At 18 million, India has the world's largest diaspora population
United Nations: India has the largest diaspora population in the world with 18 million people from the country living outside their homeland in 2020, according to a report by the United Nations, which says the UAE, the US and Saudi Arabia host the largest number of migrants from India.
The report 'International Migration 2020 Highlights', by the Population Division of the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UN DESA) released on Friday, said the spatial distribution of transnational populations varies greatly and India's diaspora, the largest in the world, is distributed across a number of major countries of destination.
In 2020, 18 million persons from India were living outside their country of birth. Other countries with a large diaspora population included Mexico and Russia (11 million each), China (10 million) and Syria (8 million).
India's large diaspora is distributed across the United Arab Emirates (3.5 million), the United States of America (2.7 million) and Saudi Arabia (2.5 million). Other countries hosting large numbers of Indian migrants included Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Kingdom, the report said.
China and Russia also have spatially diffused diasporas.
Between 2000 and 2020, the size of the migrant population abroad grew for nearly all countries and areas of the world.
India experienced the largest gain during that period at nearly 10 million, followed in order of magnitude by Syria, Venezuela, China and the Philippines.
The US remained by far the largest country of destination of international migrants with 51 million migrants in 2020, equal to 18 per cent of the world's total.
Germany hosted the second largest number of migrants worldwide at around 16 million, followed by Saudi Arabia (13 million), Russia (12 million) and the United Kingdom (9 million).
Of the top 20 destinations of international migrants in 2020, all but three were high-income or upper-middle-income countries.
The report noted that the COVID-19 pandemic has disrupted all forms of human mobility through the closing of national borders and halting of travel worldwide.
Preliminary estimates suggest that the pandemic may have slowed the growth in the stock of international migrants by around 2 million by mid-2020, 27 per cent less than the growth expected since mid-2019.
The report added that growth in the number of international migrants has been robust over the last two decades, reaching 281 million people living outside their countries of origin in 2020, up from 173 million in 2000 and 221 million in 2010.
Currently, international migrants represent about 3.6 per cent of the world's population.
Between 2000 and 2020, the number of migrants grew in 179 countries or areas.
Germany, Spain, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and the United States of America gained the largest number of migrants during that period.
In contrast, 53 countries saw a decline in international migrant population between 2000 and 2020.
Armenia, India, Pakistan, Ukraine and the United Republic of Tanzania were among the countries that experienced the most pronounced declines, the report said, adding that in many cases the declines resulted from the old age of the migrant populations or the return of refugees and asylum seekers to their countries of origin.
In 2020, 63 million, or 23 per cent of the total international migrants population, at 281 million, were born in Europe.
Central and Southern Asia was the birthplace of the second largest number of international migrants (51 million), followed by Latin America and the Caribbean (43 million), Eastern and South-Eastern Asia (38 million), Northern Africa and Western Asia (38 million) and sub-Saharan Africa (28 million).
Relatively few migrants globally originated from Northern America (4 million) or Oceania (2 million).
In these two decades, some regional migration corridors grew rapidly.
The corridor Central and Southern Asia to Northern Africa and Western Asia grew the most, with 13 million migrants added between 2000 and 2020, more than tripling in size.
"The majority of that increase resulted from labour migration from Bangladesh, India, Pakistan, Nepal and Sri Lanka to the countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC), the report said.
The report noted that while it is too soon to understand the full extent of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, it may have slowed the growth of this regional migration corridor.
In many of the GCC countries, tens of thousands of migrant workers in the construction, hospitality, retail and transportation sectors lost their jobs due to the pandemic and were required to return home.
UN Under-Secretary-General for Economic and Social Affairs Liu Zhenmin said, The report affirms that migration is a part of today's globalised world and shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has impacted the livelihoods of millions of migrants and their families and undermined progress in achieving the Sustainable Development Goals.
Diasporas contribute to the development of their countries of origin through the promotion of foreign investment, trade, access to technology and financial inclusion.
However, according to projections by the World Bank, the COVID-19 pandemic may reduce the volume of remittances sent to low-and middle-income countries from USD 548 billion in 2019 to USD 470 billion in 2021, a decline of USD 78 billion or 14 per cent.
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Here's how netizens, media outlets projected Ashwini Kumar's bomb threat as 'Lashkar-e-Jihadi'
Mumbai: Mumbai was thrown into panic late on Thursday night when police received a WhatsApp message warning of a large-scale terror attack during the Ganesh festival. The message, written in the name of a jihadi group called “Lashkar-e-Jihadi,” claimed that 14 Pakistani terrorists had entered Mumbai with 400 kilograms of RDX loaded in 34 vehicles.
