2025 edition Outlook on international migration said that India has consolidated its position in 2023 and holds a clear lead over all other countries of origin in migration to the group of 38 OECD countries such as the US, UK, Canada and Australia.
However, the report also highlighted various shifts underway: India lost its status as the top country in 2024 for international student migration to the US and UK, while China took the lead.
On the other hand, continued high demand for healthcare professionals has fueled significant migration from India. Mint explores key trends:
At the top
More than 600,000 Indians moved to OECD countries in 2023, up 8.1% from the previous year. This is more than 1.5 times the 368,000 migration from China.
The report pointed out that India and China have long been the main sources of migrants to OECD countries, outside of humanitarian crises. Since the covid pandemic, India has overtaken China as the largest source of migrants and has maintained that lead.
Traditionally, Australia, Canada, UK and USA are the main destinations of Indian migration. In 2023, one in four Indians chose the UK (144,000), an increase of 28% from the previous year.
However, even before Donald Trump’s protectionist policy immigration to the US— the world’s largest economy — fell 45% to 68,000, in stark contrast to the other top countries. This trend is likely to worsen with the stricter policies of the current government.
Counting citizenship
According to the latest data from the report, 225,000 Indians gained citizenship in OECD countries in 2023, the most of any country. War-torn Syria was a distant second with 150,000 inhabitants. In absolute terms, the top choices were Canada, the US, Australia and the UK, accounting for 84.2% of the total number of Indian naturalizations in OECD countries.
Country-specific analysis from Mint showed that over time Australia and Canada have become the most generous destinations offering Indians the largest share of their total citizenship. Australia’s share rose to 21% in 2023, up from 15.6% in 2013.
Canada saw a similar increase, with nearly one-fifth of its new citizens being of Indian origin — nearly double the share a decade ago. In contrast, the share of citizenships offered to Indians by the UK has fallen sharply from nearly 18% a decade ago to around 9% in 2023. The share of Indian citizenships in the US – the most sought-after destination – has remained stagnant at 6-7%.
Powering critical sectors
Indian talent is in high demand in many developed countries facing aging populations and labor shortages. One such critical sector is healthcare. India has consistently been a key source of health workers, providing OECD countries with the highest number of doctors and the second highest number of nurses. Of the 600,000 who migrated to these countries in 2023, 97,000 (one in six) were on health and carer visas.
More detailed data is available for 2020 to allow comparison with other source countries, placing India in the top three. In 2020, almost 830,000 doctors and 1.75 million nurses working in the OECD were born abroad.
Of these, 98,857 Indian-born doctors were employed in the OECD, up from 56,077 in 2000. In 2020, there were 122,400 Indian-born nurses, up from 22,879 two decades ago.
Countries such as the UK and Denmark with aging populations have agreements with India to recruit health and social care workers.
However, challenges remain regarding the recognition of foreign educational credentials and lengthy authorization processes for starting practice in host countries, the report points out.
Tossing and turning
Ambitious for many skilled migrantseducation has long been a gateway to emigration to advanced economies. However, this route will empty out as top destinations tighten their student visa rules. And the latest numbers confirm it.
In 2024, OECD countries hosted more than 1.8 million international students studying for undergraduate and postgraduate degrees. That’s down 13% from 2023 and the first decline since the pandemic, the report noted.
The decline was mainly due to declining inflows to the four main recipient countries – the US (-12%), the UK (-14%), Canada (-39%) and Australia (-22%).
These traditionally popular destinations remain the most visited places among Indian students before their numbers have now started to decline. While major countries are closing their doors, several other countries in the OECD group are welcoming more students, indicating a shift towards nations with friendlier policies. These include countries such as Hungary (73.7%), Japan (19.7%), New Zealand (18.7%) and South Korea (16.4%), which saw a sharp year-on-year increase in student inflows in 2024.
The rise of asylum
Asylum applications from Indians to developed countries have seen a significant jump in recent years. AND Mint data analysis shows that as of 2023 (the latest year for which data is available for all countries), out of 38 OECD countries, Indians applied for asylum in 15 of them. In the post-pandemic period, there has been a sharp increase in applications.
The average number of applications increased 2.9 times between 2019 and 2023 compared to the previous five-year period. Countries with the highest number of applications during this period include the US, Canada and the UK.
Some countries stood out for their sharp jumps. For example, the average number of asylum applications by Indians in Finland increased more than 14 times and in New Zealand six times. Past research has shown that many Indian asylum seekers are individuals who enter these countries illegally in search of better economic opportunities.
“The vast majority of asylum seekers are economic migrants who face limited economic opportunities at home and therefore seek employment opportunities abroad,” he noted. February 2025 study by Johns Hopkins University researchers who studied asylum claims by Indians in the US.
