As many as 87,026 Indians gave up their citizenship till June this year, with more than 17.50 lakh people giving up their Indian citizenship since 2011, according to the Economic Times.
“The number of Indian nationals exploring the global workplace has been significant in the last two decades. Many of them have chosen to take up foreign citizenship for reasons of personal convenience,” the minister said.
Recognising that the Indian community abroad is an asset to the nation, Jaishankar said, the government has brought about a transformational change in its engagement with the diaspora.
“A successful, prosperous and influential diaspora is an advantage for India and our approach is to tap diaspora networks and utilise its reputation for national gain,” he said.
Going by the numbers, Indians continue to chase the American dream with 7,88,284 of them relinquishing their citizenship in 2021, according to a Ministry of External Affairs data.
Australia took the second spot after the US with 23,533 individuals giving up their Indian citizenship, followed by Canada (21,597), and the UK (14,637).
A significant number of Indians chose to be citizens of Italy (5,986), New Zealand (2,643), Singapore (2,516), Germany (2,381), the Netherlands (2,187), Sweden (1,841) and Spain (1,595).
Of the top 20 destinations of international migrants in 2020, all but three were high-income or upper-middle-income countries, according to a UN report.
With a population of over four million, the largest cohort of Indians lives in the US, followed by gulf countries like the UAE (3.5 million) and Saudi Arabia (2.5 million).
