China is leveraging its diaspora to boost the economy, unlike India

Ravi Kant is an author, columnist and analyst whose work focuses on technology, economics, international politics and geopolitics.

A country’s diaspora can be a symbol of its pride and power. A nation’s diaspora can help it build international value through success stories, promote its soft power through culture and contribute to its economic progress through remittances, investments and transfers of expertise.

India and China have among the world’s largest diasporas. They also offer two very different models of how countries can leverage their diasporas.

In India, before the 1991 reforms, people mostly saw those who left as a “brain drain”. But post-liberalisation, people started to see the Indian diaspora as an economic bridge to capital, technology and global markets. In 2004, India set up a ministry to oversee the affairs of Indians abroad, merging it with the Ministry of External Affairs in 2016.