Mass Exodus: Why Are Millions of Indians Leaving India?

[Riaz Haq]

"Leave India! It's High Time!!" screams out a recent Reddit post that has gone viral! The poster who claims to be an Indian entrepreneur warns of impending "terrible economic collapse" with a "massive depreciation of the Indian rupee".  

The now-deleted post, written by a user named ‘u/anonymous_batm_an,’ urges high-earning professionals, especially innovators, to leave India for countries with better opportunities and governance, as reported by the Times of India.  It recommends the UAE or Thailand as alternative destinations . The sentiments expressed in the post are already resonating with a large number of Indians.  The non-resident Indians now constitute the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year, 2.5 million Indians leave their country of birth, making India the nation with the highest annual number of emigrants in the world. 

New Company Registrations in Dubai. Source: Khaleej Times

Indian investors continued to top the list of new non-Emirati companies joining the Dubai Chamber of Commerce during the first nine months of 2024. A total of 12,142 new Indian companies joined the chamber during the period, data showed on Monday, according to the Khaleej Times. Pakistan ranked second on the list with 6,061 new companies joining between Q1-Q3 2024, while Egypt followed with 3,611 new companies registering as members of the chamber. The number of new Syrian companies joining the chamber during the first nine months of the year reached 2,062, placing the country fourth among the top nationalities of new member companies.

India is losing its best and brightest to the West, particularly to the United States, at an increasingly rapid pace. A 2023 study of the 1,000 top scorers in the 2010 entrance exams to the Indian Institutes of Technology (IIT) — a network of prestigious institutions of higher learning based in 23 Indian cities — revealed the scale of the problem. Around 36% migrated abroad, and of the top 100 scorers, 62% left the country, according to a report in the science journal Nature.  Nearly two-thirds of those leaving India are highly educated, having received academic or vocational training. This is the highest for any country, according to the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development.

Example of The Great Indian Brain Drain. Source: Boston Political R...

Brain drain is defined as the loss of precious human capital of a nation. It is a “consequence of an education system designed for ‘selecting’ the best and brightest in an economy that is still too controlled and cannot create opportunities for its best and brightest”, according to Indian economist Shruti Rajagopalan. High-profile examples of India's human capital loss include Satya Nadella (Microsoft), Sundar Pichai (Google), Shantanu Narayen (Adobe), Arvind Krishna (IBM) and Ajay Banga (World Bank). 

Foreign-Born STEM Workers in America. Source: American Immigration ...

Growing number of Indian students are going abroad for higher education each year and 90% of them never return home after completing their studies.  In 2022, the number of Indian students leaving the country for higher education reached a six-year high of 770,000. And a 2021 report estimated that around two million Indian students would be studying abroad by 2024. 

Many developing countries are experiencing brain drain. But India is losing its best brightest at a much faster rate than others. Some call it "The Great Indian Brain Drain". This is the reason why Indians in the United States are the best educated and the highest earning group.  In a recently published book titled "The Other One Percent", authors Sanjoy Chakravorty, Devesh Kapur and Nirvikar Singh explain this phenomenon. 

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[Riaz Haq]

An investigation by Indian officials that alleges dozens of Canadian colleges and universities might be linked to a scheme of illegally ferrying students across the Canada-U.S. border reveals the "staggering" extent to which holes in the immigration system can be exploited, some experts say.

https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/india-trafficking-colleges-universit...

"If the allegations are true, it reveals shocking gaps in our integrity protocols.… This is deeply, deeply concerning and problematic," Raj Sharma, a Calgary-based immigration lawyer, told CBC News Network, adding that the allegations suggest "wide-scale human smuggling."

India's Enforcement Directorate said in a news release on Tuesday it had uncovered evidence of human trafficking involving two "entities" in Mumbai after probing the Indian connection to the Patel family, who froze to death in January 2022 while trying to cross the border from Manitoba into Minnesota during frigid weather conditions.

The Enforcement Directorate said its investigation found that about 25,000 students were referred by one entity, with over 10,000 students referred by another entity to various colleges outside India every year.

Arrangements would be made for the Indian nationals to be admitted to Canadian colleges and universities and apply for student visas, according to the Enforcement Directorate.

But once the Indian nationals reached Canada, instead of joining the college, they illegally crossed the border from Canada into the U.S. and the fee received by the Canadian schools was remitted back to the individuals' account, the Enforcement Directorate said.


