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Most people try to work in the academia of rich and developed countries. I suspect that the rationale for not working in developing countries includes factors such as low-quality healthcare, weak transportation, corruption in the system, etc. I wonder if there is any rationale for working in developing countries.
Is there a rationale for working in academia in South Asia (excluding India)?
At some point you have to do something that puts food on the table. You can't sit around forever. If all the job applications are being denied (and the job market is significantly more competitive in developed countries), then you must eventually accept an offer that you do have.
Put another way, would you rather:
PS: this doesn't mean that every professor in a developing country would rather work in a developed country. There are many possible reasons to want to avoid working in so-called developed countries, e.g. here is an article in Nature interviewing several early-career researchers on why they don't want to work in the US. The reason above is just the most pragmatic of them.
I spent 11 years in the US doing my Bachelors, masters, PhD and postdoc in Math, and currently I am a professor in Malaysia (which I think counts as south Asian)
I had a lot of personal reasons for going back (I am a Malaysian citizen, I have family in Malaysia etc) but leaving those aside:
It is easier to get grants and promotions. The requirements for getting grants and promotions in a country like Malaysia is lower. In countries like Malaysia the government has decent funding for grants, but less people are competing for them. I have applied to three grants in the Malaysian version of the NSF and one grant in the Chinese NSF (my university is a branch campus of a Chinese university located in Malaysia, so I am eligible for both) and have had a 100% success rate so far. I think if I were in America my success rate for the NSF grants would be much much lower. I was also able to achieve a full professorship much more easily than I would have in the US
Easier to obtain leadership/professional opportunities. For example, I got the opportunity to be an editor for the top math journal in Malaysia, which has been a cool experience. Earlier this year I got to give a plenary talk at the annual meeting of the Malaysian Math Society. Again, there is less competition for roles like this in a country like Malaysia.
These countries can be fantastic places to live. Malaysia is one of the best places in the world for nature tourism, our beaches are phenomenal, our culture is fascinating and our food is exceptional. A lot of countries in the South Asia region can be similarly appealing
It is easier to make a difference. I think I was good enough to land a tenure-track position in the US - but I think for any job I could get, the next best person they could hire would be almost as good as me, since the job market in the US is so competitive. Whereas here in Malaysia I think there is a bigger difference between myself and the next best person my university could hire. So in that sense I am making a bigger difference with my life. It makes me happy that my department is making it so a Malaysian doesn't have to travel thousands of miles away to get a good math education, and I feel my department is giving opportunities to students who would not have had them otherwise.
Academia is not a monolithic entity. In some fields, it is almost impossible to do relevant research without proper equipment and enough people capable of working with said equipment. In others, all one needs is to poach enough talent and assemble them under one roof, and when a government is really, really interested in advancing their technology, they may offer very cushy conditions. Some people make their choices based on that alone: maybe the research potential would suffer a bit from the stifled competition and fewer top notch researchers in the immediate vicinity, but this may well be a difference between scrambling with the job security and finances and possibly being rich, as in not even upper-middle class rich. Diverting resources specifically towards economic and technological growth and sparing no expense there while the rest of the country remains poor for a while is a well-established role model by now, especially in Southeast Asia.
Of course, personal factors play a big role in that. Family ties, background, even climatic preferences are all relevant. But the main thing developing countries lack is well-established intellectual traditions in modern fields of research, which is an obstacle one can overcome. It is a bit similar to organizing a movie night where nigh everyone's attendance is conditional on enough of their friends going as well.
Simply put, developing countries are often willing to put relatively more resources in science and tech than developed ones. They would buy top-notch equipment, let people work in their old collaborations, offer great funding, all as long as the researchers bring in knowledge, and train new people to make these high-tech facilities work. And there are people eager to learn, work, and improve their communities, too.
If you believe:
Then you would conclude that working as an educator in a developing country is a good thing to do.
On many occasions I have considered doing it myself. However, malaria and similar are bad, so I do not.
Most of the types of activities you would do in academia in South Asia are the same types of activities you would do in academia in wealthy Western countries, so there is a substantial overlap in the rationale. Points of difference are that the money is less and the quality of the universities is lower, but you would still be doing teaching and research. Consequently, the rationale would be to get all the good things you get from doing teaching and research, while living in South Asia.
Other scenarios:
Scenarios #1 and #3 only apply to international students, but #2 can also apply to those born in the developed country. See Darren Ong's answer.
Poorer working conditions (associated with developing countries) mean there's less competition, so it's easier to stand out. Some people, like Caesar, would rather be first in a village than second in Rome.
Besides, developed countries are attractive to people of any profession, not only academics, yet developing countries have their own share of IT specialists, engineers, etc. Most of the reasons that can make e.g. a web designer work in South Asia (higher social prestige, lower cost of living, personal preferences) would also apply to a university professor.
Organizing available knowledge trasferrable to the coming generations with clear discrimination of usefulness is essential in developing countries. Native knowledge, black and white, are often hidden for ages, while the new generations crave for anything labelled "modern" or the "latest" from the "developed" countries. This disturbs the pace in learning as a people generating imbalance in "status" and appearance.
(I'm adding a second answer because it's fundamentally different from the one I wrote above, and also because I know quite a few people who've chosen to base themselves in developing countries.)
Some of the most common reasons for not working in developed countries:
India has a incredible tech scene. It has massive industries that you as a person from South East Asia can be a part of. All the international tech giants are all open to Indians.
It has low cost of living so it does not take an incredibly high salary to live well.
It is not a country without problems but as long as your finances are in good standing you can have a good life there.
I really want to visit India at least once in my life. It certainly is on my bucket list.
Indians do not give there country enough credit. It has some real problems with poverty that is certainly a big problem, but as long as you earn enough you certainly can.live extremely well there. It has an intoxicating culture and I would consider it a life affirming event if I could ever visit India.
