Majority of Indians ready to accept immigrants with citizenship as 'real Indians': Poll

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In a country that has a multitude of prominent names in various fields not originally from the country, over half of the people in India think that an immigrant who has become a citizen of the country is a real Indian, according to a poll conducted by Ipsos.

53% of the Indians participating in the poll, to be precise, agreed that an immigrant who has gained the citizenship of the country was a real Indian. 30% of the respondents disagreed with the opinion while 17% said they were not sure.

A similar proportion of respondents from India, 52%, agreed that an immigrant who had become a citizen of the country and had a job was a real Indian, whereas, 30% said they were not real Indians.

The proportion of people who think an immigrant without a job in the country is a real Indian drops to 41%. One-third of the respondents said such immigrants were not real Indians, 26% couldn’t be sure.

Similar to a job, language is also an important factor in approval of an immigrant, the poll revealed. 52% Indian respondents think an immigrant who has obtained citizenship and is fluent in local language can be called a real Indian. 31% disagreed with the dominant opinion and 17% were not sure.

The acceptance of immigrant citizens drops to 41% if they are not fluent in the local language. 37% of the respondents said such immigrant citizens cannot be called real Indians.

The acceptance further drops if an immigrant has not obtained a citizenship despite spending most of his or her life in the country. Just over one-third of Indians agree to the opinion that such immigrants could be called real Indians. The proportion of people disagreeing over the opinion jumps to 47%.

A similar proportion, 37% of people participating in the poll agreed to accept immigrants who have married a local resident as real Indians with 41% saying they cannot be called real Indians.

About half of the respondents agreed to accept the second generation immigrants—basically, kids of immigrants who were born and raised in India—as real Indians, no matter what their country or region of origin was. About one-third displayed their reluctance to do so.