Foreign degree from OECD countries top draw for Indians, shows latest immigration data

With the number of international students enrolled in the OECD countries topping 44 million in 2020, China and India continued to be the top countries of origin.

Out of the total, 22% students were from China and 10% from India, according to the International Migration Outlook 2022 Report.

Across OECD countries, international students made up 7% of students enrolled at bachelor’s, 17% at master’s, and 26% at the doctoral level in the academic year 2020.


The top destination country was the United States (22% of all international students), followed by the United Kingdom (13%) and Australia (10%).

Students who transitioned to a work permit accounted for about half of all admissions for work in France and Italy, and more than one in three in Japan. In the US, F-1 visa holders accounted for 57% of the H-1B visa recipients, meant for skilled workers

Citizenship numbers
The report also showed that 23 lakh foreign nationals acquired citizenship in OECD-member countries in 2021, making it the highest ever recorded.

With nearly 18 million people living abroad, India had the largest emigrant population in the world, making it the top origin country globally.

In 2020, over 1.30 lakh Indians acquired citizenship of OECD-member countries. More than half of these were concentrated in three countries, the United States (47 000), Canada (15,000) and the United Kingdom (11,000).

Overall, US, UK, Canada, Norway and Austria saw big spikes in incoming migrant population.

The OECD is an association of 38 member countries, including European countries, US, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and Japan.