The profile of the Indian immigrant is changing

Many immigrants who immigrated to Canada from India 20 years or ago or so sold off their homes and closed their accounts, they brought their proceeds to Canada which would in many cases just about take care of a down payment for a home or bolster one’s savings here. Fast forward to 2015 and hundreds of immigrants from India, especially those living in cities or in certain rural communities either sell off their homes or agricultural land and then can afford to buy homes or commercial spaces in Canada outright.

Property values in India have gone through the roof. Those who aren’t are simply renting out their homes in cities like Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore and using that to rent a home in the GTA.

An acre of land in Haryana for example can fetch the owner close to Rs 30,000,00, if he or she were to bring this amount to Canada it would work out to be around $60,000 enough to purchase atleast four acres of rolling farmland around Orangeville, Ontario or put down a decent down payment. Many farmers own five acres or more and if they sell it all and come here, you could do the math!
Hundreds of Indian parents are funding their childrens’ education abroad with funds generated by selling off a small apartment or piece of land in the hot Indian property market.

I’ve met a couple of Indian immigrants from Mumbai who decided to move to Canada not for the opportunity but the lifestyle. And to be fair, Canada does offer its permanent residents and citizens an excellent quality of life. Provided of course the family has an above average source of income, which means good jobs or successful businesses. Without a good job, a Canadian will quickly realize that it would be hard living on fresh air alone. Canada unfortunately at this point isn’t generating jobs and wealthy immigrants and investors from countries like China and India know that fully well, what is attracting them is housing which is relatively affordable, open spaces, clean air, amenities… in general things money can’t buy in crowded Indian cities and towns.

The immigrant from Mumbai I met runs a very successful business there and realized there was no way he could replicate that success here in Canada, so he did the next best thing- he bought a home, installed his family here and now shuttles back and forth every three months.

Another self-employed permanent resident and his family moved here a year ago, he rents out his apartment in Mumbai and that amount takes care of the rent of his apartment here. He is a consultant and all his business comes out of India, thanks to Skype and inexpensive communication, he doesn’t need to be in India physically.

All this sounds bizarre to South Asian immigrants who came in a decade or more earlier. I’ve met immigrants who sold their apartments in cities like Mumbai and Delhi for a fraction of what it would be worth today. “I’d be a dollar millionaire,” said one such immigrant who sold his property for a song 16 years ago because he was quite sure that India was in permanent decline and would be in the throes of a civil war, atleast that is what his immigration consultant told him in his sales pitch.

Back then few could envisage the kind of wealth now generated in India. Sure there is the familiar beggars, street urchins and wretched poverty, but there are large islands of prosperity that are populated by some obscenely rich people and a growing number of millionaires. The professionals and business people immigrating or investing places such as Canada are often very wealthy individuals.

What India doesn’t have are the amenities, the quality of life, the clean air and water. And immigrants today are often here to have their children educated or to simply hope to have a second home. So for many immigrants from India today, Canada simply happens to be nothing more than a playground. India continues to be the dirty place where people can become filthy rich.