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Opinion

OPINION

By Suketu Mehta

April 21, 2017

ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates — One of the fiercest debates in

the nation these days centers on immigration to America, and whether

it takes jobs away from people already here. But maybe the solution is

emigration from America. Today, there are nine million American

civilians living abroad — up from four million in 1999. In the 21st

century, America’s greatest export could just be … Americans.

Just as India’s greatest export has long been Indians. In 1936, when

my grandfather was 16, he had to help support his five younger

siblings in a village in Gujarat. His father sent him to Nairobi, Kenya,

where he began his career sweeping floors in his uncle’s accounting

office. In turn, his children moved, to America, to England, to

Australia. In the 1970s my father stood for nine hours a day at the

Diamond Dealers Club on West 47th Street in Manhattan because he

Go East, Young American

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couldn’t afford an office. My grandfather’s descendants are doctors,

lawyers, public servants, corporate executives all over the world.

Mobility is survival.

Many Americans recoil at the idea that they should have to go abroad

for anything more taxing than sightseeing. The number of Americans

working abroad is very low compared with other developed countries.

Only a third of Americans have a working passport; three-quarters of

Britons do, and 60 percent of Canadians.

If you were to believe President Trump, and even some supporters of

Senator Bernie Sanders, you would think that this is because every

American has a divine right to a well-paid job in his own country.

on Intagram uing the hahtag #AmericanxpatLife." />

Are ou an American who live aroad? Tell u wh, and what ou’d hare with other American wondering aout doing the ame thing on Intagram uing the hahtag #AmericanxpatLife.

The 20th century was the American century; the 21st, not so much. A

young person in Denmark or New Zealand has a better quality of life

than a young person in the United States. There you can go to college

free, not have to worry about money when you’re sick, and enjoy two

months’ vacation even if you’re only an intern. Partly this is due to the

significant underinvestment by the government in education, health

care and the arts, which has left sections of the United States looking

like postwar Europe.

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Americans who work abroad do quite well; American pilots for

Chinese airlines, for example, make $300,000 a year. All around the

world, there are legions of Americans making a good living as

engineers, corporate executives, English teachers.

Critics say this kind of globalization is only for the elite, those lucky

and wealthy enough to have been educated at the best schools. But it’s

not just jobs requiring a college degree that Americans should

consider doing overseas. A 150-peso-an-hour job in an automobile

plant in Aguascalientes, Mexico, isn’t the same as a $40-an-hour

union job in Detroit; but you will live much better than if you made $8

an hour slinging burgers in Scranton, Pa. Maybe, instead of building a

wall, President Trump should be demanding that Mexico open up its

labor market to Americans.

I certainly understand why Americans might be attached to their

house, their friends and family, their home country. I’ve made New

York my home, the last home for those who have no other. The United

States is a beautiful country, a safe country and, for most people, a

comfortable country. It’s true that we should fight for better-paying

jobs at home; companies move jobs abroad so they can pay workers

less, in countries with looser environmental and labor laws.

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But American jobs are disappearing not because they’re moving to

Mexico or China; it’s because they are increasingly being done by

robots. What we need is not tariffs, but training. We also need to

gently teach our children: You might prefer to stay in the house you

were born in all your life, but it’s not a constitutional right.

My family had to move because there was no future in rural Gujarat;

200 years of British colonialism had left the Indian economy in ruins.

When we moved, we missed our vegetarian food, our family, the trees,

the rivers and our language. Some of it we could take with us; some of

it we couldn’t. We returned to Gujarat when we could.

Americans are more fortunate; the whole world looks like America

now. Americans who emigrate don’t have to go without cheeseburgers,

“Seinfeld” or the English language.

So go forth into the world with confidence, young American! Don’t

believe Mr. Trump’s defeatist talk of “American carnage.” Americans

have a spirit of enterprise, efficiency and honesty that is unparalleled

in the world. If you don’t believe me, try visiting a Chinese or Indian or

Russian government office — and see how an American government

office compares.

Some of my former New York University students were able to land

lucrative jobs in the booming Indian news industry because they have

writing and editing skills honed at a top American university. In India,

their salaries can buy them an apartment, nice dinners, domestic help.

Most of their peers in New York are still struggling in unpaid

internships and have to be supported by loans or parents.

For my college-going sons, there is no guarantee that there will be a

job waiting after graduation in America. But they have already

worked, with confidence, in Brazil and Indonesia. Growing up in New

York has made them comfortable with the idea of living anywhere in

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the world. The other day, my older son, who wants to be a journalist,

told me he was thinking about looking for a job in … India.

Suketu Mehta is the author of “Maximum City: Bombay Lost and Found” and teaches

journalism at New York University.

Are you an American who lives abroad? Tell us why, and what you’d share with other

Americans wondering about doing the same thing on Instagram using the hashtag

#AmericanExpatLife.

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Opinion Today newsletter.

A version of this article appears in print on April 23, 2017, on Page SR11 of the New York edition with the headline: Go east, young American. Order Reprints | Today’s Paper | Subscribe

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