Why are Indians Giving Up Citizenship in Record Numbers

More than 22500 Indians gave up their citizenship in 2022. In 2023, as of June more than 87,000 Indians had already renounced their citizenship.  Indians also have one of the largest numbers of its citizens outside of India at 18 million. 

These numbers were released recently by the external affairs minister in the parliament because of a query raised by the opposition. So why are more and more Indians giving up their citizenship? And Is dual citizenship the solution? 

An average of130-140K Indians have been renouncing their citizenship each year since 2011. This number went down in 2020 because of COVID and then spiked in 2021 and 2022 which could possibly be a result of backlogged applications being processed. 

Another interesting piece of information is that of the people leaving India, a large number of people are what we call, HNWI i.e. High NetWorth Individuals. In 2021, 6500 HNWI renounced their Indian citizenship as compared to 13500 Chinese citizens. 

So, where are people going? Well, that's an easy guess. The top 3 countries are The US, Australia and Canada. Considering how long it takes to get a US citizenship, and even Canada and Australia requires you to first become a permanent resident for a few years before you become eligible for citizenship, we guess that a lot of them had already left India quite some time ago. For your information, 

In 2021,  56000 people got US citizenship, 24000 got Australian citizenship and 21000 got Canadian citizenship. 

Let’s discuss Canada for a bit here. In Canada, in 2022, out of 37500 new citizens Indians were the largest group with 60000. In recent years, Canada has indeed become one of the most sought after places for Indians to migrate to partly because of how easy they’ve made it for people to migrate to Canada. They’ve been open about the fact that their population is aging and they need new Immigrants. Now that we’ve seen the numbers, what we really want to discuss are the reasons behind this happening. 

Now, We understand the irony of this video. Some would say, “You yourself are outside the country then why do you care?”. Well, I guess that’s precisely why Indians outside India should weigh in on this topic. As to why a lot of Indians are leaving India, specifically giving up Indian citizenship. And just a disclaimer - I still have my Indian passport and I am still very much an Indian citizen. 

Now that it’s out of the way, let’s try to discuss some reasons behind this trend.

Possible Reasons why Indians are giving up Indian citizenship

1. Better Life:

Some of the basic reasons that most people would share for migrating out of India would be: 

• Better economic opportunities

• Better standard of living, 

• Better quality of life, 

• Work-life balance, 

• Sometimes even better air

• Overpopulation/overcrowding 

• Lack of meritocracy 

• Poor infrastructure and so on.

Most women I talk to have always mentioned more freedom and safety as their top reasons over and above the other socio-economic reasons. 

2. Fascination with the West

Call it our colonial mindset or naivety, an entire generation of Indians has grown up looking up to the West and moving to a western country as the gold standard of achievement. Our obsession with the English language is a prime example. People to this day brag about their distant relatives being in the US or Canada or for that matter, even in the gulf countries. It is this fascination that makes people think that their lives will be truly better outside of India. 

3. Weak Passport:

The Indian passport, as we know, is not very powerful. My American colleagues can make a spontaneous plan to visit Europe. I can’t. Indians need to apply for a Schengen Visa. So, all those scenes in Hindi movies of rich parents sending their kids to Europe for their honeymoon are all fictional. Real life mein itni aasani se nahi milta via. 

But I digress. The Indian passport provides Visa-free access to only about 57 countries and that to mostly Asian, African, and Caribbean countries. As against this, with a Passport from countries like the US, Canada, the UK, and Australia, you can travel Visa-free to over 150 countries. Since India does not allow dual citizenship, given an option, most Indians eligible for citizenship in these countries would prefer to give up Indian Citizenship to get these passports.

4. OCI

We all know that India doesn’t allow dual citizenship. But it does offer one really good alternative i.e. OCI - Overseas Citizenship of India. 

This special status, which is provided through the OCI card, offers several benefits like a lifelong free travel visa to India, freedom to live, work, carry on business in India, owning assets/properties in India, etc.

In short, OCI cardholders can enjoy most of the benefits that Indian citizens get, except for the right to an Indian Passport, the right to vote or hold public positions, and restrictions on the purchase of agricultural land. Which, if we are being honest, except for the right to vote, is a pretty good deal for those considering renouncing Indian citizenship.

According to us, this option is probably one of the biggest reasons why some people consider renouncing their Indian citizenship. If we look at numbers, according to Wikipedia in 2020 there were 6 million people with OCI cards, and fun fact. The OCI card was actually introduced in 2005 because of the demands of dual citizenship.

India is poised to become the 3rd largest economy by 2030. It is one of the most rapidly growing countries economically and our working-age population is probably the biggest reason. But the lure of the West doesn’t seem to be fading.  Do you think India will introduce dual citizenship? What are some of the reasons, according to you, that prompt Indians to renounce their citizenship? Please share with us in the comments. 

We know this was a different blog post than what we usually create, but this seemed like an interesting topic, and we really wanted to talk about it with you guys.