What’s Pushing Almost 1 Million Indians To Give Up Citizenship And Move Abroad Permanently?

Last Updated:December 16, 2025, 16:46 IST

Between 2011 & 2019, over 1.3 lakh people renounced their citizenship every year. Over the past 5 years, that average has climbed to around 2.2 lakh annually, a jump of nearly 70%

Air quality and access to clean water are increasingly shaping where Indians choose to live and work, driven by mounting evidence of health risks and quality-of-life impacts (Image: Getty)

Nearly nine lakh Indians have given up their citizenship in the last five years. It is a number large enough to stop policymakers, economists and ordinary citizens mid-sentence. This is not a marginal shift or a paperwork anomaly. It reflects a deeper change in how Indians are thinking about work, lifestyle, opportunity and the meaning of belonging in a globalised world.

For years, Indians have moved abroad in large numbers. What has changed is not the desire to travel or work overseas, but the decision to formally walk away from an Indian passport. Between 2011 and 2019, roughly 1.3 lakh people renounced their citizenship every year. Over the past five years, that average has climbed to around 2.2 lakh annually, a jump of nearly 70%.

This does not look like a impulse decisions but a long-term calculation that is reflection of how careers, lifestyles and personal freedom are being renegotiated.

Is This India’s Exodus or a Series of Personal Choices?

It is tempting to describe this as an exodus, but that would oversimplify what is happening. Most people who give up Indian citizenship do not leave suddenly. Many have already spent years living abroad. They study overseas, work there, pay taxes, raise families, and only then apply for citizenship once they meet the legal requirements. By the time they submit renunciation papers, India has already become a place they visit rather than live in. For them, the passport change is not the start of the journey. It is the final step.

India’s economic growth is real, but it is unevenly felt. A large share of wealth creation is concentrated among the top tier of earners. Remove that group, and average incomes drop sharply. For professionals in the middle, growth often feels abstract rather than lived.

In contrast, overseas job markets offer something very specific: predictability. Fixed working hours, clear labour laws, transparent taxation, and a visible link between performance and pay progression make decision-making easier.

This is especially relevant for people in their 30s and 40s, when career stability, children’s education and healthcare become non-negotiable priorities.

How Education and Jobs Are Leading the Way Out?

Education remains the most common doorway to long-term overseas settlement. Students leave for degrees in engineering, medicine, management and research. After graduation, many move into jobs, then permanent residency, and eventually citizenship. This path is not rushed. It unfolds over a decade or more.

Certain sectors make this transition easier. Technology and healthcare stand out because global demand consistently outstrips supply. Skilled professionals in these fields are actively recruited, fast-tracked through visa systems, and offered long-term security.

The numbers underline this trend. Tens of thousands of Indian doctors work outside the country. A significant share of engineering graduates from top institutes take up jobs abroad. University faculty increasingly look overseas for research funding and institutional autonomy. This is not about disloyalty, it is about where skills are valued most clearly.

How Air Quality and Clean Water Becoming a Deciding Factor?

Air quality and access to clean water are increasingly shaping where Indians choose to live and work, driven by mounting evidence of health risks and quality-of-life impacts. In cities such as Delhi, chronic air pollution has become a daily reality; winter AQI figures often spike above 750, classifying the air as “severe," with suspended particulate matter linked to respiratory and cardiovascular disease. Longitudinal air-quality data show that while average PM2.5 levels in Delhi have reduced modestly over the past decade, they remain far above the WHO’s recommended limit of 5 µg/m³, exposing millions to dangerous levels of fine particulate pollution on a routine basis.

Bengaluru’s air, once considered benign, is no longer immune: recent studies show average PM2.5 readings around 40 µg/m³, officially “moderate" but consistently higher than past years and rising with traffic congestion. PM2.5 and NO₂ exposure are now correlated with increased asthma, reduced lung function and heightened risk of heart disease.

Water quality compounds these concerns. The Central Pollution Control Board (CPCB) data reveal that a significant proportion of urban groundwater and river stretches exceed safe limits for nitrates and microbial contamination, pushing residents to depend on bottled sources or filtration systems. In surveys, access to cleaner air and potable water ranks alongside employment and education as primary factors in relocation decisions.

