Bangladesh migration to India largest in developing world

Bangladesh, 14 September 2013: The exodus from Bangladeshis into India has for the first time been termed by the United Nations as "the single largest bilateral stock of international migrants" in the eastern hemisphere and also in the developing world.

Data revealed on Thursday by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN-DESA) shows that in 2013, India was home to 3.2 million Bangladeshi residents who had migrated into the country and settled there.

Not surprisingly, India was the favourite destination for Bangladeshi migrants in 2013, the report said.

For Indians, however, it was the Middle East that was the clear favourite for migration. Two countries in the Middle East were the main destinations - UAE, having 2.9 million Indian migrants, and Saudi Arabia which had 1.8 million.

However the biggest rise in the number of Indians migrating to a single country was to the US. In 2013, 2.1 million Indians were in the US, which was also home to 2.2 million foreign-born from China and 2 million from the Philippines.

The UN-DESA report said that since 2000, the number of international migrants born in China or India and living in the US had doubled, whereas the number of Mexican foreign-born had only risen by about 31%.

South Asians were the largest group of international migrants living outside their home region. Of the 36 million international migrants from south Asia, 13.5 million resided in the oil-producing countries of west Asia.
Source: UCAN