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Indian diaspora (ISO: ), officially Non-Resident Indians ( NRIs) and People of Indian Origin ( PIOs), are people of Indian descent who reside or originate outside of India (Including those that were directly under the British Raj). According to the Government of India, Non-Resident Indians are citizens of India who currently are not living in India, while the term People of Indian Origin refers to people of Indian birth or ancestry who are citizens of countries other than India (with some exceptions). Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) is given to People of Indian Origin and to persons who are not People of Indian Origin but married to an Indian citizen or Person of Indian Origin. Persons with OCI status are known as Overseas Citizens of India ( OCIs). The OCI status is a permanent visa for visiting India with a foreign passport.
According to the Ministry of External Affairs report updated on 26 November 2024, there are 35.4 million non-resident Indians (NRIs) and People of Indian Origins (PIOs) (including OCIs) residing outside India. The Indian diaspora comprise the world's largest overseas diaspora. Every year, 2.5 million (25 lakh) Indians immigrate overseas, making India the nation with the highest annual number of emigrants in the world. Planning to Study, Work in Canada? Here's Why Tomorrow's Election Could Amend Immigration Rules , News18, SEPTEMBER 19, 2021.
Seafarers are not considered NRIs. However, as they work out of India, often for more than 182 days, their income is taxed as that of NRIs while they enjoy all the other rights of a citizen.
means a foreign citizen (except a national of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Bangladesh, China, Iran, Bhutan, Sri Lanka and/or Nepal), who:
Prime Minister Narendra Modi announced on 28 September 2014 that PIO and OCI cards would be merged. On 9 January 2015, the Person of Indian Origin Card scheme was withdrawn by the Government of India and was merged with the Overseas Citizen of India card scheme. PIO cardholders must apply to convert their existing cards into OCI cards. The Bureau of Immigration stated that it would continue to accept the old PIO cards as valid travel documents until 31 December 2023.
| + Comparison of Resident Indians, NRIS, PIOs and OCIs
! Category !! Indian passport (Indian Citizen) !! Resident in India !! Expatriate !! Tax status !! OCI card !! Acts !! Notes |
| + PIOs and OCIs ! Foreign national !! OCI card eligible !! Exception !! Acts !! Status after attaining OCI |
Notes:
The modern Indian merchant diaspora in Central Asia and Arabia emerged in the mid-16th century and remained active for over four centuries.
Multani people from Multan, Shikarpur and Mawar of both Hindu and Muslim background acted as bankers and merchants in Safavid Persia. Hindu merchants in Hamadan were massacred by Ottoman Empire as stated by an Armenian, with the Indian merchant community plummeting due to the Ottoman and Afghan wars in Iran (1722–27). In Kerman, traders of Hindu background had a caravanserai. Traders of Indian background were mentioned by Jean Chardin, Jean de Thévenot, Adam Olearius and F. A. Kotov in the Safavid dynasty in Persia where they lived along with Jews and Armenians. Traders from India of Sikh and Hindu background lived in the Qajar dynasty and Zand dynasty in Persia after a clampdown by Nader Shah and the Afghan Ghilji wars in Iran.
Samarkand and traders bought Indian indigo from merchants of Hindu origin in Kandahar in 1783 according to George Forester. The tallest houses were owned by Hindus according to Elphinstone in 1815. Lumsden recorded 350 stores owned by Hindus in Kandahar. Finance, precious metals, and textiles were all dealt with by Sikhs and Hindus in Kandahar.
A Hindu worked for Timur Shah Durrani in Afghanistan. Peshawar Hindus were in Kabul by 1783. Moneylender was the main occupation of Hindus in Kabul. Armenians and Hindus lived in Kabul according to an 1876 survey. Jews and Hindus lived in Herat in the 1800s. Sindhi Shikarpur Hindus, Jews, and Arabs lived in Balkh in 1886. Sindhi and Punjabi were the languages used by Indians in Afghanistan. Some Afghan cities including Kabul have places of worship for Hindus and Sikhs. Local citizenship has been obtained in Afghanistan by Hindu and Sikh traders.
