Monday, December 23, 2024

Most Indian migrants want US citizenship

  • The United States remains the primary OECD destination for family migrants. In 2022, 723000 migrants obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States for family reasons, a 14% increase compared with 2021

  • Mexico, India and China were the top three nationalities of newcomers to US in 2021. Among the top 15 countries of origin, India with over 46800 immigrants registered the strongest increase

PRAVASISAMWAD.COM

India has the highest number of citizens who choose to obtain citizenship in other countries among the migrant population. According to a recent report from OECD titled ‘International Migration Outlook: 2023, in the top 50 countries of origin of new immigrants to the OECD, 2020-21, India remains the main source of origin for the second consecutive year, accounting for 7.5% of all flows and sending out 4 lakh new migrants, according to a report in financialexpress.com.

Living in America remains the first choice for most Indian immigrants. The United States remains the primary OECD destination for family migrants. In 2022, 723000 migrants obtained lawful permanent resident status in the United States for family reasons, a 14% increase compared with 2021. Mexico, India and China were the top three nationalities of newcomers to US in 2021. Among the top 15 countries of origin, India with over 46800 immigrants registered the strongest increase.

Migration to OECD countries is at unprecedented levels. In 2022, in the OECD, 145 million people lived outside their country of birth, a quarter more than ten years earlier. According to the report, more than one in three OECD countries registered their highest levels in at least 15 years, with several countries, such as Canada and the United Kingdom, reporting the highest figures on record.

With more than 6 million new permanent immigrants (not including Ukrainian refugees), permanent-type migration to OECD countries reached a record level in 2022. This represents a 26% year-on-year increase and a 14% increase compared to 2019. Most of the increase was driven by the increase in humanitarian migration (excluding Ukrainian refugees) and labour migration.

In many OECD countries, permanent-type migration was higher in 2022 than in any of the previous 15 years. This was the case in Canada and New Zealand, and in many OECD European countries like Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Ireland, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Spain, Switzerland and the United Kingdom).

Family migration remained the main category of permanent migration to OECD countries, accounting for 40% of the total.

Acquisitions of citizenship in OECD countries reached a record level in 2022. The number of new permanent-type immigrants in the OECD, reached an all-time high of 6.1 million in 2022. This is about 26% more than in 2021 and 14% more than in 2019.

In 2021, the composition of migration flows by country of origin returned to its pre-COVID-19 rankings, although China (227000) has not reached its previous level and remains far behind India (407000)

All top four destination countries (The United States, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain) registered large year-on-year increases, between 21 and 35%. The increase was smaller in Canada (8%) the fifth destination country.

The United States alone accounted for 1.05 million new permanent-type migrants, and the other four countries for between 440000 and 650000 each.

In all top five countries, permanent-type migration was higher in 2022 than in 2019, pre-pandemic. This is notably the case in the United Kingdom, Spain and Canada (between 19 and 38%). In these countries, permanent-type migration was at a higher level than in any of the previous 15 years.

New Zealand experienced the largest year-on-year percentage increase in permanent-type migration, counting a total of 155000 new permanent-type migrants, almost triple the record of the past 15 years.

In 2022, family migration remained the primary category of entry for new permanent-type migrants, representing 40% of all permanent-type migration, a relatively stable share over time. The share of labour migration has increased over time. While in 2022, labour migration represented 21% of permanent-type migration, it accounted for only 16% in 2019.

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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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