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Half the NRIs battle racism and regionalism at work: Study
The study was conducted by workplace community platform 'Blind' with a limited sample size of 1,087 Non-Resident Indians.
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Jeffin T. Kaleekal - Fri, 05, Dec 2025
- 02:18 EST
- 23
Representative image / Pexels
Nearly half of all non-resident Indians working abroad have experienced race based workplace discrimination, as per a survey conducted on by workplace community platform 'Blind'.
Titled 'Is racism against Indians real or overblown?', the poll was posted on Blind on Nov. 28 received responses from 1,087 Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) who had self identified as Indians and were residing outside India.
The study found that 44 percent of NRI working professionals have been at the receiving end of unfair treatment due to racism.
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Reports of racial discrimination surfaced more sharply at major tech giants like Google, Microsoft, and Intuit, with more than 50 percent of employees confirming its presence. Among the rest, 26 percent admitted bias exists but claimed it rarely impacts careers, while 30 percent dismissed the issue as exaggerated or largely nonexistent.
Reporting the troubling findings, Blind also noted that NRIs face both internal and external discrimination. Apart from their Indian identity causing discrimination, regionalism rooted in India also influences their careers. Regional identity ranked as the second-most common form of bias after race, with employees frequently citing prejudice between North and South Indian backgrounds.
Age, gender and caste discrimination were also widely reported.
44 percent of the respondents noted a negative impact on performance evaluations or promotions and 21 percent reported experiencing social exclusion due to discrimination.
The study also found that only 1 percent of respondents have ever perused formal complaints. 6 percent reported escalating the issue to HR and management, 21 percent chose to leave the company and a staggering 72 percent said that they took no action.
Even in cases where action was taken, only 20 percent of the respondents experienced improvement, with 80 percent of the respondents signalling no change or worsening of the situation after escalating the issue to management.
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