The International Organization for Migration’s World Migration Report 2026 ranks India-to-the-United-Arab-Emirates and India-to-the-United-States among the world’s top 10 bilateral migration corridors in 2024. The IOM estimated roughly 304 million people were living outside their country of birth by mid-2024, and noted international migrants rose from 2.9% of the global population in 1990 to 3.7% in 2024.
The largest corridor remains Mexico-to-the-United-States (about 11 million people). Afghanistan-to-Iran is second (over 3.7 million), followed by Syria-to-Turkiye (more than 3.5 million), largely refugees from the Syrian conflict. Russia-to-Ukraine ranks fourth.
India–UAE is fifth, driven primarily by labor migration. The UAE hosted over 8 million international migrants in 2024—roughly 74% of its population—with Indians numbering more than three million, the single largest nationality group. India-to-the-US is sixth: around 3.2 million Indian-born people lived in the United States in 2024, making them the second-largest foreign-born group after Mexicans; some other estimates place the Indian diaspora in the U.S. nearer five million. Indian migration to the U.S. has been rising for decades, with many arrivals among highly skilled workers and international students. In the U.S., Indians are followed by migrants from China (nearly 2.5 million) and the Philippines (about 2.3 million).
The report also highlights diasporas’ political engagement, citing groups such as the United States-India Political Action Committee (USINPAC) as influential on trade, defense cooperation and visa policy debates. Other significant corridors include Bangladesh–India (ranked 11th) and India–Saudi Arabia (14th), reflecting sustained labor flows from South Asia to Gulf states.
Gender patterns vary across the region. Gulf destinations including the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait have markedly higher shares of male than female immigrants, reflecting demand for male-dominated labor in construction and related sectors. India, by contrast, receives a higher share of female than male immigrants. Among major Asian origin countries, most—except China and the Philippines—send more men than women abroad. Countries with strongly male-dominant emigration include India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Myanmar and Indonesia, a pattern driven largely by labor migration to construction, manufacturing and agricultural jobs in Gulf and Southeast Asian destinations.
