MIGRATION
Migration has been an integral part and a very important factor in redistributing population over time and space. India has witnessed the waves of migrants coming to the country from Central and West Asia and also from Southeast Asia. In fact, the history of India is a history of waves of migrants coming and settling one after another in different parts of the country. Similarly, large numbers of people from India too have been migrating to places in search of better opportunities especially to the countries of the Middle-East, Western Europe, America, Australia and East and South East Asia.
The history of humanity and development of human society is underpinned by migration (Philips, 2011). Migration of people across administrative/political jurisdictions within a country, or across countries, has been a crucial factor in changes in societies. For a better understanding of migration, it is necessary to classify migration according to its types.
There are two major types of migration: a) internal migration, which takes place within a country; and b) international migration that takes place across international boundaries (Bhende and Kanitkar, 2006).
Internal Migration: Internal migration refers to the movement of people within the boundaries of a country. In India, internal migration is significant and occurs for various reasons, such as seeking better economic opportunities, education, marriage, or escaping from natural disasters and conflicts. Internal migration can be further classified into regional and sectoral migration.
Regional migration: Regional migration involves the movement of people between different regions within the country. It can be divided into two subcategories:
Inter-regional: Inter-regional migration is the movement of people from one region to another region. For example, people moving from North India to South India or from East India to West India.
Intra-regional: Intra-regional migration is the movement of people within the same region. For example, rural to rural, rural to urban, and so on.
Sectoral migration: Sectoral migration involves the movement of people between different economic sectors, such as agriculture, industry, and services. It can be further divided into:
Inter-Sectoral migration: Inter-Sectoral migration occurs between different economic sectors and includes the following:
Rural-Urban migration: Rural-Urban migration is one of the most prominent forms of internal migration in India. It involves the movement of people from rural areas to urban areas. People migrate to cities and towns in search of better employment opportunities, education, and improved living standards.
Urban-Rural migration: It is a reversal or push-back migration. It occurs at a high level of urbanization when cities are characterized by overcrowding, haphazard growth, and high living costs. It is less because it involves the elderly population migrating primarily after their professional commitments are completed. The technical term for this migratory movement is “counter-current migration.”
Intra Sectoral Migration: Intra Sectoral migration takes place within the same economic sector and includes the following:
Rural-Rural migration: According to the 2011 Census, this is the country’s most dominant migratory movement. Rural-Rural migration involves the movement of people from one rural area to another rural area within the country. This type of migration could be driven by factors like seasonal work opportunities, access to better resources, or family reasons. Intra-regional and inter-regional characteristics are linked to intra-sectoral migration.
Urban-Urban migration: Urban-Urban migration refers to the movement of people from one urban area to another urban area. This migration takes place in stages, with people moving from rural areas to small towns and then to larger cities (Class II to Class I towns). The majority of urban to urban migration occurs in search of better opportunities and a higher standard of living.
Apart from the above, in India, there are two more types of internal migration based on the term of stay.
Long-term migration: Individual or household relocation as a result of long-term migration.
Short-term migration: It is characterized by shorter back-and-forth movement between the source and the destination.
External Migration: India’s external migration can be divided into three categories:
Emigration: India (17.5 million), Mexico (11.8 million), and China are the top three countries of origin for international migrants (10.7 million). India ($78.6 billion), China ($67.4 billion), and Mexico ($35.7 billion) were the top three remittance recipients. The United States ($68 billion) remained the leading remittance-sending country, followed by the United Arab Emirates ($44.4 billion) and Saudi Arabia ($36.1 billion).
Immigration: Immigration is the process by which people become permanent residents or citizens of a different country. Immigration has historically benefited states in terms of social, economic, and cultural benefits. According to the UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) International Migrant Stock 2019 report, India has overtaken China as the world's leading country of origin for immigrants. The UAE was the most popular destination for Indian migrants, followed by the United States and Saudi Arabia. Bangladesh, Pakistan, and Nepal were the countries with the most international migrants in India. One-third of all international migrants come from ten countries or less. India has the highest number of international migrants (17.5 million), followed by Mexico (12 million), China (11 million), Russia (10 million), and Syria (10 million) (8 million).
