By country · The Gulf
It is the newest of India's great migrations and by the numbers the biggest: some nine million Indians in the Gulf. How a change in the price of oil in 1973 rebuilt Kerala, created a remittance economy — and left a harder story in the labour camps.
For the first time, the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia and Singapore together send more money to India than the Gulf — 51.2% of remittances against the Gulf's shrinking share. Behind India's record inflows is a diaspora quietly changing shape: from Gulf labourers to Western professionals.
Part 6 of The Diaspora Plate. In the Gulf, Indian food is not a cuisine you seek out - it is the background hum of daily life, from the Malayali cafeteria's morning parotta to the tiffin carrier at a labour camp. How millions of Indian workers made their food the region's own.
The Gulf is India's second-largest source of remittances after the United States, and for millions of workers in the UAE, Saudi Arabia and Qatar, the monthly transfer home is the whole point of being abroad. Here is how it works in 2026 - exchange houses vs apps vs UPI, the AED-INR rate that decides everything, and the tax rules for the tax-free NRI.
