The document discusses the effects of labour migration from India. It outlines both optimistic and pessimistic views on the impacts of migration. The optimistic view is that migration reduces poverty in source areas by shifting workers to higher income destinations and remittances support households. However, the pessimistic view is that migration reduces income in source areas as productive workers leave and remittances only partially compensate. The true impacts are likely complex, with both positive and negative effects depending on the context.

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A PROJECT ON
MIGRATION OF LABOUR FROM INDIA
IN THE SUBJECT
Economics of Global Trade and Finance
SUBMITTED BY
Siddhant Nagle
A027
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2. MCom Part-I in Banking & Finance
UNDER THE GUIDANCE OF
Prof. Jose Augustine
TO
UNIVERSITY OF MUMBAI
FOR
MASTER OF COMMERCE PROGRAMME (SEMESTER - II)
In
BANKING & FINANCE
YEAR: 2013-14
SVKM’S
NARSEE MONJEE COLLEGE OF COMMERCE &ECONOMICS
VILE PARLE (W), MUMBAI – 400056.
EVALUATION CERTIFICATE
This is to certify that the undersigned have assessed and evaluated the project on “
Migration of Labour from India ” submitted by Siddhant Nagle student of M.Com. –
Part - I (Semester – II) In Banking & Finance for the academic year 2013-14. This
project is original to the best of our knowledge and has been accepted for Internal
Assessment.
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3. Name & Signature of Internal Examiner :
Name & Signature of External Examiner :
Principal
Shri Sunil B. Mantri
DECLARATION BY THE STUDENT
I, Siddhant Nagle student of M.Com. (Part – I) In Banking & Finance , Roll No.: A027,
hereby declare that the project titled “Migration of Labour from India” for the subject
ECONOMICS OF GLOBAL TRADE AND FINANCE submitted by me for Semester – II of the
academic year 2013-14, is based on actual work carried out by me under the guidance and
supervision of Prof. Jose Augustine. I further state that this work is original and not submitted
anywhere else for any examination.
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4. Place: Mumbai
Date: 26th
February 2014.
Name & Signature of Student
Name : Siddhant Nagle
Signature : _________________
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5. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
A person always requires guidance and help of others to achieve success in his
set objectives. Similarly, it was not possible for me to complete my assignment.
I am indeed very much thankful to all the people who have helped me to
complete the project.
I am gratefully indebted to Prof. Jose Augustine, my project guide for providing
me all the necessary help and required guidelines for the completion of my
project and also for the valuable time that she gave me from her schedule.
Last but not least I am thankful to all my friends, who have been a constant
source of inspiration and information for me. I thank to almighty for showering
his blessings
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6. CONTENT
Sr. No. PARTICULARS Page No.
01 INTRODUCTION 06-07
02 LABOUR MIGRATION FROM INDIA 08
03 EFFECTS OF LABOUR MIGRATION 09-11
04 IMPACT OF LABOUR MIGRATION 12-14
05 MAGNITUDE AND PATTERNS OF
INTERNATIONAL LABOUR MIGRATION
FROM INDIA
15-17
06 MIGRATION OF SEMI SKILLED AND
UNSKILLED LABOUR
18-19
07 EMPOWERMENT OF SKILLED INDIAN
MIGRANTS IN DEVELOPED COUNTRIES
20-21
08 INDIAN LABOUR MIGRATION TO THE GULF 22-23
09 CHANGING PERCEPTIONS ABOUT
MIGRATION FROM INDIA
24-25
10 MIGRATION MANAGEMENT IN INDIA-
RECENT INITIATIVES
26-28
11 GOVERNMENT MEASURES AND
PROGRAMMES FOR BETTER MIGRATION
MANAGEMENT
29
12 A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE SOCIO-
ECONOMIC IMPACT IN INDIA
30-33
13 CONCLUSION 34-35
14 BIBLIOGRAPHY 36
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7. INTRODUCTION
Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the intention of
settling in the new location. The movement is typically over long distances and from one
country to another, but internal migration is also possible. Migration may be individuals,
family units or in large groups.Nomadic movements are normally not regarded as migrations
as there is no intention to settle in the new place and because the movement is generally
seasonal. Only a few nomadic peoples have retained this form of lifestyle in modern times.
Also, the temporary movement of people for the purpose of travel, tourism, pilgrimages, or
the commute is not regarded as migration, in the absence of an intention to settle in the new
location.Migration has continued under the form of both voluntary migration within one's
region, country, or beyond and involuntary migration (which includes the slave
trade, trafficking in human beings and ethnic cleansing). People who migrate into a territory
are called immigrants, while at the departure point they are called emigrants. Small
populations migrating to develop a territory considered void of settlement depending on
historical setting, circumstances and perspective are referred to as settlers or colonists, while
populations displaced by immigration and colonization are called refugees.
Labour mobility is one of the key features of economic development and its characteristics
are closely tied with the nature of this development. Historically, development is associated
with unevenness and structural change, giving an impetus to the movement of workers from
one region to another, and from one sector to another. Even within the macro-structural
features which determine the supply of, and demand for, certain types of migrant labour, the
pattern of migration depends on a host of factors determined by labour market characteristics,
together with individual, household and community level features, and the existence of social
networks, among other things. These factors cumulatively determine the ‘causes’ of
migration. On the other hand, labour migration plays a key role in influencing the pattern of
development, through its impact on a host of economic and non-economic variables, both in
the origin and destination areas.
Labour migration does not recognize borders—but borders, whether urban, state, or
international influence migration through a host of policies and regulatory measures. A key
distinction between internal and international migration is the existence of national regulatory
frameworks such as immigration controls (which leads to a distinction between regular and
irregular migration). But regulatory frameworks and restrictive policies also operate within
nation states.
Early development literature conceptualized labour migration as occurring from the rural to
urban, agricultural to industrial, and informal to formal sectors. However, the workforce
pattern has changed across the world in favour of the services sector, and the informal sector
is more prominent today, both in developing and developed countries than it was twenty or
thirty years ago. In developing countries, the informal sector is no longer conceived as a
temporary destination for migrants but in most cases, as a final destination. The (changing)
structural features of world capitalism have an important bearing on both internal and
international migration.
The theme on labour migration will explore all types of labour migration— internal, inter-
state, cross-border and international. It will encourage cross disciplinary studies and papers
based on both fieldwork and secondary data.
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8. We would welcome papers which explore not only economic issues but also historical,
political, sociological and psychological factors affecting labour migration and the
consequences of migration at more disaggregate levels, viz., for various socio-economic
strata and segments of the population and for women, men, the elderly and children
separately, wherever possible. The contributors should confine themselves to the issue of
worker migration, as conventionally defined in SNA accounts, and to leave out those types of
“forced labour” migration, which are not conventionally included in work but are covered in
international conventions on forced labour and trafficking. The paper contributors should not
be concerned with other forms of non-labour migration (such as refugee or student migration)
or with population mobility, which is important for an understanding urban growth.
Globally, more people than ever seek better lives outside their home countries. 10 million
Filipinos live abroad and more than one million Filipino leave the country each year to work
abroad. Remittances to the Philippines from around the world continue to grow.
Labour migration is a national thrust for economic growth and other countries see the
Philippines as a model in regulating migration. On the other hand, some migrant workers are
forced into work against their will. They are deceived about the nature of work and receive
wages that are less than what is promised. Migrant workers can be victims of forced labour
and human trafficking.
In 2005, tripartite experts formulated and adopted the ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour
Migration: non-binding principles and guidelines for a rights-based approach to labour
migration. The Framework assists ILO partners to manage international and national labour
migration. It addresses major issues faced by policy makers and provides guidelines and
principles on labour migration.
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9. LABOUR MIGRATION FROM INDIA
Studies on migration have been very few in India because, historically speaking; migration
has never been considered an important demographic issue due to the small volume of
internal migration relative to the total size of the population (Bose, 1983, 137). However,
these small–scale internal migrations within the sub–continent were replaced by large–scale
external migration when the partition in 1947 created India and Pakistan. Withdrawal of the
British from India and the partition were associated with a massive transfer of population
estimated at 14.5 million between the short span of 1947–51 (Kosinski and Elahi, 1985, 4–5).
Immediately after the partition, about 5 million Hindus and Sikhs left Pakistan for India and
about 6 million Muslims moved into Pakistan from India (Elahi and Sultana, 1985, 22). As
this politically–triggered exchange created very serious and long–term problems of refugee
settlement and integration, the prospects of intra–south Asian migration to and from India
gradually became more and more limited after independence.4In contrast, voluntary
migration, attributed mainly to economic and social factors, although modest compared to
that related to political cause, continues and seems to be on the rise. The principal flows have
been the following:
a) Immigration to Britain, which was a traditionally favoured destination for temporary
migration and, later attracted permanent settlers representing various social strata.
b) The three traditional settlement countries, Australia, Canada, and the USA became more
attractive destinations once their highly selective immigration policies were modified. These
developed countries, later joined by the UK and other EU countries attracted the highly
skilled workers from India.
c) A new destination, that rapidly gained popularity, has been the Middle East (Keely, 1980;
Ecevit, 1981, Weiner 1982). The oil–rich countries mainly attracted semi–skilled and
unskilled labour on a temporary circulating basis (Birks and Sinclair 1980). Some south–east
countries like Malaysia became such destination later on.
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10. EFFECTS OF LABOUR MIGRATION
The possible impacts of migration on poverty are bracketed by two extremes, which we
might call the "optimistic" and "pessimistic" scenarios.
