An analysis by the US-based Pew Research Center has found that the religious composition of Indians migrating outside India is quite different from that of those living in India.
New Delhi. A Pew Research Center survey on the religious composition of the world’s immigrants says that about 80% of people in India are Hindus, but they account for only 41% of the immigrants leaving the country. In contrast, about 15% of people living in India are Muslims, while 33% of people born in India and now living elsewhere are Muslims. Christians make up only 2% of the Indian population, but 16% of people leaving India are Christians.
A view of the Jama Masjid in Delhi “More Muslims and Christians have left India than have entered. Other smaller religions, such as Sikhs and Jains, are also more likely to leave India,” Stephanie Kramer, lead researcher of the analysis, told me. More than 280 million people, or 3.6% of the world’s population, are international migrants.
According to United Nations data and a Pew Research Center analysis of 270 censuses and surveys, as of 2020, Christians made up 47% of the global migrant population, Muslims 29%, Hindus 5%, Buddhists 4% and Jews 1%.
Religiously unaffiliated people, including atheists and agnostics, made up 13% of global migrants who left their country of birth. The migrant populations in the analysis include all people living outside their birthplace, from infants to the oldest adults. They can be born at any time, as long as they are alive.
As far as India is concerned, the analysis found that the religious makeup of the population arriving in India is similar to that of the country’s overall population. Christians make up only 2% of the Indian population, but 16% of those leaving India are Christians. Also, Hindus are much underrepresented among international migrants (5%) compared to their share in the global population (15%). There are about one billion Hindus worldwide.
“This seems to be because Hindus are so concentrated in India and those born in India are much less likely to leave,” Ms. Kramer said. More people born in India are living elsewhere than in any other country, but these millions of migrants are a small fraction of India’s population.”
About 99% of Hindus lived in Asia in 2010, almost entirely in India and Nepal, and researchers say they would not expect this share to decline much. Since Partition, India has not experienced a mass migration event, and many of those who migrated then are no longer alive.
“In contrast, other religious groups are more dispersed globally and face more factors that encourage migration,” Ms. Kramer said. Hindus have the longest average migration distance, often moving from India to the US and the UK, so are Hindus any different globally in this regard?
The researchers say Hindus look different than the other religious groups analyzed.
“They are less likely to leave home than people of other religions, and their global migration patterns depend mainly on who comes and leaves from India, rather than across a broad collection of countries like other major religions,” Ms. Kramer says.
The analysis found that Hindus have the longest average migration distance at 4,988 km (3,100 miles), often moving from India to distant destinations such as the US and the UK. The researchers attribute this to the lack of recent crises causing Hindus to flee to nearby countries. Instead, most economic migrants often move to distant locations in search of job opportunities.
India is certainly not unique in having a migrant population with a different religious composition from those living in the country. According to the survey, Hindus are overrepresented among migrants from Bangladesh. The study estimates that less than 10% of Bangladesh residents are Hindu, but 21% of those leaving Bangladesh are Hindu.