Peshawari and Shikarpuri Indian traders were involved in Central Asia. The Shikarpuri invested in grain in the Bukharan Emirate as well as Ferghana cotton. They also engaged in legal money lending in Bukhara, which they could not legally do in Russian Turkestan. Jews, Hindus, Baluch, Persians, and Arabs lived in Samarkand, and Hindus and Baháʼís live in Baluchistan and Khorasan in Iran.
Uyghur merchants would harass Hindu usurers by screaming at them asking them if they ate beef or hanging cow skins on their quarters. Uyghur men also rioted and attacked Hindus for marrying Uyghur women in 1907 in Poskam and Yarkand like Ditta Ram calling for their beheading and stoning Indians to death as they engaged in anti-Hindu violence. Hindu Indian usurers engaging in a religious procession led to violence against them by Muslim Uyghurs. In 1896 two Uyghur Turkis attacked a Hindu merchant and the British consul Macartney demanded the Uyghurs be punished by flogging.
The money lenders and merchants of Hindu background from British India in Xinjiang were guaranteed by the British Consul-General. Russian refugees, missionaries, and British-Indian merchants and money lenders of Hindu background were potential targets of gangs of so the Consulate-General of Britain was a potential shelter. The killings of two Hindus at the hands of Uighurs took place in the Shamba Bazaar in a most brutal fashion. The plundering of the valuables of slaughtered British Indian Hindus happened in Posgam on 25 March 1933, and on the previous day in Kargilik Town at the hands of Uyghurs. Killings of Hindus took place in Khotan at the hands of the Bughra Amirs. Antagonism against both the British and Hindus ran high among the Muslim Turki Uyghurs rebels in Xinjiang's southern area. Muslims plundered the possessions in Kargilik Town of Rai Sahib Dip Chand, who was the aqsaqal of Britain, and his fellow Hindus on 24 March 1933, and in Keriya Town they slaughtered British Indian Hindus. Sind's Shikarpur district was the origin of the Hindu diaspora there. The slaughter of the Hindus from British India was called the "Karghalik Outrage". The Muslims had killed nine of them. The forced removal of the Swedes was accompanied by the slaughter of the Hindus in Khotan by the Islamic Turkic rebels. The Emirs of Khotan slaughtered the Hindus as they forced the Swedes out and declared sharia in Khotan on 16 March 1933.
Another early diaspora, of which little is known, was a reported Indian "Shendu" community that was recorded when Yunnan was annexed by the Han dynasty in the 1st century by the Chinese authorities.Tan Chung (1998). A Sino-Indian Perspective for India-China Understanding.
Gujarati people and Sindhi people merchants and traders settled in the Arabian Peninsula, Aden, Oman, Bahrain, Dubai, South Africa and East African countries, most of which were ruled by the British. The Indian Rupee was the legal currency in many countries of Arabian peninsula. Punjabi, Rajasthani, Sindhi, Baloch and Kashmiri Camel drivers were brought to Australia.Westrip, J. & Holroyde, P. (2010): Colonial Cousins: a surprising history of connections between India and Australia. Wakefield Press. , p. 175.
]] Population of Overseas Indians, by country, according to the Consular Services of the Ministry of External Affairs of India, or other estimates (if indicated).
