How India became first country to cross $100bn mark in inward remittances

India is the origin of the largest number of international migrants — nearly 18mn, with large diasporas in the UAE, the US and Saudi Arabia. And it continues its march as the top country receiving remittances from its diaspora: the figure crossed $110bn in 2022, a United Nations agency has said.The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in its World Migration Report 2024, says that in 2022, India, Mexico, China, the Philippines and France were the top five remittance recipient countries.According to the report released on May 8, India was the top country receiving remittances in 2010 ($53.48bn), 2015 ($68.91bn) and 2020 ($83.15bn), with the figure at $111.22bn in 2022. !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r !function(){"use strict";window.addEventListener("message",(function(a){if(void 0!==a.data["datawrapper-height"]){var e=document.querySelectorAll("iframe");for(var t in a.data["datawrapper-height"])for(var r=0;r It notes that with a very large number of migrant workers from the subregion, South Asia receives some of the largest inflows of remittances globally.Three South Asian nations — India, Pakistan and Bangladesh — rank among the top 10 recipients of international remittances in the world, underscoring the significance of labour migration from the subregion.The report points out that international remittances have recovered from the dip in 2020 due to the pandemic. Migrants sent an estimated $831bn in international remittances globally in 2022, up from $791bn in 2021 and significantly more than $717bn in 2020.China’s inward remittances in 2022 were $51bn. The contraction and its slipping to third spot has been attributed to multiple factors, including demographic shifts that have resulted in shrinking of the working-age population and the country’s zero-Covid policy, which prevented people from travelling abroad for work.During 2022, Pakistan (rank 6) saw an inflow of nearly $30bn and Bangladesh (rank 8) received $21bn.Key migration corridorsIndia-UAE, India-US, India-Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh-India were among the top 10 international country-to-country migration corridors, the report says.The Mexico-US corridor is the largest in the world at nearly 11mn people. This is followed by the Syria-Türkiye and Russia-Ukraine corridors, attributed largely to the displacement of people owing to civil unrest and invasions.In 1970, there were just 84mn international migrants, which translated to 2.3% of the world’s population. By mid-2020 (as per latest available data), nearly 280mn people lived in a country other than their country of birth, constituting 3.6% of the world’s population.The size of a migration corridor from ‘country A’ to ‘country B’ is measured as the number of people born in ‘country A’ who were residing in ‘country B’ at the time of the estimate.The India-UAE corridor is the fourth largest. An interactive map released by IOM shows there were 3.5mn Indians in the UAE, followed by 2.7mn in the US (which was the sixth largest international migration corridor) and 2.5mn in Saudi Arabia (in ninth position). medium109984547The report does not separately reflect the top source countries of inward remittances to India, but understandably it would be from the top diaspora-centric countries. The US and Saudi Arabia were the top two on the list of those sending remittances overseas, with outflows of $79bn and $39bn, respectively, in 2022.For 10 countries including India, the estimated net outflow of migrants exceeded 1mn over the period from 2010 through 2021. India’s net migration flow was -3.5mn during this period.Net migration is the difference between the inflow of migrants into a country and those who migrate from it overseas. Interestingly, India, which in mid-2020 had the largest diaspora of nearly 18mn (1.3% of the global population), occupied the 13th rank as a destination country, hosting 4.5mn migrants (0.3% of the global population).Risks faced by migrantsThe report, however, notes that while remittances remain a lifeline for many people in South Asia, migrant workers from India, Pakistan and Bangladesh continue to face a myriad of risks, including financial exploitation, excessive debt due to migration costs, xenophobia and workplace abuses.The Gulf states remain significant destinations for migrant workers from around the world, and the 2022 football World Cup in Qatar further underscored the importance of migrant labour to the subregion as well as rights violations.Watch: Families seek answers over Qatar WC deaths medium nocaptionhttps://youtu.be/ImbtDK6ub6w?si=IcuVfdN6XqcZiDUwMigrants continue to comprise high proportions of the total populations in many Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.In the UAE, Kuwait and Qatar, migrants made up 88%, nearly 73% and 77% of the national populations, respectively.Most migrants — many of whom come from countries such as India, Egypt, Bangladesh, Ethiopia and Kenya — work in sectors such as construction, hospitality, security, domestic work and retail.India came in 13th as the destination country for immigrants, with 4.48mn.Migration of studentsIn 2021, more than 1mn internationally mobile students were from China, by far the highest number globally and more than double the number of students from India, which ranks second (around 508,000).The US is the largest destination country for international mobile students in the world (more than 833,000), followed by the UK (nearly 601,000), Australia (around 378,000), Germany (over 376,000) and Canada (nearly 318,000).China is also an important destination for international students, especially those from South Korea, Thailand, Pakistan and India. medium109984815The report says there are more female than male international migrants in destination countries in Europe and North America, such as the US, Canada, France, Spain and Italy, but also in India.India has a slightly higher share of female immigrants than males.Challenges posed by illegal migrantsIrregular migration to the US remains an ongoing challenge and major policy issue, with increasing numbers of arrivals from atypical origin countries. There were 2.4mn encounters at the US-Mexico border in 2022, the highest on record.“Encounters” constitute both apprehensions and expulsions, and these statistics also include many migrants who tried to enter the US several times without authorisation.For years, most irregular migrants were overwhelmingly from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras, but in 2022 and for the first time, there were more encounters with migrants from Venezuela, Cuba and Nicaragua.“There were also a large number of arrivals from Haiti, Brazil and from countries outside the region such as India and Ukraine,” the report says.“The shift in origin country geography has also been attributed to Title 42, which suspends the right to claim asylum under US and international law on the basis of preventing the spread of Covid,” it says.