If you thought Indians settled in developed countries do just lowly jobs such as driving taxes and working at gas stations, then you need to update yourself as they have been classified among the most qualified settlers, in fact over qualified, by an OECDÂ report.
Indians are among the most qualified immigrants in the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development countries, while their country is the second biggest source after China for foreign students coming to these nations, says OECD's annual migration outlook 2007
"A particular characteristic of Chinese and Indian immigrants is the fact that they are relatively highly educated. This is especially the case of Indians," OECD said.
According to the OECD database on the foreign-born and expatriates, more than half of Indian immigrants possess at least tertiary education.
In the United Kingdom in 2005, Indians accounted for 40 per cent of all approvals (with as much as 6,716 persons) under the the Highly Skilled Migrant Programme. India was the first nationality of applications in this programme, followed by Pakistan.
Chinese and Indians also accounted for about 30 per cent of Australia's General Skilled Migration Programme in 2005.
According to the OECD report, Chinese and Indians also account for a major part of foreign students in the region.
China is the top origin of foreign students in OECD (over 15 per cent), followed by India with six per cent.
Chinese and Indian students are particularly present in the US, UK, Australia, Japan, Korea and New Zealand.
Noting that a 40 per cent rise in the number of foreign students in OECD since 2000, the report said China, India and Korea were three key sources with about 3,40,000 Chinese, 1,25,000 Indians and 95,000
Germany, Japan, Morocco and France had around 60,000 students each.
While European students tend to stay in Europe, students from the rest of the world, particularly Asia, prefer to study in non-European countries, although they are not absent from European universities, the report said.
The report has another interesting piece of information that is immigrants are more likely than the native-born to hold jobs for which they are over qualified.
"Immigrants are more likely than the native-born to hold jobs for which they are over-qualified. Foreign-born women seem to be at an even greater disadvantage," OECD said.
Across all the OECD countries, at least 25 per cent (on average almost 50 per cent) of skilled immigrants are inactive, unemployed or confined to jobs for which they are over-qualified, it added.
However, individuals from outside the OECD are on an average are at a greater risk of over-qualification than immigrants originating from the EU-15, or Canada or from the US. Immigrants from these countries are on an average are no more over qualified than persons born in the country where they reside.
Indians have an over-qualification rate of 20-34 per cent in the UK, Canada, Australia and France, which are higher than the average over qualification rates of immigrants in each of the four countries.
In the US, Sweden and Spain, Indians' over-qualification rates vary between 12 and 20 per cent. While it is slightly below average in the US, it is below average in Spain and equal to the average in Sweden, shows the data compiled by OECD.
