Dalit
Elite Member
Indians are at the centre of growing hatred for immigrants across parts of the world. From the US, Singapore to Ireland, the Indian community is being targeted, accused of changing the demography or ‘stealing’ jobs from natives. But what’s driving this animosity?
Indian immigrants are becoming a prime target of the far-right across the world. As the anti-immigration sentiment takes over, Indians have landed in the crosshairs of racists. From the United States to Singapore, natives want Indians “to go back”, accuse them of “stealing jobs” and whatnot.
But not everywhere are authorities sitting back and tolerating hate against Indian immigrants. In Singapore, authorities ordered social media platforms to block posts claiming that Indians were “taking over" the country.
We trace how anti-India rhetoric is growing across different parts of the world.
Singapore
Last week, Singapore directed social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and X to block access to 14 social media posts with inflammatory content targeting the Indian community.
Several posts started surfacing online in May claiming that Singapore was being “overrun” by Indians, who were “displacing” locals and changing the island country’s demography.
The posts contained selective videos and photographs to claim that the city-state’s ethnic balance was shifting drastically.
The Singapore Police later invoked the Online Criminal Harms Act 2023 (OCHA) to disable the 14 objectionable social media posts against Indians. Investigators suspect these posts originated on a China-based platform before circulating on other websites and social media channels.
Singaporean authorities described the content as racially inflammatory, including the use of
derogatory language by likening the surge in the Indian population to a “concentration of curry.”
“Singapore firmly opposes nativism and xenophobia,” Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement, asserting that attacks originating from a foreign source were “doubly unacceptable.”
Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong told reporters, “The videos attack our multiracial society and they try to divide people based on race. This, however, is not who we are. Every community in Singapore here is valued and everyone has an equal place."
Despite the claims made in the posts, official figures show ethnic Chinese continue to account for roughly three-fourths of Singapore’s resident population. Indians comprise about 9 per cent of residents, while Malays make up around 15 per cent of the city-state’s population.
US
Anti-immigration sentiment has taken hold of the US. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) supporters keep targeting Indians over H-1B foreign worker visas.
They have pushed for ending legal immigration and the H-1B visa programme, which allows employers in the US to temporarily hire foreign workers in speciality fields.
Indians have accounted for more than 70 per cent of all approved H-1B petitions since 2015, as per the American government data. Indian H-1B visa holders are accused of being “job stealers” and visa scammers as they are employed at a cheaper salary than most domestic American workers.
The opposition to H-1B visas by conservatives has led to Indians facing growing racism and political hostility in America, experts have told Newsweek.
The rise in discrimination and bigotry against them is visible across social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X.
Recently, a video of a White man in Texas insulting the Indian flag stirred outrage on social media. The man ripped apart the tricolour flag outside Frisco City Hall as voices in the crowd repeatedly chanted profanities against India.
Conservative commentator Elijah Schaffer, who shared the clip, called the protest a response to an “Indian immigration invasion” in North Dallas. The video sparked uproar online, with users calling it racist and xenophobic.
In Frisco, a fast-growing suburb in Texas, about one-third of residents are of Asian heritage. Indians are frequently being targeted in the city.
As per a New York Times (NYT) report, at a City Council meeting in Frisco in February, several speakers mentioned what they said was an “Indian takeover” of their city. Some alleged that Indians working in high-skilled sectors were “fraudsters” and “low-quality scammers.”
A video posted on X last August showed shoppers at a Costco in Frisco, with the scene described as “the Indian takeover in full view.“ They claimed this was “The Great Replacement unfolding.”
The hate against Indians has also not spared Trump’s officials. Maga base often finds fault with FBI Director Kash Patel and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, both vocal supporters of the US president.
FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam also came under fire, facing accusations of replacing white American workers with Indian employees. The company had to clarify, saying: “For more than 50 years, FedEx has fostered a merit-based culture that creates opportunity for everyone. We take great pride that this has resulted in a workforce that represents the diversity of the more than 220 countries and territories we serve.”