Refugee Migration: A refugee is defined as “a person who is outside his country of nationality because of a well-founded fear of persecution for reasons of race, religion, nationality, membership of a particular social group, or political opinion.” After leaving his mother country, a refugee does not change his nationality. In India, for example, Tibetan refugees, Sri Lankan Tamils are another large group of refugees in India, having fled the island nation as a result of active discriminatory policies by successive Sri Lankan governments, as well as events such as the 1983 Black July Riots and the bloody Sri Lankan civil war. After 40,000 Rohingya Muslims fled Myanmar and sought refuge in India, the refugee debate resurfaced in the United States.
International Migration: The movement of people across international borders for the purpose of settling is known as international migration. India has not always been affected by in-migration, but historical events such as Partition (1947-51), Buddhist Migration (1954-59), Bangladesh Liberation (1971), and Tamil migrants have all contributed to international in-migration in India.
Before Independence
Labour movement: Before India gained independence in 1947, there was significant migration of Indian labourers to other British colonies and countries. The British colonial authorities often sent Indian labourers to work on plantations and in other industries in countries like Mauritius, Fiji, Malaysia, and South Africa.
Passage Movement: The “Passage Movement” refers to the migration of Indian labourers to various European colonies as indentured servants during the 19th and early 20th centuries. These labourers were recruited to work on plantations, construction projects, and other manual labour-intensive jobs.
After Independence
Brain Drain: After independence, India experienced a significant brain drain, which refers to the emigration of highly skilled and educated professionals to other countries. Many doctors, engineers, scientists, and other professionals left India in search of better career opportunities and living standards abroad.
Labour Migration: Labour migration continued to be a prominent feature after independence. People from rural areas continued to move to urban centers, particularly in search of employment opportunities in the expanding industrial and service sectors.
It’s important to note that migration patterns are complex and influenced by a multitude of factors, including economic opportunities, social networks, policies, and push-pull factors. Migration in India has significant implications for both the regions of origin and the destination areas, impacting the labour market, social dynamics, and urban development.
CAUSES OF MIGRATION
Migration is a global phenomenon caused not only by economic factors but many other factors and they are briefly described as under.
Economic Factors: The major reason of voluntary migration is economic. In most of the developing countries, low agricultural income, agricultural unemployment and underemployment are the major factors pushing the migrants towards areas with greater job opportunities. Even the pressure of population resulting in a high man-land ratio has been widely recognized as one of the important causes of poverty and rural outmigration.
Urbanization: Urbanization has been a major driver of internal migration. Rates of urbanization influence rural-urban wage differences. An increase in the demand for labour in urban areas can attract urban wages and increase migration. The pull factors of better job facilities, good salary, and more income, medical and educational facilities are attracting the rural people to move to the cities (Kundu, 2012, pp. 225-226). The push factors of no job facilities, low salary, less income, drought, less medical and education compel people towards cities.
Marriage: Marriage is a very important social factor of migration. Every girl has to migrate to her in-law’s place of residence. Thus, the entire female population of India has to migrate over short or long distance. About 49.35 the percent people shifted their residence after marriage in 2011.
Employment: People migrate in large number from rural to urban areas in search of employment in industries, trade, transport and services. The rural areas does not provide employment to all the people living there. Even the small - scale and cottage industries of the villages fail to provide employment to the entire rural community. About 1022 percent of migrants migrated for employment in 2011.
Education: Due to lack of educational facilities in rural areas, people migrate to the urban areas for higher education. Many of them settle down in the cities for earning a livelihood after completing their education. In 2011 census, about 1.77 percent people migrated for education.
Lack of Security: Political disturbances and interethnic conflicts drive people away from their homes. Large number of people has migrated out of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam during the last few years due to disturbed conditions there. People also migrate on a short-term basis in search of better opportunities for recreation, health care facilities etc.
Environmental and Disaster – induced factors: There are migrants who are forced to moves from rural to urban areas or from one country to another as a result of an environmental disaster in the form of drought, floods, heat waves etc., that might have destroyed their homes and farms.
‘Pull’ and ‘Push’ Factors: Urban centres provide vast scope for employment in industries, transport, trade and other services. They also offer modern facilities of life. Thus, they act as ‘magnets’ for the migrant population and attract people from outside. In other words, cities pull people from other areas. This is known as ‘Pull Factor”.