| 6.19% |
| 2.50% |
| 4.16% |
| 13.5% |
| 1.47% |
| 0.09% |
| 120,000 |
| 0.05% |
| 0.004% |
| 6.33% |
| 0.07% |
| 0.03% |
| 32,796 |
| 4.87% |
| 4.79% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.01% |
| 36.04% |
| 7.58% |
| 0.82% |
| 30.77% |
| 25.81% |
| 24.67% |
| 22.19% |
| 0.7% |
| 1.0% |
| 0.19% |
| 0.17% |
| 0.04% |
| 0.84% |
| 0.05% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.11% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.0004% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.0004% |
| See also: Arabs in India |
| 2.47% |
| 70.67% |
| 34.95% |
| 0.19% |
| 0.1% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.07% |
| 0.06% |
| 17.47% |
| 0.06% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.06% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.24% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.15% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.14% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.07% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.003% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.003% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.02% |
| 0.004% |
| See also: Siddi |
| 0.01% |
| 0.12% |
| 0.15% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.0005% |
| 0.0002% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.0003% |
| 0.0002% |
| 1.49% |
| 5.12% |
| 31.02% |
| 38.88% |
| 39.37% |
| 3.72% |
| 9.64% |
| 8.30% |
| 3.86% |
| 2.16% |
| 1.33% |
| 2.16% |
| 1.84% |
| 1.1% |
| 1.11% |
| 1.53% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.89% |
| 0.15% |
| 1.58% |
| 0.26% |
| 0.31% |
| 5.19% |
| 0.59% |
| 0.14% |
| 0.27% |
| 0.01% |
| United Kingdom: 2.3% England: 3.26% Scotland: 0.62% Wales: 0.68% Northern Ireland: 0.52% |
| 0.37% |
| 0.29% |
| 0.27% |
| 0.09% |
| 0.12% |
| 0.51% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.34% |
| 0.22% |
| 0.4% |
| 0.88% |
| 0.36% |
| 0.32% |
| 0.18% |
| 0.19% |
| 0.02% |
| 1.2% |
| 0.310% |
| 0.143% |
| 0.08% |
| 0.02% |
| 1.53% |
| 0.04% |
| 0.45% |
| 0.1% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.1% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.14% |
| 0.003% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.004% |
| 0.005% |
| 0.07% |
| 0.002% |
| 0.001% |
| 0.06% |
| 0.08% |
| 0.0005% |
| 3.05% |
| 4.99% |
| 35.36% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.27% |
| 0.22% |
| 1.01% |
| 0.04% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.47% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.01% |
| 0.15% |
| 0.17% |
| 0.03% |
| 0.70% |
Mauritius hosts the Aapravasi Ghat, the only site of UNESCO in the world, to pay homage to the memory of indenture. The Indian Festivals of Maha Shivaratri, Diwali, Thaipusam, Ponggal, Ganesh Chaturthi and Ugadi are all National Holidays as well as the Annual Commemoration of the Arrival of Indian Indentured Labourers in Mauritius.
Indian migration to the modern countries of Kenya, Uganda, Mauritius, South Africa, and Tanzania began nearly a century ago when these parts of the continent were under British and French colonial rule. Most of these migrants were of Gujarati or Punjabi people origin. There are almost three million Indians living in South-East Africa. Indian-led businesses were (or are) the backbone of the economies of these countries. These ranged in the past from small rural grocery stores to . In addition, Indian professionals, such as doctors, teachers, engineers, also played an important part in the development of these countries.
Indians have been living in Indonesia for centuries, from the time of the Srivijaya and Majapahit Empire both of which were Hindu and heavily influenced by the subcontinent. Indians were later brought to Indonesia by the Dutch in the 19th century as indentured labourers to work on plantations located around Medan in Sumatra. While the majority of these came from South India, a significant number also came from the north of India. The Medan Indians included Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs. They have now been in Indonesia for over four generations and hold Indonesian passports. While local statistics continue to suggest that there are some 40,000 PIOs in Sumatra, the vast majority are now completely assimilated into Indonesian society, though some elements of the Tamil, Punjabi and odia people communities still maintain their cultural traditions.
The Indian diaspora also includes several thousand Sindhis families who constitute the second wave of Indian immigrants who made Indonesia their home in the first half of the 20th century. The Sindhi community is mainly engaged in Trade and commerce.
Among these communities, Tamils and to a lesser extent Sikhs were primarily engaged in agriculture while Sindhis and Punjabis mainly established themselves in textile trade and sports businesses.
The inflow of major Indian investments in Indonesia starting in the late 1970s drew a fresh wave of Indian investors and managers to this country. This group of entrepreneurs and business professionals has further expanded over the past two decades and now includes engineers, consultants, chartered accountants, bankers and other professionals.
The Indian community is very well regarded in Indonesia, is generally prosperous, and includes individuals holding senior positions in local and multinational companies.
Due to economic factors, most traders and businessmen among PIOs have over past decades moved to Jakarta from outlying areas such as Medan and Surabaya. Almost half the Indian Community in Indonesia is now Jakarta-based; it is estimated that the population of Jakarta's Indian community is about 19,000. (2025). 9789812307996, Institute of Southeast Asian Studies. ISBN 9789812307996 There are six main social or professional associations in Jakarta's Indian PIO/NRI community. Gandhi Seva Loka (formerly known as Bombay Merchants Association) is a charitable institution run by the Sindhi community and is engaged mainly in educational and social activities. The India Club is a social organisation of PIO/NRI professionals. An Indian Women's Association brings together PIO/NRI spouses and undertakes charitable activities. There is a Gurudwara Prabandhak Committee in Jakarta and Sindhis as well, Sikhs are associated with Gurudwara activities. The Economic Association of Indonesia and India (ECAII) brings together leading entrepreneurs from the Indian community with the objective of promoting bilateral economic relations, but it has been largely inactive. Finally, there is the Indonesian Chapter of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of India (ICAI).
