This paper describes the results of two specific primary surveys, one of IT professionals in the city of Bangalore and their role in making the city a corridor for international mobility of Indian professionals, and the second survey of health professionals (doctors and nurses) in the city of New Delhi. In these surveys, highly skilled Indians were asked about their motivations for emigrating, their experiences abroad, their reasons for coming back to India and their perception of their current situation. These surveys were carried out as a supplement to a study on estimating the stocks, flows and international mobility of human resources in science and technology (HRST) in India. The results of that work are reported in STI Working Paper 2004/7 (Khadria 2004.