Diasporas: Connecting Communities Across Continents

In our increasingly interconnected world, the term “diaspora” has become a common thread weaving through our global narrative. You’ve likely encountered it through captivating posts on platforms like Brown History, celebrated moments during the Indian Government’s Pravasi Divas, documentaries like AP Dhillon’s, or even in Kamala Harris’ heartfelt affinity for idli and sambar. But what exactly does this term mean? Simply put, a diaspora refers to a population dispersed across regions, far from their geographic place of origin.

India’s Vibrant Diaspora

India boasts the second-largest diaspora globally, numbering 30 million, eclipsed only by China. As diverse as India itself, these diaspora communities play a vital role in shaping India’s relationships with other nations, forging cultural bonds, driving economic ties, and bringing continents closer together. Each diaspora narrative is a testament to human endeavour, and here at IMN, we’re passionate about uncovering and chronicling these extraordinary stories.

Double Diasporas and Beyond

In a previous edition of GKOM, we delved into the concept of ‘double diasporas,’ exploring the unique journeys of individuals who’ve migrated twice, with South Asia as our focus. Continuing our quest to illuminate the Indian diaspora’s unique experiences and stories, this edition centres on a specific diaspora group — Punjabis settled in the dairy business in Italy. But that’s not all — we have an exciting announcement to share, so stay with us till the end!

The Story of Onkar: From Circus Driver to Dairy Farmer in Italy

Indians have dispersed across the globe, enriching societies and economies wherever they’ve settled. One such remarkable journey unfolds in Italy — a nation whose dairy industry saw a substantial boost from a wave of Punjabi migrants. Meet Onkar, a young man from Hoshiarpur, Punjab whose voyage took him from the driver’s seat of a circus truck to the role of a dairy farmer in Italy, a narrative beautifully chronicled in Simran Chawla’s ‘Searching For Home.’

In the 1980s, Onkar embarked on his Italian adventure through legitimate channels — a time when visa regulations differed from today’s stringent norms. His initial role? Behind the wheel for Circo Cesare Togni, one of Italy’s most prestigious travelling circuses. Onkar’s nightly truck drives transported circus cargo from one city to the next, where it would be hitched to freight trains, propelling the show’s magic forward. He wasn’t alone — many early Punjabi settlers in Italy found themselves immersed in the amusement park industry, tending to demanding tasks such as grooming animals and preparing the circus arena. The circus’s rhythm demanded dismantling, packing, and loading for the next destination.

After a few months of driving for the circus, Onkar’s path soon meandered through a series of diverse jobs. From factory machines in Palermo, Sicily, to house construction in Amelia; tomato harvesting in the country’s south, to fixing cars in the mountains in the north — he adapted to myriad roles to make ends meet.

Yet, Onkar’s journey didn’t end there. He, along with his family eventually moved to work in the dairy industry in the country, joining many of the Punjabi migrants who contributed to keeping Italy’s dairy industry profitable. Many low-skilled Punjabi workers have been working on dairy farms and in factories producing the famed high-quality Parmigiano Reggiano and Grana Padano cheeses. They milk the cows, skim the latte, pack the cheese into moulds, and stack the wheels in the Cascina — the storage area in dairy farms with sturdy wooden shelves.

This is not to say that there weren’t any challenges. For many of them, integrating into Italian society also meant changing the way they traditionally looked. In Onkar’s case, he cut his hair short, removed his turban, and learned the Italian language. Eventually, however, he did more than adapt; he reclaimed his identity, feeling comfortable in his skin in a foreign land. The next generation is likely to opt for white-collar jobs instead of the manual labour the cheese industry involves.

Today, Italy is home to the highest number of Indians in the European Union, 80 per cent of them are from Punjab, and their number is only growing. If you’d like to better understand the historical context and nuances of migration from Punjab to Italy during the 1990s, refer to this excellent report by CARIM-India, which also highlights the working conditions of Punjabi dairy workers in Northern Italy.

It is to highlight stories like that of Onkar’s, where journeys begin with grit and determination and a will to see a better future, that we have started a new series called “Diaspora Diaries”.

📢Introducing the Diaspora Diaries Series

The Diaspora Diaries series aims to pay tribute to the rich tapestry of the Indian diaspora scattered across the globe. How, you ask? By collecting and archiving their stories, celebrating their experiences, challenges, and successes. At IMN, we are dedicated to amplifying the voices and narratives of the diaspora, fostering understanding, and strengthening connections.

Why Diaspora Diaries: Unveiling its Objectives

• Celebrating Diversity: Showcasing the myriad journeys within the Indian diaspora, enriching our understanding of migration.
• Building Connection: Strengthening the link between the diaspora and their homeland through shared experiences.
• Empowering Voices: Providing a platform for individuals to share their stories, contributing to a broader narrative.
• Fostering Understanding: Breaking down barriers and misconceptions through the power of personal stories.
• Archiving Heritage: Creating a repository of diverse tales that reflect the essence of Indian heritage across the world.

Demystifying Migration Journeys: Creating a database that helps us better understand the patterns and challenges of migration abroad.

“31 million Indians live outside their country of origin. Every year, more than 0.1 million Indians give up their citizenship.”

Indians Living Abroad: Statistics at a Glance

With 18 million people living outside the country in 2020, India has the largest diaspora population in the world, reveals the UN’s latest International Migration Report. India’s migrants are dispersed across continents, but can you guess the countries that host the largest Indian migrant populations?

They are the United Arab Emirates (3.5 million), followed by the U.S. (2.7 million) and Saudi Arabia (2.5 million). Other countries hosting large numbers of Indian migrants include Australia, Canada, Kuwait, Oman, Pakistan, Qatar and the United Kingdom. Indian migrants constitute a big chunk of labour in the Gulf countries. You can read the Gulf perspectives on Indian migrants here.

The Ministry of External Affairs 2022 Report estimates that there are also 31 million Non-Resident Indians (NRIs) and Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) living around the world. NRIs and PIOs contribute significantly to India’s economy through remittances, which totalled $83.1 billion in 2020. To learn more about international migration trends, remittances and their role in development, check out this podcast chat between IMN Founder Varun and Dr. Dilip Ratha.

Despite the pandemic, 0.7 million Indians migrated for work in 2020 and the number increased to 1.3 million in 2022. Every year, more than 0.1 million Indians give up their citizenship, and since 2011, more than 1.6 million have become citizens of the countries they moved to.

17th Pravasi Day Celebrations: The What, Where and Who?

Pravasi Divas, also known as Non-Resident Indians (NRI) Day, was first celebrated in 2003 by the government of India to recognize the role that NRIs play in the development of India. Since 2015, under a revised format, the PBD Convention has been organised once every 2 years.