An Optimistic View
The optimistic scenario is that migration reduces poverty in source areas by shifting
population from the low-income rural sector to the relatively high-income urban (or foreign)
economy. If income in the migrant-source economy does not fall (or falls only slightly) in
migration's wake-e.g. if the marginal product of migrants' labour prior to migration and the
capital migrants take with them are small-the loss of population to migration raises the
average incomes of those left behind. In the destination economy, although migrant earnings
may be lower initially than those of non-migrants, the earnings trajectory of migrants may be
steep, particularly if migration positively selects individuals on the basis of skills,
entrepreneurial ability, etc. If this is the case, then relatively high poverty rates among
immigrants at their destinations may be ephemeral.
Income remittances by migrants contribute directly to incomes of households in migrant-
source economies. Official International Monetary Fund (IMF) estimates placed total worker
remittances plus compensation of employees at $95 thousand million in 1998 (the most
recent year for which these numbers are available), far exceeding official development
assistance. This figure understates remittances, which include in-kind and clandestine
transfers. International migration represents only a small share of total world migration
(which also includes internal migration). It is not clear what share of total remittances the
receipts from migrants abroad represent. Nonetheless, household surveys typically find that
remittances account for an important share of total income in less developed country (LDC)
rural areas, and the little information available suggests that they constitute a large share of
migrant earnings, as well. If migrants originate disproportionately from poor households,
remittances may directly reduce poverty in migrant-source areas.
Migration and remittances also may contribute indirectly to incomes at migrant origins and
destinations, in myriad ways. In the imperfect market environments characterizing LDC rural
economies, they may loosen liquidity and risk constraints on production in migrant-source
households (see the new economics of labour migration, below). Expenditures by remittance-
receiving households may create income multipliers in migrant-source economies, perhaps
increasing income in non-immigrant households. Even if migrants do not originate from
impoverished households, the indirect effects of remittances, through expenditure linkages,
may nonetheless favour the poor.
At migrant destinations, the arrival of immigrants may increase local economic activity and
create or preserve good jobs for local residents, possibly including poor natives, by creating
economies of scale and multiplier effects. Using single-equation models and census data from
United States metropolitan areas, a number of studies in the 1980s concluded that immigrants
have few wage-depressing or unemployment-increasing effects in local labour markets.
Instead, immigrants were found to have positive impacts on employment and wages in the
urban labour markets they entered.
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11. A Pessimistic View
For each optimistic view summarized above, there is a pessimistic counterpart. In general, the
most pessimistic studies on migration-development interactions in source areas appeared in
the 1970s and 1980s; research findings on this topic were more optimistic in the 1990s. By
contrast, studies of impacts of immigration on host economies, largely optimistic in the 1970s
and 1980s, have become more pessimistic in recent years.
In order for migration to raise per-capita incomes in migrant-source economies, it is
necessary for income not to fall-or else to fall only slightly-when migrants leave. Pessimistic
studies argue that this is generally not the case; migration reduces income in migrant-sending
areas because the marginal product of the migrant's labour is large prior to migration and
migrants take productive capital (including human capital) with them when they go. Income
remittances by migrants only partially compensate for these lost-labour and lost-capital
effects. In this pessimistic scenario, poverty may increase if migrants originate from poor
households, or if the labour of poor villagers-on their own or on others' farms-becomes less
productive as a result of the lost migrants' labour (and capital). From the point of view of the
source region, migration represents a "labour export," and remittances are payment for that
export. The availability of lucrative migration opportunities for some households may have a
"Dutch disease" effect on source economies, as local production activities compete with
migration for limited labour and other resources. Households and individuals participating in
migration benefit (otherwise, it is not clear why they would participate). However, these
beneficiaries of migration may not include the rural poor. If migration is costly and risky, at
least initially, migrants may come from the middle or upper segments of the income
distribution in the source areas , not from the poorest households. If migration adversely
affects local production, the incomes of the poor may fall, both relatively and absolutely.
Just as migrant remittances may generate positive income multipliers in source economies,
decreases in production and income may create negative multipliers and even a downward
spiral in local economic activity, adversely affecting the poor. Remittance-receiving
households may not spend their income on goods or services offered by poor villagers,
thereby limiting migration's potential to alleviate poverty through local expenditure linkages.
At migrant destinations, immigrants may compete with at least some workers in local labour
markets, and native workers may respond to the arrival of immigrants by moving to less
immigrant-impacted labour markets. The "flight" of native workers from immigrant-impacted
labour markets tends to diffuse migration's impacts across regions and make it difficult to
identify immigration's effects on employment and earnings. In the United States, immigrants
are concentrated at the bottom (and also at the top) of the skill spectrum (they are
underrepresented at the mid-skill levels). Those with few skills may compete with low-skilled
native workers, who are most likely to be poor.
Bridging the extreme
The true impacts of migration are likely to be found not at one extreme or another, but
somewhere in between. A nascent body of migration research in recent years suggests that
the interactions between migration and key economic variables, both at migrant origins and
destinations, are multifaceted, representing a complex mixture of "optimistic" and
"pessimistic" outcomes. For example, recent studies find that migration has both negative
"lost-labour" and positive remittance effects on source economies. In the United States, new
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12. research indicates that the impacts of immigration are complex, operating through indirect
channels largely ignored by past research. New research methods generally are required to
uncover interactions between migration and economic changes at migrant origins and
destinations.
Some insights into migration-poverty interactions may be gleaned, mostly indirectly, from
the existing literature. Nevertheless, almost no studies explicitly address this topic, and an
agenda for future research is clearly needed. The overarching goal of this paper is to
summarize the state of knowledge and provide a basis for identifying a future research
agenda on migration, with a focus on poverty.
The remainder of this paper is organized into three sections. Section 2 presents a brief
overview of rural out-migration and international migration, their dimensions and basic
characteristics. Section 3 summarizes theories of internal and international migration and
examines evidence on migration's impacts in source and destination areas. The migration
literature is vast, and the aim throughout is to selectively synthesize rather than offer an
exhaustive review of migration research. A more detailed review of migration research
appears in a longer version of this report (Taylor, 2000). Section 4 presents a discussion of
migration and rural poverty and priorities for future migration-and-poverty research.
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13. IMPACT OF LABOUR MIGRATION
Impacts beyond the migrant household
The migration and remittance effects discussed above, as complex as they may seem,
represent only the direct or first-round impacts of migration on source economies. Changes in
production and expenditure patterns in migrant-source households transmit the impacts of
migration to other households inside and outside the rural economy. Migrant households may
be closely integrated with local product and factor markets, supplying inputs to local
production and demanding locally produced non-tradables. In this case, changes in migration
and remittances may affect local prices, production, and incomes, including for non-
immigrant households. As a result, many and perhaps most of the impacts of migration and
remittances are found in households that do not participate directly in migration.
A number of studies utilizing micro economy-wide modelling techniques explore the role of
migration and the impacts of economic integration policies on incomes, employment, and
expenditures in migrant-sending regions. Findings from these studies point to four broad
conclusions regarding impacts of migration and remittances in migrant-sending regions:
First, migrant remittances create income and employment multipliers in migrant-sending
villages and towns, and the size of these multipliers can be large. For example, a $100
increase in remittances from the United States led to a $178 increase in total income in a
migrant-sending village in Mexico (Adelman, Taylor and Vogel, 1988; for evidence from
other countries see Taylor, 2000). Both the magnitudes of remittance multipliers and the
distribution of income gains across household groups and production sectors are sensitive to
rural economic structures.
Second, in general, the more closely integrated migrant-sending villages and towns are with
outside markets, the smaller the village or town income multipliers resulting from migrant
remittances. Through trade, the impacts of remittances on local economies are transferred to
other parts of the country (or world!), and studies focussing on individual migrant-sending
communities, like studies focussing on migrant-sending households, miss many, if not most,
of migration's impacts. It is likely that a large part of the benefits from migration become
concentrated in regional urban centres of migrant-sending countries, even if the remittances,
themselves, do not go there initially.
Third, the multiplier effects of remittances upon incomes in migrant-sending areas appear to
depend critically on the supply response of local production activities. They are smaller when
agricultural supply response is inelastic. This highlights the importance of policies to remove
technological constraints on production, promote investment, and develop markets as a
means to make remittances more productive in migrant-sending economies (see e.g. studies
by Lewis and Thorbecke, 1992, for Kenya , Subramanian and Sadoulet, 1991, for India and
Parikh and Thorbecke, 1996, for Pakistan).
Fourth, migration may compete with local production for scarce family resources, at least in
the short run. Migrant-sending economies reorganize themselves around migration, adjusting
to the loss of migrants' labour and the receipt of migrant remittances. In the long run,
remittance-induced investments may compensate for negative lost-labour effects, increasing
local production and incomes-including incomes of the poor. The effects of migration on
rural poverty depend critically on how remittances and the losses and gains of human
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14. resources through out-migration are distributed across households, on production constraints
facing different household groups, and on expenditure linkages within the rural economy.
Micro economy wide models highlight the importance of having local capital markets that
can make remittance-induced savings in migrant households available for investing by others
in the local economy. Otherwise, individual households are constrained to self finance their
investments, and the possibility of some families specializing in migration while others
specialize in productively investing remittance-induced savings is ruled out.
Impacts on migrant-host economies
Economic and fiscal impacts of immigration have been the subject of a prolific literature and
on-going controversy among researchers, both in the United States and in other major
immigrant-receiving societies. (For a number of examples, see Taylor, 2000.) In the United
States, the immigration debate has been bracketed by two extremes. The optimistic view is
that immigrants bring valuable human capital with them to the United States. (This mirrors
the pessimistic brain-drain perspective prevalent in emigration countries.) Immigrants are
economically mobile, with an earnings trajectory that is steeper than that of otherwise similar
native-born workers. They complement native workers in ways that stimulate economic
growth and create jobs. Finally, their expenditures generate income multipliers that revitalize
the economies in which they settle, including distressed urban neighbourhoods.
