Quora: 为什么很多印度人去美国深造并定居？

Why do many Indians go to the US for higher studies and settle there? Is life better in the US than in India?

为什么很多印度人去美国深造并定居？美国生活比印度生活好吗？

【美版知乎quora问答】

Surbhi Dharmadhikari, Indian
Answered Aug 2, 2016
Let me tell you why I want to leave India and pursue further education in the United states.
I am doing my MBBS from a government medical college. After 5.5 years of hard work, I’ll give my post graduate entrance exam and cross my fingers; because of the terrible odds of getting in that I face.
50, 000 medical students graduate in India every year and fight for just 20,000 medical seats. Let’s say all 30,000 remaining try again the next year, we have 80,000 competing for the 20,000 seats. (In ideal circumstances)

译文来源：三泰虎 http://www.santaihu.com/44219.html

我在一所公立医药大学攻读临床医学学士学位。

印度每年有5万名医学专业学生毕业，这些毕业生争夺2万个医生名额。假设有3万名学生重试，每年就有8万人竞争2万个名额。(在理想的情况下)

Now out of these, around 12000 are MD/MS seats from government colleges while the rest are private/diploma courses.
Let’s say I’m of the brighter of the lot and happen to be in those top 12000.
But oopss! Not all those seats are for me. 50% are reserved for the backward classes, duh.

其中，大概1.2万人来自公立大学的硕博士生

假设我是其中的尖子生，正好是1.2万人之一。

但是！不是所有的名额都是择优录取的。50%要预留给处于落后阶级的低种姓者。

So here I am, an ambitious doctor aiming to expand my knowledge competing against 50,000 new doctors, thousands of repeaters for 5000 seats.
I run to the United States (With a 2:1 ratio of PG seats: Graduates).
Or buy a lottery ticket maybe.
Note: The figures are from newspaper articles and are approximate estimates. But I think you get the point.

现在，我是名有志向的医生，目标是扩充知识，与5万名毕业生、以及成千上万名重试者们竞争5000个名额。

所以，要么我来到美国（PG席位：毕业生比例是2:1），要么我去买一张彩票。

 

Divyanth Jayaraj, Software Engineer
Updated Mon
I left India because India didn’t need me.
I grew up in India with a certain standard of living. To maintain that standard of living, I had no choice but to be the best. Being myself was not enough.

我离开印度是因为印度不需要我。
我在印度长大，生活水平还行，为了维持生活水平，我别无他法，只能争当最优秀。

If I wanted to be an engineer, I had to graduate with honors from IIT. Then, I had to be placed in Google, Facebook or Amazon. My annual income at least has to be 21 lakhs INR. Then, I had to buy a house that’s quite big, accessible to good schools, good health-care and has easy transportation - which meant living in a big city with skyrocketing costs of living.

如果我想成为一名工程师，就必须以优异的成绩从印度伊利诺伊理工学院（IIT）毕业。然后进入谷歌、脸书或亚马逊等大公司工作。我的年收入至少要210万卢比。然后我得买一栋相当大的房子，毗邻好学校、好医院，交通方便的那种，这意味着我必须生活在物价飞涨的大城市。

And then, there’s this question of social status. Since India is rife with caste system, it’s hard to have basic social respect unless you’re highly qualified and have a high paying white collar job. Otherwise, your neighbors and relatives will care about where you go after work. Who your friends are. Who your girlfriend is. What your hobbies are and what you like to eat. If they don’t approve, you will be potentially cut off from basic necessities like decent housing, good education or good healthcare. Instead, you might be restricted to poor choice in housing, negligent health care and bullies for teachers and mentors. After all, the good ones have a reputation to maintain so that they too get basic respect. So, you are stuck with the bad ones; bad company, bad friends, bad bosses and bad service providers. Being highly qualified, excuses you from all these “sins”. The society around you will be more lenient if your qualification is more “prestigious”. The only other alternative is to appear tough; be arrogant bordering on violence.

然后是社会地位的问题。印度受种姓制度问题的困扰，很难获得社会尊重，除非你素质很高、有一份高薪白领工作。否则，你的邻居和亲戚会关心你下班后去哪儿、你朋友是谁、你的兴趣爱好是什么、你喜欢吃什么。

毕竟，只有优秀的人才能维护自己的声誉，才能获得基本的尊重。如果高素质，可以为你的“罪恶”找借口。如果你素质更具“声望”，周围社会对你会更宽容。

另一种选择是显得更强硬，傲慢到近乎暴力。

There’s a reason the trope in South Indian movies, that the hero always beats up the bad guys is so popular. Some people use violence to gain social influence by being something akin to “the hero of their people”. All of “my people/caste” lived in some remote village while I lived in a plush city.