The 17th PBD Convention was held from 8–10th January 2023 in Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The theme of the 17th PBD is “Diaspora: Reliable Partners for India’s Progress in Amrit Kaal”. 3500 pravasis from 70 countries have registered for the event. You can learn about some notable pravasis who were awarded by the President in this year’s ceremony here.

Historical Context for Pravasi Divas: The Return of Mahatma Gandhi, India’s First and Greatest Pravasi

Pravasi Divas commemorates the return of Mahatma Gandhi from South Africa in 1915. Gandhi went to South Africa in April 1893, where he came across the difficult state of Indian labourers and traders and how they were being subjected to unfair laws. He published “The Green Pamphlet” in 1896, which dealt with the Grievances of British Indians in South Africa: An Appeal to the Indian Public”. This gave a voice to Indians living in South Africa, who were facing issues like racial discrimination, disfranchisement, and economic difficulties.

Pravasi Bharatiya Divas not only marks a historical moment in the country but also an opportunity to reflect on the legacy of Indian immigrants and their struggle against discrimination abroad. Read this piece by Ambuj Tripathi to learn more about Gandhi’s satyagraha in South Africa and the origins of this day.

Some Challenges Faced by Indian Immigrants Abroad

But what challenges do Indian immigrants face abroad? Indian immigrants, like all immigrants, face challenges in finding work and integrating into their host societies. For example, a study found that Indian immigrants in the United States often face a “glass ceiling” in terms of career advancement due to discrimination and bias in the workplace.

Stereotypes and prejudice also make it difficult for Indians to fully feel a sense of belonging in their new communities; for instance, the ‘model minority’ stereotype can pressure migrant communities to be successful and ideal members of society to be marginally accepted into the host community.

Language barriers can be a significant challenge too, particularly for those who may not speak English as their first language. This can affect their ability to access certain job opportunities and fully participate in their host societies.

India’s Soft Power and Diaspora Success Stories

Despite these challenges, Indian immigrants have made significant contributions to their host countries and the development of India’s soft power. First coined by the American political scientist Joseph Nye, the term refers to “the ability to alter the behaviour of others to get what you want, preferably through attraction rather than coercion or payment.” Soft power has emerged in the post-Cold War era as a crucial component of foreign policy.

As Shashi Tharoor observes in his 2012 book Pax Indica, India is an enthusiastic proponent. India draws on its rich cultural traditions, including Bollywood movies, yoga, Ayurvedic medicine, heritage tourism, and distinctive, spice-rich cuisine, to wield soft power diplomacy.

From Gujaratis fuelling the business and banking sectors in East Africa to Hindoestanens adopting the Dutch identity in the Netherlands, the Indian diaspora is replete with stories of determination and courage. Some notable Indian immigrants that come to mind are Indra Nooyi, former CEO of PepsiCo and the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company, Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google, Kalpana Chawla, astronaut and the first Indian-American woman in space, Aziz Ansari, actor and comedian and Vikram Patel, psychiatrist and global mental health advocate. The list goes on!

Send Us Your Pravasi Stories

Pravasi Divas is a day to celebrate their achievements and to recognize the important role that the Indian diaspora plays in building a better future for all. Each diaspora is an enriching story of human endeavour and we at IMN are keen to explore and document it.

If you’re an Indian immigrant living abroad, send us your stories, insights and lived experiences at communications@indiamigrationnow.org We would love to feature you on our Medium blog.

Thank you for joining us for this month’s newsletter. We hope you have a better understanding of Pravasi Divas and the challenges faced by Indian immigrants.

Until next time.

The Power of Fieldwork: Why Theory Isn’t Enough

Since 2018, India Migration Now (IMN) has embarked on numerous field research journeys across India’s vibrant tapestry. From the bustling streets of Mumbai to the rolling fields of Punjab, from the vibrant Northeast to the heart of Bihar, each location has presented a unique window into the multifaceted realities of migration.

News headlines and policy debates often paint a broad picture of migration, filled with generalisations and assumptions. Yet, the true story of migration unfolds not through sterile statistics but through the lived experiences of ordinary migrants — in the aspirations etched on the faces of young people leaving their villages, the anxieties of families grappling with separation, and the resilience of communities adapting to a changing landscape.

Fieldwork allows us to capture these nuances through in-depth interviews, meticulous observations, and genuine interactions. It lets us delve beyond the surface to understand not just the “what” of migration but also the “why” and the “how.” This knowledge is crucial for crafting effective policies, fostering positive change, and ultimately ensuring that the stories of migrants are heard.

Fieldwork Essentials: Your Checklist for a Productive Research Experience

This section is divided into three phases: pre-fieldwork, during-fieldwork and post-fieldwork.

Phase 1 — Before You Go: Building a Strong Foundation

• Research the area & cultural norms: When researching in a new area, it’s important to be culturally sensitive. Familiarize yourself with local customs and avoid actions that may lead to conflict. While it’s generally advised for researchers not to give or take anything from the people they are studying to prevent bias, this guideline should be adjusted based on the cultural norms of the research setting. For example, in many South Asian communities, it’s customary to offer food and drink to visitors, including researchers. Refusing these offerings may impact the participants’ perception of the researcher and their willingness to open up. In India, it’s polite to accept water and tea, and declining might reinforce class, caste, and social hierarchy. So, while you may end up drinking more tea in a week than in a month, it’s a worthwhile gesture to accept!
• Do a thorough stakeholder mapping: Identify all participants and partners in the research narrative, from policymakers to community members. Fieldwork does not begin when you arrive at the location of your study, it starts two months before through phone calls and brainstorming with as many local partners and experts as you can find.
• Prepare consent forms and ethical guidelines: Fieldwork necessitates ethical considerations at every stage. Respect participant autonomy by obtaining informed consent through clear explanations of the research purpose, data usage, and potential risks.
• Tailor and rehearse your questionnaires: Make sure your questionnaires have been tested with your colleagues/fellow researchers before you go to the field.
• Arrange logistics (transport, communication): Meticulous planning minimizes on-site hiccups. Secure research permits if necessary, arrange transportation and accommodation, and ensure your research tools (surveys, recorders, interview guides) are culturally appropriate and in working order.
• Plan for unexpected challenges; have a contingency plan: Something is bound to go wrong on the field; from broken down vehicles to losing a whole day to heavy rains, or being unable to find participants in the particular region you’re covering. It’s always best to keep buffer days in your fieldwork timeline and have an alternative plan in place. Be open to adapting to the situation, brainstorming with your field team and partners and asking for help — not just from your team but often from the communities themselves, who can be the best sources of information on how to enhance your research process.

