India

This is one of several pages linking to information about the immigration and emigration policies and outcomes of specific countries, and implications for discussions of open borders.

India is the world’s second most populous country (after China). It is located in South Asia and has a population of over 1.2 billion. Per capita GDP estimates vary between US$4000 and US$6000 at PPP (based on different purchasing power parity assumptions), so that India is a relatively poor country. Nonetheless, India’s per capita GDP exceeds that of the majority of African countries and also of its neighbors Pakistan, Bangladesh, and Nepal.

Why India is sigificant in the context of migration and open borders:

  • Migration within India is quantitatively significant, with somewhere between 20% and 30% of the population being internal migrants (depending on the distance one needs to be moved to be classed as an internal migrant). India is also sufficiently linguistically heterogeneous that some of the challenges faced by internal migrants mirror the challenges faced by people migrating internationally.
  • India has a number of somewhat poorer neighbors, so the migration, or lack thereof, from these poorer neighbors provides some information about how much migration can occur between poor countries across place premia and income disparities.
  • Emigration from India has been significant both for emigrants who escape poverty and for the receiving countries.

Articles and blog posts discussing migration within, to, and from India:

Blog posts that draw on India’s experience to make other points about migration and open borders:

Also, the blog post Open borders between hostile nations by Vipul Naik, Open Borders: The Case, March 28, 2014, briefly discusses the case of India and Pakistan.

See also all Open Borders blog posts tagged India.

"The Efficient, Egalitarian, Libertarian, Utilitarian Way to Double World GDP" — Bryan Caplan