The investigation also revealed that around 112 colleges based in Canada entered into an agreement with one entity and more than 150 with another entity, the Enforcement Directorate said.

The allegations have not been proven in court and India has not identified the Canadian colleges allegedly involved.

RCMP has reached out to India

Camille Boily-Lavoie, a spokesperson for the RCMP, said in an email to CBC News that it has reached out to India through its International Policing Liaison Officers to seek additional information about the investigations.

Colleges and Institutes Canada, a national advocacy organization for Canada's post-secondary education network, said that it had no details on the nature of the colleges reportedly involved in the Indian allegations.

The process of issuing study permit applications and acceptance is entirely managed by Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada (IRCC), the student applicant and the post-secondary institution, said Dayna Smockum, a spokesperson for Ontario's Ministry of Colleges and Universities.

"The Ministry of Colleges and Universities has no role in this process," Smockum said in an email to CBC News. "As our government has repeatedly done, we continue to call on the federal government to enact more stringent border control measures to protect Ontario, our institutions, and all of Canada."

[Riaz Haq]

Indian nationals rank high among detainees in US


https://www.newindiaabroad.com/english/immigration/indian-nationals...

Indian nationals rank fourth among countries with the highest number of detainees in ICE custody. Currently, 2,647 Indian citizens are held in U.S. detention facilities. Other detainee count by citizenship is: Mexico: 5,089; Honduras: 2,957 and Guatemala: 2,713.
The report states that in FY 2024, ICE deported 1,529 Indian nationals, a sharp increase from just 292 in FY 2021. In 2021, 292 Indians were deported out of a total of 59,011 deportations, while in 2024, the number rose to 1,529 out of a total of 271,484 deportations.
Over the years, the number of deportations has shown significant fluctuations, with a sharp decline observed between the COVID years 2021 and 2023: 1,616 in FY 2019, 2,312 in FY 2020, 276 in FY 2022, and 370 in FY 2023

Additionally, ICE data till November 2024 shows that 17,940 Indian nationals with final removal orders are on its non-detained docket. These individuals are not in custody but remain monitored and face deportation proceedings.
Apart from immigration enforcement, ICE’s Cultural Property, Arts, and Antiquities (CPAA) program collaborated with India to combat the illegal trafficking of cultural artifacts. This partnership included workshops and highlighted ICE’s broader commitment to protecting global heritage.
The rise in deportations, detentions, and non-detained cases signals a challenging landscape for Indian nationals in the United States. These developments emphasize the importance of informed legal assistance and advocacy to support affected individuals and families.
The report aims to highlight ICE's continued efforts to safeguard national security and public safety through criminal investigations and immigration law enforcement.

[Riaz Haq]

Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
The hidden truth about India's brain drain?

It's not just about loss, but transformation.

Sometimes the biggest exports aren't products.

They're people who change the world.

This is the new “oil” that nations will compete for.

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897365133643808

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
This is India:

- 11% of Fortune 500 CEOs
- 90+ unicorn founders are Indian-born
- 1/3 of all engineers in Silicon Valley are from India

Why have they all left India to succeed?

Here's the hidden truth about the world's most controversial brain drain 🧵:

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874896954771329162

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
First, let's understand the scale of this exodus:

- 1.3M Indians left between 2015-2022
- 225,000 renounced citizenship in 2022 alone
- 1.5M Indian students studying overseas

This isn't just migration…it's a transformation of global leadership.


https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897002905096520

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
The economic impact is staggering:

- IT sector missing $15-20B yearly potential
- Shortage of 2.4M doctors
- $160B lost annually to brain drain

For perspective:

That's more than India's entire defense budget (~$74.3B).

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897020563140714

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
Look at the paradox:

India simultaneously:

- Leads global tech companies
- Produces top innovators
- Creates world-class talent

Yet struggles to keep any of them.

The reason? There are a few key factors…

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897054474117197

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
The reality on the ground:

- 7.33% unemployment rate (2022)
- Significantly lower wages than global standards
- Limited R&D investment
- Restricted innovation opportunities

This creates a powerful push factor.

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897120765132863

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
But here's where it gets interesting…

While India loses talent, it gains something else:

- Massive remittance inflows
- Global knowledge transfer
- International influence

A hidden advantage that will only strengthen as global mobility increases

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897153983926344

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Alessandro Palombo
@0x_ale
The story is clear:

- Microsoft
- Google
- Adobe
- IBM

All run by Indians who left India.

But now something fascinating is happening...

https://x.com/0x_ale/status/1874897170282975581