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Aswini Kumar Nanda
Punjab ranks second among the states after Kerala in international out-migration, and the rate of emigration from the state has been consistently rising over the past decades.
Data indicates that the proportion of households in Punjab reporting at least one international migrant jumped more than three times from around 3 per cent in 1992-93 (NFHS-1) to around 11 per cent in 2010-11 (PIMS). Such an increase in the cross-border mobility is a pointer to the impact of globalisation and structural changes in Punjab, impacting life of the people. Data also suggests that the emigration is no longer confined to Doaba, and is rapidly transcending region, class, caste, religion, gender and age.
About 68 per cent of all Punjabis moving abroad in 2010-11 were between 15-29 years. As per PIMS, three-fifths of these are in the age group of 20-29. In Punjab, out-migration from rural and urban areas, from Hindu and Sikh communities, from Dalit, backward and other castes, from landless and land-owning families, from poor and noon-poor households, all are overwhelmingly dominated by the young people. This pattern of youth-centric emigration has not changed since the first round of large-scale emigration data was available for the state in the early 1990s. While it is natural to find the youth leading cross-border mobility, it is pertinent to examine why so many young persons from Punjab leave home to seek fortunes abroad at a time of rising xenophobic attitudes, vilification of immigrants and mounting border controls? Answers to this question, in a globalised order, are extremely complex and are not completely rooted in the economy of Punjab (or India) alone.
To focus on some, Punjab is at the forefront of a demographic transition, and has been home to a robust demographic dividend. The state has more youth than ever before — with the share of the youth (15-29 years) in the total population increasing from 26 per cent in 1971 to 30 per cent in 2016. It has not been wholly possible for the economy in the state, or for that matter in the country, to accommodate these youth. Decisions associated with education, employment and marriage have been primary drivers of out-migration from Punjab. However, all mobility abroad has not resulted in better opportunities for the youth, who become victims of human trafficking, discrimination and death.
Emigration agents have penetrated even the remote villages in the state and robbed many families of their land and other possessions. Emigration-induced indebtedness, drug addiction, matrimonial separations, etc., have inflicted long-term damages not only to the youth but also to their families.
Unfortunately, little is known about cascading effects of such debilitating emigration. There is little on the ground in Punjab that can prepare the youth — who were 8.1 million in 2011 — for life abroad. The state and the Union Government are unaware where the young migrants from Punjab are heading to and with what consequences? Only remittances from the migrants matter to the ruling elite. As most of the emigrant youth are poor, they continue to remain out of the ambit of the policy priority. The state harbours an ad-hoc approach to migrants and their issues that take the form of crisis management in situations that one saw during the Gulf War or other similar situations in Lebanon or Syria or elsewhere.
The youth need to be provided education, entrepreneurial skills and other support that could help them secure decent work abroad. With more and more young people seeking education outside the country, large remittances are also flowing from India to the developed world. The state needs to understand the implications of this fund transfer. Migration may be an inalienable fundamental right of the individual but it has to be exercised in caution in a world, unfortunately, full of rising walls, ethnic fortifications and sweeping nationalism. Migration can be only positive if it is undertaken in a safe and legal framework.
Following the movement
Source: Dynamics of International Outmigration from Punjab (Nanda, Veron)
— The writer is professor, CRRID