The racist rhetoric against Indians has reached such levels that American companies have become reluctant to support Indian festivals like Diwali, advocacy groups say.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that tracks discrimination against Asian Americans, the use of anti-South Asian slurs in online spaces associated with targeted violence surged by 115 per cent between January 2023 and December 2025.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate found that anti-Indian slurs, stereotypes or calls to “deport Indians” garnered 280 million (28 crore) views over nearly two months last year.
“Indians have become a victim of an increasingly ethnocentric narrative around migrants,” Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue was quoted as saying by Financial Times.
He added, “I think where we go from here is, unfortunately, that we see anti-immigrant rhetoric increasingly moving in the direction of a ‘war for the soul of America’.”
UK, Australia
United Kingdom MP Rupert Lowe triggered controversy last month over his anti-immigration remarks.
Lowe claimed that “millions of Pakistanis and Indians” are being brought to the UK for jobs that he said should go to unemployed Britons.
He wrote on X: “I don’t believe we should import millions of Pakistanis and Indians to do jobs that unemployed Brits should be doing.”
“If that makes me racist, then so be it,” the Independent MP added.
Indian-origin migrants were explicitly targeted by the anti-immigration “March for Australia” rallies in August last year. These rallies received online endorsements from prominent Mag figures, including Elon Musk.
Attacks against people of Indian origin also increased in Ireland last year. In February, a video from Ireland’s University of Galway showing a queue of students, mostly South Asians, waiting to collect groceries from a community initiative run by the students’ union went viral.
As a debate began online, Indian students were accused of overwhelming food aid systems, draining resources, and freeloading.
Why Indians have become easy targets
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is spreading across countries due to housing shortages, rising living costs and wage pressures. Far-right politicians are exploiting these issues to flame sentiments against immigrants.
More Indians are living abroad than ever before. India has the world’s largest diaspora, estimated at more than 35 million (3.5 crore) people residing across continents.
Indians constitute the fastest-growing skilled migrant group in countries such as Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UK and the US.
Many Indians are employed in sectors witnessing labour shortages, such as healthcare, technology, finance and research. This visibility has brought them economic success but also hate, as per News18.
Indian immigrants are becoming a prime target of the far-right across the world. As the anti-immigration sentiment takes over, Indians have landed in the crosshairs of racists. From the United States to Singapore, natives want Indians “to go back”, accuse them of “stealing jobs” and whatnot.
But not everywhere are authorities sitting back and tolerating hate against Indian immigrants. In Singapore, authorities ordered social media platforms to block posts claiming that Indians were “taking over" the country.
We trace how anti-India rhetoric is growing across different parts of the world.
Singapore
Last week, Singapore directed social media platforms like YouTube, Facebook and X to block access to 14 social media posts with inflammatory content targeting the Indian community.
Several posts started surfacing online in May claiming that Singapore was being “overrun” by Indians, who were “displacing” locals and changing the island country’s demography.
The posts contained selective videos and photographs to claim that the city-state’s ethnic balance was shifting drastically.
The Singapore Police later invoked the Online Criminal Harms Act 2023 (OCHA) to disable the 14 objectionable social media posts against Indians. Investigators suspect these posts originated on a China-based platform before circulating on other websites and social media channels.
Singaporean authorities described the content as racially inflammatory, including the use of
derogatory language by likening the surge in the Indian population to a “concentration of curry.”
“Singapore firmly opposes nativism and xenophobia,” Singapore’s Ministry of Home Affairs (MHA) said in a statement, asserting that attacks originating from a foreign source were “doubly unacceptable.”
Second Minister for Home Affairs Edwin Tong told reporters, “The videos attack our multiracial society and they try to divide people based on race. This, however, is not who we are. Every community in Singapore here is valued and everyone has an equal place."
Despite the claims made in the posts, official figures show ethnic Chinese continue to account for roughly three-fourths of Singapore’s resident population. Indians comprise about 9 per cent of residents, while Malays make up around 15 per cent of the city-state’s population.
US
Anti-immigration sentiment has taken hold of the US. President Donald Trump’s Make America Great Again (Maga) supporters keep targeting Indians over H-1B foreign worker visas.
They have pushed for ending legal immigration and the H-1B visa programme, which allows employers in the US to temporarily hire foreign workers in speciality fields.