There is also a small community of Indian origin, the Chitty, who are the descendants of only Tamil traders who had emigrated before 1500 CE. Considering themselves Tamil, speaking Malay, and practicing Hinduism, the Chittys number about 200,000 today.
India and the Philippines have historic cultural and economic ties going back over 3,000 years. Iron Age finds in the Philippines point to the existence of trade between Tamil Nadu in South India and what are today the Philippine Islands during the ninth and tenth centuries BCE. The influence of Indian culture on Filipino cultures intensified from the 2nd through the late 14th centuries CE, impacting various fields such as language, politics, and religion.
During the Seven Years' War, Indians from Chennai, and Tamil Nadu were part of the British expedition against Spanish Manila, taking the city from the Spanish East Indies government and occupying the surrounding areas until Caintâ and Morong (today in Rizal province) between 1762 and 1763. Following the end war's end, a number of Indian soldiers mutinied, settled, and married local Tagalog language women. These Sepoy Indians still have descendants in the town today. Rising India and Indian Communities in East Asia - Google Boeken . Books.google.com. Retrieved 29 July 2013.
Although contact with ancient India left a deep cultural impact on Singapore's indigenous Malay society, the mass migration of ethnic Indians to the island only began with the founding of modern Singapore by the British in 1819. Initially, the Indian population was transient, mainly comprising young men who came as workers, soldiers and convicts. By the mid-20th century, a settled community had emerged, with a more balanced sex ratio and a better spread of age groups. Tamil is one among the four official languages of Singapore alongside English, Chinese and Malay.
Singapore's Indian population is notable for its class stratification, with disproportionately large elite and Working class groups. This long-standing problem has grown more visible since the 1990s with an influx of both well-educated and unskilled migrants from India, and as part of growing income inequality in Singapore. Indians earn higher incomes than Malays, the other major minority group. Indians are also significantly more likely to hold university degrees than these groups. However, the mainly locally born Indian students in public primary and secondary schools under-perform the national average at major examinations.
Singapore Indians are linguistically and religiously diverse, with South Indians and Hindus forming majorities. Indian culture has endured and evolved over almost 200 years. By the mid to late 20th century, it had become somewhat distinct from contemporary South Asian cultures, even as Indian elements became diffused within a broader Singaporean culture. Since the 1990s, new Indian immigrants have increased the size and complexity of the local Indian population. Together with modern communications like cable television and the Internet, this has connected Singapore with an emerging global Indian culture.
Prominent Indian individuals have long made a mark in Singapore as leaders of various fields in national life. Indians are also collectively well-represented, and sometimes over-represented, in areas such as politics, education, diplomacy and the law.
There is also a small community of Indian origin, the Chitty, who are the descendants of Tamil traders who had emigrated before 1500 CE. Considering themselves Tamil, speaking Tamil, and practice Hinduism, the Chittys number about 2,000 today.
Another prominent community that migrated to Israel after its creation were the Jews of Cochin, in Kerala (Cochin Jews) – a community with a very long history. They are known to have been granted protection by the king of the Princely State of Cochin. The earliest Jews in this region, as per local tradition, date to as early as 379 CE. The community was a mix of native Jews (called "Black Jews"), and European Jews (called "White Jews") who had emigrated to Cochin after the successive European conquests of Cochin. The Jewish community of Cochin spoke a variant of Malayalam, called Judeo-Malayalam. The community, after the creation of Israel, saw a mass exodus from Cochin, and is presently facing extinction in India.
