3 min readNew DelhiMay 9, 2026 06:42 PM IST
Top 10 international migration corridors: According to the World Migration Report 2026 released by the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) on May 5, nearly 304 million people were living outside their country of birth by mid-2024. The report noted that international migrants made up 3.7 per cent of the world’s population in 2024, a small rise from 2.9 per cent in 1990.
The largest migration route globally continues to be from Mexico to the United States, with around 11 million people. This is followed by migration from Afghanistan to Iran with over 3.7 million migrants, and from Syria to Türkiye with more than 3.5 million people, most of them displaced by the Syrian civil war. The migration corridor between Russia and Ukraine ranked fourth globally.
The report also placed the India-United Arab Emirates and India-United States routes among the world’s top 10 migration corridors in 2024. The India-UAE corridor ranked fifth and is largely made up of migrant workers. More than eight million migrants were living in the UAE in 2024, accounting for 74 per cent of its population, with Indians forming the biggest group at over three million people. Meanwhile, the India-United States corridor ranked sixth worldwide and was the second-largest migration route linked to North America after the Mexico-United States corridor.
The report said around 3.2 million Indian migrants were living in the United States in 2024, making them the country’s second-largest foreign-born population after Mexicans. However, estimates from other agencies place the Indian diaspora in the US at nearly five million. The IOM noted that Indian migration to the US has steadily increased over the decades, with many Indians moving there as skilled professionals or students.
It also said Indian migrant numbers in the US were higher than those from China and the Philippines, which had around 2.5 million and 2.3 million migrants respectively in 2024. The report further highlighted that diaspora communities often play an active role in political campaigns and policy discussions in both their home and host countries.
Other major migration routes in Asia included workers moving from countries such as India and Bangladesh to Gulf nations, including the UAE and Saudi Arabia. The Bangladesh-India route ranked 11th among the world’s top migration corridors, while India-Saudi Arabia stood at 14th place. The report also pointed out gender differences in migration trends across Asia.
Gulf countries such as the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Kuwait had a much larger share of male immigrants compared to female migrants. In contrast, India had more female immigrants than male immigrants. Among Asia’s top migrant-origin countries, most had a greater number of male emigrants, except for China and the Philippines, where female emigrants formed a comparatively larger share.
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Top 10 international migration corridors:
Source: World Migration Report 2026
Notes: The corridors represent the number of international migrants (millions) born in the first-mentioned country and residing in the second. Corridors represent an accumulation of migratory movements over time and provide a snapshot of how migration patterns have evolved into significant foreign-born populations in specific destination countries.
