Final destination: One in every 10 wanting to migrate to US is an Indian

Mangalore Today/ DHNS

Washington, Mar 22, 2013: More than 100 million people from across the world, including 10 million from India, would like to move permanently to the US, which remains the most popular global destination, according to a latest opinion poll.

 

Potential migrants who would like to move to the US are logically the most likely to come from some of the most populous countries in the world, the Gallup poll said.

The poll said that 19 million Chinese would like to move to the US, followed by 13 million from Nigeria, 10 million from India and six million each from Brazil and Bangladesh.

However, other populous countries such as Iran and Pakistan do not have large groups of people who say that they would like to move to the US permanently.

Instead, Pakistanis most desire to relocate to Saudi Arabia and the UK, and Iranians would prefer to move to Jordan or Lebanon.

This is not surprising, as Iranians and Pakistanis have some of the lowest US leadership approval ratings in the world.

Gallup said the percentage of people in each country, who would like to move to the US permanently is perhaps more interesting.

A staggering 37 per cent of Liberians say that they would like to relocate to the US permanently.

One in four adults or more in Sierra Leone, the Dominican Republic, and Haiti would also like to move to the US permanently.

Three countries with the highest percentages of people who would like to relocate to the US permanently are in Africa, seven are in Central America and the Caribbean, with the remaining country, Cambodia, in Asia.

Dreams of departure

Gallup said about 13 per cent of the world’s adults — or about 630 million people — say they would like to leave their country and move somewhere else permanently.

For roughly 138 million people, that somewhere else would be the US — the number one desired destination for potential migrants, the poll said.

The UK, Canada, and France also rank among the top choices for potential migrants, it said.