India 83,655,538 Malaysia 111,000 Myanmar 139,000 | United States of America 650,000 Gulf countries 500,000 Canada 3,865 | |
The Telugu Diaspora refers to the Telugu speaking people of Indian States living predominantly in North America, Europe, Australia, Caribbean, Gulf, Africa and other regions around the world.
Contents
The Telugu Boom
The Telugu Boom refers to the migration of a large number of Telugu speaking people from the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana to the United States of America and Canada from late 80s largely consisting of the migration of students and Information Technology workers which continues to the present day. As of 2017, as per Katherine Hadda, American Consulate general in Hyderabad, one every four Indians going to USA is Telugu person.
Background
With the onset of IT revolution in the late 1980s and 1990s coupled with high unemployment and corruption led more families to send their undergraduate children for higher studies to universities of developed countries on better job prospects. This was also supported with F1 visas program of USA and similar programs of other countries such as Canada and UK. The Y2K problem and Indian government's Software Technology Park initiative also helped many small companies to set up shops in Hyderabad that helped prospective employees to use H-1B Visa program.
Places of origin
The major portion of the Telugus in the US has their origins in the coastal districts of Andhra Pradesh. Since the formation of the State of Andhra Pradesh and before, the Coastal Andhra was far developed than the other two regions of the state. The differences are due to the availability of natural resources and fertile land on the Coast. The areas of the Telangana and Rayalaseema were more under feudalism and are the most backward regions of the state. As a part of the Madras Presidency, the coastal districts availed with the benefit of formal education with English as the medium of instruction in college/university education. It is initially from the coastal Andhra Pradesh that a large number of doctors emigrated to the United States during the early 1960s followed by the engineers, teachers and students. But the scale of emigration reached its peak during 1980s and 1990s, from all Telugu speaking regions, i.e., Telangana, Coastal Andhra, Kalingandhra (North Eastern Andhra) and Rayalaseema with the enormous employment opportunities for the software professionals in the United States.
Effects of the Migration on the society of Andhra Pradesh
Andhra Bank and State Bank of Hyderabad predominantly regional banks of the state of AP have reported rise in Non Resident Indian deposits over the last decade.
The Chilkur Balaji Temple, is sacred place for Visa seekers in the city of Hyderabad. These visa seekers usually plan to go the USA.