IGI Logo

The United Nations (UN) migration agency has said that India received over $111 billion in remittances in 2022, the largest in the world, becoming the first country to reach and even surpass the $100 billion mark. The International Organisation for Migration (IOM), in its World Migration Report 2024, said that in 2022, India, Mexico, China, the Philippines and France were the top five remittance recipient countries. Mexico was the second-largest remittance recipient in 2022, a position it also held in 2021 after overtaking China, which historically had been the second-biggest recipient after India.

According to the report's data, India was the top country receiving remittances in 2010 ($53.48 billion), 2015 ($68.91 billion), and 2020 ($83.15 billion), with the remittances crossing the $100 billion mark to reach $111.22 billion in 2022. It noted that with a very large number of migrant workers from the subregion, Southern Asia receives some of the largest inflows of remittances globally. It also stated that three countries in Southern Asia - India, Pakistan and Bangladesh, rank among the top ten recipients of international remittances in the world, underscoring the significance of labour migration from the subregion. With India estimated to have received more than $111 billion in 2022, it is by far the largest recipient of international remittances in the world and the first country to ever reach that figure. Pakistan and Bangladesh were the sixth and eighth largest international remittance recipients in 2022, receiving nearly $30 billion and $21.5 billion respectively.

The report added that nearly 18 million or 1.3 per cent of the total population, India is also the origin of the largest number of international migrants in the world, with large diasporas living in countries such as the United Arab Emirates, the United States and Saudi Arabia. India came in 13th as the destination country for immigrants, with 4.48 million. India United Arab Emirates, India US, India Saudi Arabia and Bangladesh India were among the top 10 international country-to-country migration corridors. Mexico is now the second largest recipient of international remittances in the world after India. China had long held the second spot but it was surpassed by Mexico in 2021, with the Central American country estimated to have received more than $61 billion in 2022, while China received about $51 billion.