Phase 2 — On the Ground: Embracing the Dynamics

• Build trust and rapport with the community: Building trust is an ongoing process, achieved through respectful interactions and reciprocity. Genuine engagement is crucial. Be approachable empathetic, and ask follow-up questions to demonstrate your interest in their perspectives.
• Be transparent: Explain your research goals and purpose clearly. Obtain consent at the outset. Your subjects should have a clear understanding of what they are giving their data for and how will it be used.
• Be flexible and adapt your approach if needed: The field is a dynamic space, so be prepared to adjust your methods based on the research context. Open-ended questions can unearth unexpected insights, so don’t be afraid to deviate from your script.
• Learn from local experiences: Deep conversations are an important way to factor in participants’ insights and points of view. Approach each interaction with an open mind. Sometimes, the most valuable data comes from serendipitous moments that emerge during fieldwork.
• Active listening: Pay close attention to both verbal and nonverbal communication. Active listening demonstrates respect and encourages participants to elaborate on their experiences. The greatest challenge of fieldwork is often letting go of your preconceived notions and truly listening to what the participants have to say.
• Prioritize your safety and well-being: Plan for potential risks. Research the area, identify communication strategies (e.g., emergency contacts), inform a trusted contact (colleague) about your itinerary and schedule regular check-ins.

Phase 3 — Post-Research: From Data to Dissemination

• Ethical obligations: Maintain data confidentiality throughout the research analysis process. Anonymize sensitive information and store data securely following institutional guidelines.
• Debrief and reflect: After fieldwork, take time to debrief. Review your notes, identify areas for improvement in your approach, and acknowledge any personal biases that might have influenced your data collection.
• Create a dissemination plan: Share your findings through reports, presentations, or publications. Consider the most impactful way to communicate your research to relevant stakeholders and the broader community.

Through a Gendered Lens: What Does Fieldwork Look Like for Women Researchers?

At IMN, our research team predominantly comprises women, which adds a whole new dynamic to our fieldwork experience. While the research process and analysis are standardised, so much of a researcher’s interactions with local communities and the lived realities of the fieldwork phase shape the kind of insights we get, the nuances we uncover and the challenges we face. The most obvious experiential difference is, of course, the role of gender dynamics — varying across regions of India but ultimately inescapable.

“As a woman entering a sensitive or volatile region, the meaning of security and safety takes a whole new dimension. It’s very easy to centre oneself and wonder if you, a relatively privileged and protected outsider still worry so much about safety, what is the reality of women living in such regions daily? But as a researcher, one needs to objectively highlight the community’s experiences and perhaps that uncertainty you feel about your safety allows you to push a little harder to ensure your research does them justice.” — Megha

Sometimes the challenges faced may not be so extreme but women researchers often face biases regarding their competence or even authority when it comes to managing the fieldwork process. No matter how modestly one dresses up, or how well one speaks the language of the community, the feeling of being an outsider looking in is often an internal struggle to deal with throughout fieldwork.

“Conducting primary research in Bihar as a married woman presented some interesting challenges. While I was dressed modestly in traditional attire (a salwar suit), once participants learned I was from Bihar, they questioned why I wasn’t wearing a bindi and bangles instead of my training clothes.” Pratiksha

But sometimes, it works in our favour:

“Sometimes, women researchers are deemed as more compassionate and thus communities are willing to educate and share their thoughts more freely with them. This goes a long way in the research process.” — Priyansha

And no doubt, as women researchers, accessing female community members who are otherwise hard to reach is a huge strength. During the pandemic, IMN often carried out telephonic interviews with migrant communities as part of our research activities. We often encountered situations where despite reaching out to a female migrant, it is her husband or father, who ultimately carried the phone conversation forward, acting as an interpreter and spokesperson for the woman. But going on field, as women researchers we are often able to approach women in the communities we wish to speak to, since we are able to access women spaces in the community and even households.

“When we first entered the Sarpanch’s house in one of Punjab’s villages, most of the male community leaders gathered around to speak with the research team and participate in the interviews. The womenfolk had all swiftly disappeared into the kitchen to prepare tea, excusing themselves from participating at all. Had it not been for my co-researcher and I joining them in the kitchen and talking to them, the women would have deemed the men as the subjects of interest for our research. One of them even said, ‘Who will come to talk to us when the men are there and can answer everything?’” — Nidhi

Top 3 Tips for Aspiring Researchers

• Importance of building trust: Building trust takes time, but it’s crucial for honest responses. Invest quality time in the communities you’re conducting your fieldwork.
• Adapting to on-the-ground situations: Be prepared to adjust your approach based on what you encounter.
• Self-care for researchers on demanding trips: Remember to hydrate, carry some snacks, wear comfortable clothes, and get adequate sleep. Prioritize breaks to avoid burnout.

We Want You in the Field!

Was this newsletter useful? Do you follow a fieldwork checklist? Ever encountered unique challenges as a researcher? We’re eager to hear your fieldwork stories, experiences, and tips!

Share your insights with the hashtag #StraightToTheFieldWithIMN and don’t forget to tag us on Social Media (or reply to this email!). We look forward to hearing from you!

In this issue of Gotta Keep on Moving, Pooja brings you a slice of South Asian migration history. To know about diasporas, double-diasporas and their Indian connection, you gotta keep on reading!

What is a ‘diaspora’?

Ever wondered why Kamala Harris talking about her love for idli or Rishi Saunak addressing a crowd in Hindi generates so much euphoria in India? From Diwali being celebrated in the Caribbean to bhangra in the UK, the world around us is replete with examples of lively cultural exchanges across borders. In the era of hyper-globalisation, diasporas are more relevant than ever.

Where else have you come across the term diaspora? Do you know what it means?

To put it simply, a diaspora is a population scattered across regions separate from their geographic place of origin. Historically, the term was used to refer to the mass dispersion of groups of people from their indigenous territories — specifically the dispersion of Jews from the ancient kingdoms of Israel and Judah.

According to Dr Madhu Tyagi, a scholar in diaspora studies, the term diaspora has historical roots. In her book Theory of Indian Diaspora: Dynamics of Global Migration, she traces the transition of the term from ‘South Asian migrants’ to ‘Overseas Indian communities’ to ‘South Asian diasporas’.

But why are we discussing diasporas? At 30 million, India has the second largest diaspora in the world after only China! As diverse as the Indian home population, the diaspora(s) impact India’s relationship with other countries, cementing cultural and economic ties and bringing continents closer. Each diaspora is an enriching story of human endeavour and we at IMN are keen to explore and document it.

How it all began: A brief history of South Asian migration

Here’s how Indians went from South Asia to other parts of the world:

• The first and oldest out-migration from South Asia was of traders, as is often the case in history. Early Indian traders used the Indian Ocean route to carry precious goods like spices, textiles, minerals and jewels to distant lands. The domestication of camels made the trade of silk, porcelain, incense, ivory and gunpowder possible.
• The second crucial wave was that of indentured labourers, who replaced the freed slaves in 19th-century plantation economies in the Caribbean. Many such workers ended up staying in these destination countries to create new homelands. Around the same time, some South Asians also left for abroad to become teachers and clerks as part of the colonial expansion system.

