International travel yet to shake off pandemic blues but students go abroad in record numbers

Source: The post is based on the article “International travel yet to shake off pandemic blues but students go abroad in record numbers” published in The Hindu on 14th December 2022

What is the News?

The Bureau of Immigration(BOI) has released statistics on Indians going abroad in 2022.

Note: The Bureau of Immigration was established in 1971 under the Ministry of Home Affairs. It is responsible for administering immigration-related functions such as immigration facilitation services at airports and foreigner registration. 

How does the Bureau of Immigration(BOI) capture the data on Indians going abroad?

The data on Indians departure and arrival is maintained by BoI by capturing the purpose of travel manually.

The record is based on either the verbal disclosure of passengers or the type of visa of the destination country produced at the time of immigration clearance.

What are the key findings from BOI’s data?

International Travel: International travel whether for employment or tourism or business is yet to fully bounce back to the pre-pandemic level.

– But the number of students going abroad for education has exceeded pre-Covid levels. As many as 6.5 lakh students have gone abroad on student visas up to November 2022. This is an all-time high compared with the student movement figures in the past five years.

Indian Citizens renouncing citizenship: The number of Indians renouncing citizenship has increased significantly in the last few years. The number of Indians who renounced their citizenship was 1.3 lakh in 2017. In 2022, it has increased to 1.83 lakh.