Reverse Brain Drain: Governments Hope to Lure Talent After Us Visa Change
Posted3 months agoActive3 months ago
reuters.comOtherstory
calmmixed
Debate
60/100
Immigration PolicyBrain DrainTalent Acquisition
Key topics
Immigration Policy
Brain Drain
Talent Acquisition
The article discusses how governments are trying to lure back talent due to changes in US visa policies, sparking a discussion on the effectiveness of different countries' visa mechanisms.
Snapshot generated from the HN discussion
Discussion Activity
Moderate engagementFirst comment
25m
Peak period
7
16-18h
Avg / period
4
Comment distribution16 data points
Loading chart...
Based on 16 loaded comments
Key moments
- 01Story posted
Sep 22, 2025 at 5:27 PM EDT
3 months ago
Step 01 - 02First comment
Sep 22, 2025 at 5:53 PM EDT
25m after posting
Step 02 - 03Peak activity
7 comments in 16-18h
Hottest window of the conversation
Step 03 - 04Latest activity
Sep 23, 2025 at 11:21 AM EDT
3 months ago
Step 04
Generating AI Summary...
Analyzing up to 500 comments to identify key contributors and discussion patterns
ID: 45339680Type: storyLast synced: 11/20/2025, 3:41:08 PM
Want the full context?
Jump to the original sources
Read the primary article or dive into the live Hacker News thread when you're ready.
The only way a European office can attract Asian American talent on a work visa is to offer a salary comparable to the US, just like what the London offices for Google, Citadel, and Bloomberg do.
Otherwise, they can demand EU level salaries in their home market.
For an Indian on an H1B and working for FAANG, the choice isn't Palo Alto versus Berlin, it's the Palo Alto versus Hyderabad, Bangalore, or Pune.
Basically, the H1B change is causing a reverse brain drain back to Asia now now becuase there is an incentive to fully offshore instead of keeping mixed teams in the US.
I know at least 4 partners at the Indian entities of American VC funds already releasing an open call for startups for any Indian American who wants to return to India after the announcement this weekend, or to pair them with their portfolio companies in India.
> These visas look like O-1 competitors more than anything, not H-1B.
Not really. An O-1 is annoying and difficult to process, and does target a different persona than a blue card.
a) Money being much more than you could get in Europe
b) Bragging rights - especially for parents
I imagine for Indians it's something similar?
A large portion of Indians who came to the US on an H1B over the last decade basically came to the US in order to use the American experience to paper over issues with their resumes (eg. Didn't major in CS, didn't attend an INI, worked at a WITCH) causing their careers to stagnate.
Being in the US still conveys bragging rights, but increasingly the older generations recognize that someone immigrating abroad will basically almost never meet their parents again aside for a couple weeks a year.
As such, the name of the game now is to work in the US for a couple years and then become a PM Director or Director of Engineering at a GCC in India.
Additionally, Indian founders in the US have started considering IPOing in Indian equity markets instead of the US because the tech IPO market is (edit: relatively) dead here in North America (especially if you cannot show $400M+ in revenue) but showing $50M-$100M can guarantee you a $500M-$2B IPOs like Pine Labs' listing a couple days ago. There are at least 25 Indian startups in the process of IPOing this year [0] and the trend is continuing [1].
So for entrepreneurial Indians, the US is slowly starting to lose it's shine.
And finally, as an Indian STEM academic in the US, you can get a $100K public-private startup grant if you move your lab to India, and INIs in India (the Indian equivalent of Double First Class universities in China) allow academic staff to work with private sector players without demanding convluted IP partnerships. Thus, a lot of American-educated Indian academics in India are also becoming angel and seed investors, and have helped guide startups into YCombinator or raising a round from an Accel.
From a European perspective, the best example would probably be the reverse brain drain Poland and Czechia saw in the 2016-19 period, Israel in the early 2000s, and China in the 2010s.
[0] - https://inc42.com/features/indian-startup-ipo-tracker-2025/
[1] - https://www.goldmansachs.com/insights/articles/will-indias-i...
