According to the United Nations’ latest World Migration Report, India was the highest recipient of remittances from abroad at $111 billion in 2022. Its remittance receipts were way ahead of its closely ranked peers Mexico ($61.1 billion), China ($51 billion), Philippines ($38.05 billion) and France ($30.04 billion).
The report enumerated that with a “very large” number of migrant workers from the subregion, South Asia receives “some of the largest inflows of remittances globally.” It further stated, “India is also the origin of the largest number of international migrants in the world (nearly 18 million), with large diasporas living in countries such the United Arab Emirates (UAE), US and Saudi Arabia,” adding, “Pakistan and Bangladesh, which were the sixth and eighth largest international remittance recipients in 2022 (about $30 billion and $21.5 billion respectively) also have a significant portion of their populations living abroad as migrant workers, especially in Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) states.”
Importantly, the biennially published report mentions that while remittances remain a “lifeline” for many people in the subregion, migrant workers from the mentioned countries in South Asia continue to face a “myriads of risks, including financial exploitation, excessive financial debt due to migration costs, xenophobia and workplace abuses.”
