‘Fight or flight’: Indians mull moving abroad amid COVID crisis

Visa services say ‘unprecedented surge’ in people looking to immigrate to nations with better living conditions.

New Delhi, India – For the last couple of years, Shaily Agrawal, a 25-year-old digital communication specialist based in New Delhi, has felt out of place in her own country. She says the India she held on to has “drastically changed” with a “lot of contrast” now between her beliefs and the “direction the country is heading towards”. While a polarised political environment in recent years had made Agrawal think about leaving India, the devastating second wave of the coronavirus finally tipped the scales and made her seriously consider her options abroad.