Dr. Sawraj Singh raised the issue of the so called "immigration"
psyche among Punjabis, I want to ask whether there is truth in such
claims.
December 15th, 2012
In the just released report of the US National Intelligence
Council, America has conceded the Rise of the East. The report
titled “Global Trends 2030: Alternative World Reports” concedes
that the American and the European dominance is ending and the
importance of the developing countries (Emerging Economies) is
increasing and the power is shifting from Europe and North America
to Asia. China’s economy will surpass America’s and become the
largest economy of the world by 2030. The European, Japanese and
the Russian economies will continue to shrink slowly.
In 2030, the Chinese economy will be 2.4 times bigger than the
Japanese economy. Based upon the GDP, Military expenditure and
Investment in technology, the Asian power will be bigger than the
combined power of North America and Europe. As the emerging
economies are growing, the flow of capital, new ideas and companies
will be towards the developing countries. In the next 15-20 years,
the activities in the technological field and the focus of the
multinational companies will be towards the fast growing economies
of the countries such as China, India and Brazil. The companies
belonging to these countries will become internationally
competitive. Even though, China will be in the first place, yet the
rate of growth of the Indian economy will slowly catch up with and
surpass the Chinese economy.
For the last many years, I have been predicting that in the second
decade of the 21st century, China’s economy will surpass the
American economy and overall, Asia’s power will surpass the power
of Europe and America. Several years ago, I made these assertions
in my book “Asia’s Century” and repeated them in my recently
published book “Rise of the East.” Another interesting thing is
that I coined the terms multipolar world and unipolar world. The
term multipolar world has been very widely accepted before.
However, the term unipolar world was used by Mathews Burrows, the
Councilor, while talking about the National Intelligence Council’s
report.
The changing equations between the East and the West
have been accepted by America, the most powerful
country in the world. However, the Punjabi Community is not ready
to accept the new realities of the world. The flood of a massive
immigration from Punjab to the Western countries continues.
The whole psyche of the Punjabis revolves around
immigration. The Punjabi culture has become a culture of the
Nomadic and Uprooted people, resulting in the big social
instability, particularly of the rural Punjab. Recently, we saw the
people waiting for an American visa, before the American Embassy in
New Delhi. It appeared as if more than 90 % of the people were
Punjabis and most of them were from the rural Punjab. Punjab’s
population is about 2 % of India’s
population.
Since the start of the current economic crisis, a new phenomenon
called the reverse immigration has started in America. Some people
estimate that close to 200,000 people of the Indian origin have
returned to India during this period. However, Punjab remains untouched by
the new phenomenon. Many businesses in Punjab are
flourshing because of the flood of immigration.
These include the English Schools, Marriage Palaces, Travel Agents
and many other institutions specifically geared up to prepare for
the immigration. All these have a vested interest in promoting the
Immigration Mania in Punjab.
Hopefully, the US National Intelligence Council’s
report will convince the Punjabis that the East is rising and
the West is declining. Is it really wise to migrate from the rising
area to a declining area?
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington
State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central
Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at
[email protected]
http://thelinkpaper.ca/?p=24780