The Nobel Laureate Sir V.S. Naipaul’s ancestors were among this wave. Emigrating from India to Trinidad in the 1880s, his grandfather worked as an indentured servant in a sugar plantation. The Trinidadian-born British writer has written extensively about his roots and complicated history with India.

• The third wave of outmigration followed the Second World War and Partition. Even skilled educated professionals migrated to Europe, the US and Canada for better economic and job opportunities. They took up professions such as teachers, doctors and lawyers that elevated their social status. What’s interesting is that the initial migrants from India in the post-war period were from specific regions like Punjab and Gujarat, specific religious groups, castes and communities like Parsees and Bengalis (Williams, 2013).
• The fourth wave is dominated by the twice migrants or double diaspora, constituting a diverse group of labourers, professionals and traders who had to migrate out of their host countries due to political turmoil rather than economic reasons. They chose a safer, immigrant-friendly country to migrate to rather than returning to their home country. One notable example is Freddie Mercury’s Parsi family, who ended up in the UK via Zanzibar, an island off Tanzania, having left India when Mercury was still a teenager.

Double diasporas and their Indian connection

As you’ve already guessed, ‘double diaspora’ refers to a group of people who have gone through two successive out-migration movements, spreading across waves over time. It often comes with conflicted affiliations to multiple homelands.

Twice migrants often leave their host countries for political, rather than economic reasons and choose another destination country rather than returning to their home country. Many such diasporic communities face the challenge of multiple identities — their original identity and the ethos of their multiple host countries culminating in their origins being split across continents.

Examples of double diaspora with Indian origins include Indians from Tanzania (who are scattered throughout the anglophone nations of the world), Indo-Fijians settled in Australia, Indian indentured labourers working in Suriname who finally settled in the Netherlands and adopted a Dutch identity, and Indians expelled from East Africa who found a home in the UK and Canada. The latter remains one of the oldest and most vibrant double-diasporic communities of Indian origin in the world. We spotlight the story of this fascinating community in our next section.

How Gujaratis settled in East Africa, then the UK

The story of the Gujarati double diaspora begins with the British Empire in the 1870s. With the abolition of slavery, Britain transported over one million Indian indentured labourers to countries across the world, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania among them. These ‘indentured’ workers, were treated like slaves, but they were usually paid a wage and were provided food and lodgings. They were contracted for five or so years to work on railway and infrastructure projects.

Once the system of indenture was abolished in 1917, most of the surviving workers eventually returned to India, but a few settled in East Africa and the Caribbean. While some stayed out of choice; others settled due to fear of going back or to repay the cycle of debt bondage they had gotten themselves into.

In any case, under British rule, India faced frequent famine, war, poverty, impoverishment, social stratification, wage disparity, high population growth, political instability, lack of security and drought. For the majority of Indians, trade opportunities were better in East Africa than in colonial India! Thus, in the decades that followed, more Indians arrived in East Africa as ‘free emigrants’ to escape their difficult economic circumstances in colonial India and look for better opportunities.

Among the East African countries, Uganda saw the meteoric rise of the Indian Gujarati community. While starting as labourers, the Indian community soon expanded to other sectors and professions. The innovation and entrepreneurial spirit of the Gujaratis made them economic pioneers in the Uganda industry. By the 1930s, Gujarati entrepreneurs had overtaken the trading and agricultural sectors. While the Indian community integrated very well with African culture, Ugandan society was still stratified with Ugandan Africans at the lowest rung of the ladder. In terms of hierarchy, Indians were placed somewhere between the European minority and the African majority. As British subjects, Indians held more powers as soldiers, moneylenders, economic workers, administrators, clerks, policemen, shopkeepers etc in East African colonies and protectorates. They shared a complicated relationship with native Africans, suppressing them on behalf of the white people.

Thus, when Uganda gained independence in 1962, the political agenda began to focus on creating opportunities for Ugandan Africans where South Asian traders had previously been favoured. These policies of ‘Africanisation’ eventually led to the Ugandan leader, Idi Amin ordering the expulsion of Indians from the country.

In 1972, Amin expelled 80,000 Ugandan Asians, giving them only 90 days to leave with £50 each. They were forced to leave everything behind, say goodbye to their communities and culture, and see their families scattered across the world. This August marked the 50th year of the expulsion order.

This difficult time led to another opportunity for the industrious Gujarati community: they migrated to the UK en masse and started their lives from scratch there. Most of them settled into the same professions or businesses they were pursuing in Uganda. But their ties with East Africa were not severed.

After President Idi Amin was overthrown, Indians returned to East Africa, invited by the Ugandan Government to revive the economy. Currently, Gujaratis occupy the important banking and business sectors in Uganda, partnering with the government on projects to further the development of the country.

Stay tuned to check out which diaspora story we cover next month

Do you have any diaspora stories from your own family that you’d like to share? Or any favourite diaspora families that made you laugh, or cry? We’d love to hear from you. Write to us at: communications@indiamigrationnow.org

Meanwhile, do check out our reading list at the bottom of this issue. Happy reading!

For a deep dive into double diasporas and their literary and cultural significance, here’s a list of 10 we’ve curated especially for you here.

Introduction

As remote work becomes an increasingly common phenomenon, this article discusses the ways in which the integration of technological mediums in the workspace can reshape the very concept of ‘work’ in the years to come. Technological advancement has the potential to not only bridge geographical distances but also profoundly impact the dynamics between employees and employers on a global scale. We are witnessing a significant transformation in the demand and supply of skill sets required by the job market as employers now have the ability to hire individuals from remote locations. This emerging trend is what we refer to as “Telemigration.”

Richard Baldwin, in 2019, was the first to coin the term ‘Telemigration,’ referring to the phenomenon of people living in one country but (remotely) working in the offices of another country, by use of videoconferencing tools and sophisticated technological interfaces.

In 2006, Alan Blinder predicted ‘Offshoring’ to be the 4th Industrial Revolution. Each new technological revolution in work has shown a spurt in productivity with consequences for the organization and demographic composition of workers. The driving principle in the era of globalisation is this: when the cost difference across countries is larger than the trade cost, companies will tend to exploit the cost gap by buying low and selling high. In the case of the “service economy” this translates to employing migrants from countries wherein the international cost differences make it profitable to do so. Digital sophistication has opened the doors for remote work. Economically, this means opening the possibility for rich nations to find, hire, pay, manage and fire remote workers in poorer nations, without necessarily sponsoring migrant visas and green cards.

The Economics of Telemigration: Who Does it Benefit?

Telemigration as a phenomenon has been able to evolve in the global era because it is ultimately economically profitable on both sides of the service economy. It is profitable to multinational employers because it reduces infrastructural and labour-wage costs. On the other hand, it directs service sector jobs to employees in nations who would have been excluded from the labour force by sheer geographical distance. The larger the ‘available’ pool of potential employees, the more bargaining power employing companies may have to control wages, making telemigration profitable in cases where an international employee is equivalent to a domestic one performing the job. This also goes hand-in-hand with maintaining the incentive for developing nations to produce skilled workers by investing in education because an increasing number of global employment opportunities are being directed to developing nations.

