Greatest share of world’s migrants from India. Globally, Buddhist & Muslim migrants see steepest rise

India saw a rise in migrants from Nepal and China between 1990 and 2020 while there was a decline in migrants from Pakistan and Bangladesh, Pew's UN and Census data analysis shows.

New Delhi: Not China or any other country but India topped the list of countries with the greatest share of migrants in the world in 2020, a new survey conducted by Pew revealed.

The highest number of Indian migrants were living in the United Arab Emirates, followed by the United States, that year, according to a Pew report.

Nearly 3.6 percent of the world population lived outside their country of birth in 2020, a new analysis of United Nations data and 270 censuses and surveys by the Pew Research Centre has revealed. The number of migrants crossed 280 million in 2020 — an 83% surge from 1990 — which surpasses the global population growth of 47% in the same period.

Economic opportunities were the most common motivation for migration, with Christians, Muslims, Hindus, and Buddhists, among other religious affiliations, showing trends of moving to a wealthier nation.

The Pew report also compared the religious composition of the migrants in 2020 with that in 1990. Most migrants (47%) are Christians, and Christian migrants grew in numbers from 72.7 million in 1990 to 130.9 million in 2020 — an 80% increase.

While Muslims constitute only 24-29% of migrants globally, the number of Muslim migrants increased from 39.9 million in 1990 to 80.4 million in 2020, marking a 102% rise. At 137%, this rise was the steepest in Buddhist migrants, from 4.6 million in 1990 to 10.9 million in 2020.

Hindu migrants, meanwhile, increased from 9.1 million to 13.5 million and Jewish migrants from 2.3 million to 3.0 million.

Another trend was people moved to countries where their religious identities were already well-represented. Christians often migrate to European countries, Hindus to the United States and the Gulf countries, and Muslims to Saudi Arabia, UAE, and Turkey.

For Christian migrants, Mexico was the leading country of origin, and the U.S. was their primary destination. For Muslim migrants, Syria was the most common origin country, and Saudi Arabia was their primary destination. India, meanwhile, was the leading country of origin, as well as destination, for Hindu migrants.

Among the religiously unaffiliated, the most common migration routes are — from China to the U.S. and from Poland and Russia to Germany. Buddhists typically migrate from Myanmar and Laos to Thailand, and others move from Malaysia to Singapore.

Source : https://theprint.in/india/greatest-share-of-worlds-migrants-from-india-globally-buddhist-muslim-migrants-see-steepest-rise/2230213/