Immigration security

India tops in supplying doctors to West

India continues to retain its position as the world's top supplier of expatriate doctors to 34 member countries of the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), followed by China. Most new immigrants to OECD countries—taking migration statistics in totality—though, originated from China, with India occupying the fourth slot.

According to OECD's recent report on International Migration Outlook (2015), as many as 86,680 Indian expatriate doctors (statistics relate to 2010-11) worked in OECD countries, which include the US, EU countries and Switzerland, to name a few. The number of expatriate Indian doctors jumped from 56,000 in 2000-01 to nearly 87,000 in 2010-11, but the corresponding expatriation rates have risen only by one-half of a percentage point to 8.6%. The US employs 60% of the expatriate Indian doctors, with the UK being the second leading employer. China, with 26,583 expatriate doctors in 2010-11 occupied the second slot.