Two to three decades back, people emigrating from India was a rare occurrence. A decade back, it was a little more popular, but still only around 15-20% of the Indian population had some relative outside the country. Now, almost 40-50% of the Indians have some or the other relative residing outside the country. These days, hearing about someone’s spouse, aunt, uncle, parents, children, nieces or nephews living out of India is very common.

Whether to earn a better pay for their hard-work or to have a better way of living or to simply enjoy the work and life culture of a distant land – there are varied reasons for people opting to emigrate from India. However, what could be the reasons for the countries who are allowing so many immigrants?

Reasons for countries to allow immigrants

There may be various reasons for a country to allow – and even encourage to some extent – immigration. However, there are three main reasons for this, which are:

Shortage of skilled professionals: In an ideal world, every country has qualified personnel for each and every field in their country. However, in reality this is not so. Every country faces labor shortage in some or the other sector and, at times, there are professions that a select group of people can perform better than others. This is one of the core reasons for any country to accept immigrants.

Cost effective: Usually, the countries opting for immigrant workers are the First World countries. Hiring skilled workers or professionals from outside, especially from the Third World countries, is much more cost effective for these countries than employing the local residents. Most of the large companies and industries prefer transferring their employees from other branches in India, China, etc. A lot of money used for hiring and training new employees is saved this way.

Growth in economy: As immigration is a two-way beneficial set-up for both the applicant and the nation, every country opts for immigrants that belong to the skill-area they are facing a shortage in – mostly skilled professionals. These professionals in turn help not just the company they are working for but also contribute very well towards the growth of their adopted country’s economy.

However, there is another fact that is fast emerging as the main reason for countries to take up immigrants, and that is the ‘aging population’.

If we take up the example of Canada, according to a recent data released by Statistics Canada:

* With the front-end of the baby boom generation having reached 65 in 2011, the population of Canada is aging;

* Canadian society is urbanizing as more people are living in mid-sized and large cities;

* One-person households are more, reflecting high divorce rates and longer life spans; and

* As Immigration continues to shape Canada’s demographic profile, the population and workforce are becoming increasingly multi-ethnic.

The survey states that all of the above national-level trends are evident in B.C (British Columbia). The median age of British Columbians was 41.9 years by 2011. The median age has been steadily climbing for four decades. Twenty years ago, it was 34.7 and back in 1971, the typical B.C. resident was a youthful 28. Almost 700,000 were aged 65 and over out of the province’s 4.4 million people in 2011.

An important demographic development that needs to be mentioned is immigration and the role it plays in re-shaping the population. Measured relative to the size of the existing population, Canada stands near the top in the number of immigrants admitted globally. Canada welcomes 240,000 to 260,000 permanent newcomers in an average year, not counting the inflows of student and foreign temporary workers. According to the 2011 census, immigrants comprise 26% of British Columbia’s population; the proportion is much higher in the Lower Mainland — 41%.

The aforementioned statistics clearly display that with the average Canadian fast reaching the age of retirement, immigrants are the main driving force for Canada’s economic growth. This is the factor that is fast-emerging as one of the main reasons for Canada or any other country opting for skilled professional immigrants.