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International Labour Migration from Independent India

 

 

S. K. Sasikumar

 

I. INTRODUCTION

The migration of races across countries and continents has been a regular feature of human history. However, the quantum of international migration has now reached an extent where it has become a major factor in global change.  Never before have such large numbers of people left their country of origin, either permanently or for short duration, as economic migrants, or as refugees and asylum seekers.  The World Development Report 1999/2000 estimates that more than 130 million people now live outside the countries of their birth.

   

Migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries recognizing the importance of such world wide migratory pressures have begun to intensify their efforts in framing appropriate policy responses.  Such policy responses in different countries have mainly been the outcome of the pervasive impact which the large-scale international labour migration has had on their economic and social structures.  In fact, many developing countries in the world today are relying on remittances of migrant workers to finance development.  The annual value of remittances from overseas workers (who number around 35 to 40 million) are currently estimated to be nearly $66 billion – which is second in value only to oil in world trade and more than even the current level of international development assistance.

Increasing internationalization of production, trade and finance, globalization of economic networks, liberalization of the movement of capital and technology, rapid population growth in the South, high economic growth and low fertility in the newly industrializing countries are all factors that may exert additional pressure both in the migrant-sending and migrant-receiving countries for larger international flow of skilled and unskilled labour in the immediate decades to follow. Apart from these factors, the Gulf Crisis of 1990 and certain post crisis developments in the Middle East – centre stage for contract labour migration in the last two decades – have also wide ranging implications for future international migration flows, particularly for labour exporting countries of South and South East Asia.

n an emerging global scenario where the immediate future is viewed as the ‘age of migration’, it is imperative that attempts are made, especially in a leading labour exporting country like India, to examine the implications of the contemporary migration flows so as to evolve a more purposeful migration policy framework aimed at the maximization and socialization of benefits from migration in the wider context of economic development.  This should particularly be based on the experiences India has had with labour migration phenomenon in the past.  It is in this context that an attempt is made in this paper to detail out the trends, pattern composition and characteristics of international migration flows in the post-Independence period. It deals with migration flows to the industrialised countries as well as to the Middle East. The paper also examines various aspects pertaining to the overseas labour recruitment processes in India. It analyses the information on different categories of recruitment agencies, their profile, modes of operation, efficiency and performance, regulatory mechanism and their impact and implications for migrant workers. It also highlights certain policy considerations on migration which India’s experience with labour export suggests.  

 

II. INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION FROM INDEPENDENT INDIA

In India, the migration of its labour force within and across its national boundaries is nothing new. India’s geographical position has ensured contact with the Persian Gulf region and South East Asian countries for trade in goods and movement of people, a contact which goes back to several centuries.  The migration of workers on a significant scale was, however, to come much later. It began in the colonial era and continues now to independent India.

Migratory flow during the period of colonial domination was very much tied to the investment interests of the colonial rulers and took place under their aegis.  For instance a great part of the nineteenth century and the early twentieth century witnessed a regular migration of Indian workers as indentured labour for plantations or mines in the British colonies; this migration was to far away places such as Guyana, Jamaica and Fiji, to not so-distant lands such as Malaysia and Singapore and even to neighbouring countries such as Sri Lanka and Burma.

Since Independence, two distinct types of labour migration have been taking place from India.  The first is characterized by a movement of persons with technical skills and professional expertise to the industrialized countries like the United States, Britain and Canada which began to proliferate in the early 1950s. The second type of migration pertains to the flow of labour to the oil exporting countries of the Middle East which acquired substantial dimensions after the dramatic oil price increases of 1973-74 and 1979. The nature of this recent wave of migration is strikingly different, as an overwhelming proportion of these migrants are in the category of unskilled workers and semi-skilled workers skilled in manual or clerical occupations.

 

2.1 MIGRATION TO THE INDUSTRIALISED COUNTRIES

At the outset, it is important to highlight the basic characteristics of the labour flows from India to the industrialised countries in the period since Independence:

·     

  •         Such outflows are made up almost entirely of permanent migration in so far as the proportion of emigrants who return to India, after a finite period, is almost negligible.

