Demographics of Indians in Oman

population from 2,100,975 in January 2018 to 2,030,194 in December 2018.74 Expatriate remittances declined in 2019 to reach US$ 9.2 billion compared to US$ 10 billion in 2018, a decline of 8%, and Oman was placed fifth among the GCC countries75 .

Migrant remittances are known to directly reduce poverty of migrants and their families back home, lead to increased health and educational levels, encourage entrepreneurship, increase access to information and aid in combating climate change76 .

Remittances from Oman to India77

Source: World Bank

Demographics of Indians in Oman

In continuation of the historical links between India and Oman, the Indian community has been an important part of Oman, having contributed to its development at every level and in every field, including infrastructure, trade, education, health, tourism and the private sector. This is translated into remittances, which impact the community back home. The total population of Oman in November 2020 was 4,433,810 with 2,743,674

74 Lawati, H. (2020, September 29). ‘Trends in expatriate remittance in GCC’. Oman Daily

Observer. 75 While remittances have increased in real terms despite the fall in migrant populations, the fall in the Indian Rupee rate accounts for such discrepancy, as well as increased remittances in times of uncertainty. 76 Ratha and Plaza (2017), ‘Diaspora and Development: Critical Issues’, pp. 32-35. 77 World Bank. (2019). ‘Migration and Remittances: World Bank Report’.

Omanis and 1,690,136 expatriates78. The expatriate number showed a large drop from the January 2020 figure of 1,971,827 due to the economic losses incurred by the COVID-19 pandemic. By September 2020, Omanis were 61.3% of the total population, with expatriates constituting 38% of the total population. Of that, 567,341 consist of Indian workers, making up 33% of the total expatriate population and 13% of the total population of Oman.

According to the Emigration Check Required data, 90% of the emigrant workers from India with ECR reached the Gulf countries. A large number of Indian emigrant workers are engaged in unskilled, semi-skilled, and skilled categories in construction, production, and transport activities.79 The total number of Indian migrants cleared by the emigration department of India’s Foreign Affairs Ministry to the Gulf countries for the first eleven months of 2018 stood at about 300,000. Emigration clearance is required for only those job applicants whose educational qualifications are Class 10th failed or below, and therefore is not an exact reflection of the overall trend in Indians moving to Gulf countries on employment. According to The Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), India was one of the two top sources of origin countries (apart from the Philippines) of migrants to the Gulf countries.

The surge in both oil prices and production scale on the one hand, and the small national populations on the other transformed the GCC countries within a short period of time as job providers80. The percentage of foreigners in the GCC population has systematically grown over the last 50 years, increasing from 31% in 1975 to over 38% in the mid-1990s, levelling, and diminishing slightly at the beginning of the 2000s, only to grow again in the later years. Currently, almost 48% of the combined GCC population consists of non-nationals81. Although migration to the GCC countries is temporary, in practice, many live in the Gulf for several years, expanding the pool of second and third-generation migrants. Migrant workers are largely employed in the construction sector, retail and wholesale, with a minority of them in household domestic services forming about 15%82 .

Even in the pre-oil era, as seen in earlier sections, thousands of Indians went to earn livelihood in GCC countries and many of them settled there. The geographical and historical proximity of the Arabian Peninsula to India makes it a convenient

78 NCSI Oman. 79 Rajan, S. I. and Saxena, P. (2019). India's Low-Skilled Migration to the Middle East:

Policies, Politics and Challenges. 80 Indians in the Gulf: The Other Side of the Story, India Migration Now, July 30, 2019. 81 Global Migration Data Portal: https://migrationdataportal.org/ 82 For more details on the Indian community, especially women domestic workers, see

Mehta, S. R. (2017). ‘Contesting victim narratives: Indian women domestic workers in

Oman’.

destination for Indians, and today migrants from across India are working and living in all the Gulf countries. The growth of both skilled and unskilled labour from India in the Gulf increased manifold between 1970 and 1975.

Indian migrant workers are engaged in different jobs in the GCC countries and they can be divided into three types – white collar jobs including doctors, nurses, engineers, architects, accountants, and managers; semi-skilled workers comprising craftsman, drivers, artisans and other technical workers and blue collar workers who are largely unskilled labourers mainly working in construction sites, farmlands, livestock ranches, shops, stores and as households maids and in other domestic work83. The first category of workers comprises about 30% of the total Indian immigrants in the Gulf countries. The second and third categories comprise almost 70% of the total Indian immigrants. An ILO study shows that low-skilled migrant workers are earning approximately between 1.5 and 3 times more in wages in the destination countries even when the wages are compared with the highest rate of minimum wages prevailing among the different Indian states. In such a scenario, emigration for work with a formal contract and better wages are major driving motivations to work abroad. Labourers, masons, carpenters and technicians were amongst the top category of Indian workers who have migrated to the Gulf countries in 2018. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Tamil Nadu, Rajasthan and West Bengal were the top five Indian states, accounting for the major share of blue-collar workers84. Among the educated and professionally qualified employees, nurses constitute amongst the large chunk of Indians working in the Middle East. 2014 accounted for the highest number of migrants from India to various Gulf countries, at about 780,000. Owing to the continuous presence of Indians, Oman has often been a preferred destination for Indian workers, including blue-collar as well as professionals. In a study conducted in 2014, Kanchana and Rajan state: “As per the feedback received, Indian migrants fare relatively better in Bahrain and Oman, than their compatriots do in other Gulf countries. Structural limitations on the workers and the profiles of the Indian expatriates are similar, Oman, Bahrain and the UAE share this aspect of having a bigger and older resident Indian merchant community as countries with a history of trading with India”.85 In 2018, Indians constituted 17% of the total population and 37.3% of the expatriate population. The ratio of men with women among Indians in Oman is 706 men per 100 Indian migrants. Indians are the only large South Asian community that lives with their families in Oman. 29% of the domestic sector in Oman consists of Indian nationals86 .

83 Ministry of External Affairs website: https://www.mea.gov.in/ 84 Ministry of External Affairs website. 85 Kanchana, R. & Rajan, S. I. (2014). ‘Indian migrant experiences in Oman and Bahrain’. p. 207. 86 This data has been extrapolated from Bel Air, F. (2018). ‘Demography, migration and the labour market in Oman’.