Immigration to India

{{See also|Peopling of India|Journey to the West}}India has a long history of accepting refugees. Its Jewish community dates back to the fall of Jerusalem in the first century AD, and its Zoroastrianism-adhering Parsis immigrated to escape the 7th-century Muslim conquest of Persia.{{Cite news |last=Sen |first=Amartya |date=2021-06-29 |title=Illusions of empire: Amartya Sen on what British rule really did for India |url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jun/29/british-empire-india-amartya-sen |access-date=2024-10-04 |work=The Guardian |language=en-GB |issn=0261-3077}}

{{See also|Afro-Asians in South Asia}}

Persians, Turks, and Central Asians migrated to India during the Indo-Muslim period. They participated in the imperial bureaucracy, brought Muslim influences such as Sufism, and helped to form the Indo-Persian culture.{{Cite journal |last=Haneda |first=Masashi |date=1997-10-01 |title=Emigration of Iranian Elites to India during the 16-18th centuries |url=https://journals.openedition.org/asiecentrale/480 |journal=Cahiers d'Asie centrale |language=en |issue=3/4 |pages=129–143 |issn=1270-9247}}{{Cite web |title=India in the World; the World in India 1450-1770 |url=https://www.asianstudies.org/publications/eaa/archives/india-in-the-world-the-world-in-india-1450-1770/ |access-date=2024-10-03 |website=Association for Asian Studies |language=en-US}}

{{See also|Britons in India}}

File:Calcuttarugby.jpg being played by Europeans in Calcutta (today Kolkata). Western sports were first adopted in India during British rule.{{Cite web |last1=Love |first1=Adam |last2=Dzikus |first2=Lars |date=2020-02-26 |title=How India came to love cricket, favored sport of its colonial British rulers |url=https://theconversation.com/how-india-came-to-love-cricket-favored-sport-of-its-colonial-british-rulers-132302 |access-date=2024-10-04 |website=The Conversation |language=en-US}}]]

The British colonial presence in India varied in characteristics over time; British people generally stayed in the colony on a temporary basis, and were sometimes aiming to avoid local cultural habits and contact.{{Cite journal |title=7 7 Avatars of Identity: The British Community in India |url=https://academic.oup.com/book/7206/chapter/151847257 |journal=}} Children would often grow up in India, be sent to Britain to receive a "proper" education,{{Cite web |last=Keenan |first=Brigid |date=2021-03-25 |title=The lifelong effects of being a child in the British Raj |url=https://www.spectator.co.uk/article/the-lifelong-effects-of-being-a-child-in-the-british-raj/ |access-date=2024-10-04 |website=The Spectator |language=en-GB}} and then return to India as adults.{{Cite book |last=Buettner |first=Elizabeth |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=zbNpmZjykv8C |title=Empire Families: Britons and Late Imperial India |date=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-928765-9 |language=en}} With the mortality rate for foreigners being high at the time due to disease, playing British sports was one way that the British could maintain their health and spirits; in the words of a contemporary writer, it was best for Englishmen to "defend themselves from the magic of the land by sports, games, clubs."{{Cite book |last=Sen |first=Ronojoy |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=O5mACgAAQBAJ&pg=PA33 |title=Nation at Play: A History of Sport in India |date=2015-10-27 |publisher=Columbia University Press |isbn=978-0-231-53993-7 |language=en}}

{{See also|Partition of India#Independence, migration, and displacement|East Bengali refugees}}

The modern dynamics of migration to India are often specific to India's neighbourhood;[http://lib.jnu.ac.in/sites/default/files/pdf/imds_p/IMDS_Dec_2008_WP_1.pdf International Migration Policy: Issues and Perspectives for India] Binod Khadria, Perveen Kumar, Shantanu Sarkar and Rashmi Sharma for example, 97% of immigrants from Bangladesh live in the Bangladesh-bordering regions of India (East India and Northeast India).{{Cite journal |last=Nanda |first=Aswini Kumar |date=2005 |title=Immigration from Bangladesh to India Based on Census Data |url=https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/011719680501400405 |journal=Asian and Pacific Migration Journal |language=en |volume=14 |issue=4 |pages=487–499 |doi=10.1177/011719680501400405 |issn=0117-1968|url-access=subscription }} Medical tourism has also been a factor in some migration decisions.

Return migration of the Indian diaspora is another factor; for example, because of the COVID-19 pandemic's economic disruption, some Indian labour migrants in the Arab Gulf countries were forced to come to India, generally via the Vande Bharat Mission.{{Cite journal |last1=Khan |first1=Asma |last2=Arokkiaraj |first2=H. |date=2021 |title=Challenges of reverse migration in India: a comparative study of internal and international migrant workers in the post-COVID economy |journal=Comparative Migration Studies |volume=9 |issue=1 |pages=49 |doi=10.1186/s40878-021-00260-2 |doi-access=free |issn=2214-594X |pmc=8563095 |pmid=34745905}} (See also: Deportation of Indian nationals under Donald Trump)

{{Excerpt|Illegal immigration to India}}

• Bureau of Immigration (India)

{{Reflist}}{{Immigration to India}}{{India topics}}

*