Far from being basically dead
And comparing with 2024 is not great, because activity is still well below what we saw before the interest rate hike [0]
The IPO window is starting to reopen, but it's still somewhat closed compared to the norm from a couple years ago, and Sailpoint's lackluster IPO has dampened the mood along with CoreWeave's lackluster performance as a public company due to constant misses.
A lot of companies are in the process of building IPO readiness, but ime there is still some amount of hesitancy, becuase no one wants to be the first one to roll the dice, but I think Netskope's performance so far might help assuage worries.
[0] - https://www.spglobal.com/market-intelligence/en/news-insight...
I’ve worked for big tech in the Silicon Valley, worked for big tech in NYC, worked for big tech in Berlin. Though I make way less money here in Germany, I’d never move back to the US.
Living in the EU means you are far away from family as well with the added negative that unless you're Vietnamese in CEE and Paris, Fujianese in Central Italy, or Mirpuri in Scandinavia, there isn't a large Asian community in most EU states.
If I want Sikkimese, Pahari, Marathi, Chettinad, Maithili, or some other ethnic group's cultural services, cuisine, and/or goods I can always find that represented in American tech hubs. On the other hand it's nonexistent in Europe.
I think you're of European heritage, so for you your cultural heritage's goods, services, and cuisine are well represented across Europe. That isn't true for Indians, Chinese (China is not a monoculture), and Koreans.
For Indian, Chinese, and Korean nationals on a work visa in the US, you can earn a European salary in the old country while being close to family. This is why Europe is not enticing, because immigration is hard and if the only incentive is to have a lower take home, then there's no reason to go to Europe.
Also Berlin, Paris, Amsterdam et all are large, diverse metropolises. Not sure where the idea comes from that you wouldn’t be able to find your tribe or your cuisine in these cities.
Because they do not. The only European country with a large Indian diaspora is the UK, and that disaspora is overwhelmingly just Gujarati and Punjabi. Same for overseas Chinese and the Korean diaspora as well.
What worked for you is good for you, but the culture shift for someone from much of Asia to the EU is severe compared to the US where Asian immigration has been the norm for over a century.
> Sounds like you just value money?
Why leave India or China to earn a €70k salary when you can demand the same in Hyderabad or Hangzhou? Why move from Palo Alto to Paris, when you can move back to Pune or Pudong and earn the exact same, while also not facing culture shock and being close to family.
Also, having to become fluent in a French or German or Dutch or some other European language that isn't English is a severe blocker in much of Asia - where English is prioritized.
If all you want is to be in a big Indian diaspora and make a lot of money then I guess California is a good fit for you. Glad you like it!
So does Australia and New Zealand.
And you are much closer to family as a result and in a countries where Asians are well represented and with the added bonus that they are Anglophone countries so no need to learn German, French, or some other European language that isn't English.
Look, Germany is a good country, but it legitimately isn't enticing for the kind of Indian or Chinese national who came to the US on a work visa.
> If all you want is to be in a big Indian diaspora and make a lot of money then I guess California is a good fit for you. Glad you like it
That's what most diasporas want. Look at the statistics of where the Indian, Chinese, and Korean diaspora are clustered. Amongst western countries it's overwhelmingly North America, Australia, and the UK
> then I guess California is a good fit for you
It is. I've been here since I was 1 years old when my parents were part of the initial work visa expansion in the 90s which brought tens of thousands of us Indian, Chinese, and Korean Americans to the US.
If I were to leave, I'd probably go to Singapore because I can take advantage of Asian dealflow while remaining in an Anglophone country where we are overrepresented.
At a macro level, the majority of Asian diasporas in the Western world are in North America, Australia, the UK, and New Zealand.
All I'm saying is for the majority of Asians, mainland Europe just doesn't have the same pull factor that the Anglophone has because we have never had a significant population in Europe.
It's the same way a management consultant with roots in Turkiye or Morocco will be biased to work in Frankfurt instead of NY simply because there's a massive pre-existing community no matter where you go in Germany and they will be close to family in Turkiye.
And those numbers are minuscule compared to the diaspora in the UK, let alone Australia, New Zealand, and Canada which are all much more friendly to Asians than Europe.