While telemigration presents an opportunity for emerging market workers, some are worried about its impact on advanced economy service workers as this provision can give developing nations a chance to exploit their comparative advantage of low labour costs without having to build and export goods.

Possibilities of off-shoring, re-shoring and robotization using Artificial Intelligence are all part of potential paths that re-thinking of business strategies can take in the coming years. Developing countries, starting at the turn of the millennium, have been able to upskill their labour force and develop home-grown production infrastructure to standards at par with global requirements, while still being relatively cheaper than labour in developed nations.

This upskilling and potential for quality production at cheaper prices has given incentives to multinational corporations to move their activities from developed to developing countries, giving developing countries more work, and hence income, from global corporations. For example, Boston Consulting Group has reported that wages in China and Mexico increased by 500 per cent and 67 per cent between 2004 and 2014, respectively.

Factors That Contribute to Telemigration — Evidence from the US

The International Telecommunication Union’s 2022 figures report that 5.3 billion people, i.e. 63% of the world’s population, with 44% from the developing world are online. Remote work is likely to keep up and increase the trend of hiring globally diverse teams. Boston Consulting Group’s Henderson Institute published a report that found 95% of senior executives were keen to embrace globally diverse teams.

The World Bank’s 2023 World Development Report cites that in June 2022, 80% of the US was working part-time or full-time remotely. The report also notes that a reduction in technological barriers could lead firms to hire more “tele-migrants” from lower-wage countries, as opposed to opportunities for people who would have otherwise migrated.

Tele-work trends show that it is geographically unevenly distributed. The Uneven Geography of Remote Work analyzes incidences of remote work in between different commuting zones in the US to draw patterns between the possibility and propensity of remote work, showing a clear positive relationship between the number of jobs that could be performed remotely (as per the nature of work) and the number of jobs that were actually taken to the remote domain by companies. Additionally, as expected, commuting zones with a higher proportion of college-educated workers were more likely to have higher incidences of remote work.

The phenomenon of moving out of superstar cities to mid-size cities (with Austin, Texas topping the list) has been observed with increased flexibility brought by remote work. High living costs in superstar cities that contain offices of big corporations are acting as push factors to migrate to mid-size cities with more affordable living costs with hybrid and remote work models. This has been termed as the phenomenon of urban exodus, in light of post-covid shifts in geographic trends. Aside from the nature of the job, the level of education was also an important factor. College-educated employees were more likely to choose to and succeed in remotely performing jobs vis-à-vis employees who were not college graduates.

Challenges and Opportunities for Telemigration

But is remote migration advantageous for companies? By transferring a position in a country where labour is tenfold or less expensive, coupled with the need to invest in other expenditure that comes with maintaining office infrastructure, the cost savings are significant for a company.

Telemigrants do not require a visa if working from their home country and can be eligible for a digital nomad visa if they choose to remotely work while residing in a country other than their home country for a short period of time. The lack of requirement for giving out work visas and green cards to telemigrants falls in line with the agenda of many governments to curb migration from developing nations while still availing the benefits of less expensive labour.

An important question raised by the provision of remote working is whether a domestic remote worker in a developed country is interchangeable with an international telemigrant residing in a low-wage country. Richard Baldwin and Jonathan Dingel have introduced the ‘CAGE’ model to assess metaphorical distance in assessing whether a telemigrant can replace a domestic remote worker and the choice of country for a particular task. ‘CAGE’ stands for cultural, administrative, geographic and economic factors creating “distance” between service economy telemigrants and the corporation’s clientele or customers residing in the corporation’s country.

Their analysis sheds light on the counterintuitive finding that distance matters more in the case of trade in services than trade in physical objects. Taking into consideration time-zone differences, differences in legal institutions, colonial links and culture and dialect, even telemigrants who may be native English speakers are not always perfect substitutes for domestic remote workers. While Baldwin and Dingel acknowledge the trend of increased offshoring from high-wage to low-wage nations, they also recognize that many jobs that can be performed remotely require soft skills that make domestic and foreign workers imperfect substitutes.

Artificial Intelligence’s Impact on the Skill-Set in Demand

Alan Turing famously said that the difference between a human brain and a computer is one in degree and not in principle. In 1950, he foretold a time when humans would no longer be able to distinguish between interacting with a human and a digital machine — terming this as the ‘Turing Test’. One would believe that 21st-century AI has the potential to pass the Turing Test, holding the capacity to replace mental tasks, unlike previous waves of mechanization which only replaced physical tasks. However, experts feel it is too early to determine whether the advent of AI will be labour-augmenting or labour-saving.

A 2018 ILO research paper on the ‘Economics of Artificial Intelligence’ points out the potential for AI applications to raise the demand for interpersonal, less technical occupations in the coming years, which will quell some of the concerns regarding AI further widening inequality. AI may also present a challenge for developing nations by driving up informality if jobs currently employing labour get replaced by higher productivity technological solutions. ILO points out that there will be a need for policy formulations that aim at evenly distributing the shared benefits from an AI-based spurt in productivity, as historically, increased educational attainment has led to the creation of skill-biased technology.

The history of automation dates to the first and second industrial revolutions in the 19th and 20th centuries which was mechanistic and created a demand for low, unskilled labour and the “scientific organization of work”. The third industrial revolution is considered to be the advent of computers from the 1970s onwards. This technological revolution created the demand for medium and high-skilled workers, pointing to the skill-biased nature of its technology.

Similarly, the question to be asked over an impending technological revolution driven by AI would be its impact on the demand for low-skill vs high-skill labour force. The United Nations Conference on Trade and Development (UNCTAD, 2016) predicted that the historical labour cost advantage of low-income countries might be eroded by robots if they become cheap and easily substitutable for labour.

It needs to be noted that telemigration largely impacts the nature of white-collar work, not blue-collar work. However, with provisions for white-collar work in many sectors to go remote, it is possible that in the future, developed nations may prefer to sponsor visas for requirements of blue-collar and pink-collar workers involved in caregiving and white-collar professions where current digital sophistication cannot replace human physical presence.

Possibilities for telemigration coupled with the onset of AI, like previous waves of industrial revolutions, are likely to impact the nature of work. However, it is unlikely to make a whole class of high-skill or low-skill workers redundant. While AI has given birth to the looming anxiety of it having the potential to replace both mental (white-collar) and physical (blue-collar) labour, at the point of reaching such technological sophistication it is likely to create new classes of jobs such as to manage AI prompts or create new-found importance for jobs where interpersonal human interaction is more desired than needed.

