What are some easy immigration countries for Indians?
Immigrating to a new country can be a daunting challenge. You are a stranger in a strange land. But the process of separating from your homeland and settling into a new one is a lot easier if you spot a familiar face in the crowd.
A survey conducted by the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs sought to investigate the status and numbers of migrants from around the world. The findings revealed that the number of migrants around the world (where a migrant is defined as someone living in a country other than where they were born) reached 244 million in 2015 which comes out to be a 41% increase over the last 15 years.
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Crucially, the survey also revealed that India was the country with the largest number of migrants who had moved on to greener pastures. The total number of international migrants with Indian origin came out to be 15.6 million people. But which countries are the best for Indian immigrants?
We compiled a list of the countries which Indian immigrants will find it the easiest to settle in by looking at two crucial factors. The first one being the number of migrants of Indian origin living in a given country the data for which we got from the above-mentioned study. The argument is that the more number of people of Indian origin living in a particular country, the easier it would be for an Indian to feel at home in such a country. Having a high number of migrants of Indian origin would also indicate that the country’s immigration policies are more favorable in terms of accepting migrants from India.
But in order to sort the list of countries, we also looked at a second key variable which is the Human Development Index (HDI) score for a given country. The Human Development Index (HDI) score gives an indication of the ease of living in a country, based on various key factors such as the average lifespan, standard of living, education level, etc. of the average citizen which serves to quantify the quality of life of a person living in that country.
Our reasoning is that the higher the quality of life in a country, the easier it would be for Indian immigrants to settle in that country and discover the opportunity to build the sort of life for which they had left their home for. Thus we only considered the countries with an HDI score of greater than 0.800. This helps us to remove countries such as Pakistan and Nepal from the list, which despite having a high number of immigrants of Indian origin are not the sort of countries which you would think of as offering a high quality of life. In fact, many people living in Pakistan themselves want to immigrate to another country. We actually compiled a list of the 6 easiest countries to immigrate to from Pakistan.
Unfortunately our HDI cut-off also explains the absence from our list of countries such as the United States and the United Kingdom which despite having a large Indian diaspora, fall short of our stringent HDI score cut-off. Having applied this filter, we arrived at the list of countries which are best to migrate to if you are an Indian citizen.
Another variable that we thought would be of great interest is the amount of remittance sent back home to India by immigrants of Indian origin. One of the key reasons for immigrating for Indians is to find an easier way to make money which they can send back home. A study conducted by the United Nations found that Indians from around the world sent over $60 billion worth of remittances back to their country of origin in 2016, which made India the country receiving the most remittances in the world. The data for the remittances sent back to India was received from a study conducted by the World Bank which had data on remittances received in 2015.
Let’s take a look at 10 easy immigration countries for Indians.
10. New Zealand
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 69,800
HDI score: 0.915
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 339
First up on our list of easy immigration countries for Indians is humble New Zealand. People from India might find the wet climate a nice change from their usual tropical weather and with over $339 million in remittances sent back home, it seems Indians have had no issues in adjusting to the picturesque country.
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9. Italy
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 136,403
HDI score: 0.887
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 602
Perhaps a surprise entrance on our list, but with over 130,000 migrants from India, the Indian community appears to be thriving with over $600 million in remittances sent back home to India.
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8. Singapore
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 150,082
HDI score: 0.925
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 889
An HDI score of 0.925 makes Singapore one of the best countries in terms of quality of life on our list of easy immigration countries for Indians. And with over 150,000 migrants from India, it would appear that the people of India have really taken a liking to the prosperous island nation.
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7. Bahrain
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 302,635
HDI score: 0.824
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 1341
Laborers from India look towards the Middle East in the hope of finding work and a place to build a better life. Bahrain that ranks 7rh on our list of easy immigration countries for Indians is one of the prime destinations with over 300,000 people of Indian origin to be found in the country.
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6. Australia
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 389,992
HDI score: 0.939
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 1944
Despite recent reports of racially-motivated hate crimes against the Indian community in Australia, the land down under has proved to be a hospitable destination for people from India with remittances totaling almost $2 million!
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5. Canada
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 621,469
HDI score: 0.920
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 2913
With over half a million migrants from India living in Canada and the very immigrant-friendly government of Justin Trudeau in power, Canada is one of the most desirable destinations for an Indian looking to build a better life in a new country, and definitely one of the easy immigration countries for Indians.
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4. Qatar
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 645,577
HDI score: 0.856
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 4293
Recent news coming out of the Middle East reports that Qatar is facing international isolation by a host of countries led by Arab nations. But we wouldn’t be too worried as the Indian PM Narendra Modi obviously takes a keen interest in the Indian community of Qatar because when he visited Qatar last year, he met Indian workers residing there who are responsible for sending back over $4 million in remittances.
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3. Kuwait
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 1,061,758
HDI score: 0.800
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 4688
Kuwait comes at number three on our list of easy immigration countries for Indians as another one of the countries from the Middle East where Indians have managed to find a new home. With over a million Indian migrants in Kuwait, it is easy for a freshly immigrated Indian to find and mix with people from his or her own community. A staggering $4.5 million is sent back to India by Indians working in Kuwait.
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2. Saudi Arabia
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 1,894,380
HDI score: 0.847
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 11254
The affluent Saudi Arabia comes in second on our list of easy immigration countries for Indians with almost 2 million migrants from India. It is the country from which India receives the third-highest amount in remittances, ranking only behind the United States and the number one country on our list of the best countries to immigrate to for an Indian.
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1. United Arab Emirates
Number of migrants of Indian origin: 3,499,337
HDI score: 0.840
Total remittances sent back to India (millions of US$): 13745
The United Arab Emirates have built a flourishing country out in the Middle East and they have needed the help of laborers and workers from India to support their economy. With almost 3.5 million migrants from India, the United Arab Emirates is not only number one on our list but also the country playing host to the most number of total Indian migrants. With the highest amount of remittances sent to India, it is no surprise that the United Arab Emirates tops our list of the 10 easy immigration countries for Indians.
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