IMMIGRATION IN INDIA:overview
Jul. 25, 2020 • Samiksha Gupta
Profile of the author: Sejal Tayal is a law student at MAIMS (School of Law) and has a keen interest in contemporary legal issues
Introduction
India has a long history of immigration. There have been large inflows of people from neighboring countries like Bangladesh, Nepal, Tibet, etc., which has even made significant changes in the demographic profile of some states in India. India is also fast emerging as a destination for many multinational companies (MNCs) to outsource some of their operations. Medical tourism is the new addition in the list of immigration to India. People not only from the developing countries but from the developed world too have now been heading to India for education and employment and hence it has become one of the top destinations for migrants. As of 2015, about 5.2 million immigrants live in India, making it the 12th-largest immigrant population in the world. The overwhelming majority of India’s immigrants are from neighboring countries such as Bangladesh (3.2 million), Pakistan (1.1 million), Nepal (540,000) and Sri Lanka (160,000) [1]but their exists the problems and concerns of cross-border migrants, and India's policy stance in dealing with immigration.
Nowadays, because of the euphoria about high rates of growth in India as well as insulation from the economic crisis, as compared to many other countries of the world, people from developed countries are also pouring in India to look for profitable business prospects, employment in the multinational companies and for education. But, despite having experienced major migratory flows, India's involvement in international migration lacks a well structured policy framework. Also, there are no relevant data sets on the outflows, inflows and stocks of migrants belonging to various categories and countries. [2]
Migration in India has received increased scholarly attention in the past four decades, assisted by additional categories of data collected through the National Census. Considering the volume of both international and internal migration, the Indian population is relatively immobile. The total population of India at the last Census was over a billion. According to the National Census for 2001, 30% of the population or 307 million were migrants. Migration is a process which requires a multi-level planning, strict policy and well organized system which can only be achieved by harmonizing with international law while acknowledging the rights of every stakeholder, i.e., the receiving country, the sending country, local communities in both the countries, and the migrants themselves.
FACTORS RESPONSIBLE FOR IMMIGRATION
- ECONOMIC FACTORS
Economic incentives are the prime determinants for people to migrate from one country to the other. Generally, people tend to improve their economic prospects by migrating; sometimes they are forced to migrate due to extreme poverty or unemployment as is the case in many countries of South Asia. Economic migrants flock in the places where employment opportunities are abundant and flee from those places where economic opportunities are shrinking.
Majority of economic migrants choose legal channels but there are large number of economic migrants too who seek entry through illegal channels and therefore have to bear the wrath of the State for they are not allowed to engage in any economic activity.
Economic migrants are not always pushed by the opportunity-deficient home economies; many times they are pulled by the receiving countries to avert the negative impact of labor or skill shortages arising due to reasons such as demographic imbalance or massive expansion of economic activities. They contribute to the employment generation and economic prosperity of the host societies, however, their contribution in the domestic economy is sometimes undermined by receiving countries due to political hype or some other reasons. [3]
- SOCIAL FACTORS
While migration has economic, social and cultural implications for both the sending and host societies, remittances which the migrants send home are perhaps the most tangible and least controversial link between migration and development. At its best, migration can be a rewarding experience that is made in the interest of the household welfare, but in most cases moving to another country and being separated from one's immediate family takes place at considerable emotional cost. In poorer households, where the whole family cannot afford to emigrate together, they emigrate one member at a time resulting in eroded family structures and relationships.
Family reunification is one of the most important categories of permanent immigration that accounts for almost 45 to 60 percent of total flow. Economic migrants, who primarily move in order to better their employment and earning prospects, do keep in mind their long term interests too. They also want their family members to accompany them or to join them later, depending upon the laws of the destination country about family reunification.
- POLITICAL FACTORS
A political migrant is a person who leaves his/her home country and tend to migrate to another country not because of an apparent economic motive but because of the fear of persecution in the homeland. Frequent occurrences of political, ethnic, religious and regional turbulence in some parts of the world, coupled with natural environmental disasters, have led to the affected people to leave their homes and seek asylum elsewhere. History is replete with the instances of people fleeing their homeland and seeking refuge elsewhere in the times of political turmoil.
India has witnessed one of the most severe crises arising out of political instability during the time of partition. Millions of people became refugees overnight in their own homeland. They were brutally forced to flee to the other sides of the newly drawn border. Their properties were ransacked and their belongings were looted by the miscreant mobs of religious fundamentalists. In 1971 again when Bangladesh became independent from Pakistan, millions of refugees fled to India, causing financial hardship and political instability therein. Violent movements in India continued throughout the later decades of the 20th century and afterwards forcing many people to seek shelter elsewhere. In 2003, for example, India ranked among the top ten countries with 13,553 claims lodged for asylum in developed countries.[4]
- ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION
The issue of illegal immigration and its effects has long been brushed under the carpet, so much is our detriment as a country, a society and a civilization. Illegal migration is increasingly taking center stage in most migration debates. Many countries across the world, developed as well as developing, are facing large influx of illegal migrants. Most often, they come from the neighboring countries. For example, Bangladesh and Nepal, countries that share physical borders with India, are prominent source of illegal migrants to India. Illegal migration causes several kinds of problems in the local community and sometimes may bring far reaching impact on the socio-demographic profile of the receiving region/state.
They also affect employment opportunities for locals in the region, by taking up jobs, sometimes even at wage rates much below the prevalent wages. Illegal migrants can broadly be put in the following categories: • Legal (skilled/semi-skilled/low-skilled) migrants who lost their legal status due to overstay in the destination country. • Illegal migrants (skilled/semi-skilled/low-skilled) infiltrated voluntarily. • Forced illegal migrants brought through hazardous routes such as trafficking.
CONCLUSION
India needs to differentiate between the stocks and the flows of its immigrant population to balance it out. Also, it would no doubt be in the larger interests of the country to control the unabated flows of migrants from across the borders and minimize their negative effects, but one must not lose sight of the components of a humane migration policy, including investment in the human capital of the migrant population.
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FAQ:
Q- What are the recent amendments relating to immigration in India?
Ans. The Government of India has come up with many significant changes to the India Immigration Law such as:
- Any visitor on an employment visa has the liberty to change his/her employer once they have arrived in India by applying to the Ministry of Home Affairs.
- A dependent visa or a (X) visa can be converted into an employment visa considering the eligibility of the X visa holder and employment status of the spouse.
- The PIO (People of Indian Origin) and OCI (Overseas Citizen of India) cards are merged as of the ordinance passed on January 9th, 2015.
[2] http://lib.jnu.ac.in/sites/default/files/pdf/imds_p/IMDS_Dec_2008_WP_1.pdf
[3] Wickramasekara, 1999: OECD, 2007
[4] (UNHCR, 2004) cited in 10M (2005, p. 118)