Socio-Cultural Factors: Social and cultural factors also play an important role in migration. Sometimes family conflicts also cause migration. Improved communication facilities, such as, transportation, impact of the radio and the television, the cinema, the urban-oriented education and resultant change in attitudes and values also promote migration.
Political Factors: Even political factors encourage or discourage migration. For instance, in our country, the adoption of the jobs for ‘sons of the soil policy’ by the State governments will certainly affect the migration from other states. The rise of Shiv Sena in Bombay, with its hatred for the migrants and the occasional eruption of violence in the name of local parochial patriotism, is a significant phenomenon. Even in Calcutta, the Bengali-Marwari conflict will have far reaching implications. And now Assam and Tamil Nadu are other such examples.
Very often, people consider and prefer opportunities closer to their location than similar opportunities farther away. In the same vein, people often like to move to places with better cultural, political, climatic and general terrain in closer locations than locations farther away. It is rare to find people move over very long distances to settle in places that they have little knowledge of.
CONSEQUENCES OF MIGRATION
Migration is a response to the uneven distribution of opportunities over space. People tend to move from place of low opportunity and low safety to the place of higher opportunity and better safety. This, in turn, creates both benefits and problems for the areas; people migrate from and migrate to. Consequences can be observed in economic, social, cultural, political and demographic terms.
Economic Consequences: Migration changes the resource population ratio. If the people are moving from an overpopulated area to an area of underpopulation the result is in the balancing of the resource-population ratio. If the migration is from an area of underpopulation to overpopulation or optimal populated, the results are harmful to both the areas. Migration affects the occupational structure of population. The population of receiving areas becomes more productive causing dependency ratio in the source areas. Brain drain is another consequence of migration. Skilled people migrate from poorer countries to developed countries in search of better economic opportunities. People migrating out send remittances to their families at home and add to economic prosperity
Demographic Consequences: Migration leads to the redistribution of the population within a country. Rural-urban migration is one of the important factors contributing to the population growth of cities. Age and skill selective out migration from the rural area have adverse effect on the rural demographic structure. However, high out migration from Uttaranchal, Rajasthan, Madhya Pradesh and Eastern Maharashtra have brought serious imbalances in age and sex composition in these states.
Social Consequences: Migrants act as agents of social change. The new ideas related to new technologies, family planning, girl’s education, etc. get diffused from urban to rural areas through them. Migration leads to intermixing of people from diverse cultures. It has positive contributions such as evolution of composite culture and breaking through the narrow considerations and widens up the mental horizon of the people at large. But it also has serious negative consequences such as anonymity, which creates social vacuum and sense of dejection among individuals. Continued feeling of dejection may motivate people to fall in the trap of anti-social activities like crime and drug abuse.
Environmental Consequences: Overcrowding of people due to rural-urban migration has put pressure on the existing social and physical infrastructure in the urban areas. This ultimately leads to unplanned growth of urban settlement and formation of slums shanty colonies. Apart from this, due to over-exploitation of natural resources, cities are facing the acute problem of depletion of ground water, air pollution, and disposal of sewage and management of solid wastes.
Other consequences: Migration enhances remittances to the source region but causes heavy loss to human resource, in terms of skilled labour. Leg- behind women enjoy empowerment effects with increased interaction in society including their partnership as workers and decision making of households.
The consequences of migration are complex and multifaceted, with both positive and negative outcomes. Effective policies and planning are necessary to harness the benefits of migration while addressing the challenges it presents. It is crucial to strike a balance between economic development, social inclusion, and environmental sustainability to ensure the well-being of both migrants and host communities.
—
Bala, A. (2017, July). Migration in India: Causes and consequences. International Journal of Advanced Educational Research International Journal of Advanced Educational Research ISSN: 2455-6157; Impact Factor: RJIF 5. 12 www.educationjournal.org Volume 2; Issue 4; July 2017; Page No. 54-56, 2(4), 54-56. https://www.mugberiagangadharmahavidyalaya.ac.in/images/ques_answer/15864662292-4-63-793.pdf
Kundu, A., & Saraswati, L. R. (2012). Migration and exclusionary urbanisation in India. Economic and Political Weekly, 219-227.
Post a Comment