EMIGRATION AND DEVELOPMENT.

 As per recently released World Bank report entitled"Migration and Development Brief"- India continues to maintain her stellar performance among the top remittance recieving countries  of  the world with the highest remittances inflows estimated to be US $ 125 billion for India in 2023.Total remittances estimated for Low and Middle Income countries (LMICs) grew by an estimated 3.8% in 2023 aggregating US $ 669 billion with Mexico occupying the second position with $ 67 billion, followed by China with $50 billion, Phillipines $40 billion and Egypt $ 24 billion.. On the  contrary remittances estimated for 2022 showed that total remittances  amounted to US  $ 647 billion indicating annual growth of 8%.In the year 2022 India accounted for $111 billion followed by Mexico $ 61 billion, China $51 billion Philippines $38 billion and Pakistan $ 30 billion. As  2022  estimate indicated the 5th position of  Pakistan among the major remittances recipients in 2022 was replaced by Egypt in 2023.

 India's emigration in modern times largely dates back to the second half of the 19th century when massive numbers of Indian indentured labour were recruited for working in the British plantations of erstwhile Ceylon, Burma, Malaya,Mauritius, South Africa and West Indies.A good number of them had permanently settled in the respective countries. After independence the second phase of emigration comprised of people who sought jobs in the administrative, technical and professional positions in advanced economies like UK USA, Germany and France as engineers, scientists, technicians,doctors, nurses business men defence and police personnel. Major breakthrough in emigration came after four fold increase in prices of petroleum products in  1973 and resultant accumulation of petro dollars and consequent large scale investments particularly in infrastructure development  projects. Even though initially the neighbouring Arab countries were main suppliers of imported labour to  Gulf countries eventually they realised that South Asian workers from   India, Pakistan, Bangladesh and Srilanka became preferable because they accepted jobs and salaries that Arab workers refused to  take. While estimated remittance flows from the Middle East region for 1977 was US $ 303 million for India ,US$ 434 million for Pakistan, $ 12 million for Srilanka and $ 11 million for Bangladesh by 1985 India recieved  US $ 1442 million, Pakistan US $ 2069 million, Srilanka US$ 265 million and Bangladesh US$ 363 million. In the late 1990s a new stream of emigration of professionals in terms of outflows of knowledge workers or information communications technology (ICT) workers emerged which swelled rapidly across many countries. In fact the economic reforms introduced in the 1990s in terms of Globalisation liberalisation and privatisation provided a major boost to such emigration. Surprisingly instead of traditional Indian workforce in US as taxi drivers ,labourers, farmers and small business men, dynamic structural changes among Indian diaspora occurred with ever increasing presence of high tech professionals in academia,information technology, digital technology, health,intellectual property,and medicine. Indian emigration gradually  witnessed more or less the same pattern with minor changes across countries and continents approximately  spread in 192 countries. It may be noted here that roughly 850000 Indian students study abroad in  countries USA, Canada, UK and Australia and many of them work in partime jobs in supermarkets,other shops and care centers to support their cost of education. 

As per the data supplied by Ministry of External affairs there exist 29 million Non resident Indians (NRI) or  persons of Indian origin (PIO) which is the largest among all countries who are either working or residing abroad. Every year approximately 2.5 million (25lakh) Indians migrate overseas constituting the largest annual number of migrants in the world. Major destinations of Indian emigrants are USA, UAE, Saudi Arabia, UK,South Africa, Canada, Kuwait, Mauritius, Qatar, Australia, Trinidad and Tobago.A recent OECD report indicated that Indians are in the forefront of acquiring foreign citizenship with USA on the top followed by Canada that witnessed highest growth in granting citizenship to foreign nationals.

Remittances through official channels, apart from buttressing the foreign exchange reserves position and balance of Payments stability,  boost savings, consumption and investment. Moreover diaspora across the globe become instrumental in promoting trade in diaspora goods and services including cultural products ranging from cinemas to promoting digital media,channels and also  charity services.India as the largest recipient of remittances recieved US $ 89.38 billion in 2021 which increased to $111 billion in 2022 and estimated to the level of US $ 125 billion in 2023 which is very much higher than just US $ 51 recieved by China. Apart from Indian diaspora's strong presence it can also be attributed to two factors 1.strong labour market conditions for higly skilled Indians prevailed in the host countries like USA, UK and Singapore that collectively accounted for 36% of total remittances followed  by GCC countries especially UAE which accounted for 18% India's total remittances. 2. Policy measures taken to attract foreign remittances- It includes higher interest rates and incentives like tax exemption for NRI bonds/ deposits.In January 2023 National Payment Corporation of India (NPCI) allowed NRIs living in ten countries namely USA,UK Singapore, Australia Canada, Hong Kong, Oman, Qatar Saudi Arabia and UAE to use UPI transactions making use of international mobile numbers .Further in February 2023 an agreement with UAE established the framework to promote the use of local currencies for cross border transactions and cooperation for interlinking payment and messaging system.It has been observed that the use of Dirhams and rupees in cross border transactions is further instrumental in channeling higher remittances through official channels. It is to be noted here that India being the 5th largest economy remittances account for  4% of GDP  as against heavily remittances dependent countries like Tajikistan with 51%, Tonga 44 % and Lebanon 36% of their GDP where remittances constitute the  financial life line of their respective economies. World Bank report also projected that remittances in the year 2024 is bound to decline in the context of emerging global economic and political conditions and  India will continue to maintain the top position in remittances.However appropriate measures to undertake evaluation studies regarding  labour market conditions prevailing in countries where Indian diaspora is high and providing such information services to potential emigrants  can check probable decline in remittances to a great extent.