**New Delhi:** Every morning, Abid Qureshi scrolls through Facebook and flips through the *Assignment Abroad Times*, a biweekly paper for overseas jobs. Last month, one ad caught his eye: construction workers wanted in Moscow. After 12 years on Saudi sites and several more doing poorly paid odd jobs back home, Russia looked like a step up.
“The money would be better than in the Gulf,” said Qureshi, a resident of Rajasthan’s Churu. “I’m 49, and Europe and Russia are more relaxed about age. They don’t close the door,” he said.
The agency behind the ad accepted his CV and offered a 20-day training course to be conducted by Russian companies in November. The fee: Rs 2 lakh. Qureshi borrowed from friends to make the payment. It’s worth it to him with the promised Rs 1 lakh monthly wage in Moscow. In Saudi Arabia, where he last worked, his wage was around Rs 40,000 per month; the job ended when the company shut down.
Workers like Qureshi have their life stitched together between visas, contracts, and wire transfers. But now the working-class migration dream is travelling far beyond the traditional Gulf routes. With countries such as Japan, Greece, and Russia struggling with demographic change and low working-age population, Indian workers are starting to fill the blue-collar labour gap in new corners of the world. Government policies and a growing network of recruiters are greasing the wheels of this migration.
“Israel, Poland, Greece, Japan, and now even Russia—that’s where the demand is,” said Shrikant Ingle, founder of BCM Group, a Pune-based licensed overseas recruitment agency with staffing networks across Latvia, Croatia, and Romania. “Before the pandemic, we mostly placed IT professionals abroad. But afterwards, the global labour market flipped. Blue-collar demand exploded, and tech hiring slowed down. We had to adapt.”
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**New Delhi:** Every morning, Abid Qureshi scrolls through Facebook and flips through the *Assignment Abroad Times*, a biweekly paper for overseas jobs. Last month, one ad caught his eye: construction workers wanted in Moscow. After 12 years on Saudi sites and several more doing poorly paid odd jobs back home, Russia looked like a step up.
“The money would be better than in the Gulf,” said Qureshi, a resident of Rajasthan’s Churu. “I’m 49, and Europe and Russia are more relaxed about age. They don’t close the door,” he said.
The agency behind the ad accepted his CV and offered a 20-day training course to be conducted by Russian companies in November. The fee: Rs 2 lakh. Qureshi borrowed from friends to make the payment. It’s worth it to him with the promised Rs 1 lakh monthly wage in Moscow. In Saudi Arabia, where he last worked, his wage was around Rs 40,000 per month; the job ended when the company shut down.
Workers like Qureshi have their life stitched together between visas, contracts, and wire transfers. But now the working-class migration dream is travelling far beyond the traditional Gulf routes. With countries such as Japan, Greece, and Russia struggling with demographic change and low working-age population, Indian workers are starting to fill the blue-collar labour gap in new corners of the world. Government policies and a growing network of recruiters are greasing the wheels of this migration.
“Israel, Poland, Greece, Japan, and now even Russia—that’s where the demand is,” said Shrikant Ingle, founder of BCM Group, a Pune-based licensed overseas recruitment agency with staffing networks across Latvia, Croatia, and Romania. “Before the pandemic, we mostly placed IT professionals abroad. But afterwards, the global labour market flipped. Blue-collar demand exploded, and tech hiring slowed down. We had to adapt.”
The government has kept up. In May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar [said](https://www.newindianexpress.com/nation/2025/May/07/demand-for-indian-talent-abroad-huge-jaishankar) countries such as Italy, Spain, Austria, and Greece have “shown the appetite to tap into the human resource pool in India”. Last year, the MEA [signed](https://www.mea.gov.in/Images/CPV/Introduction-and-Synopsis-English.pdf) migration and mobility partnership agreements with Israel, Taiwan, Malaysia, Denmark, and the UK, adding to earlier arrangements with Germany, Italy, France, and Austria. The ministry also noted in a July 2025 report that “significant progress has been achieved in negotiations” with Croatia, Finland, Greece, Guyana, Russia, and Switzerland. Earlier this year, a human resource exchange deal was signed with [Japan](https://www.mea.gov.in/bilateral-documents.htm?dtl/40063) as well.
The best worker protection is multiple companies, cities, countries, etc competing to offer workers the best pay, lowest hours, and safest workplace.