印度南部电影里，打败坏人的男主角总受欢迎。为了成为“人民英雄”，有些人用暴力来建立自己的社会影响力。

I had none of that. I wasn’t the best in anything. I was “mediocre”. I didn’t go to IIT. I went to a regular local college. I didn’t get high grades or “distinction”. In fact, I barely passed the exams. Nobody in India would hire me because of my “poor” performance in college.

以上种种，都是我没有的。我很“平庸”，没上印度理工学院（IIT），去了一所本地普通大学。表现平平的我，是没有人会雇用我的

My geeky looks and hobbies didn’t help either. “Real men” should be able to handle themselves with bad people. I on the other hand would roll up into a ball and beg. I couldn’t even run if I wanted to. My mild autism meant that I could never befriend “heroes” for protection. I looked like this.

没有英俊的长相，没有高大上的爱好。“真汉子”要能对付坏男人。轻微的自闭，意味着我绝不会与“英雄”成为朋友受到保护。

So, I had 2 choices.
Take a low paying job and lower my living standards and expectations. That means no gaming laptops, no high speed internet and patchy electric supply! Decent clothes are going to be too expensive for my budget and mind you; people in my country wear decent clothes to get basic respect; not privileged treatment. I’m not from an upper caste or a hero, remember? So I have to make up for it with loads of additional effort.

我有了两个选择。

1、找一份低薪工作，降低生活水平，降低期望。这意味着买不起游戏笔记本、没钱开通高速网络宽带、还经常断电！钱不多，买不起体面的衣服。穿着光鲜的人会获得基本尊重。我不是高种姓，也不是英雄，懂吗？不得不通过加倍努力来弥补。

 

Leave the country and go somewhere that appreciates who I already am. America is the land of the free. Everybody is treated equally. The institutions put in place, take discrimination very seriously. Did a baker refuse to bake cake because you were gay? Such prejudice is stuff of national headlines. In India, unless you are brutally murdered and your corpse was cut up and strewn across the city (which is a regular occurrence), your story of discrimination is not newsworthy, let alone have the legal system fight for you in a timely manner. Who needs that headache anyway? Plus, Americans strongly strive to make themselves seem equal; at least superficially. Managers and bosses go out of their way to appear friendly. If you mess up, the management looks for systemic failures and tries to address those before blaming you. You will never be shamed at work for being an irresponsible lazy bum. There’s no such thing as “scolding” here in America.

2、离开这个国家，到欣赏我的地方去。美国是自由的土地。每个人是平等的。体制落到实处。烘焙师因为你是GAY拒绝为你烤蛋糕？这样的偏见上了国家头条新闻。而在印度，除非你被残忍杀害，除非你被分尸到城市各处（这种事情很常见），否则你的歧视经历没有任何新闻价值。更别说法律为你讨回公道了。谁想要那样的头条？

另外，美国人努力让自己看起来公平，至少表面上如此。经理老板们费尽心思让自己看起来友好，如果你搞砸了，管理者会寻找体系上的失败，在责备你之前将问题归咎于此。在工作中，你永远不会因为是一个不负责任的懒人而感到羞耻。在美国没有所谓的“责骂”。

In India, you pay for your mistakes with your dignity and pride. No wonder so many Indians appear so risk-averse. In the US, even though there are real consequences to your mistakes (such as being sued or losing your job), you are still going to be physically and mentally safe. That way, American culture is good.

在印度，你的错误代价是尊严与骄傲。难怪那么多印度人规避风险。在美国，即使你的错误引发真正后果（解雇或丢工作），你的身心仍旧健康。美国这种文化很好。

Since I’m not particularly social and I don’t have any significant attachments, the decision to leave India was easy. Here, I’m able to be myself and still prosper. I have lots of avenues to express myself without fear of persecution. I can fearlessly say what I want on Quora, without worrying about death threats. If I see something online, I can instantly give away my credit card information and buy it without worrying about being scammed. If I was scammed, the credit card company is going to reverse the transaction and bear the losses if any. Heck, I can bring my expensive iPhone outdoors without worrying about being jumped! Or targeted! Or Judged! Most importantly, I worry a lot less about being intimidated, bullied or talked down to. If I feel my person being threatened even remotely, I know that respite is just a tiny 911 call away.

