The 2009 Human Development Report points out that international migrants represent only 1.5 per cent of the population of South Asia.
In India, international migration is “dwarfed” by internal migration. While immigration and emigration rates are 0.5 per cent and 0.8 per cent respectively, lifetime internal migration rates are estimated at a little over 4 per cent — which, in a country of over a billion people, means more than 400 million people.
Deputy Chairman of the Planning Commission Montek Singh Ahluwalia, however, called the figure an underestimation. Speaking at the release of the report, he said many internal migrations never got registered.
The report, while bullish on migration, acknowledges the enormous challenges faced by people displaced by conflicts and other negative causes. Seasonal workers in India are excluded from voting in elections, and many are denied basic entitlements, the report says, giving the example of Bhagyawati, a “lower caste” woman from Andhra Pradesh, who lives in Bangalore with her children for six months of the year, earning Rs. 60 a day for work done at construction sites. Her children do not attend school and do not have access to subsidised food or healthcare that other poor residents of the city are entitled to.
Health problems
Indian migrant workers in the leather industry are exposed to respiratory problems and skin infections. Yet migration happens because these jobs are better paying than anything available at home in rural Bihar.
Many of the workers from Kerala, who go to the Gulf lured by the higher wages, endure “restrictive and often abusive” conditions. But on the positive side, the Gulf wives back home assume civic and other responsibilities, which improve their social status and life opportunities. Construction jobs created by remittances from the Gulf are filled by workers from other Indian States to the benefit of all — the workers and their families and the economy of Kerala.
The report is nonetheless clear that “the improvements in well-being among Indians in Kerala do not outweigh or justify the mistreatment of migrant workers in the Gulf.”
High remittances
The report says remittances to South Asian countries are several times higher than Official Development Assistance (ODS) inflows. They also exceed Foreign Direct Investment (FDI). In Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka, remittances constitute about 16, 10 and 8 per cent of the GDP (Gross Domestic Product) respectively. Even in India, remittances are 1.5 times greater than the FDI.
The HDR 2009 proposes a “package of reforms based on 6 pillars.” 1. Liberalising and simplifying regular channels that allow people to seek work abroad; 2. Ensuring basic rights for migrants; 3. Reducing transaction costs associated with migration; 4. Improving outcomes for migrants and destination communities; 5. Enabling benefits from internal mobility; and 6. Making mobility an integral part of national development strategies.
Barriers to mobility
The report points out that though migration benefits are the greatest for the poor and low-skilled people, barriers to mobility are also the highest for them. And this despite a huge demand for their labour in the rich countries. Polices as a rule favour the better educated. “Governments often tend to rotate less educated people in and out of the country, sometimes treating temporary and irregular workers like water from a tap that can be turned on and off at will.”
The report says that “an estimated 50 million people are today living and working abroad with irregular status.”
Many internal migrations never get registered: Ahluwalia
HDR 2009 proposes a “package of reforms based on 6 pillars”