Learnings for India

Telemigration, which has also been called the fourth industrial revolution by some, is predicted to be an opportunity for India. At present, India has roughly 1.2 million flexi workers and this is projected to touch 6 million in 2 years.

Depending on how large companies adopt these new dynamics, it is estimated that by the end of the next decade, 80% of the workforce in India will be working on flexible contracts. Recruitment processes are also changing — freelance specialists already use popular platforms to sell their talents and services to multiple employers. Non-core, but critical functions will likely be increasingly outsourced and technology platforms will facilitate the growth of large supply chains for talent.

Economists feel there is a need to let telemigration reach a state of boom in India before governments decide whether taxation policy should be lenient or stringent towards it. If learnings from the US case study are to be applied to intra-India remote work, the coming decades may just witness a small wave of reverse migration of white-collar workers who can remotely perform jobs, from metro cities with high living costs to tier-2 cities which may become their hometowns.

Conclusion — Telemigration and the Future of Global Work

Globally, the extent to which provisions for telmigrants will impact the demand for international in-person migrant labour will depend on a supply-demand price dynamic. If technological resources become cheaper than the in-person presence of international migrants without significantly hampering service quality, then technological sophistication may have the potential to replace some in-person jobs currently done by international migrants. However, this could result in a growing pool of available labour, as technology mitigates distance across geographical barriers, leading to the availability of more labour for lower wages than before.

In this global world of work, different degrees of equilibrium may continuously be sought rather than one fixed outcome for work in the future, thereby affecting migration and settlement patterns to facilitate the same. Ultimately, any revolution in the nature and organization of work in this global context is bound to have a profound impact on geographic settlement and migration patterns.

Medha Kapoor is an intern at India Migration Now.
Editorial Support by Pooja Bhatia.

By Deepanshu Bhat

On December 16th 2021, the state of Jharkhand launched the Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI), a ground-breaking policy initiative to defend the rights of migrant workers and their families. Introduced for a period of 18 months, the policy aims to institutionalize the registration of migrant workers in the state and develop technology to assist authorities in tracking and examining their source and destination neighbourhoods.

Further, under SRMI, the Jharkhand government is conducting the state’s first ever Migrant Survey to fill data gaps on the scale and extent of migrant numbers. The main goal is to create a database of migrant workers to guide the government’s policy-making efforts and welfare delivery system. The survey is expected to be completed by the end of February 2023.

Migrant Crisis During the Pandemic

With nearly 27% tribal population, Jharkhand has the most significant percentage of migratory outflows in the country (approx. 5 million as per the Economic Survey, 2017). The state of West Bengal, and the city of Surat incorporates a chunk of migrant workers from Jharkhand. Other cities that also receive a significant number of migrant workers from Jharkhand include Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, and Pune (2011 Census).

But the pandemic reversed migration patterns in the state, causing its socio-economic system to be suddenly overwhelmed. Between March 2020 and October 2020, almost 10 lakh migrant workers returned to Jharkhand. Among all districts, Girdidh recorded the highest numbers of returnee migrants at 1.58 lakhs followed by Palamu (1,09,438 employees), Garhwa (78,539), Hazaribagh (78,414), Godda (69,752), and Koderma (42,932). The absence of comprehensive social security in the state drove these migrants into unemployment, poverty, and a lack of access to public utility services. At the same time, many of these employees experienced illness and harassment during migration.

Need for Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative (SRMI)

In light of this, the dearth of information on migrant labour in Jharkhand emerged as a significant problem for timely delivery of welfare services during Covid-19. Thus, the Jharkhand government launched its “Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative” to facilitate systematic registration and monitoring of migrant workers. Anchored by the Department of Labour, Employment, Training, and Skill Development, Government of Jharkhand, the policy is carried out by the Policy and Development Advisory Group (PDAG). This includes the Indian School of Business’s Bharti Institute of Public Policy (BIPP), Partnering Hope into Action Foundation (PHIA), and Centre for Migration and Inclusive Development (CMID) (ISB).

Role of Consortium Partners:

PDAG will produce the Jharkhand Migration Report, state advisory work, and migration survey.

PHIA would pilot Safe & Responsible Migration Centres in high-burden areas and provide capacity-building and operational support.

CMID will be in charge of establishing and putting the SRMC into action with the target state, and improving collaboration with local stakeholders, including government officials.

ISB will provide technological skills, research and knowledge outputs for the migration survey and White Paper.

Based on inputs from the state’s migration control room, migrant labourers from Gumla, West Singhbhum and Dumka districts were selected for the SRMI pilot project. As next steps, migrant workers all over the state are being enumerated so that the state government can provide them timely assistance during a disaster. The program requires all state districts to establish migration centers and develop a corpus fund for migrant workers who may pass away in other states or countries. The state government will cover the costs of transporting the deceased employee’s body from his place of employment to his hometown. Currently, a database of migrant labourers who have found jobs in the states of Delhi, Kerala, and Leh-Ladakh is being put together. Additionally, prioritizing migrant workers’ rights in terms of socioeconomic justice, establishing the e-shram platform for their registrations, and creating a framework for cooperation with all other states is being worked on.

Goals for Safe and Responsible Migration Initiative are to:

Create a framework for evidence-based migration policy and consider the specific socio-economic variables affecting Jharkhand migration patterns.

To improve last-mile service delivery to migrant workers and their families through creative, iterative digital and offline methods.

Establish an effective structure for interstate cooperation so that migrant employees may receive social welfare benefits and rights.

Jharkhand’s First Migrant Survey

The Jharkhand Migrant Survey (JMS) is a crucial exercise under SRMI to design state-level policy, and fill in data gaps on the scale and extent of migrant workers in the state. The main goal is to create a database of migrant workers that can inform the government’s policy-making and welfare delivery systems. Beginning in January, 2023, the survey is based on population statistics from the 2011 census. 60 enumerators are dispersed throughout 400 locations covering all 24 districts of the state to gather information from approximately 11,000 households for the Survey. This will help identify leading industries in which employees are engaged, pinpoint social security benefits received by their families, and map the many health risks they encounter.

The questions are separated into numerous categories based on their nature and type, including household characteristics, knowledge of arriving and departing migrants, push and pull factors, respondents’ quality of life, use of remittance funds, engagement of women at home, and their thoughts on the type of employment being sought.

The primary objective of this survey is to compile a database of migrant workers that will aid in formulating government welfare policies. As a result, the state government will be better prepared to conceive and implement livelihood initiatives for migrants. The questionnaire will also feature a specific section to comprehend migratory women’s socio-economic circumstances and employment choices. To better help women migrants, the policy will consider their unique requirements.

