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 approxmate 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。