GLOBAL GOENKARS SPEAK
The writer is professor at Columbia University in the USA who hails from Cortalim
Goa looks prosperous on the surface. Its roads are busier, its skylines are getting taller, and its tourism numbers, they say, are stronger than ever. But beneath that visible growth lies a troubling reality: too many of its young people cannot find meaningful work at home.
In the mid 1980s, finding a job in Goa followed a path that was simple and reassuringly predictable. Soon after graduating, we registered at the employment exchange in Panaji, where degrees were matched, often with surprising efficiency, to available positions. The system was modest, low tech, and slow, but it worked. What defined that period was not speed, but certainty. A college degree, more often than not, led to a stable job. It allowed young people to save, to plan, and to imagine owning a home.
Early in our master’s programme, a classmate secured a job with a national bank and left academia without hesitation. I stayed on, uncertain of what lay ahead, especially after our adviser left on a fellowship abroad, leaving us rudderless. Then one day, the employment exchange sent me a postcard, asking me to report for an interview at the National Institute of Oceanography in Dona Paula. That was how my career began.
MEASURE OF DIRECTION
It is difficult to reconcile that experience with the Goa of today.
For years, the State has taken comfort in a familiar narrative: that Goa is different, a place of opportunity, and that its people are largely employed and secure. The government has reinforced this perception, pointing to quality of life indicators, including its recent happiness ranking, as evidence that Goa remains among the happiest and most liveable regions in the country.
But recent data tell a more sobering story. The Periodic Labour Force Survey by the Government of India’s National Statistical Office places Goa with the highest unemployment rate in the country, at 8.3 per cent, nearly three times the national average. This is not a statistical blip. It is a signal that all is not well.
What is equally troubling is the silence that has followed. The Goa government is often quick to celebrate favourable rankings; it is slower to acknowledge inconvenient ones. But this moment demands acknowledgement, not evasion.
In a small, educated, outward-looking state like Goa, unemployment is not merely an economic indicator. It is a measure of direction.
For decades, Goan youth, faced with limited opportunities at home, have looked outward. They found work on ships, in the Middle East, and in the United Kingdom. Their remittances have helped lift Goa’s per capita income above that of many other states. In effect, migration became a pressure valve, easing domestic unemployment while allowing the State to project an image of prosperity.
But that valve is beginning to clog. Conflict in the Middle East, stricter immigration policies in Europe, and narrowing pathways for work visas are making overseas employment less certain. The external cushion that long sustained Goa’s economy is beginning to fray.
Within the State, tourism remains the dominant source of employment. It sustains livelihoods, but much of that work is seasonal, informal, and increasingly saturated. The sector also relies heavily on migrant labour. Beyond tourism, opportunities in industry and technology remain limited. Diversification has been discussed for years, but progress has been slow and uneven.
NARROW, UNCERTAIN LANDSCAPE
Each year, more young Goans enter the workforce with education, ambition, and expectation. What they encounter is a narrow and uncertain landscape. Wages have not kept pace with the rising cost of living. Many, including engineers, pharmacists, nurses, teachers, and other skilled graduates, find themselves underemployed or stuck in precarious work. The prospect of owning a home, once a reasonable aspiration, has steadily receded, as large mega-housing projects cater less to local incomes and more to external demand.
The result is a familiar pattern. Some leave. Others stay and wait. Neither outcome reflects a well-functioning economy.
Policy responses have tended to favour visibility over substance. Programmes announced under broad banners such as ‘Viksit Goa' or ‘Swayampurna Goa’ promise transformation but too often deliver little in terms of sustained job creation.
Goa is not without advantages. It has high literacy, a globally exposed population, a strategic coastline, two airports, a seaport, and a reputation for liveability that many states in India envy. Yet these strengths have not been translated into sustained investment or meaningful diversification. While states like Tamil Nadu, Kerala, and Andhra Pradesh have steadily expanded their industrial and technology sectors, Goa has struggled to keep pace. This is not an inevitable outcome. It is the result of choices.
CHOICES FOR GOA
Goa has the potential to build a broader and more resilient economy. It could expand its pharmaceutical ecosystem, develop medical tourism, and move deliberately toward higher-value tourism anchored in culture, heritage, and museums such as Goa Chitra; the Museum of Christian Art; and Big Foot, rather than volume alone. It could invest seriously in the blue economy and position itself as a logistics and warehousing hub for online retailers like Amazon, connecting Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Middle East. The Portuguese once made Goa a centre of the spice trade because they understood the power of geography. That logic has not changed.
What has been missing is a willingness to act with clarity and conviction. Entrepreneurship remains underdeveloped, not for lack of talent, but for lack of sustained support. Startups require more than speeches; they need infrastructure, access to capital, mentorship, and policy stability. An economy that continues to lean heavily on tourism cannot expect resilience to emerge on its own.
Goa now faces a choice. It can continue to manage the present, relying on familiar narratives and short-term measures. Or it can begin the harder task of building a future in which its young people can find dignified work at home.
The difference between those paths will not be measured in slogans or rankings. It will be seen in whether the next generation of Goans must leave to build their lives or can choose to build them where they belong and not out of compulsion, but out of genuine opportunity, dignity, and the confidence that their future does not lie elsewhere but right here at home.