As mentioned earlier, tribal tribes make up approximately 27% of the population of Jharkhand, according to government statistics. For generations, these communities have had limited access to opportunity and education, which has caused a high rate of out migration among those of working age. The survey will also include indigenous communities, and will take note of their issues to enhance the effectiveness of social service delivery to them. The government will also collect information about forests, land ownership and use of these communities to create regulations for protecting forests from exploitation on the one hand and benefit those who rely on them on the other hand.

Way Forward: Key Lessons from Jharkhand’s Migration Initiative

Jharkhand is now one of the few states that conducts its own migrant survey. Kerala has been a pioneer in this field, followed by states like Tamil Nadu and Punjab who have adopted their own surveys. But the labour movement in Kerala and Jharkhand is fundamentally different from one another. While most workers in Kerala move outside the country, primarily to the Gulf states, the problem in Jharkhand is internal: migration within india. The Jharkhand Migrant Survey is yet to be officially produced in the public domain, so the comparison with other states like Kerala will only be fair post its release.

But the point I’m making is that Jharkhand’s migrant survey has been designed more comprehensively, incorporating multiple stakeholders that include research centers and state agencies to understand the needs of migrant workers better. For instance, the survey includes questions on the availability of social welfare schemes, access to essential services, and the impact of the pandemic on migrants’ mental and physical health. The survey focuses on the aforementioned indigenous tribal group and women’s migration. The survey also intends to gather information on the factors that led migrant workers to leave the state and return before the epidemic.

If Jharkhand’s migrant survey succeeds (and I’m hopeful it will), it will be critical for policy makers to study the case of Jharkhand; and other states which are yet to formulate policies addressing the migrant crisis could learn several lessons from it. Firstly, other states could understand the importance of gathering comprehensive data on migrant workers to help design effective policies and programs for their welfare. Secondly, the survey could highlight the importance of involving civil society organizations and community leaders in the data collection to ensure that the survey’s findings accurately represent the migrant population. Lastly, other states could learn from Jharkhand’s initiative to develop a long-term plan for integrating migrant workers into the state’s economy and society.

Deepanshu Bhat is currently interning at India Migration Now.
Editorial Support by Pooja Bhatia.

The United Nations defines gender-based violence (GBV) as an “umbrella term for any harmful act perpetrated against a person’s will, based on socially ascribed (gender) differences. GBV can take on many forms including physical, sexual, emotional, verbal and psychosocial. In heteropatriarchal societies, GBV disproportionately affects women, girls and the LGBTQ+ community. The predominance of GBV is pervasive and it continues to occur at alarming rates. According to a UN Women policy report, globally, one in three women has experienced some form of GBV at least once in their lifetime.

GBV is perpetuated under stereotypical norms and unequal power dynamics — be it within education, family relationships or at work. Acknowledging these dynamics is key to developing effective interventions. While movements such as #MeToo helped drive more attention to this issue; it still remains largely urban-centric. In contexts of heightened vulnerability, popular movements do not always capture the realities for marginalized women. For example, migrant women from lower-income countries are disproportionately victimized as a result of their precarious circumstances. The following section explains this in more detail.

Is there a link between GBV and migration?

Globally, there are approximately 244 million migrants. Out of that, 19.6 million are reported to be refugees. Across these statistics, women represent more than half of the demographic. Gender and migration are intersecting factors that mutually affect each other. Migration can be a means to achieve positive outcomes and opportunities, especially for individuals and groups seeking the betterment of their everyday lives and empowerment of fundamental human rights. However, in some contexts, it can also be an avenue riddled with discrimination, exploitation and stigma based on individual or group characteristics. As such, gender can influence an individual’s experience of migration.

Migrant women may find themselves subject to a continuum of violence at every stage of their migration journey — origin, en route, in transit, or on arrival at their destination — arising from inadequate access to safe and standard migration pathways. The risks continue as migrant women and girls attempt to make a living in the host country. The perpetrators of GBV may come from a range of groups, including human traffickers and smugglers, police and border authorities, intimate partners and employers.

Conflict, climate change and GBV against migrant women

Evidence suggests that conflict, and subsequently mass displacement due to climate change and its consequences, increase the vulnerability of migrant women and girls to GBV. Rape in conflict is often used as a deliberate military strategy, and is feared most by women and girls as soon as the shooting starts. For instance, violence against women and girls accounted for 97% of conflict-related sexual violence cases reported in 2021. A review of 19 studies across 14 countries estimates that 21% of displaced women experienced sexual violence. The real figure is likely to be much higher, as recording of incidents is shoddy and women are often afraid to speak out from fear of social stigma. Further, up to a third of girls living in a humanitarian setting report that their first sexual encounter was forced.

Covid-19 and its impact on GBV against migrant women

Conflict and climate induced displacement are not the only drivers of sexual and gender-based violence. Health emergencies like COVID-19 and its resultant restriction on movement is also a factor contributing to GBV. Across the world, migrant women and girls faced similar experiences during Covid. Across 15 countries in sub-Saharan Africa for instance, interviews with refugee and displaced women revealed an increased prevalence of domestic and sexual violence during COVID-19 (73% and 51% respectively); 32% of these women indicated a risk of early and forced marriages. Meanwhile, in Colombia, displaced women and girls reported 40% more unintended pregnancies as a result of GBV than those who were not displaced.

The case of Chin women in India

Unable to secure stable and long-term work, it is common for Chin refugee women in India to take up seasonal employment as waitresses/servers at weddings when demand is high. In these circumstances, there have been several reports of GBV against them. While some women have attempted to seek justice, their efforts have not led to any appropriate retribution against the perpetrators.

Chin women also find domestic work as housemaids and become subject to unprofessional and inhumane treatment by employers, such as working overtime and wage theft. Many endure these conditions in order to support their families but this comes at a cost; working such long hours with little-to-no support has negative implications on child care and household maintenance. Consequently, Chin refugee women become stuck in a depressing cycle of GBV.

As India is not a signatory to the 1951 Convention Relating to the Status of Refugees or the 1967 Protocol, there is no procedural mechanism for protection or even a clear domestic refugee policy. As a result, refugee groups are not entitled to legal protections against GBV or other crimes. Perpetrators seek to exploit these conditions and this reality dissuades refugee women and girls from seeking justice and legal redress against GBV due to a fear of discrimination and persecution.

Breaking the cycle of GBV against migrant women

These statistics do not begin to cover the extent of the issue; there is a recognized data-based gap — migrant women’s experiences, the risks they face and the circumstances of their untimely deaths are either sparsely reported, not accurately documented or altogether missing from available data — which again feeds into the continuum of violence and unsubstantial legal redress. Therefore, promoting the ethical collection, analysis and dissemination of such data pertaining to migrant women and girls’ experiences of GBV is vital.