  •        A large proportion of these migrants are persons with professional expertise, technical qualifications or other skills.  

  •       For a overwhelming proportion of these migrants, the destinations are United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. 

 

Although these labour flows have continued unabated for long, it is surprising that there is no information, let alone a primary source of data, on these migration flows from India.  Whatever analysis have been carried out till date on the composition of these flows is thus based upon immigration statistics of the countries of destination (Khadria, 1999; Nayyar, 1994).

The available evidence on trends in migration from India to the selected industrialised countries - the United States, Canada and the United Kingdom - during the period 1951 - 1990 is presented in Table 1. Emigration to the North America began in the early 1950s but the numbers remained modest until the middle of 1960s. This emigration gathered momentum thereafter.  The number of emigrants from India to both the United States and Canada has steadily increased over the 1970s and the 1980s. In contrast, emigration to the United Kingdom was at its peak during the 1960s; its slowed down thereafter in the 1970s and stabilised at significantly lower level in the 1980s.  However, it is important to recognise some limitations of the database. First, the figures do not quite reflect actual emigration flows in each year, at least in the United States and United Kingdom, because the data includes not only immigrants expected on arrival in that year but also those granted immigrant status during that year after their statutory period of residence. Second, the evidence of migration from India to the United Kingdom is incomplete.  Third, there is no information for immigration to other parts of industrialised world such as Western Europe or Australia.

Table 1

Trends in Immigration from India to Selected Industrialized Countries: 1951 – 1990

 

 

 

 

 

(Number of Persons)

Year

United

Canada

United

Year

United

Canada

United

 

States

 

Kingdom

 

States

 

Kingdom

1951

109

120

n.a

1971

      14,310

       5,313

       6,900

1952

123

226

n.a

1972

      16,926

       5,049

       7,600

1953

104

169

n.a

1973

      13,124

       9,433

       6,240

1954

144

208

n.a

1974

      12,779

      12,731

       6,650

1955

194

224

n.a

1975

      15,773

      10,106

      10,200

1956

185

254

n.a

1976

      17,487

       6,637

      11,020

1957

196

186

n.a

1977

      18,613

       5,514

       7,340

1958

323

325

n.a

1978

      20,753

       5,112

       9,890

1959

351

585

n.a

1979

      19,708

       4,517

       9,270

1960

391

505

n.a

1980

      22,607

       8,491

       7,930

1961

421

568

n.a

1981

      21,522

       8,263

       6,590

1962

545

529

       2,900

1982

      21,738

       7,792

       5,410

1963

1,173

737

      15,500

1983

      25,451

       7,051

       5,380

1964

634

      1,154

      13,000

1984

      24,964

       5,513

       5,140

1965

582

      2,241

      17,100

1985

      26,026

       4,038

       5,500

1966

       2,458

      2,233

      16,700

1986

      26,227

       6,970

       4,210

1967

       4,642

      3,966

      19,100

1987

      27,803

       9,747

       4,610

1968

       4,682

      3,229

      23,100

1988

      26,268

      10,432

       5,020

1969

       5,963

      5,395

      11,000

1989

      31,175

       8,836

       4,580

1970

      10,114

      5,670

       7,200

1990

      30,667

      10,662

       5,040

Source:  Nayyar, 1994

 

Notes: (a) The above data on immigration are reported by country of birth for the    United States, by Country of last permanent residence for Canada, and by country of nationality for the United Kingdom (b) Information on immigration from India to the United Kingdom is not available for the period before 1 July 1962 because, until then, Commonwealth citizens were not subject to immigration control.

 

It is very clear that the United States accounts for the largest number of Indian emigrants.  The significance of these flows become more illustrative when we examine India’s share in total immigration to the United States during 1951-1996 (Table 2). It shows that Indian immigration in the United States which constituted less than 1 per cent of total immigration from all countries during 1950s and 1960s, registered a rapid increase during the 1970s, reaching a peak of 3.8 per cent that tapered off in the 1980s till 1991 but went on the upswing in 1992 at 3.8 per cent again and further touching almost 5 per cent in 1996.


Table 2

India's