Still another group of Indians to arrive in Israel belong to the Bnei Menashe ("Children of Menasseh", Hebrew בני מנשה) a group of more than 10,000 people from India's North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram, who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel, and of whom about 3,700 now live in Israel (some of them in Israeli settlements on the West Bank). Linguistically, Bnei Menashe are Tibeto-Burmans and belong to the Mizo people, Kuki people and (the terms are virtually interchangeable). The move to convert them to Judaism and bring them to Israel is politically controversial in both India and Israel.Ha'aretz, 15 January 2018 "The Indian Jews at the Heart of the Netanyahu-Modi Love Affair".
This work was done on a contractual basis rather than permanently, and working age men continued to return home every few years. This has remained the dominant pattern as the countries in the Persian Gulf, especially United Arab Emirates, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait have a common policy of not naturalising non-Arabs, even if they are born there.
The Persian Gulf region has provided incomes many times over for the same type of job in India and has geographical proximity to India, and these incomes are free of taxation. The NRIs make up a good proportion of the working class in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). NRI population in these GCC countries is estimated to be around 20 million, of which a quarter is resident in the United Arab Emirates (UAE). In 2005, about 75% of the population in the UAE was of Indian descent. The majority originate from Kerala, Tamil Nadu, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha, Karnataka, and Goa. Similarly, Indians are the single largest nationality in Qatar, representing around 85% of the total population as of 2014. They also form majorities in Bahrain, Kuwait, and Oman.
Since the early 2000s, significant number of Indians have reached the region, taking up high skill jobs in business and industry. Major Indian corporations maintain solid regional presence there while some are headquartered there.
There is a huge population of NRIs in West Asia, most coming from Kerala and Andhra Pradesh. They work as engineers, doctors, lawyers, labourers and in clerical jobs. Unlike in Europe and America, most of the countries in West Asia do not grant citizenship or permanent residency to these Indians, however long they might live there. They have a minority in Saudi Arabia. The NRI population tends to save and remit considerable amounts to their dependents in India. It is estimated such remittances may be over US$10 billion per annum (including remittances by formal and informal channels in 2007–2008). The relative ease with which people can travel to their home country means that many NRIs in the Gulf and West Asia maintain close links to Indian culture, with people often travelling twice or thrice a year, especially during holiday period, while some live in India for several months each year. Satellite television allows many NRIs to consume Indian media and entertainment, and there are TV soaps aimed at the NRI community in the Gulf countries. Live performances and cultural events, such as Tiatr for Goans living in UAE, occur quite often and are staged by community groups.
The majority of the Indians living in the English-speaking Caribbean and Suriname migrated from the Bhojpuri region region in present-day eastern Uttar Pradesh, western Bihar and northwestern Jharkhand and the Awadh region in eastern Uttar Pradesh, while a significant minority came from South India. Most of the Indians brought to Guadeloupe, Martinique, Saint Lucia and French Guiana were mostly from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, and other parts of South India. A minority emigrated from other parts of South Asia. Other Indo-Caribbean people are descend from or are later migrants, including Indian doctors, businessmen, and other professionals. Many of them being of Sindhi people, Punjabis, Gujarati people, Kutchi people, Bengali people, Tamil people, and Telugu people origin. Many Indo-Caribbean people have further migrated and settled to other countries, such as the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and France, with sizable populations in the metropolitan areas of New York, Toronto, Miami-Fort Lauderdale-West Palm Beach, Greater Orlando-Ocala, Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Tampa Bay, Winnipeg, Greater Montreal, Vancouver, Greater Houston, Washington, D.C., Schenectady, Calgary, London, Rotterdam-Den Haag, and Amsterdam.
Indo-Caribbean people are the largest ethnic group in Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad and Tobago. They are the second largest group in Jamaica, Saint Vincent and the Grenadines and other countries. There are small populations of them in Bahamas, Barbados, Belize, French Guiana, Grenada, Panama, Guatemala, St. Lucia, Haiti, Martinique, Guadeloupe, and the Netherlands Antilles.
Indo-Surinamese are nationals of Suriname of Indian or other South Asian ancestry. After the Dutch government signed a treaty with the United Kingdom on the recruitment of contract workers, Indians began migrating to Suriname in 1873 from what was then British India as indentured labourers, many from the modern-day Indian states of Uttar Pradesh, Bihar and the surrounding regions. Just before and just after the independence of Suriname on 25 November 1975 many Indo-Surinamese emigrated to the Netherlands.
