Sample essay on Craze for the Foreign Lands

A journalist, in a fit of fancy once wrote “When man finally colonized the moon, the first tea shop was set up by an Indian duo.” It seems quite a myth of course but the fact remains that, unlike past, Indians have been emigrating to the green pastures since the sixties. The Parliament was informed that Indians have settled in more than 160 countries, while their official number in the USA is two million. There were some eight only who had settled in Outer Mongolia.

Great Britain comes next to the States in the number of Indian emigrants. Next come continental Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the Middle East. Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Philippine Islands are the other countries that vie with India in their presence in these countries. The emigration has reached such a stage that most of these countries have started tightening their laws straightening their vigil on illegal immigration.

One may go back in one’s memory the years when Har Gobind Khurana an Indian scientist made best of his efforts to find a respectable work for himself in India. When his efforts fell through he had no option but to go back to the States, ultimately to be a Nobel Laureate.

A number of scientists move to other lands, specially to the USA and other progressive countries for they do not find scope for their genius in their motherland. Some professionals too have an aptitude for research move out and settle down in a country of their choice. They are respected in these countries for their achievements. They are an asset there while we suffer from brain drain. The cream of our society moves out. They haven’t a craze for the foreign lands.

But the lack of facilities for their research work and other activities make it imperative for them to move out. Their sincerity and devotion to their work does not allow them to rust in the maze of bureaucratic regime and political expediency. Their emigration is not a craze for foreign lands but for the fulfilment of their dream for the sake of humanity.

Besides this cream there are others too—highly educated—well settled people who dream of moving to lands where, with the knowledge or experience at their disposal they can lead a comfortable life—affluent from Indian standard. Their vision of El Dorado leads them to the lands where money flies in the atmosphere; one has to use one’s skill to catch hold of it. They may start with a humble job that brings them twenty to thirty times more remuneration than what it fetched them in this land of the poor. Their life in these foreign lands is free of power cuts, scarcity of water, poor health services. They amass wealth on the one hand and acquire resources enough to enjoy the beauties of the occidental countries in all their glamour and luxuriance.

This craze to see, enjoy and experience the New World leads them to emigrate, specially to the States or the countries of European Community. One may call it a call from the Beelzebub, the right hand of Satan who beckons them to valleys of gold.

One may call it the command of Mephistopheles to sell their soul for the wordly pleasures. There they are, generally disparaging all that is Indian and praising all that is Western. They don’t think of the satire ‘The Brave New World’ carries—they just enjoy it as it is. Their craze is ominous for the motherland—glamourous for them.

Besides this intelligentsia, as a press reporter has said ‘the Indian humble bee is in full flight. The former adopt legal means to shift from the land of drudgery to one of luxuries. The humble bee has only one target before him-to earn a lot with his labor and accumulate the yellow metal at home-the home may be India—may be the one of his adoption.

This class is just a mini India of unskilled, illiterate agriculturists or artisans-masons, carpenters, technical certificate holders, laborers and many others belonging to different lower castes in Indian society.

Labor being cheap in India because of more population, even in the past, they were sent to a number of countries by the Britishers for colonization. They worked like slaves and were paid subsistence wages. But the times have changed.

The progressive countries no more require this unskilled labor. They too have their problems of unemployment. If they accept these allured people, sometimes it may be for political reasons. Australia allows Sikh immigrants because of a large number of Sikh citizens who are there for the last many decades.

But there is a limit to everything. Even the most prosperous countries have to tighten their belts. Thus immigration in these countries has become rather difficult.

But the craze of foreign lands i.e. the craze for gold has become so persisting that a large number of unskilled and semi-skilled laborers manoeuvure to satisfy it through illegal means. They are allured by unscrupulous travel agents. These agents and their clients stoop so low that once hundred Indians travelled to Germany in a sealed container that was listed as containing a consignment of marine equipments. As they got suffocated and their being scarcity of food and water in the 41 feet long container they fled it before being loaded in a US bound cargo ship.

Germany was as good to them as US is. It was a major case of illegal immigration arranged by Pakistani and African travel agents. A month earlier the British immigration authorities at Dover caught hold of 14 Indians travelling without any documents in two German Lorries from France. There is no common modus operandi.

The Indian Emigrants use a number of ways—take visas, changed visas, old British documents and even clandestine entry at points unguarded. The craze for the foreign land is so impelling that a very large number of prospective immigrants pay amounts that exceed the first class air fare for a round world trip. The craze for some materializes-for others it may be an entry in the dark valley of uncertainty for they had disposed off all they possessed to land on EL-Dorado, their land of dreams.