It warned of blasts that could kill as many as one crore people. Authorities immediately declared a high alert, and the case was handed over to the Crime Branch while the Anti-Terrorism Squad and other security agencies were put on standby.
Within hours, the threat made national headlines. Television channels and online portals reported the possibility of a terror strike, repeatedly linking the message to Pakistan-based groups.
The incident was projected as yet another attempt to destabilize Mumbai, and the supposed involvement of a jihadi outfit quickly gained traction across the media. However, a swift investigation by Mumbai Police traced the origin of the message to a very different source.
By Saturday, police had tracked down and arrested Ashwin Kumar Supra, a 50-year-old astrologer and Vastu consultant living in Sector 79 of Noida. Originally from Patna, Kumar admitted during interrogation that he had sent the message using the name of his former friend Firoz. In 2023, Firoz had lodged a fraud case against him at Phulwari Sharif police station in Patna, leading to Kumar’s three-month imprisonment. Seeking revenge, Kumar attempted to frame Firoz by posing as a jihadi terrorist. Police recovered his mobile phone, SIM cards, and other digital devices used in the hoax.
When the threat first came to light, social media was flooded with heated reactions. Journalist @Manju_IBNews wrote, “Another election around the corner!” while user @kv_mcu posted an aggressive comment demanding to “ban Islam and burn the Quran,” calling for mass deportations and tying the incident to culture and religion. In response, @RIMMS51979 countered sharply, saying, “Caller Name is Ashvini kumar what will you burn now.” Another user, @Valkyrie00777, questioned the credibility of the threat, pointing to contradictions in the claim that 14 terrorists had entered India with 34 bombs and 400 kilograms of RDX. Meanwhile, @Liberal51601607 remarked, “Terrorists have no religion.. Anyone..?”
Fact-checkers also weighed in. @zoo_bear (Mohammed Zubair) accused NDTV of omitting crucial context, posting: “Adani's TV hasn't mentioned that the accused Ashwini Kumar sent the bomb threat message to Mumbai police in the name of his friend Firoz to frame him.” The fact-check website Aazad Fact Check (@AazadFactCheck) published a detailed rebuttal, saying the story had quickly evolved into a propaganda tool. It noted that the supposed intelligence about “human bombs in vehicles” was technically flawed and described the entire sequence as “a pure example of Indian narrative building before a false flag operation.”
Adani's TV hasn't mentioned that the accused Ashwini Kumar sent the bomb threat message to Mumbai police in the name of his friend Firoz to frame him. https://t.co/17nZxYOrql
— Mohammed Zubair (@zoo_bear) September 6, 2025
After Ashwini Kumar’s arrest, the tone of the online conversation shifted sharply. Activist @ShabnamHashmi posted, “Ashwini Kumar 50 Year Old Astrologer from Noida has been arrested for sending these threats in the name of a Muslim. This is how Sangh sleeper cells are spreading hatred. Stop the Hate factory! Vote Out the Vote Chori Gang.” Journalist @indscribe (Shams Ur Rehman Alavi) observed that newspapers splashed the initial threat on front pages but buried the arrest details inside. “When the guy gets caught, the same newspapers don't publish his photo, relegate it to page 14 or reduce it to a single column… Interest gone after ‘name’ found,” he wrote.
Ashwini Kumar 50 Year Old Astrologer from Noida has been arrested for sending these threats in the name of a Muslim. This is how Sangh sleeper cells are spreading hatred
— Shabnam Hashmi (@ShabnamHashmi) September 6, 2025
Stop the Hate factory !
Vote Out the Vote Chori Gang pic.twitter.com/IzpLjWVJgu
Other users highlighted systemic and political angles. @shfique13 argued that there are now “two laws” in the country—one protecting those aligned with the government and another used to suppress truth-tellers. @SoodRajive claimed the episode was staged, alleging Kumar had been paid to frame a minority and calling it “a staged toolkit drama.” User @hussain2577 wrote sarcastically, “Such an innocent n bright person. Plzz grant him bail, Garland him, Give him BJP membership form.” Another account, @Sangliyana, remarked, “Risking his life just to frame a Muslim boy. This is what 11 years corrupting mind.” Finally, @rsbisht__ argued that Kumar’s only aim was to trap Firoz, linking it to what he described as rising hatred against Muslims in Uttar Pradesh under the Modi and Yogi administrations.