During the heyday of British rule in India, many people from India were sent to other British colonies for work. In the Dutch colony of Suriname, the Dutch were allowed by the British Raj to recruit labourers in certain parts of the North-Indian United Provinces. Today, Europe's largest Hindu temple is currently situated in The Hague.
Indian culture has been constantly referenced within the wider British culture, at first as an "exotic" influence in films like My Beautiful Laundrette, but now increasingly as a familiar feature in films like Bend It Like Beckham.
The United Kingdom Census 2011 recorded 1,451,862 people of Indian ethnicity resident in the UK (not including those who categorised themselves as of mixed ethnicity). The main ethnic groups are Gujaratis, Punjabis, Bengalis, Hindi Belt, Tamils, Telugu people, , Goans-Konkani people, Sindhis, Marathi people, and . Hindus comprise 49% of the British Indian population, Sikhs 22.1%, Muslims 13.9%, Christians nearly 10%, with the remainder made up of Jains (15,000), Parsis (Zoroastrians), and Buddhists. DC2201EW - Ethnic group and religion (Excel sheet 21Kb) ONS. 2015–09-15. Retrieved 2016-01-14.
There are 2,360,000 people currently speaking Indian languages in the United Kingdom. Punjabi language is now the second most widely spoken language in the United Kingdom, and the most frequently spoken language among school pupils who do not have English as a first language.
Rishi Sunak became the first British Indian (non-white) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom in October 2022.
A Punjabi community has existed in British Columbia, Canada, for over 120 years. The first known Indian settlers in Canada were Indian Army soldiers who had passed through Canada in 1897 on their way home from attending Queen Victoria's Diamond Jubilee celebration in London, England. Some are believed to have remained in British Columbia and others returned there later. Punjabi Indians were attracted to the possibilities for farming and forestry. They were mainly male Sikhs who were seeking work opportunities. , descendants of the Indian indentured workers who had gone to the Caribbean since 1838, made an early appearance in Canada with the arrival of the Trinidadian medical student Kenneth Mahabir and the Demerara (now Guyana) clerk M N Santoo, both in 1908.
The first Indian immigrants in British Columbia allegedly faced widespread racism from the majority Anglo community. Race riots targeted these immigrants, as well as new Chinese immigrants. Most decided to return to India, while a few stayed behind. The Canadian government prevented these men from bringing their wives and children until 1919, another reason why many of them chose to leave. Quotas were established to prevent many Indians from moving to Canada in the early 20th century. These quotas allowed fewer than 100 people from India a year until 1957, when the number was increased to 300. In 1967, all quotas were scrapped. Immigration was then based on a point system, thus allowing many more Indians to enter. Since this open-door policy was adopted, Indians continue to come in large numbers, and roughly 25,000-30,000 arrive each year, which now makes Indians the second highest group immigrating to Canada each year, after the Chinese.
Most Indians choose to emigrate to larger urban centres like Toronto and Vancouver, where more than 60% live. Smaller communities are also growing in Calgary, Edmonton, Montreal, and Winnipeg. A place called Little India exists in South Vancouver and a section of Gerrard Street in Toronto as well. Indians in Vancouver live mainly in the suburb of Surrey, or nearby Abbotsford but are also found in other parts of Vancouver. The vast majority of Vancouver Indians are of Punjabi Sikh origin and have taken significant roles in politics and other professions, with several Supreme Court Judge, three Attorney General and one provincial premier hailing from the community. Both Gurmant Grewal and his wife Nina Grewal were the first married couple in Canada to be concurrently elected as Member of Parliament in 2004. The most read newspaper in the Indian community is The Asian Star and The Punjabi Star based in Vancouver started by an immigrant from Mumbai-Shamir Doshi.
The Greater Toronto Area contains the second largest population of Indian descent in North America, enumerating 572,250 residents of Indian origin as of 2011, surpassed only by the 592,888 estimate by the 2011 American Community Survey (and 659,784 in 2013) for the New York City Combined Statistical Area. Note, however, that the Toronto count (but not the New York count) includes individuals of West Indian/Indo-Caribbean descent. Compared to the Vancouver area, Toronto's Indian community is much more linguistically and religiously diverse with large communities of Gujaratis, Bengalis, Malayalis, and Tamils, including Tamil ethnic minority from Sri Lanka, as well as more Indians who are Hindu, Sikh and Muslim than Vancouver. From Toronto, Canadian carrier Air Canada operates non-stop flights to Delhi and Mumbai.