For many Indians, the long-term health and predictable access to clean air and water are not luxuries but prerequisites for choosing where to live, work and raise families.

Congestion, rising pollution, erratic infrastructure and long commutes take a cumulative toll. While these issues do not trigger immediate exits, they influence long-term decisions about where to settle permanently.

Why Citizenship by Investment Is On The Rise?

Citizenship by investment has emerged as a quiet but significant strand in India’s outward migration story over the past five years. These programmes allow individuals to acquire citizenship or long-term residency in another country by investing in government funds, real estate or national development projects. What they offer in return is not just a second passport, but legal certainty in an increasingly unpredictable world.

In 2025, demand for citizenship and residency through investment continues to rise globally. According to the Investment Migration Programs Report, an estimated 142,000 high-net-worth individuals are expected to seek new citizenship or residence options this year — the highest figure on record. Indians remain among the most active applicant groups in the global market, alongside Americans, Turks, Filipinos and Brits, reflecting growing interest in second passports as tools for mobility and security. Around 50,000 people worldwide obtain citizenship via investment each year, enabled by programmes across Caribbean and European jurisdictions that offer expanded travel and work rights in exchange for economic contributions.

Citizenship by investment has emerged as a quiet but significant strand in India’s outward migration story over the past five years. These programmes allow individuals to acquire citizenship or long-term residency in another country by investing in government funds, real estate or national development projects. What they offer in return is not just a second passport, but legal certainty in an increasingly unpredictable world.

Where Are Indians Going Today?

Traditional destinations continue to dominate Indian migration patterns. Between 2020 and 2025, the United States, Canada, Australia and the United Kingdom accounted for the majority of citizenship changes, with the US alone issuing hundreds of thousands of work and study visas to Indians annually. Canada, for instance, admitted over 130,000 Indian nationals as permanent residents in a single recent year, making Indians its largest immigrant group.

However, tightening visa norms, job market pressures and political debates around immigration in these countries are beginning to reshape choices. As a result, newer destinations are gaining ground.

Germany has emerged as a major draw for engineers and healthcare workers, with Indians now forming one of its fastest-growing skilled migrant groups. Japan, Finland and Italy are actively recruiting Indian talent to address ageing populations and labour shortages. Meanwhile, the Middle East is undergoing a quiet shift. The UAE hosts over 3.5 million Indians, and long-term residency schemes linked to skills, entrepreneurship and investment are making the region more than just a temporary workplace.

What Does This Mean for India’s Talent Pool?

The sharp rise in citizenship renunciations, nearly 9 lakh Indians over five years has begun to reshape the country’s talent landscape in measurable ways. At its core, this trend reflects not just outward mobility but a reallocation of highly skilled human capital.

India produces a significant share of the world’s STEM graduates each year. Yet data from global labour mobility reports show that around one-third of engineering graduates from premier institutions like the IITs now take up employment abroad, feeding talent pipelines in the United States, Germany and Canada. In healthcare, an estimated 75,000 Indian doctors are practising overseas, and Indian professionals make up one of the largest foreign-trained cohorts in countries such as the UK and Australia.

This outflow deepens longstanding concerns about “brain drain." As more professionals anchor themselves abroad through citizenship or long-term residency, India risks a structural gap in sectors like advanced healthcare, research and academic leadership. For instance, Indian universities and research labs already report challenges in retaining top researchers, with many citing competitive funding and infrastructure abroad as decisive factors.

At the same time, these global Indians often form diaspora networks that generate remittances, foreign direct investment and collaborative research linkages. But the immediate effect is clear: India’s talent pool is becoming more globally distributed, forcing policymakers and institutions to rethink how to retain, attract back and engage its most skilled professionals.

Research from labour mobility studies and migration patterns suggests that without targeted incentives improved working conditions, research funding, and global integration pathways the export of expertise may outpace India’s ability to deploy it domestically.

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