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India in 2014 received $70.4 billion in remittances — the most by a country — according to a World Bank report, ‘Migration and Remittances: Recent Developments and Outlook’. The flows into India during the year, the report highlights, were equivalent to a quarter of its total foreign exchange reserves.
However, when compared with the previous year, there seems to be very little change in the pattern and absolute value of remittances received by India — it had received $69.97 billion in 2013. According to a data-backed report by IndiaSpend, the largest chunk of remittance flows into the country ($12.64 billion) came from the United Arab Emirates (UAE), followed by the US ($11.18 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($10.84 billion).
An interesting point these data reveal is that the US, though home to the largest Indian diaspora, is behind the UAE (the fourth-largest) in average per-migrant remittance to India. An analysis of total money coming from top sources of remittance and the number of Indians employed there reveals per-head remittance from the UAE in 2014 was 45 per cent higher than that from the US.
The total remittances from the US in 2014 stood at $11.18 billion. Given that the country is home to 2.25 million Indians, the average comes to $4,968.88. By comparison, money coming from the UAE, where 1.75 million Indians reside, was $12.64 million — an average $7,222.86 per person.
The reason for this difference could be rooted in the respective social and educational backgrounds of Indian migrants in these two countries. While Indian migrants to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries, including the UAE, mostly are financially weaker, those to the US are more affluent.
According to the International Union of the Scientific Study of Population (IUSSP), about six million Indians working in the six GCC countries — Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia and UAE — are temporary or contract workers. Most of them, says the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MoIA), are either unskilled or semi-skilled workers who return to India upon expiry of their contractual employment.
The annual report of MoIA for 2012-13 reveals that Uttar Pradesh, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and Punjab are the leading states from where Indians migrate to these countries.
Of the Indian migrants in the UAE, 40 per cent are from Kerala, according to a 2013 study by Dubai-based Arabic language daily Emarat Alyoum. The Kerala government’s 2014 Economic Review shows that non-resident Indian (NRI) deposits in the state stood at Rs 93,883 crore in 2013-14. The actual inflows from abroad could be much higher, as many NRIs send money by informal routes — through friends and relatives, to avoid money-transfer charges — say experts.
According to a paper by IUSSP, Indians in GCC countries get three types of jobs: White-collar jobs (doctors, nurses, architects, accountants, managers); blue-collar jobs (craftsmen, drivers, artisans, etc); and unskilled workers at construction sites, farmlands and shops, and as housemaids.
The second and third categories account for 70 per cent of the total number of Indian workers in these countries, says IUSSP. These are people without high academic or professional qualification and have few alternative job opportunities in their places of origin. Their overall educational and social roots seem to suggest that sending money back home to relatives might be a more pressing necessity for them than their better-off counterparts in other countries.
By comparison, about 75 per cent of Indian migrants to the US have Bachelors or higher degrees, according to Washington-based think-tank Migration Policy Institute (MPI). “As a group, immigrants from India are better educated, more likely to have strong English language skills, arrive on employment-based visas, and are less likely to live below the federal poverty line than the overall foreign-born population,” MPI says in a study.
According to the think-tank, 30 per cent of employed Indian-born men in the US are in occupations related to information technology, while 20 per cent of employed Indian-born women in that country are in management, business, and finance jobs.
HIGH PAY-BACKS
Remittances received by India (in $ bn)
TOP SOURCES
Remittances coming into India in 2014 ($ billion)
INDIANS' SECOND HOMES
Top 10 nations with largest Indian diaspora
HIGH PAY-BACKS
Remittances received by India (in $ bn)
TOP SOURCES
Remittances coming into India in 2014 ($ billion)
INDIANS' SECOND HOMES
Top 10 nations with largest Indian diaspora