The United States has the largest Indian population in the world outside Asia. Indian immigration to North America started as early as the 1890s. Emigration to the United States also started in the late 19th and early 20th century, when Sikhs arriving in Vancouver found that the fact that they were subjects of the British Empire did not mean anything in Canada itself, and they were blatantly discriminated against. Some of these pioneers entered the US or landed in Seattle and San Francisco as the ships that carried them from Asia often stopped at these ports. Most of these immigrants were Sikhs from the Punjab region.
Asian women were restricted from immigrating because the US government passed laws in 1917, at the behest of California and other states in the west, which had experienced a large influx of Chinese, Japanese, and Indian immigrants during and after the gold rush. As a result, many of the South Asian men in California married Mexican women. A fair number of these families settled in the Central Valley in California as farmers, and continue to this day. These early immigrants were denied voting rights, family re-unification and citizenship. In 1923 the Supreme Court of the United States, in United States v. Bhagat Singh Thind, ruled that people from India (at the time, British India, e.g. South Asians) were ineligible for citizenship. Bhagat Singh Thind was a Sikh from India who settled in Oregon; he had applied earlier for citizenship and was rejected there. "Bhagat Singh Thind". Roots in the Sand. . PBS. Retrieved 29 July 2013. Thind became a citizen a few years later in New York.
After World War II, US immigration policy changed, after almost a half century, to allow family re-unification for people of non-white origin. In addition, Asians were allowed to become citizens and to vote. Many men who arrived before the 1940s were finally able to bring their families to the US; most of them in this earlier era settled in California and other west coast states.
Another wave of Indian immigrants entered the US after independence of India. A large proportion of them were Sikhs joining their family members under the newly more (though not completely) colour-blind immigration laws, then Malayali immigrants from Middle East, Kerala, etc. and professionals or students came from all over India. The Cold War created a need for engineers in the defence and aerospace industries, some of whom came from India. By the late 1980s and early 1990s, large numbers of Gujarati people, Telugu people, and Tamil people people had settled in the US. The most recent and probably the largest wave of immigration to date occurred in the late 1990s and early 2000s during the internet boom. As a result, Indians in the US are now one of the largest among the groups of immigrants with an estimated population of about 3.2 million, or ~1.0% of the US population according to American Community Survey of 2010 data. The demographics of Indian Americans have accordingly changed from majority Sikh to majority Hindu, with Sikhs only comprising 10% to 20% of Indian Americans today. This is much smaller than the proportion of Sikhs amongst the Indian populations in the United Kingdom, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand, but larger than in India. In 2018, with 25% of the population of all non-resident migrants in the US, Indians made up the highest number of non-resident migrants (those without US citizenship or green card). "Every 4th non-resident foreign national in US in 2016 an Indian: Report". . The Tribune India, 18 September 2019 The US Census Bureau uses the term Asian Indian to avoid confusion with the indigenous peoples of the Americas commonly referred to as American Indians.
In contrast to the earliest groups of Indians who entered the US just thinking how much money I can carry from India to workforce as taxi drivers, labourers, farmers, or small business owners, the later arrivals often came as professionals or completed graduate studies in the US and moved into professional occupations. They have become very successful financially thanks to highly technical industries, and are thus probably the most well-off community of immigrants. They are well represented in all walks of life, but particularly so in academia, information technology, and medicine. There were over 4,000 PIO professors and 84,000 Indianborn students in American universities in 2007–08. The American Association of Physicians of Indian Origin has a membership of 35,000. In 2000, Fortune magazine estimated the wealth generated by Indian Silicon Valley entrepreneurs at around $250 billion. Many IT companies like Google, Microsoft, Adobe and IBM have CEOs of Indian origin.
Patel Brothers is the world's large supermarket chain serving the Overseas Indians, with 57 locations in 19 U.S. states—primarily located in the New Jersey/New York Metropolitan Area, due to its large Indian population, and with the East Windsor/Monroe Township, New Jersey location representing the world's largest and busiest Indian grocery store outside India.
