Machibet APP In 5 years, 5 lakh Indians gave up citizenship

Even as the debate over the new citizenship law continues, over half a million Indians gave up their citizenship between January 2015 and October 2019, preferring to be nationals elsewhere. The maximum cases came from the US, followed by Australia and Canada.Foreign ministry data shows that more than 5.8 lakh Indians gave up citizenship in the above mentioned period; the first 10 months of 2019 saw more than 1.1 lakh people surrendering their passports.The highest number was reported in 2016, when 1.3 lakh people gave up citizenship. All other years in the said period also saw more than a lakh people returning their Indian passports in favour of citizenships of other countries. The MEA data is a compilation of applications filed and granted in Indian missions across the world. medium nocaption74593571US accounted for 44% of the requests, with 2.5 lakh Indians choosing to be American citizens instead. More than 1 lakh Indians gave up citizenship in Australia, followed by 94,874 in Canada. Australia and Canada together accounted for 33%, leaving just another 1.3 lakh people spread across the remaining countries where Indians have migrated. While several countries like Pakistan and Syria did not see any request, Indian missions in the UK reported 35,986 requests. medium nocaption74592509‘Economic considerations, family push people to migrate’While a ministry official said the “reason such individuals may have shared would be confidential”, migration experts say better career and financial prospects and welfare of children are among the major considerations.Migration expert Irudaya Rajan S, professor at the Centre for Developmental Studies (CDS) in Thiruvananthapuram, said: “The unfortunate part is that many of these people are smart and capable of innovation but feel they have no prospects in India. If you look at the past few years, the trend shows that more than 80% of the people going abroad for studies are not returning to India. In my opinion, the number of Indians giving up citizenship is likely to double in the next five years.”According to another expert, in the past five years, the number of students pursuing undergraduate (UG) courses abroad has been on the rise. “Earlier, it was only master courses in countries like the US which attracted Indian students, but now we see an increasing number of them going for UG courses. Such people are unlikely to return, given the investment they would have made,” he said.Professor CM Lakshmana, head of the Population Research Centre at the Institute for Social and Economic Change, said: “As we see it, there are two major reasons, economic considerations and family, that push people to leave India for good. This trend is expected to continue as more people are now going abroad to study and several senior people are also settling with their children who live in a foreign country.”However, some experts believed tighter immigration policies could impact the number of Indians moving to countries like US and Australia. “Even if it doesn't stop Indians from leaving India, we would at least see a change in destination,” said a person familiar with the subject. medium nocaption74593602boxcontentMore than 1.3 crore Indian citizens have settled abroad as of January 2020; another 35.4 lakh have been granted OCI cardsThe Indian passport dropped two places in the Henley Passport Index 2020, which ranks countries according to the travel freedom of their citizens, at 84 with a score of 58. This means 58 countries allow entry to Indian passport holders without a prior visa