The other extreme contends that the human-capital benefits from migration are declining over
time, as more low-skilled immigrants arrive on United States shores. As a result, immigrants
are increasingly locked into poorly-paying jobs, with few prospects for mobility, an earnings
trajectory that is flattening out over time, and limited potential for setting in motion
economic-growth multipliers. They compete with other, low-skilled United States workers
and create fiscal burdens associated with their low incomes and large family sizes.
A number of studies in the 1980s produced optimistic conclusions about the effect of
immigration (number of foreign-born in the decennial census) on wages and unemployment
in United States metropolitan areas. They found few wage-depressing or unemployment-
increasing effects of immigration in local labour markets. Instead, more immigrants were
found to have positive impacts on employment and wages in the urban labour markets they
entered.
More recent studies suggest that the impacts of immigration are more complex, operating
through indirect channels largely ignored by 1980s research (Borjas (1994), Taylor and
Martin, 1998). Native workers who compete with immigrants may move to less immigrant-
impacted labour markets, diffusing migration's impacts across labour markets and making
these impacts difficult to quantify. Employment stimulates immigration, but the arrival of
new workers into local labour markets, in turn, may stimulate employment, by suppressing
real wages for local workers and discouraging the adoption of labour-saving production
practices, or alternatively, by creating positive employment multipliers.
Taylor and Martin (2000) examine the interrelationship between U.S. farm employment and
immigration, and its implications for poverty and welfare use. They estimated a
simultaneous-equation model with data from a national random sample of census tracts for
the 1970, 1980 and 1990 census years. The findings reveal a circular relationship between
immigration and farm employment that reduced both poverty and welfare payments during
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15. the 1970s. However, this virtuous circle was reversed in the 1980s, when more farm jobs
were associated with more immigration as well as more poverty and welfare.
In 1990, the United States Congress appointed a Commission on Immigration Reform to
review U.S. immigration policies and laws and to recommend changes. In 1995, the
Commission requested that the National Research Council convene a panel of experts to
assess the demographic, economic, and fiscal ramifications of immigration in the United
States. The panel was asked to provide a scientific foundation for policymaking on specific
issues and a background for the Commission's deliberations. This panel established a record
of key findings on demographic, economic, fiscal, and social impacts of immigration in the
United States, including:
1. Migration will play the dominant role in United States demographic growth between
now and 2050, accounting for two-thirds of that nation's total population increase and
significantly altering the country's age distribution;
2. Although there are winners and losers , immigration yields net economic gains for
United States residents, but these gains are small relative to the total United States
economy;
3. Immigrants' fiscal impacts are negative at the state and local levels but positive at the
federal level, and fiscal costs are concentrated in a few states and localities, resulting
in conflicts over who should bear the fiscal costs of immigration2
; and
4. Social integration of immigrants and their descendants into the United States and the
effects of immigration on host-country institutions are extraordinarily complex and
vary across immigrant groups.
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16. MAGNITUDE AND PATTERNS OF INTERNATIONAL LABOUR
MIGRATION FROM INDIA
Global migration: The facts and figures Currently, nearly 191 million people are estimated to
be international migrants, including 115 million, or 60 per cent in developed countries and 76
million, or 40 per cent in developing countries,1 making one in every 35 persons on earth an
international migrant, up from one in every 40 in 1965(Table 1 & Figure 1). Although the
share of migrants in global population is not high, it is acknowledged that their presence and
visibility in economic, social, demographic and political terms is quite substantial (ILO,
2004b; IOM, 2005; Maimbo and Ratha, 2005; OECD, 2006; UN, 2006a).The annual average
growth rate of the migrant stock has been accelerating, increasing from 1.4 per cent during
1990-1995 to 1.9 per cent in 2000-2005. Between 1965 and 1985, the average annual flow of
international migrants was 1.5 million people, which more than trebled in the next 20 years
(1985-2005) to nearly 5 million per year.These figures reflect the number of persons living
outside their country of birth. Population censuses, which usually record the countryof birth
of the persons they count, provide the basic information leading to these estimates. Foreign-
born persons are migrants because they must have moved at least once from the country of
birth to the country where they live. But the foreign-born need not be foreigners. Foreign-
born persons may be citizens at birth by, for instance, being the children of citizens of the
country where they live, or they may be naturalized citizens (UN,2006a) Source: Based on
Estimates of the number of international migrants by sex show that the volume of
international migrants has been nearly equal for both men and women. In 2005, female
migrants constituted about half of the total migrants stock (49.6 per cent) of all international
migrants, up from about 47 per cent in 1960. It is striking to note that in the developed
countries, female migrants have outnumbered male migrants since 1990. However, in
developing countries, and especially in the Gulf Co-operation Council (GCC) countries they
are particularly under represented. In fact, recent estimates reveal that females constitute
barely 29 per cent of the total migrant stock in the GCC countries.Migrants are admitted in
different countries under diverse categories like: migrant workers,migrants admitted for
family reunification, students and refugees. Though a large number of foreigners are admitted
in categories other than migrant workers, many of them may join the labour force. According
to the latest ILO estimates, about half of all international migrants are in the labour force,that
is, approximately 95 million.
International labour flows from India: Dimensions and patterns
Historical development
Movement of people across boundaries of the Indian sub continent is of old standing. Trade,
political and religious links have necessitated regular contacts with southeast, eastern and
central Asia and Africa. However, with the advent of colonial rule, international migratory
movement entered a completely new phase. The imperial needs for labour led to the
substantial recruitment of migrant labour from India in the plantations or mines in different
British colonies: to far-away places such as Guyana, Jamaica,Trinidad and Fiji: to not so
distant lands such as Mauritius, Malaysia, Singapore and South Africa; and even to
neighbouring countries like Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) and Burma (now Myanmar) (Davis,
1951).The bulk of these migrants went as indentured labourers. Davis estimates that about
30.2 million Indians had emigrated between 1834 and 1937. This scale of movement was as
large as the European migration to the Americas in the 19th century. It declined with the
ending of indenture in 1921. However a significant free migration did continue with Indian
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17. workers migrating mainly to East Africa and Persian Gulf states.The effect of such long-term
migration pattern is visible in the size and diversity of the Indian
diaspora in the contemporary world. The magnitude of the diasporic Indian community is
estimated at 25 million residing in nearly 130 countries (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs,
2008). The Indian overseas community consists of both the persons of Indian origin (PIOs)
who have acquired the citizenship of other countries and the Non Resident Indians (NRIs)
who continue to hold Indian passports and are citizens of India. Estimates of country-wise
size of overseas Indian community are presented in Appendix 1.International labour
migration from independent India The pattern and dimension of international labour flows
from independent India have been characterized by significant transformations over the past
half a century (Nayyar, 1994; Indian Council of World Affairs, 2001; Sasikumar, 2001;
Srivastava and Sasikumar, 2003). These changes have become all the more pronounced since
the 1990s both in terms of the destinations and occupations of the migrants.We piece together
all the latest available information to highlight the emerging trends and patterns of
international labour flows from India.
Major flows of international labour from India since the 1990s can be schematized as
follows:
First, persons with professional expertise, technical qualifications and skills migrate to high-
income developed and traditionally migrant receiving countries like USA, UK, and Canada,
either as permanent immigrants or to take up temporary employment. Second, unskilled,
semi-skilled and professionals4 ILO Subregional Office for South Asia, New Delhi migrate
as contract workers to the high-income countries in the Gulf (mainly to the GCC countries).
In recent years such flows are also directed towards the high income countries of South East
Asia such as Malaysia. Third, professionals, especially young IT professionals, migrate to the
newly emerging destinations like continental Europe (Germany, France, and Belgium),
Australasia (Australia and New Zealand) and East Asia (Japan and Singapore).
Migration of professionals and highly skilled Although international migration flows from
India to the industrialized and traditionally migrant receiving countries such as USA, UK and
Canada have continued unabated for a long time, there is hardly any Indian data source on
this phenomenon. We attempt to analyze the composition of these flows based on
immigration statistics provided by the destination countries.The available evidence on trends
in permanent immigration from India to the selected industrialised countries, the USA, the
UK and Canada, during the period 1995 to 2005 is presentedin Table 2. The data clearly
shows that considerable numbers of Indians are immigrating on a permanent basis to these
industrialized nations. The average annual inflows of the Indian immigrants to all these
countries recorded substantial growth since the 1990s as compared to the earlier decades. In
the case of the United States, the average annual inflow of immigrants recorded at 26,184
persons during the 1980s (Nayyar, 1994) almost doubled to reach 48,844 during 1995 to
2005. As regards Canada, the average annual inflows which was 7930 persons in the 1980s
more than tripled to reach 23,471 during the period 1995- 2005. Similarly, the average inflow
of immigrants from India to the United Kingdom increased from 5400 persons during the
1980s to 6,576 during 1995-2005. It is striking to note that there has been a further increase
in the number of Indians immigrating on a permanent basis in all these three countries since
turn of the 21st century. Such an increase has also considerably scaled up the proportion of
Indians in the total immigration flows in these countries in recent years. For instance, in the
case of the USA, this proportion which had more or less hovered around 5 per cent during
1995-2000 has registered rapid increases during 2000-2005 to reach 7.5 percent by 2005.