我社交不多，做出离开印度的决定就很容易了。在这儿，做我自己也仍能获得成功。我能毫不畏惧地在Quora畅谈，放心拿出信用卡消费，不担心使用时被骗，如果我被骗了，信用卡公司将会撤销交易并承担损失。我能把iPhone带出户外而不担心被抢！

最重要的是，我用担心被恐吓、不用担心被欺负或被瞧不起。如果被威胁，仅需打一个911电话就够了。

To enjoy this level of basic comfort in India, I’d have to be ultra-rich, ultra-smart and ultra-influential. I’m going to have to befriend many powerful people so that basic necessities are accessible. My parents worked extremely hard to gain that influence in the community. My mom is a doctor and my dad studied an MBA in the best school in country. Both go out of their way to earn power and influence in the community. My mom sees patients at her private clinic for a very low price and my dad is an extremely jovial person who is constantly on the look out for new friends. In return, we have a guy who fixes our computer for free. Another neighbor filled out all forms and did the passport paperwork for the entire family for free. A chauffeur is on call for us every day. He comes by whenever my grandparents need to travel to a neighboring town. If he’s not available, then he’d send one of his trusted friends. Best of all, my mom is able to give all of us the best medical treatment across the country. Do you have a rare blood disease that your doctor didn’t know what it’s about? Ask her and she’ll point you to Hematologist in some remote part of the country. Turns out, this hematologist was her dad’s classmate’s husband. Then, she’d put in a good word so that you don’t get fleeced financially. Do you think all this is fine and dandy? They aren’t. It’s because for a regular guy, finding a reliable computer repair guy is impossible.Public transportation is uncomfortable and crowded. Doctors are negligent. The only alternative to all this power and influence is a disproportionately large wallet or your ability to instill fear. Even then, that chauffeur you hired might be a rapist; or the tenant you brought in was a fraud.
This is the kind of functional-quality basic necessities my parents got access to, through excessive amounts of sacrifice, hard work and schmoozing.

在印度要享受到这种基本舒适，就得很有钱、难免要与权贵交朋友。我父母非常努力工作，在当地说话还是有分量的。我妈是护士，我爸在印度最好的学校就读MBA，两人都尽其所能在社区建立影响力。我妈开了一个私人诊所，为人看病，我爸随和乐观，一直在结交新朋友。其中就有一个能帮忙修电脑的朋友，一个能为整个家庭填表办理护照的邻居。有个司机每天都来接我们，每当我的祖父母需要去邻近的城镇旅游时，他就来了。如果他不来，就会让一个他信任的朋友来。

最重要的是，我妈见多识广，要看什么病，她能推荐全国最优秀的医生。患上一种罕见的血液病，你的医生不知道怎么治疗?问问她，她就会告诉你在这个国家某个偏远地区的血液专科医师。原来，这位专科医生是她爸同学的丈夫，然后我妈说了几句好话，就不用花冤枉钱了

这一切很完美对吗？不对。对于一个普通人来说，找到免费修电脑的人几乎不可能。搭乘公共交通，不舒服又拥挤。医生看病会疏忽。

这些待遇，是我父母努力工作和拍须溜马换来的。

I on the other hand, love sitting in my room and faffing around with Quora. I could never afford this level of comfort my parents achieved if I worked a regular job and stayed in India. I’d probably have to rely on my parents’ influence to get basic stuff done. In return, they would hold a lot of power over me. Societal pressures and obligations kick in. Eventually, I might be forced to get into a mediocre marriage, have a kid I don’t want, work a job I don’t like and be suicidal for the rest of my life. For anything more, I’d have to hustle and I’m no hustler!

而我，喜欢坐在房间里刷Quora。如果工作普通，又留在印度，靠我自己，就享受不到父母得到的待遇。我可能得靠父母的影响力，才会有工作。而他们也会以权势压迫我作为回报，社会压力和义务随之而来。我最终可能会进入一段平庸的婚姻中，生一个不想要的孩子，做一份讨厌的工作，在余生中自杀。

In the US, I don’t have to work for this kind of influence. Nobody really has power over me. I’m free. All I have to do is pay taxes so that the whole system is honed in such a way that my basic existence and happiness stays without friction. Doing the bare minimum will give me a decent life. Doing something extra could reap exponentially higher rewards. The choice between living a decent life versus living large is entirely mine and not dictated by circumstances or outside pressures.

在美国，我不必如此卖命。没人会给我施压。我是自由的，我所要做的就是纳税，体制就这样被磨练出来，我能用最小代价获得体面的生活。加大努力的话，就能取得更高回报。是过体面一点还是富裕一点，完全取决于我，而不是由环境或外部压力决定的。

It’s pretty much the same story with anyone deciding to emigrate. There is always a choice between being exceptionally talented in one’s home country or being just skilled enough to fill your own niche in a foreign country. Indians move to the US for IT jobs. Americans move to Asian countries to teach English. And so it goes.

移民都是这样。精英才干选择留在祖国，能力一般但想满足自身要求的则出国混。印度人到美国找IT工作，美国人到亚洲教英语。就这么回事。