Since time immemorial, Indian youths have played the role of flag bearers of Indian wisdom, civilization and culture across the world. Swami Vivekananda is believed to be the first “Pravasi Bhartiya” of India who endowed the world with something that could be cherished throughout the human civilization. The tradition of spreading Indian ideas and values across the globe dates back to 2nd century BC when the young son and daughter of Mauryan emperor Ashoka went to Sri Lanka (Ceylon) and established Buddhism in South Asia.

The legacies of such spirited youths are still being carried ahead by millions of young talented Indians who have today, made their presence felt in almost each and every corner of the globe.

Indian Diaspora: A Youth Brigade

• The United Nations international migration report 2015 observes that the median age of all international migrants is just 39 years.
• India has a strong 25 million diaspora spread throughout the world.
• According to a survey conducted by the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (DESA), in 2015, India’s diaspora population is the largest in the world.
• The United States of America alone has approximately 3.2 million Indians holding various kinds of visas and citizenships.

Phases of Indian Emigration

First Phase

• Since India’s relations with the outside world in the colonial era were largely shaped by the British interests, Indian diaspora has a substantial presence in such countries of the world which were colonized by the Imperial British government.
• Thus, sizeable presence of Indian diaspora in Australia, New Zealand, Fiji, West Indies, and East African countries is not surprising.
• London became one of the nerve centers of Indian youth. Madam Kama later settled in Paris where she broadened the ambit of Indian presence. Similarly, a bunch of young revolutionaries founded the Ghadr movement in the United States of America and Canada, thus developing these countries also as prominent centers of contact and regular exchange.

Second Phase

• However, the most remarkable phase of Indian emigration started after the era of decolonization.
• Opening of quality institutes of higher education like IITs in India gave an impetus to the young talented technical graduates to grab opportunities in developed countries of West Europe and North America.
• Some of them permanently settled in countries like the United Kingdom and the United States of America.

Third Phase

• The later phase of liberalization in India saw the generation of huge off shore opportunity for young talented Indians.
• Rising production and labour cost in developed countries persuaded them to search for cheap alternatives and both Indian land and labour in handy for their needs.
• Giant American technical companies hired cheap but equally talented Indian technocrats at half the price of American technocrats.
• It benefitted the American companies by reducing their costs and increasing the profit.
• On the other hand, it provided respectful employment to the jobless young Indian technical graduates. It was thus a win-win situation for both the countries.

Silicon Valley: A Tale of Successful Indian Entrepreneurs

In 1960, there were only 12,000 Indian immigrants in the United States of America, most of them either unskilled workers or low skilled uneducated farmers.  However, positive changes in the US immigration act 1990, induced large influx of highly skilled, young educated Indians into the USA.

From 1980-2013, the population of skilled Indians increased from 206,000 to 2.04 million, roughly doubling every decade.

Today, Indian citzens are the top recipients of temporary high-skilled worker H1-B visas, accounting for 70 per cent of the 316,000 H1-B petitions approved by US citizenship and Immigration services in the fiscal year 2014.

Silicon Valley in the United States of America, which is the largest global hub of software technologies and start-ups has over  the years acquired an Indian face. Some of the giant software companies located in Silicon Valley like Google, Microsoft, AMD, Adobe, etc. have Indian CEO’s. Other big companies and startup firms like Facebook, Motorolla, Reckitt Benckiser, Master Card etc. have Indian managers handling key global business affairs.

Diaspora Ties with the United Kingdom  

• The UK has around 2 million British-Indian citizens who immigrated and settled in Britain in different phases.
• Majority of this population is young and dynamic and third generation immigrants, who are entreprenuers, businessmen, technocrats, managers and doctors of the highest repute.
• Young Indians have so well assimilated with the British politico-social culture that they contest elections and participate actively in the entire political process of the country. A record number of 10 Indian origin candidates won parliamentary elections in the UK in 2015, most of them young.

Diaspora Ties with the Gulf Countries and Malaysia

• There are broadly two kinds of contemporary diasporic flows from India. 
  The first type consists of highly skilled professionals, workers and students engaged in white collar jobs, who usually emigrate to countries like the USA, UK, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand.
• The other major class of emigrants is that of semi-skilled and unskilled workers who have shown massive emigrating tendencies to the Gulf Countries and Malaysia.
• Kerala has the highest number of residents serving in the Gulf countries. Young Kerala girls have successfully taken up the jobs of nurses and midwives in super speciality hospitals in Gulf countries.
• The large Indian expatriate class in these countries has popularized Indian culture and Bollywood films in Gulf countries.

Critical Observations

• India receives approximately, $ 70 billion as remittances from its expatriate community living in various parts of the world. This is the highest amount received by any country.
• India has benefitted both culturally and economically from its expatriate community.
• However, the departure abroad of a large number of well-trained Indians naturally has led to concerns about “Brain Drain” in India. In 2010, India ranked first in sending around 60,000 young trained doctors to other countries. India also supplies the most trained foreign doctors to English speaking Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) countries. Such massive emigration of health professionals has had a negative impact on India, especially in rural areas where the dearth of doctors is already so high.

Government Initiatives

1. Pravasi Bhartiya Divas: This is an annual meeting to celebrate the achievements of Indian Diaspora and felicitating them for their efforts for establishing links between India and their countries of residence.
2. Merger of PIO and OCI Cards: The merger of both these cards has been done with the intention to facilitate hassle free entry of persons of Indian origin into India and ensure their long-term residency without having the necessity to visit police station every now and then.
3. Youth Pravasi Bhartiya Divas: Recognizing the importance of young Indian Diaspora and the need to connect them to the growth story of India, the government inaugurated this scheme to connect with the youth, the new generation of pravasis growing up all over the world.
4. Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra: The Indian Diaspora living in over 150 countries can now visit and stay at a new home in New Delhi known as Pravasi Bhartiya Kendra. They can search their roots, obtain investment advice, book domestic travel, attend events in a huge auditorium and hold business meetings.
5. Vajra-Visiting Adjunct Joint Research Faculty: This scheme is envisioned to contribute to the nation’s growth in science and technology.
6. Know India Programme (KIP): The objective of this program is to help familiarize the Indian Diaspora youth, in the age group of 18-26 years with the Indian land and their ancestors and share their views, expectations and experiences and to bond closely with contemporary India.

Concluding Remarks

Young India diaspora is of immense significance to India. Of late, conservative governments in countries like the USA, UK, and Australia have announced to curtail the work visas to highly skilled Indians. Saudi Arabia also introduced Nitaqat scheme, which protects its domestic work spaces from outsiders. In other countries like Yemen, Sudan, Kenya or Iraq, Indians very often get stranded in war like situations. Though the Indian government has shown exceptional professionalism and ability in evacuating its stranded citizens, still it needs to frame a dedicated evacuation policy to protect its young working population from any extremities.

Young population is an asset domestically, as well as internationally, so, to train them according to the specific needs of the countries more dedicated schemes like Pravasi Kaushal Vikas Yojana needs to be floated.