India has the largest diaspora of 17.4 million in the world

MUMBAI: With 17.5 million Indians spread across the global, India is the leading country of origin for international migrants, constituting nearly 6% of the total migrant population of which has reached 272 million. Following India, the largest number of migrants originated from Mexico (11.8 million), China (10.7 million), and Russia (10.5 million).

The total figure reflects a rise of 23% over the 2010 data, where the total migrant population was 221 million. United Nations (UN) which recently released the new data set – ‘The International Migrant Stock, 2019’, based on collated census data, defines international migrants as anyone who changes their ‘country of usual residence’ irrespective of their motive – be it for work or as a refugee.

Collectively, international migrants make up 3.5% of the global population, compared to 2.8% in 2000. With forced displacements continuing to increase, refugees and asylum seekers account for close to a quarter of global increases, which have risen by 13 million in number from 2010 to 2017. Although migration is global, most journeys are taking place within a limited set of countries, with the US, Germany, and Saudi Arabia making up the top three, adds a UN press release.

US hosted the largest number of international migrants (close to 51 million), followed by Germany and Saudi Arabia having nearly 13 million migrants each. The press release quoted John Wilmoth, director, UN’s Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA) saying:

“The link between migration and development is very well established.” "As a general observation, the contribution of migrants both in host countries and countries of origin, includes sending valuable remittances back to countries of origin, and a major social contribution through transmission of ideas." Interestingly, India hosted 5.1 million international migrants (of which refugees were estimated to be 4%) in 2019. This is slightly less than the 5.2 million international migrants in 2015.