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Fifth-year computer science doctoral student Victor Liu came from China to study at UCLA. Liu see

Correction Appended

For UCLA students born and raised in now-booming information technology economies such as India and China, debates concerning outsourcing – the process of shipping jobs out of the country – strike close to the heart.

Many of these students experience mixed emotions as they witness their homelands benefitting from a growing number of white-collar jobs while some middle-class Americans are suffering from job depletion and unemployment.

For those Indian- and Chinese-born students who study computer science or engineering, outsourcing has additional implications, as it affects their future job prospects.

Second-year computer science doctoral student Payan Adharapurapu came to UCLA from India to enhance his academic and cultural education.

He is both pleased and disheartened by the effects of outsourcing.

“I would be lying if I said I was not happy to see my country progress (as a result of the influx of new jobs),” Adharapurapu said.

He also mentioned that his sister recently got a job with one of India’s top outsourcing companies, Wipro.

“At the same time, I would be equally lying if I said I am not saddened to see hardworking middle-class Americans lose their jobs for reasons not at all related to their performance,” he said.

“Many people here work harder than I have ever seen before, and I completely empathize with them,” he added.

While Adharapurapu said he is a firm believer in free trade and therefore the free flow of labor, he also thinks the majority of jobs with American companies should remain here.

“I only hope Gregory Mankiw is right,” Adharapurapu said, referring to President Bush’s chief economic adviser’s statement that outsourcing will ultimately be good for the domestic economy.

Mankiw reasoned that there is a positive net effect from the free trade of goods or services for importers and exporters alike.

An example of domestic benefit might be lower prices for consumers who purchase products from IT firms that employ cheaper labor abroad.

Victor Liu, a fifth-year computer science doctoral student from China, has faith in Mankiw’s prediction.

“I think outsourcing can be mutually beneficial,” he said. “In America, (with outsourcing), there can be more start-up businesses taking advantage of cheap labor in other countries.”

If start-up businesses restrict themselves to development in the United States, they will face higher operational costs and smaller chances of success as a result, he added.

Liu said he thinks Americans can be assured that certain aspects of a business, such as the management and accounting departments, can never entirely leave the States.

But if U.S. employees are to make transitions to new job sectors, the process will take time and training.

With regard to their own post-doctorate employment, neither Adharapurapu nor Liu seem to fear a lack of job prospects.

“I personally believe I could get a job wherever I wanted,” Adharapurapu said, adding that while computer scientists are now in demand in India, the majority of research positions remain in the United States.

Liu said he plans to eventually return to China to live and work.

“When I move back, my life will be easier (because of outsourcing),” he said.

Outsourcing makes people like Liu, who are educated in the United States, a “hot commodity” because they can transfer their knowledge and skills to others.

China will require more rigorous training in fields outsourced by the United States, and Liu anticipates that his advanced degree will allow him to become part of the training system.

Fourth-year mechanical and aerospace engineering doctoral students Krishna Kalyanam and Srinivasan Dattarajan, both from India, share Adharapurapu and Liu’s confidence in their American educations.

They came to UCLA primarily to earn their Ph.D.s.

“I wanted to check out the U.S. for all the hype it had in India,” Dattarajan said.

Neither Kalyanam nor Dattarajan see outsourcing as a threat to the engineering jobs available to them here, and they do not think outsourcing will play a great role in their decisions to return to India after earning their degrees.

“The jobs that are moving from the U.S. are mostly in the computer industry, call centers and so forth,” said Kalyanam.

“Also, a lot of Ph.D. students here are looking to be faculty members, so there is no competition unless they start a UC in India somewhere,” he said jokingly.

But Kalyanam said that outsourcing is changing the engineering landscape to some extent.

His friend, a native of India but educated and living in the United States, was recently offered an engineering job with Sun Microsystems, but he was asked to work in Bangalore, India.

“You see, in India they could pay him $20,000 a year and that would be plenty,” Kalyanam said.

Dattarajan expressed his opinion that if outsourcing means lower pay for American engineers, so be it.

“If America makes claims that its an open economy, then they have to accept the fact that salaries are going to be global,” he said.

Correction: April 12, 2004, Monday

Pavan Adharapurapu’s name was misspelled.