Similarly in Canada, the proportion of Indians as percentage of the total immigrants which
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18. averaged around 9.5 per cent during 1995-1999, rose up to an average of nearly 13 per cent
during the 2000-2005. In the case of United Kingdom, the proportion of Indians which had
indicated a declining trend from 1995-2002 (from around 8 per cent to 6.8 per cent) has
registered increases since then reaching 8 per cent in 2004 One of the major characteristics of
immigration from India to these countries during the period 1950-1990 was that such labour
flows were made up almost entirely of permanent migration in so faras the proportion of
immigrants who returned to India, after a finite period of time, were almost negligible
(Nayyar,1994). However, such a trend has undergone significant transformations since the
1990s as a large number of Indian professionals and skilled personnel are migrating to these
countries on temporary basis,thereby making 'return' an inevitable component. This is
primarily due to the fact that all these countries have in the recent past introduced various
temporary employment programmes to admit migrants,especially those with specialized
professional skills, to meet specific the skill needs and labour shortages.The most notable
case is that of the United States which introduced the H-1B programme to admit migrants to
perform services in 'specialty occupations' based on professional education, skills, and/ or
equivalent experience. Under the H-1B programmme, specialty workers are permitted to be
employed for as long as three years initially with extensions not exceeding three years.
Specialty occupations mainly include computer systems analysts and programmers,
physicians, professors, engineers, and accountants. Large number of Indian professionals
have availed H-1B visa route to seek employment in the United States during the past decade.
In terms of occupational groups, health and medical services are reported to have grown
significantly over time in relation to other sectors and occupations. A large number of Indians
who have acquired work permits are engaged in health related professions. For instance, data
on the stock of registered doctors in United Kingdom by country of qualification show that
the largest number is accounted by Indian doctors.One of the salient features of international
labour flow from India in recent years is that the destination of Indian migrants, especially
high-skilled migrants, has diversified considerably. Significant numbers of Indian
professionals are now heading towards new and emerging destinations in continental Europe,
East Asia and Australasia. As regards continental Europe, Germany, France, and Belgium are
emerging as the major destination countries of Indian migrants. Although the proportion of
Indians to the total immigrants in these countries are rather insignificant, it is noteworthy that
majority of these Indians are being admitted under specialized employment programmes in
order to address the acute skill shortages experienced in key and expanding sectors. Germany
is the key case in point as it has introduced a specialized scheme, Green Card Scheme, in
2000 to attract IT specialists from countries like India. It is estimated that more than 60 per
cent of those who have been admitted under Green Card Scheme are Indians. There is also
increased in-take of Indian IT specialists in East Asian countries like Japan and Malaysia
under specialised temporary employment schemes. For instance, nearly 10 per cent of the
total IT engineers admitted to Japan during 2003 were Indians .Australia is another major
destination of Indian professionals and high skilled workers. Number of Indians immigrating
on a permanent basis to Australia has recorded significant increases since the 1990s and
especially after the turn of the 21st century. The average inflow of Indian immigrants to
Australia has almost doubled in the recent years with the numbers increasing from 3377
during 1995-2000 to 6957 during 2001-2005.Consequently the proportion of Indians in total
immigration inflows has registered a noteworthy increase, from around 3.5 per cent in the late
1990s to 7.6 per cent by 2005
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19. MIGRATION OF SEMI SKILLED AND UNSKILLED LABOUR
Migration of unskilled and semi-skilled labour to work as contract labour is the most
dominant form of international labour flows emanating from India. Although such labour
flows, especially to the GCC countries, have attained substantial dimensions in the past two
decades, lack of data about this movement of people has often bedeviled systematic
appraisals of this phenomenon. The primary source of information on international migration
from India is the data published by the Office of the Protector General of Emigrants, Ministry
of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India. Section 22 of the Emigration Act, 1983
provides that no citizen of India shall emigrate unless he/she obtains emigration clearance
from the Protector of Emigrants. Such a clearance is granted only after the Protector of
Emigrants verifies the relevant employment contracts. However, the Act exempts some
categories of people for whom the emigration clearance is not required, referred to as
Emigration Check is Not Required Category (ECNR Category). Therefore, this data set,
which is the only Indian data source on international labour flows from India is partial as it
includes only the number of those who require and had actually obtained emigration
clearance, while migrating abroad to seek employment.An examination of the categories of
persons who require the emigration clearance clearly shows that it targets primarily unskilled
and semi-skilled labour. (List of persons/categories for whom the Emigration Check is Not
Required Category (ECNR Category) is provided in Appendix II).Annual labour outflows
from India since 1990, as indicated by emigration clearances granted,The trends in the labour
outflows during 1990-2007 exhibit cyclical nature as was the case since the 1970s thereby
substantiating that these flows are primarily demand determined. It is evident that the labour
flows had picked up substantial momentum since the initial hiatus in the early 1990s. Then
we witness a sharp slump during the late 1990s. Thereafter the flows have consistently
increased and outflows during the last three to four years have outstripped the flows recorded
in the first half of 1990s.During 2003-2007, on an average 502,035 persons per annum
migrated from India to take up contract employment. This is significantly higher than the
quantum of labour outflows from India attained even during the 'Gulf boom' of the late 1970s
and early 1980s.An overwhelming majority of those who migrate after obtaining emigration
clearances are employed in the GCC countries (Figure 8 and Table 12). This is a trend
evident since the 1970s when the oil price boom and the consequent spurt in demand for
migrant labour in Gulf countries provided immense opportunities for labour abundant
countries like India to supply the requisite manpower (Sasikumar, 1995).Within the GCC
countries, Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and United Arab Emirates (UAE) are the major
destinations of Indians and together they account for more than 60 per cent of the total
deployment of Indian migrant workers. One major trend which is emerging is that while the
share of KSA has declined significantly from nearly 60 per cent in the early 1990s to nearly
25 per cent by 2007,UAE is emerging as an increasingly important destination with its share
registering a quantum jump from nearly 10 per cent to 40 per cent during the same
period.One of the striking trends in relation to the unskilled/semi-skilled emigration from
India in the recent years is the phenomenal increase in the numbers migrating to Malaysia.
The figures on emigration clearances indicate that Indian labour flows to Malaysia have
increased considerably since 2000 and the average annual outflows during 2004-2007 were
almost four times those recorded during 2000-2003 Origin centres of semi-skilled and
unskilled migrants.Within India, migration originates from a number of states. A macro
perspective on the relative importance of the different states in relation to labour migration
can be obtained from the emigration statistics, which, as we have mentioned earlier, are for
unskilled workers who require emigration clearances. Keeping in mind the likely under-
estimation, these data provide some evidence regarding the pattern of unskilled labour
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20. movement from India. The state-wise distribution of the emigration clearances granted during
the period 1993-2007 shows that nearly 16 states contribute to the process of emigration with
varying degrees of importance.In terms of relative shares, three states - Kerala, Tamil Nadu
and Andhra Pradesh - together contributed to about 60 per cent of those who have obtained
emigration clearance.In terms of the share of these prominent states, there has been a decline
in Kerala's contribution whereas the shares of Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh have
registered considerable increases. This could mean that larger numbers of people who are
migrating from Kerala are now engaged in skilled/professional activities whereas there are
larger outflows of unskilled labourers who require emigration clearance from states like
Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh.
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21. EMPOWERMENT OF SKILLED INDIAN MIGRANTS IN DEVELOPED
COUNTRIES
The Socio–economic and political profile of the skilled Indian diaspora in the developed
countries reflects the empowerment of the Indian migrants in the developed countries over
time. Within the European Union (EU) – the largest economic entity in the world today –
two–thirds of the entire Indian migrant community still resides in the UK. The Indian
community is one of the highest–earning and best–educated groups, achieving eminence in
business, information technology, the health sector, media, cuisine, and entertainment
industries. In Canada, with just 3 per cent share in a population of 30 million, Indo–
Canadians have recorded high achievements in the fields of medicine, academia,
management, and engineering. The Indian immigrants’ average annual income in Canada is
nearly 20 per cent higher than the national average, and their educational levels are higher
too. In the east, there are 30,000 Indian citizens in Australia; and New Zealand has also
witnessed a rise in the entry of Indian professional immigrants, those engaged in domestic
retail trade, medical, hospitality, engineering, and Information Technology sectors, and
countries like Japan, Korea, and Singapore are also trying to attract Indian talent.
Indian Diaspora Associations of North America category associations
1. Cultural/Religious
Associations
Samband, Assam Association of North America, Telugu Association of North America,
American Telugu Association (ATA), World Malayali Council, Bengali Cultural Association,
Kenada Koota, Gujarati Samaj, etc.
2. Students/Alumni
Association
Mayur at the Carnegie Mellon University; Sangam at MIT; Ashoka at California University;
Diya at Duke University; SASA at Brown University; Boston University, India Club, Friends
of India, IGSA (Houston University) and Indian Students Associations at various universities.
3. Support
Association
MITHAS, Manavi, Sakhi, Asian Indian Women in America (AIWA), Maitri, Narika, IBAW
(Indian Business and Professional Women), etc.
