Editor’s note: This is part two in a five-part series focusing on immigrant contributions to our nation and city
In 1835, Alexis de Tocqueville published Democracy in America. The French aristocrat visited America, including Memphis, and found the people a bit provincial, too religious, yet he characterized the young nation as nearly unlimited in terms of economic, political, and social development.
Rajan Thakur from Nepal might not be this century’s de Tocqueville, but as an immigrant to the USA, more specifically Memphis, Thakur’s background has forced a focus on optimism; he doesn’t dwell too much on the prevailing pessimism.
The national mood, now, is sour. People in America are uncertain of the future; the economy seems great for some, not so great for most; politically we’re living in very strange times; and the pandemic demonstrated our interconnectedness and vulnerabilities. Approximately 1.2 million Americans have died from Covid-19 over the past four years.
Yet Thakur’s reflections on his personal American journey place him squarely in the optimistic camp. He holds an M.S. degree in industrial engineering from Virginia Tech University and works as a project engineer at FedEx headquarters here in Memphis. He’s been living in the USA for nine years. “The U.S. right now, concerning AI technology, money, and technology in general, is at a different level from the rest of the word,” says the young engineer. “The American dream is the real thing. I’ve seen it. Here, people are respected and heard; there’s a strong civic sense that you don’t find in other places.”
Thakur grew up in a small village in the Tarai region near the border with India. “There’s an open border between my country and India to the south.” He describes Nepal as a nation whose economy is essentially tied to India’s. “There are few jobs in Nepal and the nation is close to ‘failed state’ status.”
His parents, with little formal schooling, invested in their son’s education, and Thakur attended a prestigious boarding school about 30 miles from his home. “I went there not because we were rich, but because my parents knew they had to invest in their future by investing in my education.” Thakur was sent away as a 4-year-old, returned home infrequently, excelled at all sports (especially cricket and soccer), and was a dedicated student. He spent 12 years at boarding school, followed by two years at a college preparatory school in India — where he studied from early morning to late at night, and gained admission to one of the best universities in India, the highly competitive National Institute of Technology, Warangal. There, he studied mechanical engineering.
Upon graduation from university, Thakur worked for a year in India and a year in Nepal, then began the process of applying for advanced education in the USA. “At university in India, I met a lot of people who took the GRE and GMAT and they helped me study; they taught me about the entire process of going abroad.” Thakur saw that there was a path to the USA “but getting to the USA is not completely based on merit or talent: 80 percent of it is luck.”
Thakur had multiple acceptances from U.S. universities and ended up at Virginia Tech in Blacksburg, Virginia. He was there on an F1 student visa. He immediately noticed some differences between the USA and home. “It’s quiet here! It’s clean, too, and you don’t see people everywhere you look.” Thakur’s student visa status allowed him to work for minimum wage at the university dining service for 20 hours per week. “At the end of my shift, we were forced to throw away food that hadn’t been eaten — this would never happen in Nepal. Throwing away food is tantamount to sin.” Meanwhile, he and some fellow students in Virginia on F1 visas were struggling to scrape by and feed themselves.
Upon graduation from Virginia Tech, Thakur began a job search in the USA; by the terms of his F1 student visa he had a 90-day window to find a position with a company that would sponsor a more permanent (H1-B) visa arrangement. With persistence and some luck, he was offered a position at FedEx — a global corporation that sponsors/supports talented people from all over the world.
At FedEx, Thakur met his fiancée, and they plan to marry in the next few months. Last week, they returned from a three-week visit to Nepal to meet his relatives. His south Alabama-born future wife was “a bit overwhelmed” by Nepal, the tight-knit social structure, and the fact that four or five hundred people showed up for the engagement party!
According to World Bank data, about 23 percent of Nepal’s GDP comes from remittance payments (people outside the country sending money in). Thakur regularly remits funds back to his family in Nepal. “My dad invested in my education starting when I was a 4-year-old. I’m his insurance policy.”
For our country, welcoming people like Thakur — whose tenacity and optimism are infectious — is our kind of insurance policy, ensuring that we continue to see the good America offers.
Bryce W. Ashby is an attorney at Donati Law, PLLC. Michael J. LaRosa is an associate professor of history at Rhodes College.
