Indian Migrants are Gift to the World
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If India cannot protect its diaspora and demand reciprocity, it risks losing both dignity abroad and economic stability at home.
With over 32 million Indians abroad and $125 billion in annual remittances (2023), migration is not an aberration but India’s structural contribution to the global economy.
Despite overwhelming evidence of their positive impact (e.g., 74% of H-1B visas, $108k median wage, leadership in global tech firms), Indian migrants are increasingly scapegoated in Western politics.
Restrictive visa regimes will not stop Indian migration but re-route talent flows to friendlier nations (Canada, Germany, UAE, Australia, Singapore), shifting global innovation power.
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SEPTEMBER 2025
Unfortunately, migration has always been a tool sometimes wielded by states, sometimes by markets, and often by political opportunists.
From indentured labour on colonial sugar plantations in Fiji, Guyana, or Mauritius to today’s globalized “knowledge workers,” the movement of Indians has fuelled other nations’ prosperity.
For India, migration is not an aberration it is destiny.
Today, India is the world’s largest source of migrants.
More than 32 million Indians live abroad, spanning 200 countries, according to Indian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
Their contribution back home is immense: $125 billion in annual remittances (2023), the highest in the world, accounting for almost 3% of India’s GDP.
This money stabilizes India’s current account, props up foreign exchange reserves, and sustains millions of households.
Without it, India’s economy would face sharp imbalances.
WIthout Indian migrants, world's business operations will face inadequacies.
And yet, in the western imagination, this very diaspora is recast as a threat not as a fortune.
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Today, India is the world’s largest source of migrants
The American example is glaring success story.
In the United States, Indians dominate the H-1B visa landscape 74% of all visas in FY-2022 went to Indians. Their median wage is $108,000, more than double the U.S. median of $46,000.
They are not undercutting American workers; they are outcompeting them in sectors where skills are scarce.
The evidence is overwhelming:
55% of U.S. unicorns (startups valued over $1 billion) have immigrant founders.
Nearly 1 in 4 STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) workers in the U.S. is foreign-born, many of them Indian.
The top management of Google, Microsoft, Adobe, IBM, Perplexity and other fortune 500 companies are all Indian-origin, steering companies that together make up trillions in market capitalization.
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No surprise, migrants become the convenient scapegoat
And yet, political rhetoric twists these facts. Donald Trump, Nigel Farage, Marine Le Pen all deploys the figure of speech of the “cheap foreign worker” to stir populist anxieties.
It works because electorates are insecure about automation, job losses, and cultural change. No surprise, migrants become the convenient scapegoat.
The irony? Indian professionals are not taking jobs Americans want; they are filling jobs Americans cannot or will not do.
Silicon Valley’s innovation pipeline depends on them. Restricting their entry will not magically produce American coders it will accelerate the decline of U.S. competitiveness.
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Regrettably selective accusations is still a tool to scapegoat.
This scapegoating extends beyond jobs to foreign policy. Trump’s UN accusation that India is “funding Putin’s war” through oil imports is a case in point.
Between February 2022 and December 2023, the EU imported €203 billion worth of Russian fossil fuels. Germany and Italy continued as major buyers even after sanctions. But India’s imports were less than one-tenth of that amount.
Yet it is India that is named and shamed, while Europe escapes censure. Why?
Because politically, India is a softer target.
Europe is an ally to US; India is a partner to be disciplined.
The same pattern appeared during COVID. Trump threatened retaliation if India did not supply hydroxychloroquine just weeks after the spectacle of “Namaste Trump” in Ahmedabad, where 100,000 Indians turned up to glorify him.
India complied, but the gesture earned little goodwill.
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Because politically, India is a softer target
Diplomatically, this reveals the weakness of optics-driven statecraft: public adulation abroad cannot substitute for hard bargaining power.
The Indispensability of Indians Abroad is a reality. The truth is that Indians abroad are indispensable to host economies:
In the Gulf, they make up 30–90% of workforces in countries like the UAE, Qatar, and Kuwait, running everything from hospitals to construction projects.
In Britain, today, Indian-origin doctors make up nearly 30% of the NHS medical staff.
In the U.S., Indian students alone contribute $5.9 billion annually to the economy through tuition and living expenses.
Globally, Indian students abroad spend over $13 billion a year.
Hence, migration is not a favour granted by host countries; it is a calculated economic bargain.
Developed economies get skills, labour, and spending power they cannot generate domestically.
Yet the rhetoric of “cheap foreign workers” and “outsourcing” persists.
Why?
Because it is politically convenient.
Anxious electorates worried about cultural dilution, job displacement, and stagnant wages are reassured when politicians find a visible outsider to blame.
Indians, with their high visibility in tech, medicine, and academia, make Indians everywhere become easy targets.
Therefore future consequences is grave.
This weaponization of migration has long-term consequences.
Brain Drain will get reconfigured. Restrictive visa regimes in the U.S. and U.K. will not stop Indians from migrating, instead they will divert them to friendlier destinations like Canada, Germany, Australia, UAE and Singapore.
This will reconfigure global power balances in talent. The U.S. risks hollowing out its innovation ecosystem, while second-tier powers stand to gain.
Diaspora vulnerability will increase manifold, if Indians abroad are consistently cast as threats, they will face increasing hostility, surveillance, and discrimination.
Deportations in shackles, rising hate crimes, and workplace barriers will become more common. The diaspora, once India’s soft power asset, risks becoming a liability if New Delhi cannot protect it.
Economic dependence on remittances is still valid, even though domestic growth is considered significant. India’s reliance on diaspora remittances makes it vulnerable to domestic economy.
If Western nations tighten migration and reduce inflows, remittances could fall sharply, destabilizing India’s balance of payments.
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This weaponization of migration has long-term consequences
Unlike China, which has diversified its growth drivers, India still leans heavily on external labour.
If India continues to tolerate insults and tariffs while hosting multinational giants with open arms, it entrenches its role as a subordinate economy.
The message becomes clear: India provides labour, consumers, and capital, but expects little respect in return. Consequentially will be erosion of bargaining Power:
This is modern-day economic slavery.
Geopolitical Realignment is already on the way. As Western hostility grows, India is deepening ties with countries like the UAE, Singapore, or Australia that remain more welcoming to talent.
But this realignment is reactive, not strategic. Unless India asserts itself demanding reciprocity and protections for its diaspora it will remain a pawn rather than a player.
Migration has been India’s greatest gift to the world and its greatest vulnerability. Unless India learns to convert its human capital into geopolitical leverage, the future will see Indians everywhere valued as workers but dismissed as people.
That is the paradox, and the danger of not perceiving Indian migrants as a gift to the world.
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