4. Professional
Association
AAPI, SIPA, NetIP, TiE, EPPIC, SISAB, WIN, AIIMSONIANS, AIPNA, ASEI, IPACA,
IFORI, SABHA, and IACEF,etc
5. Development
Association Association for India’s Development (AID), AIA, American India Foundation
6. General/ Umbrella
Network
GOPIO, NFIA, The Indian American Forum for Political Education (IAFPE), The National
Association of Americans of Asian Indian Descent (NAAAID), and Federation of Indian
Associations (FIA), etc. MIGRACIóN y DESARROllO The strong profile of Indian
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22. immigrants in general supports a proposition that the human capital content in the migration
of Indians to the US has been
the backbone of Indian scientific diaspora formation there. No other diaspora preceding the
Indian numerical rank acquired its position predominantly because of an American demand
for its labour skills, which has been the main factor for admitting the Indian skilled workers
on a large scale. It is hardly surprising therefore if in terms of the place in the US economy
indexed by employment, occupation, education and income of the immigrants, the Indian
diaspora had continued to rank amongst the top all through the 1970s till the present. There
are over 1000 US–based organizations of Indians in North America, with branches in
Canada. These represent various interest groups in India, ranging from regions to states to
languages, etc. Religion, caste, cultural and linguistic identities find significant space in these
associations and networks. However, some professional groups are involved in grass–root
development activities in India as well as in the welfare of their members abroad in the
professions.
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23. INDIAN LABOUR MIGRATION TO THE GULF
Although Indians manned the clerical and technical positions of the oil companies in the Gulf
after oil was discovered in the region during the 1930s, the over all numbers were still small.
Between 1948 and the early 1970s, these numbers gradually increased from about 1,400 to
40,000. When large scale development activities started following the 1973 spurt in oil prices
in the six Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries of Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Kuwait,
Oman, Qatar, and the UAE, an upsurge in the flow of workers and labourers began from
India to the Gulf. India and Pakistan supplied most of such unskilled labour, registering
almost 200 percent growth between 1970 and 1975. In 1975, Indian expatriates constituted
39.1 percent, Pakistanis 58.1 percent, and other Asians 2.8 percent of the total non–Arab
expatriates in the Gulf. Since then, Indian migration has overtaken that of Pakistan and other
Asian countries of origin. Further, since the Kuwait war of 1990–91, Indians has replaced
even the non–national Arabs in the Gulf, viz., the Jordanians, yemenis, Palestinians and
Egyptians. From less than 258,000 in 1975, migrant Indian population in the Gulf went up to
3.318 million in 2001, which is now estimated to have crossed 3.5 million.Admission to the
GCC countries was not as difficult prior to the mid–1970s, but thereafter restrictions have
been imposed by the host countries due to the fear of rapid growth of non–national
population. Thus it has been difficult for families to accompany the non–nationals workers to
these countries, particularly the unskilled contract workers. Foreigners are not allowed to own
businesses or immovable property in the Gulf countries; for running business enterprises they
are required to have local citizens or agencies as major partners in their ventures, whether
active or as «sleeping» partner. When it comes to human resources, shortage of labour has
been endemic in all the countries of the Gulf, for the entire range of work – from
professionals like doctors and nurses, engineers, architects, accountants and managers, to
semi–skilled workers like craftsmen, drivers, artisans, and other technical workers, to
unskilled labourers in construction sites, farm lands, livestock ranches, shops and stores and
households (Rajan and Nair). Stocks of Indian Migrant Population in the Gulf Countries,
Selected years: 1975–2001 Sources: Rahman (1999), and Rajan (2004).However, a large
majority of 70 per cent of the Indian migrants in the Gulf has comprised the semi–skilled and
unskilled workers, the rest being white–collar workers and professionals. Table 5 presents
their occupational distribution till after the outbreak of the Gulf War in August 1990. The fall
in numbers in 1991–92 is directly related to the control by Government of India in issuing
emigration clearance in the year following the Gulf War in 1990–91 when large numbers of
Indians were evacuated from the Gulf by the Government of India. However, the
classification more or less resumed although some changes might have taken place due to the
demand tilting more towards skilled professionals as infrastructure development progressed
in the Gulf. On the supply side, Indian government’s monitoring and control of labour
migration has been to streamline the process of emigration to some extent, increasingly in the
last couple of years.The demand for low category of workers like housemaids, cooks, bearers,
gardeners, etc. has been large, though systematic all–India data are not easily available,
except for the state of Kerala where an exclusive state–level ministry for overseas Keralite
affairs exists for many years. Some data are now in the process of being collected and
compiled by the newly formed Union Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs. The workers in
these vocations however do not enjoy country total the protection of any local labour laws.
Women, working as housemaids or governesses face ill treatment in some Gulf countries,
sometimes being subjected to even sexual abuse (GOI, MOIA 2006). Unskilled and
semiskilled workers working in infrastructural and development projects generally live in
miserable conditions and are accommodated in small cramped rooms in the labour camps.
Often toilet and kitchen facilities are inadequate, and working conditions are harsh.
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24. Thus, adverse working condition, unfriendly weather, inability to participate in social and
cultural activities, and long periods of separation from families and relatives leading to
emotional deprivation are known to have wrecked the lives of low skilled Indian workers in
the Gulf (Zachariah et al, 2002; GOI, MOIA Annual Emigration Clearances granted by
Government of India till after the Gulf War of 1990–91: Unskilled and Semi–skilled labour
by Occupation, 1988–1992 Government of India, cited in Rajan (2003). category The
unskilled and semi–skilled workers have a high rate of turnover as their contracts are for
short periods of employment and work, usually not more than two years at a time. Those
completing their contracts must return home, although a large proportion of them manage to
come back with new contracts which are not available before a gap of one year. This has
facilitated the proliferation of recruitment and placement agencies, sometimes colluding with
the prospective employers and exploiting illiterate job seekers The various forms of
exploitation range from withholding of the passports; refusal of promised employment,
wages, and over–time wages; undue deduction of permit fee from wages; unsuitable
transport; inadequate medical facilities; denial of legal rights for redressal of complaints; use
of migrants as carriers of smuggled goods; victimisation and harassment of women recruits in
household jobs like maids, cooks, governesses etc (Overseas Indian, 2006, various issues).
Generally speaking, the Indian migrant communities in the Gulf maintain close contacts with
their kith and kin in India, involving frequent home visits. They also keep track of political
developments and socio–economic changes taking place in India through newspapers, radio
and television. At times of natural disasters like earthquake in India, they have also come
forward with donations, and deposits in India Development Bonds. Most of the remittances
have accrued from the unskilled workers whose consumption expenses in the Gulf are
minimal because their families are not living with them.
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25. CHANGING PERCEPTIONS ABOUT MIGRATION FROM INDIA
India had a moderate number of universities at the time of independence but it lacked highly
trained scientific and technical human resources and an institutional base in science and
technology (S&T) to embark upon the industrialization and modernization planned under the
Nehruvian leadership of the early decades. The first Indian Institute of Technology was
established nine years after India’s independence, at Kharagpur in 1956.14 The five IITs,
modeled on the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), were created to train the best
engineers who would play an important role in assimilating technological change and
revolutionizing India’s industrialisation programme. The IITs not only created space for
hundreds of faculty members, but also attracted a good number of them back from abroad.15
As all the IITs in the beginning had intellectual and material support from various advanced
donor countries such as the USA, USSR, Germany, and the UK, they introduced the guest
faculty system from the respective countries. The exchange put Indian scientists in touch with
the cutting–edge of technological research and advanced training (Indiresan and Nigamm
1993). The Council for Scientific and Industrial Research (CSIR) which instituted a National
Register of Scientific and Technical Personnel in the late 1940s, created a special section –
the «Indians Abroad» section of the National Register in 1957 towards this end, which of
course did not succeed.The migration of the highly skilled from India to the developed
countries was first seen as brain drain when the Nobel Prize of 1968 in medicine brought
global recognition to gifted Indian scientists Har Gobind Khorana who had migrated to the
United States and naturalized as an American citizen around that time. The onus, however,
was put on the migrants as «deserters» of the «motherland India», either openly or subtly.17
From time to time various restrictive measures to contain the problem were conceived, but
there has never been a consensus except in the case of the medical sector – where some
restrictions were introduced, but with too many escape clauses to be effective. The most
striking feature of the period has still been the relative lack of policy attention to the problem
of brain drain. Education policy documents of the time did not provide for any mechanism to
check the problem of brain drain. The Kothari Commission (GOI, 1966, section 198 on
«Brain drain») had observed, «Not all who go out of India are necessarily first–rate scientists,
nor are they of critical importance to the country’s requirements» (Chapter 16). Gradually,
the failure of India’s industrialization programme to absorb the increasing numbers of highly
qualified personnel from educational institutes coupled with the shrinking of employment
space in the science agencies led to a serious problem of supply and demand and aggravated
this (Blaug et al, 1969).The policy discourse during this period thus did not pay attention the
problem deserved in the face of stark realities of oversupply, unemployment and the exodus
of trained human resources to foreign countries (Krishna and Khadria, 1997). As a result,
many Indian immigrants who fuelled the Silicon Valley were those educated in the US at the
post–graduate level after they had emigrated with a first engineering degree of B.Tech, from
the Indian Institutes of Technology. Similarly, many doctors who earned laurels in their
respective fields in the US had emigrated with the first MBBS degree from the All India
Institute of Medical Sciences . In fact, it was the Gulf war of 1990–91 that had woken up the
Indian policy makers about the vulnerability of its workers in the Gulf, and the importance
of their remittances to the economy. However, with shifts in the paradigm of migration, it
was the perception of high–skill emigration to developed countries which had changed much
more dramatically than that on labour migration to the Gulf. Thus, in the mid–1980s, the
political perception of «brain drain» had suddenly given way to the perception of «brain
bank» abroad, a concept dear to Rajiv Gandhi when he took over as the prime–minister of the
country in1984, after Indira Gandhi was assassinated. Through the 1990s, the gradual success
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26. and achievements of the Indian migrants in the US – particularly led by «body shopping» of
the software professionals to the US from Bangalore, India’s Silicon Valley, and working
towards averting the looming global crisis of y2K – drew real attention of the developed
countries in the West and the East alike (Van der Veer 2005, 279). The paradigm shift in the
perception about professional migrants leaving India, thus took place in phases – from the
«brain drain» of the 1960s and 1970s to the «brain bank» of the 1980s and 1990s, and
subsequently to «brain gain» in the twenty–first century. However, the IT bubble burst in the
wake of the American recession and hordes of techies were sent back to India, having lost
their H–1B visa contracts. Western European countries in the EU, including the UK looked as
a more sustainable destination, and East/South East Asia looked at as an emerging
destination. However, Germany’s Chancellor Gerhard Schroeder’s scheme of issuing 20,000
«Green Cards» to computer specialist from non–EU countries, mainly India (between 7,000
to 10,000) and Eastern Europe launched in August, 2000 was met with street protests and the
wave of xenophobia of «kinder stat inder» sweeping Germany.18 Eventually, opportunities
of employment multiplied within India under the emergence of business process outsourcing
(BPO) – MNCs moving their capital to India rather than labour moving out of India –
triggering return migration of Indians as a boon to the economy of India. In fact, the latest
NASSCOM Strategic Review (2005a) and the NASSCOM–McKinsey Report (2005b),
apprehends huge shortage of IT–related as well as BPO–related skills in India. The report
said that currently only about 25 per cent of the technical graduates and 10–15 per cent of
general college students were suitable for employment in the offshore IT and BPO industries
respectively, and estimated that by 2010 the two industries would have to employ an
additional workforce of about one million workers near five Tier–I cities, viz., New Delhi,
Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai and Mumbai, and about 600,000 workers across other towns
in India (Economic Times, 17 Dec, 2005). On talent supply, it said India would need a 2.3
million strong IT and BPO workforce by 2010 to maintain its current market share. The
report projected a potential shortfall of nearly 0.5 million qualified employees – nearly 70 per
cent of which would be concentrated in the BPO industry. In fact, the BPO industry has also
started attracting foreigners to India in search of employment.20 This roller–coaster of
perception in moving from one model of the Indian diaspora–identity formation through
migration to the other –between «work–seeking» by workers and «worker–seeking» by
employers– gets reflected in the current official and public response in India over the
changing immigration quotas of the developed host countries. India’s pro–active stance
towards its population overseas, incorporating a substantial scientific diaspora, is reflective of
this paradigm shift only. Not merely economic, but political mileage that the NRIs and PIOs
can command for India in their countries of abode has also become a focus of pride in recent
years, particularly with liberalization, globalisation and world competitiveness becoming the
agenda of the nations – whether developed or developing.