Indians have accounted for more than 70 per cent of all approved H-1B petitions since 2015, as per the American government data. Indian H-1B visa holders are accused of being “job stealers” and visa scammers as they are employed at a cheaper salary than most domestic American workers.
The opposition to H-1B visas by conservatives has led to Indians facing growing racism and political hostility in America, experts have told Newsweek.
The rise in discrimination and bigotry against them is visible across social media platforms, including TikTok, Instagram, YouTube, Facebook and X.
Recently, a video of a White man in Texas insulting the Indian flag stirred outrage on social media. The man ripped apart the tricolour flag outside Frisco City Hall as voices in the crowd repeatedly chanted profanities against India.
Conservative commentator Elijah Schaffer, who shared the clip, called the protest a response to an “Indian immigration invasion” in North Dallas. The video sparked uproar online, with users calling it racist and xenophobic.
In Frisco, a fast-growing suburb in Texas, about one-third of residents are of Asian heritage. Indians are frequently being targeted in the city.
As per a New York Times (NYT) report, at a City Council meeting in Frisco in February, several speakers mentioned what they said was an “Indian takeover” of their city. Some alleged that Indians working in high-skilled sectors were “fraudsters” and “low-quality scammers.”
A video posted on X last August showed shoppers at a Costco in Frisco, with the scene described as “the Indian takeover in full view.“ They claimed this was “The Great Replacement unfolding.”
The hate against Indians has also not spared Trump’s officials. Maga base often finds fault with FBI Director Kash Patel and Republican Vivek Ramaswamy, both vocal supporters of the US president.
FedEx CEO Raj Subramaniam also came under fire, facing accusations of replacing white American workers with Indian employees. The company had to clarify, saying: “For more than 50 years, FedEx has fostered a merit-based culture that creates opportunity for everyone. We take great pride that this has resulted in a workforce that represents the diversity of the more than 220 countries and territories we serve.”
The racist rhetoric against Indians has reached such levels that American companies have become reluctant to support Indian festivals like Diwali, advocacy groups say.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit that tracks discrimination against Asian Americans, the use of anti-South Asian slurs in online spaces associated with targeted violence surged by 115 per cent between January 2023 and December 2025.
The Center for the Study of Organized Hate found that anti-Indian slurs, stereotypes or calls to “deport Indians” garnered 280 million (28 crore) views over nearly two months last year.
“Indians have become a victim of an increasingly ethnocentric narrative around migrants,” Siddharth Venkataramakrishnan, analyst at the London-based Institute for Strategic Dialogue was quoted as saying by Financial Times.
He added, “I think where we go from here is, unfortunately, that we see anti-immigrant rhetoric increasingly moving in the direction of a ‘war for the soul of America’.”
UK, Australia
United Kingdom MP Rupert Lowe triggered controversy last month over his anti-immigration remarks.
Lowe claimed that “millions of Pakistanis and Indians” are being brought to the UK for jobs that he said should go to unemployed Britons.
He wrote on X: “I don’t believe we should import millions of Pakistanis and Indians to do jobs that unemployed Brits should be doing.”
“If that makes me racist, then so be it,” the Independent MP added.
Indian-origin migrants were explicitly targeted by the anti-immigration “March for Australia” rallies in August last year. These rallies received online endorsements from prominent Mag figures, including Elon Musk.
Attacks against people of Indian origin also increased in Ireland last year. In February, a video from Ireland’s University of Galway showing a queue of students, mostly South Asians, waiting to collect groceries from a community initiative run by the students’ union went viral.
As a debate began online, Indian students were accused of overwhelming food aid systems, draining resources, and freeloading.
Why Indians have become easy targets
Anti-immigrant rhetoric is spreading across countries due to housing shortages, rising living costs and wage pressures. Far-right politicians are exploiting these issues to flame sentiments against immigrants.
More Indians are living abroad than ever before. India has the world’s largest diaspora, estimated at more than 35 million (3.5 crore) people residing across continents.
Indians constitute the fastest-growing skilled migrant group in countries such as Canada, Australia, Singapore, the UK and the US.
Many Indians are employed in sectors witnessing labour shortages, such as healthcare, technology, finance and research. This visibility has brought them economic success but also hate, as per News18.
