Indians continue to top the list of people acquiring citizenship in advanced economies, with around 9.25 lakh Indian citizens acquiring the nationality of an OECD member country between 2020 and 2024, according to the 'International Migration Outlook - 2026' report released on Thursday by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), reports Lubna Kably. The figure marks a sharp increase of 41% from just over 6.5 lakh Indians who acquired citizenship of OECD member countries during 2015-2019. India remains the largest country of former nationality among those acquiring citizenship in OECD member countries, ahead of Syria and Mexico.
OECD countries took nearly 87L new citizens during 2020-2024. India remains ahead of Syria and Mexico, whose nationals accounted for around 5.9 lakh citizenships in OECD countries each during the five-year period 2020–2024. Interestingly, while China was the sixth largest source country whose nationals acquired OECD member country citizenship, the numbers fell by nearly 12% to 3.4 lakh in 2020-24 as compared to the previous five-year period. OECD comprises 38 member countries – notably US, UK, European nations, Australia, Canada, Japan and South Korea.
According to additional data shared with TOI, during 2020-2024, OECD member countries embraced nearly 87 lakh new citizens – Indians constitute around 10% of its new citizens. In the previous five-year period, nearly 65 lakh individuals acquired citizenship of an OECD member country – once again the composition of Indians was 10%. OECD also shared year-on-year India-specific data with TOI, showing that 2.3 lakh Indians acquired citizenship of OECD member countries in 2024, mainly in Canada (87,320), US (48,820) and Australia (28,969). In 2023, the overall India-figure was marginally lower at nearly 2.2 lakh, with the same three countries accounting for most of the citizenship acquisitions.
The latest figures underline the growing permanence of Indian migration to advanced economies. While immigration flows measure the number of people moving to another country, citizenship acquisitions offer an indication of how many immigrants have progressed to acquiring the nationality of their destination country. Indians also continued to move to OECD member countries for work and study, although the pace of migration slowed. India remained the largest origin country of new migrants to OECD member countries in 2024. However, the number of Indian-origin migrants moving to OECD member countries fell by 19% in 2024, from 6.1 lakh in 2023 to 4.9 lakh in 2024. “Migration remains high, and immigrants now account for 16% of employment across the OECD,” Mathias Cormann, OECD secretary-general said. “With ageing populations and slower productivity growth, countries cannot afford to waste the skills migrants bring. That means helping migrants move into jobs where they can contribute most, and giving immigrant entrepreneurs better access to finance, networks and business support,” he added.
One in five STEM graduates across OECD member countries is foreign-born, and immigrants are over-represented among researchers and founders of innovative firms. Yet immigrants are also more likely to work in lower-productivity sectors, with their skills often underutilised, states OECD. The report finds that immigrant’s contribution to productivity depends on how effectively countries make use of their skills – many countries have expanded programmes to attract highly skilled workers. The gap between Indian and Chinese students studying in OECD member countries narrowed, with 8.3 lakh Indian students and 8.5 lakh Chinese students studying in these countries.