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27. MIGRATION MANAGEMENT IN INDIA-RECENT INITIATIVES
A number of initiatives have been taken in India since independence to recognsie and honour
the significant contribution of overseas Indian community in India's social and economic
progress.However, in most cases, these steps were taken in an ad hoc manner without
considering the modalities to sustain them in a long-term perspective. This was surprising in
view of the fact that the sustained international migration from India and its consequences
provided massive potential for addressing different developmental concerns. The
establishment of a separate Ministry, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in May 2004, to
deal with all matters pertaining to overseas Indians, comprising Persons of Indian Origin
(PIO), Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Overseas Citizens of India (OCI), was a historic step
to acknowledge the fact that the overseas Indian community constitutes a significant
economic, social and cultural force and needs mainstream attention. The basic mission of this
Ministry is to "promote, nurture and sustain a mutually beneficial relationship between India
and its overseas community"(MOIA, 2007).In achieving the above mission, the MOIA is
guided by four key policy imperatives.
First, the heterogeneous overseas Indian community spread across eight major regions of the
world is a product of different waves of migration over hundreds of years and have distinct
and often varied expectations from the home country. In facilitating the process of
engagement the Ministry seeks to provide for this wide range of roles and expectations.
Second, there is a need to bring a strategic dimension to the process of India's engagement
with its overseas community. It is important to take a medium to long term view of overseas
Indians and forge partnerships that will best serve India as an emerging economic power and
meet the expectations of overseas Indians as a significant constituency across the world.
Third,overseas Indians are both the products and the drivers of globalisation. They represent
a reservoir of knowledge and resources in diverse fields - economic, social and cultural - and
that this reservoir must be drawn upon as partners in development. Finally, the states of India
are important players in this process. Any initiative that overseas Indians, individually or
collectively, take must be anchored in one of the states. The states must therefore be
encouraged to become natural stakeholder partners in the process of engagement with the
overseas Indian community. Some of the major schemes initiated by the Indian Government
to accomplish the above stated objectives are highlighted below.
1) Pravasi Bharatiya Divas
As per the recommendation of High Level Committee on Indian Diaspora, the Government of
India had decided to celebrate 'Pravasi Bharatiya Divas' (PBD) in recognition and
appreciation of the constructive, economic and philanthropic role played by the Indian
Diaspora, on the 9th day of January every year. January 9 has been chosen because it was on
this day that Mahatma Gandhi, Father of the Nation and a Pravasi Bharatiya in South Africa
for almost two decades, returned to India in 1915.The first PBD was celebrated during
January 9-11, 2003 at New Delhi. Since then this event held on an annual basis has become
the major platform for discussions on a host of issues related to overseas Indians. The high
level deliberations have been attended by significant numbers of overseas Indian community
from across the globe. It has also become the centre stage for recognizing the contributions
made by Indian Diaspora as the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award are conferred during this
meet to prominent members of the Indian Diaspora.
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28. 2) Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Scheme
In response to a long and persistent demand for "dual citizenship" particularly from the
Diaspora in North America and developed countries, the Government of India introduced
Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Scheme in 2005 to cover all Persons of Indian Origin
where local laws permit "dual citizenship" in some form or the other except Pakistan and
Bangladesh. Accordingly, the citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance was promulgated on
28.06.2005 amending the Citizenship Act, 1955 extending the facility of Overseas
Citizenship of India (OCI) to Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of all countries (who were
citizens of India or eligible to become citizens of India on 26 January, 1950 and are citizens
of the countries (except Pakistan and Bangladesh). Registered OCIs are entitled to the
following benefits:
(i)Multiple entry, multi-purpose life long visa to visit India;
(ii) Exemption from reporting to the police for any length of stay in India ; and
(iii) Parity with NRIs in financial, economic and educational fields except in the acquisition
of agricultural or plantation properties. As on March 31, 2008, over 2.5 lakhs OCI documents
have been issued (MOIA, 2008).
3) The Pravasi Bharatiya Bima Yojana, 2006
This is a new and upgraded version of the compulsory insurance scheme for the migrant
workers introduced in 2003. Under the new scheme, the migrant workers are insured for a
minimum cover of Rs. 0.3 million and the policy is valid for the entire period of the
employment contract. The insurance is compulsory for all those who migrate for employment
purposes after obtaining emigration clearance from Protector of Emigrants (POE). The salient
features of this scheme are:
(i) In the case of death,besides the cost of transporting the dead body, the cost incurred on
the one-way airfare of one attendant shall be reimbursed by the insurance company;
(ii) If a worker is not received by the employer on his/ her arrival to the destination abroad or
there is any substantive change in employment contract to his/her disadvantage or if the
employment is pre-maturely terminated within the period of employment for no fault of the
emigrant, the insurance company shall reimburse one way economy class airfare provided
the grounds of repatriation are certified by the concerned Indian Mission/Post;
(iii) In cases where the repatriation is arranged by the Indian Mission/Post, the insurance
company shall reimburse the actual expenses to the concerned Indian Mission/Post;
(iv) The insured person shall be reimbursed actual one way economy class airfare by the
insurance company if he/she falls sick or is declared medically unfit to commence or continue
working and the service contract is terminated by the foreign employer within twelve months
of taking the insurance;
(v) The insurance policy shall also provide medical cover of a minimum of Rs.50,000/- as
cash-less hospitalization and/or reimbursement of actual medical expenses of the insured
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29. emigrant workers on grounds of accidental injuries and/or sickness/ailments/diseases
constructive, economic and philanthropic role played by the Indian Diaspora, on the 9th day
of January every year. January 9 has been chosen because it was on this day that Mahatma
Gandhi, Father of the Nation and a Pravasi Bharatiya in South Africa for almost two decades,
returned to India in 1915.The first PBD was celebrated during January 9-11, 2003 at New
Delhi. Since then this event held on an annual basis has become the major platform for
discussions on a host of issues related to overseas Indians. The high level deliberations have
been attended by significant numbers of overseas Indian community from across the globe. It
has also become the centre stage for recognizing the contributions made by Indian Diaspora
as the Pravasi Bharatiya Samman Award are conferred during this meet to prominent
members of the Indian Diaspora. Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) Scheme In response to
a long and persistent demand for "dual citizenship" particularly from the Diaspora in North
America and developed countries, the Government of India introduced Overseas Citizenship
of India (OCI) Scheme in 2005 to cover all Persons of Indian Origin where local laws permit
"dual citizenship" in some form or the other except Pakistan and Bangladesh. Accordingly,
the citizenship (Amendment) Ordinance was promulgated on 28.06.2005 amending the
Citizenship Act, 1955 extending the facility of Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) to
Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) of all countries (who were citizens of India or eligible to
become citizens of India on 26 January, 1950 and are citizens of the countries (except
Pakistan and Bangladesh). Registered OCIs are entitled to the following benefits: (i)Multiple
entry, multi-purpose life long visa to visit India; (ii) Exemption from reporting to the police
for any length of stay in India ; and (iii) Parity with NRIs in financial, economic and
educational fields except in the acquisition of agricultural or plantation properties. As on
March 31, 2008, over 2.5 lakhs OCI documents have been issued (MOIA, 2008).
