Friday, November 22, 2024

India is biggest loser to emigration, but highest earner from it: UN

     In 2020, 17.9 million of the 281 million international migrants — roughly 6.4% — traced their origin to India

  • Also, India has been the top receiver of remittances — the money migrants send to their home countries — in the world since 2010. Between 2010 and 2021, remittances to India grew from $53 billion to $89 billion

PRAVASISAMWAD.COM

India has been a huge source of international migrants for more than a century and remained the top origin country for the world’s migrants in 2020, according to the United Nations’ International Organization for Migration (IOM).

In parallel, India has been the top receiver of remittances — the money migrants send to their home countries — in the world since 2010. Between 2010 and 2021, remittances to India grew from $53 billion to $89 billion.

In 2020, 17.9 million of the 281 million international migrants — roughly 6.4% — traced their origin to India. The countries with the largest number of Indian migrants were the United Arab Emirates (3.5 million), the United States of America (2.7 million), and Saudi Arabia (2.5 million), according to a Pew Research report citing UN data.

However, the massive outmigration hardly makes any ripple in a country that is all set to take away the “largest population” crown from China this year. India’s 17.9 million migrants in 2020 made up only 1.3% of all people born in the country by that year.

In comparison, Mexico had lost about 11.2 million people to outmigration by 2020, accounting for 8.2% of all those born in the country by then. Russia accounted for the third-largest number of outmigrants by 2020 — 10.8 million — while the UK’s 4.7 million international migrants accounted for 7.6% of those born in the country by 2020.

Remittances went down by about $11 billion from 2019 to 2020 due to Covid. Global remittances, which had been steadily rising since 2010, fell from $722 billion in 2019 to $711 billion in 2020. However, according to the World Bank, remittances reached $781 billion in 2021 and are estimated to reach $794 billion in 2022

Europe and Asia are neck and neck when it comes to the continent with the largest number of international migrants. Europe had around 86.7 million international migrants living there in 2020, while Asia had 85.6 million. According to the IOM, both continents recorded a steadily increasing number of international migrants since 2005.Yet, when it comes to the share of population being made up by immigrants, it’s a different story altogether. Despite its massive in-migration, the US has migrants accounting for only about 15.1% of its population.

A whopping 93.9% of all people living in the UAE in 2020 were international migrants. The share was 80.6% in Qatar and 71.3% in Kuwait. The top 10 include other Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Latin America and the Caribbean islands seem to be a favourite of migrants these days. The region has the fastest-growing international migrant population. Since 2005, the region’s international migrant population has roughly doubled.

Yet, when it comes to the share of population being made up by immigrants, it’s a different story altogether. Despite its massive in-migration, the US has migrants accounting for only about 15.1% of its population.

On the other hand, a whopping 93.9% of all people living in the UAE in 2020 were international migrants. The share was 80.6% in Qatar and 71.3% in Kuwait. The top 10 include other Middle Eastern countries such as Bahrain, Oman, Saudi Arabia, Jordan, and Lebanon.

Remittances went down by about $11 billion from 2019 to 2020 due to Covid. Global remittances, which had been steadily rising since 2010, fell from $722 billion in 2019 to $711 billion in 2020. However, according to the World Bank, remittances reached $781 billion in 2021 and are estimated to reach $794 billion in 2022.

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Roma Ghosh
Roma Ghosh
Roma Ghosh has recently retired as Associate Professor for Media Studies from an international university. She was with the Times of India as a correspondent for many years. Her passion is cooking and she has been doing recipes and photo shoots for Women's Era for the last 15-odd years.

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