India’s diaspora is bigger and more influential than any in history

This Article First Appeared In Economist.com On June 12, 2023

Having just surpassed China as the world’s most populous country, India contains more than 1.4bn people. Its migrants are both more numerous and more successful than their Chinese counterparts. The Indian diaspora has been the largest in the world since 2010.

Of the 281m migrants spread around the globe today—generally defined as people who live outside the country where they were born—almost 18m are Indians, according to the latest un estimates from 2020. Mexican migrants, the second-biggest group, number just 11.2m. Chinese abroad number 10.5m.