The migration of Indians from the country to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) formed the second largest corridor in terms of number of migrants in 2015, according to a report released by the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD).
The flow of migrants from India to the UAE between 1995 and 2015 stood at 28 lakh, making UAE the top destination country for Indian migrants (It ranked fourth place in 1995). The corridor between Mexico and the United States remains the largest in terms of the volume of migrants.
In 2015, the flow from Mexico to US stood at nearly 55 lakh. Migration flow between 1995 and 2015 has been computed by OECD by taking the difference between the number of migrants in each of these two years.
In 2015, Indians account for the largest diaspora in the world with 156 lakh migrants, according to OECD's report — 'Perspectives on global development, 2017: International migration in a shifting world.' The report points out that 24.3 crore people were living outside their country of birth in 2015, accounting for 3.3% of the world's population.
This was a significant increase over the past twenty years — in 1995 only 2.7% of the world's population comprised of diaspora. The move of migrants has increasingly been towards high income countries.
The number of migrants from India living in the UAE grew by 126% between 2005 and 2010, accounting for nearly 20% of the global Indian migrant stock in 2015 (in 1995, this constituted just 9% of India's diaspora). Immigrants now account for almost 70% of the total population in Kuwait and more than 80% in Qatar and the UAE.
Indians are the second largest immigrant group in the US, after Mexicans accounting for 4.7% of the 413 lakh foreign born population.
A significant portion of Indian immigrants in the US are recent arrivals: 51% of the total Indian born population arrived during or after 2000, compared to 36% of the foreign born population as a whole.
As regards the future, OECD's report points out to the increasing protectionist measures that are being adopted by high income countries, which are popular destinations for migrants, which should see a shift in the migration trends.
SOURCE: Times of India
