New Delhi, November 15: India has the second highest number of emigrants in the world, with 2010 seeing 11.4 million Indians moving abroad. Indians leave typically to work in higher paid jobs abroad and to study abroad. India provides a number of services to Indians living abroad. According to the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, international migration is important impacting on economic relations between the developed and developing countries. In 2006 the Emigration Policy Division of the Ministry was established to help the ever growing number of Indians living abroad. With a population of nearly 1.2 billion people, India has also taken in 5.4 million immigrants of its own in 2010, according to the 2011 Migration Factbook by the World Bank.
Emigration from India is nothing new; for centuries Indian workers have been emigrating to various countries around the world. In the post-colonial era two patterns of emigration emerged from India, one took place mainly to the industrialised countries, particularly the UK, the US, Canada and Australia; and the other one was directed towards the oil rich Middle Eastern countries.