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30. GOVERNMENT MEASURES AND PROGRAMMES FOR BETTER
MIGRATION MANAGEMENT
Whereas provision regarding entry, regulation and prevention of «foreigners» into India and
Indian citizenship are found in the Constitution, the Citizenship Act 1955, the Passport Act
1967, the Criminal Procedure Code and other regulations, there has been no systematic legal
policy framework to deal with emigration out of the country. Despite the debates, discourses,
and perspective, the Government of India does not have any comprehensive policy on labour
migration or overseas employment, whether for skilled or unskilled workers. However, the
paradigm of policy stance in India could be said to have moved over time from one of
restrictive regime, to compensatory, to restorative, to developmental.21 The Emigration Act,
1983, which replaced the earlier 1922 Emigration Act, has been designed mainly to ensure
protection to vulnerable categories of unskilled, and semi–skilled workers, and women going
abroad to work as housemaids and domestic workers. Under the Act, it is mandatory for
registration of all «Recruiting Agents» with the ministry (GOI, MOIA, Annual Report 2005–
6). The government’s role has been perceived as that of a facilitator in finding gainful
employment to maximum number of persons, again a major development concern sincIndia’s
independence, whether within or outside the country.The newly formed Ministry of Overseas
Indian Affairs, constituted in 2004, has taken the initiative to amend the Emigration Act,
1983, and introduce a number of measures. In addition, there are various other pro–active
programmes that are in the pipeline of the MOIA, including benchmarking of the best
practices of other progressive sending countries like the Philippines and Sri lanka (See GOI,
MOIA, Annual Report 2005–6). Overseas Indian, the house journal of the Ministry has been
launched in five languages with an e–version also being made accessible. Of all the
government measures and programmes in India, the Overseas Citizenship of India (OCI) –
the dual citizenship is an important landmark in redefining the contours of migration policy in
the new millennium. This measure seems to be relevant mainly to the highly skilled migrants
to the developed countries. A second measure, that Indian citizens abroad would have the
right to exercise their votes from abroad, is primarily meant for the Indian workers in the
Gulf – those who send large remittances back home but can never hope to become
naturalized citizens of those countries because of restrictive regimes there. However, it is still
too early to gauge the impact of these two measures as they are in their infancy.
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31. A CRITICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE SOCIO-ECONOMIC IMPACT IN
INDIA
How does one assess whether migration has changed society in India, and whether it has
adequately contributed to social and economic development in India? In other words, what
have been the socio–economic gains and losses arising from 21 The normal issue of forced
migration in terms of Indians applying for refugee status in Europe, USA or elsewhere has
not drawn much attention in India. Refugee issues are limited to asylees and asylum seekers
in India rather than from India.These questions have traditionally been raised in suggesting
cost–benefit analysis at the micro–level for the individual migrant and the household, and at
macro level for society and the economy as a whole. Even if it is assumed that the micro–
level assessment of benefits and losses to the households left behind in India can more
accurately identify and measure the benefits, there has not been many satisfactory surveys of
the psychic losses that separation of family member brings, except for a few studies carried
out in the state of Kerala. For example, emigration of married men who left behind the
responsibility of the management of the household to women in the family, transformed
about one million women into efficient home managers, but eventually also created the social
and psychological problems of the «Gulf Wives» and the loneliness of the «Gulf Parents»,
who unlike the relatives of the skilled migrants to the developed countries were not
accompanying the workers to their destination countries (Zachariah et al 2003, 329–39;
Zachariah and Rajan 2004, 48). Increase in temporary migration over permanent migration of
even skilled migrants, to developed countries, has also led to creation of what I have
elsewhere called «nomadic families» on the one hand and a new kind of «forced return» on
the other for the skilled migrants, but these have not been assessed or analysed (Khadria,
2006a).22 Another related but unattended facet of Indian migration has been the gender issue.
No comprehensive data are available on women migrants as dependents or workers, not to
consider in–depth analyses of the trend and impacts. Some receiving–country data are
available, like the US Census, or the UK workforce data indicating the proportion of women
amongst Asian Indian ethnic group population which comprises migrants, or particular
professional groups like Indian nurses respectively, and Singapore data on Indian maids.
Beyond this, analyses of the gender dimension of Indian migration have remained, by and
large, either stereotypical or case–study based.23 Of course, there has been concern followed
by diplomatic action at the plight of the migrant workers of Indian origin employed abroad
whenever a crisis has erupted, be it the Gulf war, or the Iraq war, or the random abductions of
Indian truck drivers, the recent beheading of an Indian engineer by the terrorists in
Afghanistan, or the sudden arrests of Indian IT professionals in Malaysia or the Netherlands
and so on (Hindustan Times, Times of India, Straight Times, April–May, 2006). However,
India virtually exerts no control over migration flows of highly 22 For example, one such
neglected gender dimension of high–skill emigration has been the denial of right to work for
the H–4 dependent visa holding spouses, mostly wives, accompanying the celebrated H–1B
Visa holder Indian male migrants in the US, leading to financial and mobility dependency on
husbands followed by discrimination, exploitation, and sometimes mistreatment. See Devi
(2002) as cited in Van der Veer (2005, 283).23 The present agitation in India over reservation
of seats in higher education institutions for the underprivileged castes is a case in
point.skilled categories. Even unskilled migration flows are controlled only to the extent they
fall under the purview of the Emigration Clearance Required (ECR) category of passports,
with limitations mentioned earlier. As a result, what has not been looked into is how the
possibility of migration itself has created a sense of desperation amongst the low–income
Indian populace to emigrate for the sake of upward socio–economic mobility of the family
left behind in India, even at the risks that accompany migration overseas. Similarly, there
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32. have been no studies on the impact of skilled migration on career choices and educational
choices in India, where there have been a lot of choice distortion and inter–generational or
even inter–community conflict over educational choices that have taken place but remained
un–analysed if not un–noticed (Khadria, 2004b; NCAER 2005).24 At the macro level, the
attempts have not progressed beyond identification of the indicators, viz., remittances,
transfer of technology, and human capital embodied in returning migrants (Khadria 1999,
2002). Even in the case of macro–economic assessment of much talked about remittances,
there has been a «silent backwash flow» from the south countries of origin like India to north
countries of destination like the UK, Australia, and the US – in the form of «oveseas student»
fees (Khadria, 2004c, 2006a). This has remained un–estimated and unanalysed so far. The
rises in disposable income of the Kerala households arising from remittances have had its
effect on the consumption pattern in the state, including on enhanced family investment in
education for migration (Zachariah and Rajan, 2004).25 But, consumerism and house
building activities have drained the state of the development potential of its remittance
receipts, leading many families to financial bankruptcy, even to suicides. Apart from this, the
increasing economic and political clout of the «new rich» in Kerala is reported to have
created a climate of resentment against them among the other communities (Zachariah and
Rajan, 2004).Notwithstanding this, whereas the volume of remittances from Indian labour
migrants in the Gulf have drawn a lot of attention, the other two areas, viz., transfer of
technology and return migration that have been thought of as the positive outcome of skilled
migration to the developed countries, even quantitative assessment have not been adequate.
Most studies have not gone beyond 24 At the same time, remittances have led to the opening
up of a large number of new schools and colleges on the one hand, and to enabling the youth
to buy a costly private education on the other hand – both contributing to unemployment
amongst the current generations of Kerala youth who no longer want to work in traditional
lines of occupations. Secondly, an equally important «adverse» effect has been the emergence
of «replacement migration» of labour into Kerala from the other Indian states. Apart from the
fact that wages have gone up in Kerala to be highest in India due to shortage of unskilled and
semi–skilled workers, labourers from other states also accept low wages and poor living
conditions to work in Kerala, adding to unemployment of the local generations of youth.25
Today, Britain is an endless repository of success stories of the Indian professional diaspora,
ranging from lord Swraj Paul, to steel magnate laxmi Mittal, to icons like Nobel laureate
Amartya Sen.migration to developed countriestalking about the need to assess the
quantitative outcomes in terms of volumes of flows of technology collaborations and the
numbers of returnees. Collection and availability of data have been the main constrains of
researchers in going beyond this in these two areas, although sporadic information on transfer
of technology has revealed not necessarily rosy pictures arising from the contribution in the
field of transfer of technology; rather, the «reverse transfer of technology» – a term used by
the UNCTAD studies carried out in the 1970s – from countries of the south to north still
seems to be continuing in the form of brain drain of IT professionals and so on (Khadria,
1990). Return migration has become topical in the context of «outsourcing» of business
processes to India picking up after the IT bubble burst in the US, but here too there have been
no systematic assessment of the numbers and quality of the returnees, although some studies
emphasise the return to India as unsustainable because the returnees tend to go back after a
short stay in India (Saxenian, 2005). Some involvement of circulating returnees have of
course been noted in NGO activities for socio–economic development at the grass–roots level
in India but these have remained largely anecdotal (as cited in Khadria, 2002). What would
be useful as a policy tool is «adversary analysis» whereby the contribution to social and
economic development in countries of origin would be assessed from the point of view of the
stakeholders in countries of destination. To do this in a multilateral international–relations
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33. framework at fora like the GATS under WTO, the benefits of remittances, technology, and
return migration to south countries of origin can be weighed and even pitted against three
advantages of «Age, Wage, and Vintage» that accrue to the destination countries of the north.
