Three Phases of South Asian Emigration

Abstract

Although South Asia is the second most populous region of the world, its contribution to overseas migration is not great. Less than one per cent of its 1000 million people are found outside the immediate region. In 1987 estimates put the figure at 9.25 million (see Table 2.1) but this was before the 1991 Gulf War sent many fleeing back to the subcontinent. Overseas Chinese number three times as many at over 30 million, while Africans number 300 million overseas relative to 540 million in Africa itself, and there are 350 million overseas Europeans compared with 700 million in Europe.1 South Asia has had long contacts with the outside world. Religious men and traders linked East Africa, China and Indonesia. However, the Indian subcontinent seems to have been a significant exporter of influence but not of population until the nineteenth century.