a permanent job,” says Bharti. He found an Indian couple who looked at his bank statements and rented him their house. “Many people ask for up to six months’ rent in advance,” he says. “It’s difficult to commit when you don’t know where you’d get a job.”
Vikas Dabbas, 39, Delhi-based general manager of internet company Spectra, says: “It’s a better quality of life that people go looking for.” The obvious benefits of a developed economy are hard to resist — clean air, better infrastructure, higher average incomes, lower crime, fewer people — especially when virtually offered on a platter.
Dabbas had moved to Sydney in 2008 for a job at mobile phone-maker Alcatel. He got a PR in three months and stayed on till 2012. And then he returned to India: “There were jobs to be had but it is hard to build a career.” Now, though, he is thinking of reversing that decision. “Even if I stay on in India for a more stable and successful career, I would eventually want my children, who are both Australian citizens, to use it for global exposure.” A powerful passport can go a long way.
He warns that the cost of living in Australia is high and it’s important for both partners to contribute. “It’s not easy, but you can settle down anywhere really,” Dabbas says. “It’s a mental block that one needs to break, especially if you’re educated and ambitious.”
Speaking of ambitious young people, back to Navraj Singh. Toronto is among several North American cities currently reeling from an extreme cold wave, and Singh is home in India on a two-week vacation. “I wasn’t feeling well and I had to see my family,” he says. He was, no surprises, also zapped out of Vitamin D. But he’ll be back on a plane soon.
“It’s so systematic. I haven’t encountered a single broken road. People are patient, respectful and fear the law,” says Singh. “The winters are painful sometimes, but I have heard the summers are beautiful.” And that’s when he plans to buy the SUV that started it all.
‘UNLESS YOU ARE WILLING TO GIVE UP YOUR PROFESSION AND TAKE UP A JOB LIKE TRUCK DRIVING, IT’S AN UPHILL TASK’
ASHESH BHARTI (WITH WIFE PRIYANKA SAINI)
Canadian resident