{"id":42245,"date":"2024-09-02T06:13:21","date_gmt":"2024-09-02T00:43:21","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=42245"},"modified":"2025-05-05T00:36:09","modified_gmt":"2025-05-04T19:06:09","slug":"why-are-more-undocumented-indian-immigrants-entering-the-us-on-foot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/why-are-more-undocumented-indian-immigrants-entering-the-us-on-foot\/","title":{"rendered":"Why are More Undocumented Indian Immigrants Entering the US on Foot"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><strong>What\u2019s in today\u2019s article?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li>Why in News?<\/li>\n<li>Data on Undocumented Indian Immigration to US:<\/li>\n<li>Factors Responsible for the Undocumented Indian Immigration to US:\u00a0<\/li>\n<li>Why has there been an Unprecedented Growth of Undocumented Indians Crossing US Borders in Recent Years?<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why in News?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<p>According to new data from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection, an unprecedented number of undocumented Indian immigrants are crossing U.S. borders on foot.<\/p>\n<h2><strong>Data on Undocumented Indian Immigration to US:<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>In the fiscal year 2022-23<\/strong>, 96,917 Indians entered the US without papers. It marks <strong>a fivefold increase<\/strong> from FY 2019-20, when just 19,883 Indians entered the US without papers.<\/li>\n<li>Out of the nearly 97,000 encounters in FY 2022-23, 30,010 were at the Canadian border and 41,770 at the Southern border.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Factors Responsible for the Undocumented Indian Immigration to US:\u00a0<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Overall growth in global migration since the pandemic: <\/strong>The number of undocumented Indians in the US has been climbing since borders opened post-Covid, with 30,662 encountered in the FY 2021 and 63,927 in the FY 2022.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unregulated travel agencies in India:<\/strong> With social media-savvy groups mushrooming as travel agencies, hopeful migrants often pay their life savings to make the journey.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Smugglers using increasingly sophisticated routes:<\/strong> From the Middle East to Europe to Africa\/ South America to the south of Mexico to the northern cities of Mexico, and then finally to the U.S.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Extreme visa backlogs: <\/strong>Why would one wait for a visitor visa in Delhi if s\/he can make it faster to the Southern border of the US?<\/li>\n<li><strong>Unguarded Canadian border:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>Canada offers the ideal combination of an accessible visa and a soft border.<\/li>\n<li>It\u2019s a much safer option than taking one of those \u2018dunki\u2019 (illegal) routes via West Asia, Africa or the Caribbean, to join the crowd waiting to cross the heavily guarded Mexico border<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><strong>Why has there been an Unprecedented Growth of Undocumented Indians Crossing US Borders in Recent Years?<\/strong><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Push factors:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Oppression of minority communities in India. <\/strong>The recent spike might have something to do with worsening conditions for minorities like Muslims, Sikhs and Christians in India.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Farmers\u2019 protests:<\/strong> The scale of the protests that followed a series of laws deregulating India\u2019s agricultural sector in 2020, resulted in a spike in asylum claims.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<li><strong>Pull factors:<\/strong>\n<ul>\n<li>The general success of Indian Americans in the US or of previous migrants who have taken the same journey are some of the factors that pull people in.<\/li>\n<li>Decades-long visa backlogs have <strong>made it difficult for would-be immigrants to join their families in the US<\/strong>, leaving many with little recourse.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<hr \/>\n<h3><strong>Q.1. Why are a growing number of Indians giving up citizenship?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A record number of 225,620 Indian Citizens have renounced their citizenship and have taken up foreign citizenship in 2022. The &#8216;great Indian migration&#8217; is primarily believed to be an outcome of the search for better economic opportunities and improved social security.<\/p>\n<h3><strong>Q.2. What are &#8220;donkey routes&#8221;?<\/strong><\/h3>\n<p>A &#8220;donkey route&#8221; is a dangerous, circuitous journey that some people take to illegally immigrate to western countries, usually the United States. The term comes from the Punjabi word dunki, which means &#8220;to hop from place to place&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p><strong>Source: <\/strong><a href=\"https:\/\/indianexpress.com\/article\/express-exclusive\/canadian-visa-in-hand-record-number-of-indians-illegally-enter-us-seek-asylum-in-uk-9545273\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\">Canadian visa in hand, record number of Indians illegally enter US, seek asylum in UK<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the fiscal year 2022-23, 96,917 Indians entered the US without papers<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":5,"featured_media":42246,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-42245","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-mains-current-affairs","8":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42245","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/5"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=42245"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/42245\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/42246"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=42245"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=42245"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=42245"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}