BIMTECH Business Perspectives
Peerzada Mohammad Hanief1
and Vinod Chandra2
1Department of Sociology, University of Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
2Sri JNMPG College, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh, India
This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 License (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) which permits non-commercial use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (https://us.sagepub.com/en-us/nam/open-access-at-sage).
In a global landscape characterised by increased mobility, India has established itself as the largest source country of the international migrant population, with an estimated 18.5 million emigrants in 2024, up from 6.5 million in 1990. By adopting a descriptive and analytical approach, this study offers a reassessment of Indian emigration by leveraging the recent migration data from the United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA). The methodological framework integrates two primary analytical techniques: trend analysis to map longitudinal shifts and comparative analysis to evaluate regional variations. In contrast to the existing research that relies on old statistics, this study employs updated numbers to analyse shifts in the magnitude and direction of Indian emigration. The original contribution of the article lies in documenting a dual structural transformation that corridor-specific studies have not captured in detail: a geographical reorientation of Indian emigration away from its historical concentration in the Gulf towards a more dispersed global pattern and a compositional shift from low- and semi-skilled labour towards a skill-intensive profile. Over the past three decades, Indian emigration has experienced a profound structural evolution: what was once a concentrated stream of low- and semi-skilled migration towards the Gulf countries has now evolved into a globalised phenomenon, a transition driven by both a worldwide demand for skilled professionals and the rising individual aspirations within India. The findings of this study demonstrate that as developed nations continue to compete in a global ‘war for talent’ through targeted pathways, Indian migration will increasingly flow towards economies structured to reward, integrate and permanently retain highly skilled labour.
India, Indian emigrants, international migration, GCC countries, North America, Europe, Oceania
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