These are the advantages derived through higher migrant turnover in–built in temporary and
circulatory immigration, and operationalised by (a) bringing in of younger migrants to
balance an ageing population, (b) keeping the wage and pension commitments low by
replacing older and long–term migrants with younger and short–term migrants, and (c)
stockpiling latest vintage of knowledge embodied in younger cohorts of skilled workers
respectively (Khadria, 2006a, 194). It remains to be judged and explored what are the cost
aspects of these benefits.The changed perceptions of the destination countries, in which the
Indian professional migrants have settled to form a diaspora, might play a catalyst’s role in
this exercise. The changed values are now attributed to the Indian diaspora itself that has
defied the anticipated doom by rising to unforeseeable economic success in the destination
countries of the north, leading to a paradigm shift in the societies and regions where Indians
have settled.26 The reason lies in the on diaspora as a policy option.migration to developed
countriesrealization of the host countries that, given the appropriate help, resources, and local
support, one type of migrants – the suspected «social parasite» – can become the other, the
social boon, or as someone has phrased it, the white West’s off–white hope» (Alibinia, 2000).
This has led to a major paradigm shift in India too – to look at migration as a process leading
to formation of the «Indian Diaspora», an option for turning the challenge of migration into
an opportunity, and therefore gainfull. What remain for India as well as these host countries
in the emerging international relations paradigm is to judge where the loyalty of the Indian
diaspora would lie? Whether Indian migrants would no longer be treated by India as the
«deserters of the motherland», or as «social parasites» by the host countries?The diaspora
option, because it is holistic in identity, would also foster the emphasis that the GCIM (2005)
report has made in stating, «the traditional distinction between skilled and unskilled workers
is in certain respects an unhelpful one, as it fails to do justice to the complexity of
international migration.While they may have different levels of educational achievement, all
of them could be legitimately described as essential workers (emphasis added)». While the
dichotomy between skilled and unskilled migrant workers is unwarranted, lately India has
drawn disproportionately high worldwide attention to the success stories of its highly skilled
human resources doing remarkably well in the world labour markets abroad – the IT
professionals, the nurses, the biotechnologists, the financial managers, the scientists, the
architects, the lawyers, the teachers and so on – there being almost a fray for them amongst
the developed countries the German Green Card, the American H1–B visa, the British work
permit, the Canadian investment visa, the Australian student visa, the New Zealand
citizenship, all mushrooming to acquire Indian talent embodied in workers as well as
students. In contrast, the Indian labour migrants in the Gulf have been considered more of a
responsibility than pride for India. To neutralise this imbalance and empower the Indian
labour migrants, the interest of the stakeholders in the Gulf (and South–east Asia too) are
gradually being looked into, and innovative programmes are being introduced. The
developments following the institution of the «Pravasi Bhartiya Divas» (Expatriate Indians
Day) and constitution of a separate ministry of the government of India reflect a break from
the past – a confidence emanating from a paradigm shift towards India taking pride in its
diaspora, and vice–versa. What is required, however, is a long–term policy that is aimed at
establishing India’s links with the Indian diaspora for sustainable socio–economic
development in the country. To arrive though at a proverbial «win–win» situation in
international relations for all the three stakeholders – India as a south country of origin, the
Indian migrants as part of its diaspora, and the host destination countries of the north, two
specific conditions must be met: A «necessary condition of dominant or significant global
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34. geo–economic presence of the Indian workers migration to developed countriesand a
«sufficient condition» of India deriving sustainable benefits from that global geo–economic
presence. In terms of the large demand for Indian skilled as well as unskilled workers abroad,
and the migrants establishing excellent records of accomplishment in the labour markets of
the destination countries, the first condition has more or less been met. To satisfy the
sufficient condition of India deriving significant gains from the global geo–economic
presence of the Indian migrants, the flows of remittances, transfer of technology, and return
migration must all be directed not «top down» but not towards trade and business but towards
the removal of two kinds of poverty in India – the poverty of education» and the «poverty of
health» – areas where migration has so far failed to change the society in this country of
origin by contributing to its economic and social development. large masses of the illiterate
and uneducated population, incapacitated further by their poor health status are the root
causes of India having one of the lowest levels of average productivity of labour, and
therefore lowest average wages in the world – a paradox when Indian diaspora members, on
the average, figure amongst the largest contributing ethnic communities in their countries of
destination. For example, it is indeed paradoxical that the average per–hour contribution of
each employed worker within India to the production of India’s gross domestic product
(GDP) has been amongst the lowest in the world a mere 37 cents as compared to the United
States’ 37 dollars, i.e., one–hundredth of the latter. This is naturally ironical, because the
same average Indian employed abroad contributes very high average share to the GDP of the
country where one settles and works (Khadria, 2002). The Indian diaspora networks and
associations abroad could, therefore, play the catalyst’s role – be it economically, politically
or culturally – in raising the average productivity of mass Indian workers at home by thinking
health and education in India as areas of diaspora engagement, rather than focusing on
immediate «profit–making» ventures in industry and business. This sets a «double challenge»
of public policy for a sending country like India: First, to convince its own diaspora
community to rethink the development process in India as a «bottom up» creation and
enhancement of sustainable productivities of labour through development of education and
health rather than a development through participation in business and industry – one
comprehensive, the other dispersed; one long–term, the other immediate. It is not just a
matter of willingness; in many instances, it would entail long periods of struggle in creating
those decision–making and priority–setting discerning capabilities amongst the leaders of the
migrant community. Secondly, India must be able to convince the countries of destination
(and the other countries of origin in the south as well) to distinguish between most «painful»
and most gainful socio–economic impacts of migration of its workers – both skilled and
unskilled. The «adversary analysis» in multilateral fora would help a country like India press
for international norms in the GATS negotiations around the issue of movement of natural
persons as service providers under trade, which is just and migration to developed
countriesother description for promoting the temporary entry of migrants. At multilateral
dialogues, the vulnerability of the migrants and the instability of trends underlying the
«open–and–shut policy» of the destination countries in the north could be the two key aspects
that the south countries of origin ought to negotiate out of international migration as the most
hurting ones.
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35. CONCLUSION
Due to shortage of labour in many of the developed countries, there has been an increasing
competition among them to attract skilled labour from developing countries. This tendency
of fulfilling labour shortage in the developed countries by imported manpower is perceived to
pose certain challenges as well as provide opportunities for source countries. India being a
leading labour export country has to ponder over the future impacts that this may have on the
Indian economy as well as the Indian Diaspora. Considering the demographic shifts and
India's own position in producing human capital two possible scenarios emerge for India:
a.India losing out
According to the World Population Council the productive population of India, i.e., people
belonging to the age group 15-60, will stop increasing in the coming years and it will stabilise
at 64 percent of the total population from 2025 to 2050 and will decrease thereafter to 62
percent of the total population in 2050 Gain, 2008). It may lead to shortage of skilled labour
in India too, if the present rate of migration from the country continues unabated. The
government is right now focusing on the immediate benefits associated with emigration. But
the pattern of emigration shows that the migrants belong to the high-skilled categories such as
the scientists, engineers, doctors, management and IT professionals, academicians, who are
already in short supply, may lead to decline in productivity. Also, the education system shall
face severe shortage of teachers and researchers resulting in poor quality students passing out
from educational institutions.
b.India gains
The second scenario postulates that India along with China would emerge as a major global
player having an immense impact on the geo-political landscape. India is well positioned to
become a technology leader in the coming decades. Sustainable high economic
growth,expanding military capabilities and large demographic dividend will be the
contributing factors to the expected elevation of the country. Knowledge and technology
involving the convergence of nano-, bio-, information and material technology could further
its prospects in the forthcoming global economy. Substantial enhancement of financial
recourses in social sector, especially on education and research, would help India to become
the largest source of knowledge professionals in the world. The two scenarios just described
are based on the recent indicators of economic performance and potential for future growth.
Nothing is sure to happen. Nevertheless, projections provide food for intellectual engagement
and help moving ahead with certain degree of expected outcomes. Projections, therefore
should be given due importance in policy perspectives if they are based on solid empirical
indicators. Migration policy of India should, therefore, be based upon vital datasets of social
and economic importance.Research, Analysis and Development In order to maximize the
positive impacts of cross-border migration and nunuruze the negative consequences veritable
statistics is fundamental requirement. Data related to various aspects of migration such as
flow/stock of migrants, destination countries, countries of origin, proftle of migrants, their
intentions, mode of crossing borders, legal status, remittances, etc., for all migrants should be
collected. However, the fact is that despite growing scale of international migratory flows
necessary statistics in India is not easily available simply because it is neither collected
properly nor maintained. At present, statistics relevant to migration is being collected in India
for different purposes by different government departments and other organisations, namely,
Bureau of Immigration, Protectorate of Emigrants, Ministry of External Affairs, Office of the
Registrar General & Census Commissioner and National Sample Survey Organization
(NSSO). Since migration statistics is collected by different agencies to meet their own
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36. individual requirements and differs in coverage, it purportedly lacks uniformity and
comparability. Some academic institutions such as Centre for Development Studies, Kerala,
are also engaged in collecting and analysing migration data with focus on unskilled
migration. However, it would really be very ambitious to expect form individual institutions
to provide a comprehensive coverage of migration form a country like India. This situation
warrants sequential coordination between various government departments, universities and
institutions involved in study and motnotoring of migration.
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37. BIBLIOGRAPHY
• www.icsw.org/doc/Migrant-workers-B-K-Sahu.docwww.icsw.org/doc/Migrant-
workers-B-K-Sahu.doc
• meme.phpwebhosting.com/~migracion/modules/ve7/2.pdf
• community.eldis.org/..../Labour%20Migration%20in%20India.pdf
• www.currentaffairsindia.info/.../migration-types-causes-and-consequence
• timesofindia.indiatimes.com/india/...migrants...Indias.../24313033.cms
• en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Human_migration
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