The 2025 version of the Worldwide Migration Outlook stated India consolidated its place in 2023 and held a transparent lead over all different origin international locations in migration to a gaggle of 38 OECD international locations, such because the US, the UK, Canada and Australia.
Nonetheless, the report additionally pointed to numerous shifts which are underway: India misplaced its prime nation standing in 2024 by way of worldwide pupil migration to the US and the UK, whereas China took the lead.
Then again, continued excessive demand for healthcare professionals propelled vital migration from India. Mint explores the important thing tendencies:
On the prime
Over 600,000 Indians moved to OECD nations in 2023, an 8.1% rise in comparison with the earlier 12 months. That is over 1.5 instances the 368,000 migration from China.
The report identified that India and China have lengthy been the highest sources of migrants to OECD international locations, outdoors humanitarian crises. For the reason that covid pandemic, India has surpassed China as the biggest supply of migrants and has held on to that lead.
Historically, Australia, Canada, the UK and the US have been the highest locations for Indian migration. In 2023, one in 4 Indians selected the UK (144,000), recording an increase of 28% from the earlier 12 months.
Nonetheless, even earlier than Donald Trump’s protectionist insurance policies, immigration to the US— the world’s largest economic system — declined by 45% to 68,000, exhibiting a pointy distinction with different prime nations. This development is prone to worsen with stricter insurance policies by the present administration.
Citizenship rely
In line with the most recent knowledge from the report, 225,000 Indians acquired citizenship in OECD international locations in 2023, the very best amongst all international locations. Battle-torn Syria was a distant second at 150,000. In absolute phrases, Canada, the US, Australia and the UK had been the highest selections, accounting for 84.2% of whole Indian naturalisations in OECD nations.
A rustic-wise evaluation by Mint confirmed that over time, Australia and Canada have emerged as probably the most beneficiant locations, providing the biggest shares of their whole citizenships to Indians. Australia’s share rose to 21% in 2023, up from 15.6% in 2013.
Canada noticed an identical surge, with almost one-fifth of its new residents being of Indian origin—virtually double the proportion a decade in the past. The share of citizenships provided to Indians by the UK, then again, has fallen sharply from almost 18% a decade in the past to about 9% in 2023. Indians’ share of citizenship within the US—probably the most sought-after vacation spot—has remained stagnant at 6-7%.
Powering vital sectors
Indian expertise has been in excessive demand in lots of developed international locations, that are combating an ageing inhabitants and labour shortages. One such vital sector is healthcare. India has persistently been a key supply of healthcare professionals, offering the very best variety of medical doctors and the second-highest variety of nurses to OECD international locations. Of the 600,000 that migrated to those international locations in 2023, 97,000 (one in six) had a well being and care employee visa.
Extra detailed knowledge, which permits for comparability with different supply international locations, is on the market for 2020, which places India among the many prime three. In 2020, almost 830,000 medical doctors and 1.75 million nurses working within the OECD had been foreign-born.
Of those, 98,857 Indian-born medical doctors had been employed within the OECD, up from 56,077 in 2000. India-born nurses had been 122,400 in 2020, up from 22,879 from twenty years in the past.
Nations such because the UK and Denmark, with ageing populations, have agreements with India for well being and social care workforce recruitment.
Nonetheless, challenges persist over recognition of international training credentials and prolonged authorisation processes to begin practising in host nations, the report identified.
Altering gears
For a lot of aspirational expert migrants, training has lengthy been a gateway to to migrate to superior economies. That route, nevertheless, is hollowing out as prime locations are tightening pupil visa guidelines. And the most recent numbers bear this out.
In 2024, OECD international locations hosted over 1.8 million worldwide college students pursuing undergraduate and postgraduate levels. That is 13% fewer than in 2023 and the primary decline for the reason that pandemic, the report identified.
The decline was primarily attributable to reducing inflows to the highest 4 receiving international locations—the US (-12%), the UK (-14%), Canada (-39%), and Australia (-22%).
These historically standard locations stay the highest draw amongst Indian college students, earlier than numbers have began to say no now. Whereas high-profile international locations are closing their doorways, a number of different international locations within the OECD group are welcoming extra college students, suggesting the shift in the direction of nations with friendlier insurance policies. These embrace international locations like Hungary (73.7%), Japan (19.7%), New Zealand (18.7%) and South Korea (16.4%) which have seen a pointy on-year surge in pupil inflows in 2024, the information confirmed.
Asylum surge
Asylum purposes from Indians to superior international locations have seen a big bounce in recent times. A Mint evaluation of information exhibits that as of 2023 (the final 12 months for which all-country knowledge is on the market), out of 38 OECD nations, Indians have filed asylum requests throughout 15 of them. The post-pandemic interval has seen a pointy surge in requests.
The common variety of requests jumped 2.9 instances between 2019 and 2023 in comparison with the previous five-year interval. High international locations by variety of requests throughout this era embrace the US, Canada and the UK.
Some international locations stood out for his or her sharp jumps. For example, Indians’ common asylum requests surged over 14 instances in Finland and 6 instances in New Zealand. Previous analysis has proven that many Indian asylum seekers are people who enter these international locations illegally in the hunt for higher financial alternatives.
“The overwhelming majority of asylum seekers are financial migrants who face restricted financial alternatives at dwelling and thus search employment alternatives overseas,” famous a February 2025 research by researchers from Johns Hopkins College who studied asylum requests by Indians within the US.
