Dehyping Western lifestyles: Bridging gap between expectation and reality

Aspirational dreams are strange things. They make humans attempt difficult— even impossible and undesirable—things, when the goal may be a gross distortion of reality, a mirage. As Donald Trump begins deporting illegal Indian immigrants in military aircraft in handcuffs and chains, some dreams would have turned to dust, though one cannot be sure. Some of the deportees are being sent back for a second time, and many of those returning may have sold their land and borrowed large sums of money to take illegal routes to “Umrika” and “Kanneda”. They have debts to repay, and the only way they may be able to do so may be to attempt the “dunki” route back to North America again, hoping this time they are luckier.

 

At the other end of the spectrum, as Mr Trump promises a $5 million Gold Card for permanent residency in the US, the aspirational dreams of high-net-worth individuals may take wing again. Many countries—Portugal, Greece, Malta, the UAE, and several in the Caribbean—already offer golden visas to those willing to invest anywhere from €200,000 to €500,000 or more to obtain permanent residency in the First World (or nearby regions). Over and above these are hundreds of thousands of students who pay top dollar to get into average universities, hoping it will eventually lead to permanent settlement in North America, Europe, or Australia.

 

Whether you are paying ₹50 lakh to ₹1 crore to a dubious agent who promises you a passage to California or Texas, or ₹4-5 crore to obtain a golden visa, the gap between costs, risks, and rewards remains vast—for both the rich and poor. The only difference is that the rich can enter through the front door, and any disparity between their envisioned first-world lifestyle and reality can be written off as the sunk cost of purchasing a dream.

 

While no government needs to get in the way of individual aspirations and dreams, India would be failing in its duty to its future migrants if it does not do anything to de-market unrealistic aspirations and impossible dreams. Just as mis-selling financial products is considered wrong, mis-selling (or mis-reading) lifestyles in the West as some kind of ultimate nirvana needs to be combated. Beyond cracking down on those who prey on the dreams of the poor, the government should launch a media campaign to show that the grass may not always be greener on the other side. Middlemen and agents get gullible customers because they are able to cash in on dreams that already exist in people’s minds. This is what needs debunking.

 

The first myth to bust is the dollar-rupee rate. At ₹86-87 to the dollar, it is easy to assume that a dollar earned in the US is worth as much as ₹86-87 earned in India. This is true only about dollars saved and remitted to India. A dollar in the US buys far less than what it would buy in India. Living costs are higher, rentals and transport costlier. The first thing people need to be made aware of as a reality check is what daily necessities cost in the US and in India. 

 

The next myth to bust is the cushy lifestyle. Half a million dollars, if invested in India, will ensure that you do not have to work for the rest of your lifetime, and with your capital still intact. Plus, you get services — domestic help, carpenters, home deliveries, gadget repair — done at a fraction of the cost in the US or Canada. Anyone living in a gated community in India can live a better life than anywhere in the West — except for one thing, interaction with the government. Even this is getting better in the digital age, but if you had to deal with babudom, you will wish you were elsewhere. The only thing that will always be better in the West is freedom from crowds, endless noise and din.

 

The third issue is the innate racism against Indians. We tend to overlook this in pursuit of our dollar dreams, but whether it is academic Hinduphobia or biases against ordinary Indians in workplaces, this racism is real—especially now that US academia has enlisted Indian caste activists to target Hindus in America. The handcuffing of Indians deported by Mr Trump showed us how much respect we get from Uncle Sam, but our commentariat converted this into a narrative against the Modi government rather than point out that Indians seeking the “dunki” route will be treated like sub-humans. Also, the traumatic journeys of those using such routes to get to America seldom get discussed widely in the media, thus ensuring the dreams of future illegal immigrants remain unsullied by reality.

 

The fourth myth is created by positive popular propaganda, often through Bollywood films (Dil Chahta Hai). Ever since Bollywood abandoned its povertarian themes (thankfully), it has gone in the other direction by constantly shooting films abroad and building the Western lifestyle myth. There will, of course, be a mandatory song on “desh bhakti”, but beyond that Bollywood thinks West is best. We are shown the West in all its richness, never in its poverty (No beggars in Times Square). Isn’t it time Bollywood debunked this myth?

 

Fifth, and this has to do with our colonised mindsets. Even in India, aspirations are Westernised. Consider how all our buildings are named after Western ones. In Bengaluru, where I spend a substantial part of the year, in the gated community where I live, all buildings are named after those in Manhattan (only a Trump Tower is missing). Modern builders seldom give buildings Indian names, since they apparently lower aspirational values. So, it has to be Riviera, Palm Beach, Brooklyn Heights, Bloomingdale’s, et al. Decolonising the Indian presumptions about Western superiority is a project we cannot take lightly. No country can progress if its elite believe that nothing Indian can be good, and all good things must have something Western (or, at least, something non-Indian) in them.

 

There is, of course, a good reason why Indians hanker after something Western. Our primary and secondary education system sucks, and we need to fix it before things become worse. Our undergraduate education (outside the STEM area) creates no skills in students that recruiters value. Ease of living must improve, and our bureaucracy needs to become far more responsive to people’s needs and shed its colonial hangover.

 

But, warts and all, we need to tell our people that there isn’t a huge gap between what they expect from life abroad and what they already get here. Things can only get better here. The hype about Western lifestyles needs de-marketing.

The author is a senior journalist