The New York City Metropolitan Area, including Manhattan, Queens, and Nassau County in New York State, and most of New Jersey, is home to, by far, the largest Indian population in the United States, estimated at 679,173 as of 2014. Though the Indian diaspora in the US is largely concentrated in metropolitan areas surrounding cities such as New York City, Washington D.C., Boston, Philadelphia, Atlanta, Chicago, Detroit, Dallas, Houston, Los Angeles, and San Francisco – almost every metropolitan area in the United States has a community of Indians.
Indians also entered Australia in the first half of the 20th century when both Australia and India were both British colonies. Indian Sikhs came to work on the banana plantations in Southern Queensland. Today many of them live in the town of Woolgoolga (a town lying roughly halfway between Sydney and Brisbane). Some of these Indians, the descendants of Sikh plantation workers, now own banana farms in the area. There are two Sikh temples in Woolgoolga, one of which has a museum dedicated to Sikhism. Many Britons and born in India migrated to Australia after 1947. These British citizens decided to settle in Australia in large numbers but are still counted as Indian Nationals in the census. The third wave of Indians entered the country in the 1970s and 1980s after the abolition of the White Australia policy in 1973 with many Indian teachers, doctors and other professional public service occupations settling in Australia accompanied by many IT professionals.
After successive military coups in Fiji of 1987 and 2000, a significant number of Fijian-Indians migrated to Australia; as such there is a large Fijian-Indian population in Australia. Fijian-Indians have significantly changed the character of the Indian community in Australia. While most earlier Indian migration was by educated professionals, the Fijian-Indian community was also largely by professionals but also brought many small business owners and entrepreneurs.
The current wave of Indian migration is that of engineers, toolmakers, Gujarati business families from East Africa and relatives of settled Indians. Starved of government funding, Australian education institutes are recruiting full fee paying overseas students. Many universities have permanent representatives stationed in India and other Asian countries. Their efforts have been rewarded with a new influx of Indian students entering Australia. The total number of student visas granted to Indian students for 2006–2007 was 34,136; a significant rise from 2002 to 2003, when 7,603 student visas were granted to Indian students. According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, 87% of Indians residing in Australia are under the age of 50, and over 83% are proficient in English.
The Indian diaspora has a significant impact on the globalisation of economy of India, especially in the following areas:
In Australia, Indian Australians and India were the largest source of new permanent migrants to Australia in 2017–2018, and Indians were the most educated migrant group in Australia with 54.6% of Indian migrants in Australia holding a bachelor's or higher educational degree, which is more than three times Australia's national average of 17.2% in 2011.
In Britain, British Indians are the largest ethnic minority population in the country, with the highest average hourly pay rate and the lowest poverty rate among all ethnic groups,UK Government. "Ethnicity Facts and Figures: Work, Pay and Benefits: Average Hourly Pay" and are more likely to be employed in professional and managerial occupations than other ethnic groups.UK Government, "Ethnicity Facts and Figures: Work, Pay and Benefits: Employment by Occupation" Rishi Sunak served as the first British Indian (non-white) Prime Minister of the United Kingdom from October 2022–July 2025.
In Canada, Indo-Canadians are the second largest non-European ethnic group and one of the fastest growing ethnic communities in the country.
In New Zealand, Indian New Zealanders are the fastest growing ethnic group, and are the second largest group of Asians in New Zealand with a population of 174,000 Indians in 2014. Fiji Hindi is the fourth largest language in New Zealand.
In the United States, Indian Americans are the third largest Asian American ethnic group behind and Filipino Americans, by far the richest and most educated ethnic group in the USA compared to all other ethnic groups, earning $101,591 median income per year compared to $51,000 and $56,000 for overall immigrant and native-born households in 2015, with the lowest poverty rate compared to other foreign-born and U.S. born ethnic groups. Overall, Indians are also more educated than other ethnic groups with an average of 32% and 40% of Indians holding a bachelor's degree and postgraduate degree respectively, compared to the 30% and 21% average of all Asians in the United States, and the 19% and 11% average of Americans overall. 15.5% of all Silicon Valley startups by 2006 were founded by Indian immigrants, and Indian migrants have founded more engineering and technology companies from 1995 to 2005 than immigrants from the UK, China, Taiwan and Japan combined. Over 80% of all H-1B visas are granted to Indian IT professionals and 23% of all Indian business school graduates in USA take up a job in United States.
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