Indians top charts in getting citizenship of rich countries

Indians are among the leading nationalities to hold citizenship of the world's richest nations, according to a report published by the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD).The report also reveals that Indians are the national group that migrates the most to OECD countries including Canada, with which it is currently engaged in a diplomatic stand-off.In the past two years, Indians have become the largest national group to gain citizenship in rich nations while Canada became the biggest host country to grant its citizenship to foreign nationals.In 2021, 1,33,000 Indian citizens acquired the nationality of an OECD country. Previous trends show that most of these acquisitions took place in the US, Australia and Canada.Meanwhile, the OECD, which consists of 38 countries, also witnessed a surge in students from Asian nations including India and China. The top countries of origin of international students in OECD countries are China, India, Vietnam, Germany and France.Golden passportsAccording to a report by Citizenship Invest, Indians accounted for 9.4 per cent of the total applicants for golden passports.Golden passports are offered by some countries and acquiring one of these allows foreign nationals to get citizenship status by making significant investments or by buying a house in the host country.Kristin Surak, associate professor of political sociology at the London School of Economics and author of The Golden Passport: Global Mobility for Millionaires, said, "One of the biggest difficulties that Indians face when building international or businesses or careers is simply that of travel. An Indian passport will get a person visa-free access to only 60 countries. It's the same as Tajikistan."