Expats dwindle dramatically in Bangalore

xpats dwindle dramatically in Bangalore
- Nishvin John
TIMES NEWS NETWORK

Bangalore: Bangalore’s high life owes much to the large numbers of expats who chose to move here over the past decade. Now, some of that fuel is drying up. The city, which is estimated to be housing at least a third of the approximately 30,000 expats in India, saw some 6,000 expats coming in last year. This year, that number may not be much more than 3,000, according to Global Adjustments, a provider of relocation and cross-cultural training services to expats.
“Sending expats involves high expenditure,” says Arathy Madappa, vice president of the company. And in a recession, most companies are trying to avoid such expenditures.
Expats tend to be amongst the highest paid employees in a company, and are typically offered fabulous perks. What’s more, companies also have to bear all the expenditures related to the relocation of the person and his/her family.
The high pays and perks have also meant that expats become amongst the first to be targetted when companies plan for layoffs. A number of companies, hotels and airlines in India are known to have asked some of their expat employees to leave.
The decline in expat numbers is reflecting in a number of areas. Fine dining restaurants have seen a decline in business on account of this. Suresh Tota, who operates one of the biggest serviced apartment businesses in Bangalore, says he has seen a 40% drop in occupancies compared to last year. Many of such apartments are used by long-staying expats.
Over the past decade, India, especially its technology sector, has been growing in its appeal for expats. The country was ranked 9th among 14 countries in a study on expat attractiveness done by HSBC Bank last year, a ranking that had Singapore and UAE at the top. The study found that on two counts India scored very high. It scored the highest among all countries in the category of ‘earn & save’, being a country where expats can earn over £100,000 per annum and increase their savings. It found that 42% of expats in India earned more than £100,000.
India was ranked third highest in the category of ‘luxurious lifestyle’, meaning that most expats found that their lifestyles here were more luxurious than the lives they had left behind. Countries were rated on categories like access to private healthcare, access to more than one property, ability to own a pool and to employ staff (such as cleaners).
India, however, ranked the lowest in two other categories — standard of accommodation (but the country also provided the cheapest accommodation), and period of stay, that is, expats did not want to stay here for long (the Netherlands was the most popular with 82% of expats living in the country having been there for three or more years).
The recession now is pushing companies to limit expat moves. But some are confident it’s a short term phenomenon. “Our belief is that the recession will pass in the next 6 to 8 months,” says Radha Nath, CEO of Global Crosswalk, a company that has just been set up to help with expat relocations. “The global way of doing business is here to stay; we are in a mode of irreversible business integration across the globe. It is no more a matter of choice, it has become an economic necessity to stay global, and hence our services take a longer term perspective.”