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Migration – the Perennial Question
By Vishal Sinha
Mar. 6, 2008 |
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The last
couple of months have raised focus on the
question of migration – and how migrants form
Bihar and UP are being targeted by locals in
hate attacks. This has brought to the underlying
question about the economics of migration.
Most mass migration occurs due to economic
reasons. There are instances in history where
mass migration occurred due to political
(migration at the time of Indian Independence)
or religious (Jews migrating to Israel after
world war II) reasons, but these are specific to
instances in history. Most of the times nothing
other than the lure of gold can motivate people
to go thousands of miles to start a new life.
Most large economies accept the fact that their
economy cannot survive without the services of
migrants. Migrants in Punjab or Maharashtra or
Delhi have provided essential service to the
local economy and have helped the local economy
to survive. Bihari labourers working in the
fields of Punjab have brought huge profits to
large farmers in Punjab. Bihari workers in Delhi
or Maharashtra have provided a wide variety of
services to the local businesses – working as
technicians, semi skilled workers in various
factories etc. When the migrants first come in,
they are welcomed by the businesses, because the
migrants fulfill a much needed gap in the local
labour market. Gradually the migrants increase
in population. As the local economy expands more
and more migrants join the economy. However, as
the migrant population increases, so does their
impact o the local population. This is where the
inter community tension starts brewing.
The local population everywhere wants to wish
away the migrants and if they had their way,
they would have done so. But economic
considerations do not allow them to do so in any
drastic manner. Just as the local population
needs the services of the migrants, the migrants
need the local jobs to earn a living. So both
the communities need each other. Co – existing
communities require understanding from both the
communities. Migrants cannot be expected to
forget their culture, nor should the local
population be expected to force their culture on
the migrants. But the derision of the Bihari
population continues. This is primarily due to
the kind of work done by the Bihari migrants.
Low paid, or that perceived to be lowly by the
local population. The migrants, mostly because
they have been taunted and sidelined due to this
perceived ill treatment, take recourse in
a) God
b) their own culture and traditions and try to
follow them with more vigour.
This is taken as a show of strength by the local
population and an affront. This is, what has
happened in the recent anti Bihari / North
Indian agitation in Maharashtra or Delhi or
Punjab.
Social dynamics is a very sensitive issue.
Politicians or administrators are not trained to
deal with these. The MNS leadership, or the RJD,
JD politicians are not the right people to come
up with a solution. They will keep on hankering
their own point of view till eternity. The
administration will look at ‘administrative’
ways to solve the problem. But they will not be
able to solve the problem of perceived
one-upmanship being played out between the
communities. This one-upmanship will be played
till the perception of the difference in
communities goes away. It will not happen today.
Nor tomorrow. A decade is a more measurable time
by which we will see some changes making their
presence felt.
But this does not mean that we sit down and do
nothing. This is where politicians and community
leaders step in. The need of the day is to
diffuse the high degree of tension that is
present among the community. This can be only
done by mature leadership – which the current
crop of politicians have absolutely failed to
display. Sound byte politics looks good on TV or
in newspapers, but does not solve issues. I find
it an abuse of the power of these leading
politicians – whether Bihari or Marathi – that
they have not moved an inch towards resolving
the problem and focusing on rhetoric instead. It
is high time they sat up and made the people
proud of their position.
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Discussion on this topic is now
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