Research shows that movements, such as the 16 days of activism campaign, are key drivers of policy change. In 2022, the theme focused on Ending Femicide, especially among the most vulnerable groups. This included Black women, minority ethnic women, women with disabilities, women workers and women with vulnerable immigration statuses.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) runs several programmes to combat GBV among migrant women and girls. For example, in Kutupalong, the world’s largest refugee camp, young Rohingya refugees have become part of the solution itself. UNHCR and their partners offer these young refugees training and support to conduct awareness-raising activities with the larger Rohingya population. Programmes, such as SASA! Girls Shine and Male Role Models are thought to be bringing forth results.

UNHCR also offers a GBV toolkit, containing information and resources, for both specialists and non-specialists. This can be found here: https://www.unhcr.org/gbv-toolkit/. The UN recommends steps such as furthering the development and implementation of targeted laws and policies, improving data around GBV, as well as strengthening the provision of essential services and awareness-raising initiatives with regard to migrant women remain crucial to re-centering the narrative.

UN Women further urges that not only must reports of GBV against migrant women be meticulously handled, but that victims and survivors must also have access to quality, holistic and comprehensive survivor-centered and trauma-informed services and support — having safe access to these resources can go a long way in helping migrant women and girls feel safer and more protected. Stakeholders must engage in capacity-building activities to ensure the same can be sustained and continue work on establishing adequate referral pathways. For instance, screening for GBV during health check-ups, offering migrant women contraceptives, and conducting safety audits in refugee camps can go a long way in ensuring their safety. Women’s rights are human rights, and we must continuously advocate for those often left behind, including migrant women and girls.

Caresse Brown is currently interning at India Migration Now.
Editorial Support by Pooja Bhatia.

Qatar is currently hosting the 22nd edition of the FIFA World Cup 2022 from 20th November to 18th December, a tournament that is meant to unite the world as millions come together to celebrate the best of football. Instead, the tournament has been mired in controversy, corruption scandals and migrant deaths.

As the first Arab country to host the FIFA World Cup, Qatar undertook a massive construction exercise to build the best infrastructure for the sporting event. Since being awarded hosting rights in 2010, Qatar has undertaken projects to construct seven new stadiums, an airport, a metro system, road networks and 100 new hotels.

South Asian migrants drive the economy in Qatar

Qatar relies almost entirely on its two million migrants, who make up ninety-five percent of the country’s workforce in sectors ranging from construction to services to domestic work. It has the highest ratio of migrants to citizens in the world, making its economy highly dependent on their labour. Its migrant workers come predominantly from India, Nepal, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Kenya, and the Philippines.

The Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) States have remained the main corridor for South Asian migration since the oil boom of the early 1970s. South Asians account for nearly 15 million in the Gulf. According to the World Bank, in 2019, total remittances to South Asia was about $140 billion, of which India received $83.1 billion, Pakistan $22.5 billion, Bangladesh $18.3 billion and Nepal $8.1 billion.

Indians constitute the largest segment of the South Asian workforce. Additionally, Gulf migration is predominantly a male-driven phenomenon. A majority of Indian migrants are single men living in congested labour camps who often share rooms and toilets, to save earnings to send back home.

Kafala System: The root cause of migrant exploitation

Exploitation of workers from South and South-East Asia is not a new phenomenon. Under the Kafala System (Sponsorship System), companies sponsor foreign workers to work in the country but prevent them from leaving their jobs. This means that migrant workers remain dependent upon employers to facilitate their entry, residence, and employment in the country, beacause only employers can renew their residency and work permits. Workers go undocumented when employers fail to carry out these obligations and suffer its consequences.

Under pressure from human rights groups like Amnesty International and International Labour Organisation (ILO), Qatar has officially abolished the kafala practice, but companies can still stop labourers from switching employers. Qatar also continues to impose harsh penalties for “absconding” — when a migrant worker leaves their employer without permission or remains in the country beyond the grace period allowed after their residence permit expires or is revoked. Penalties include fines, detention, deportation, and a ban on re-entry.

Rise in migrant deaths since Qatar won the FIFA bid in 2010

The World Cup bid, with its extended construction, caused an influx of migrant workers traveling to the country, exposing them to unsafe working and living conditions. As per official figures, 30,000 migrant workers were hired to build the stadiums.

According to the Guardian’s February 2021 report, around 6,500 migrant workers from India, Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka have died in Qatar since it won the bid for FIFA. This means on an average, twelve migrant workers from these five south Asian nations have died in Qatar each week since 2010. Compare this to the Qatar government’s numbers that hide the real scale of tragedy: The World Cup Chief said between 400–500 workers died in Qatar during FIFA construction work.

Most deaths of Indian and Nepali migrant workers in Qatar were reported as ‘natural deaths,’ often attributed to sudden and unexplained heart or respiratory failure.

Qatar does not count deaths from heart attacks and respiratory failure as work-related even though these are common symptoms of heatstroke, brought on from doing heavy labour in very high temperatures. To make matters worse, Qatari authorities refuse to investigate the deaths of migrant workers, leaving bereaved families devoid of any compensation or hope.

Many migrant workers have come forth to share their plight, ranging from low wages, extreme weather conditions to long shifts and exploitative foremen. Those who left their homes in the hope to earn a decent income for their families, now feel trapped in a vicious cycle of forced labour in one of the world’s wealthiest countries per capita. They have had to endure the worst conditions only to be stripped off their basic human dignity.

Way Forward: What can be done to save migrant lives?

Other countries and participating football teams have condemned Qatar for its dismal treatment of migrant workers. In solidarity with workers who made FIFA 2022 possible, the Australian football squad released a video criticizing Qatar for mistreating its migrant workers. Danish players also wore a “toned-down” all-black kit to protest against Qatar’s human rights’ record.

The exploitation of workers in the construction industry is made possible by an inadequate legal and regulatory framework that grants employers extensive control over workers and prohibits migrant workers from exercising their human rights. Besides, the government of Qatar has failed to enforce laws that at least on paper are designed to protect worker rights.

The Kafala (Sponsorship) System that encourages abuse of migrants needs to be dismantled not just on paper but in actuality. Workers should be free to form and join labour unions.

Qatar also needs to investigate the causes of unexpected or unexplained deaths among often young and otherwise healthy migrant workers, and make such data publicly available. This will ensure workers and their family members receive due compensation in case of occupational injuries. ILO’s report recommends that such investigations should be carried out by medical professionals and labour inspectors. The Ministry of Public Health in Qatar should also set up a national integrated platform that regularly pulls together timely and reliable occupational injury data.

Additionally, Qatar’s government must ensure that workers are paid timely wages and work in safe environments with regulated hours of work. Workers must be given a stake in the system to voice their grievances while errant companies must be held accountable for worker harassment.

Lastly, if you love football and the spirit behind it, extend your solidarity beyond your favourite team: stand up for migrant worker rights not just in Qatar but everywhere else. Talk about it, make your protest known. That is the only way to come together and celebrate this FIFA. Make migrant lives count. Make their lives better.

You know we better together
The time is now or never

Reading List

If you’d like to explore the issue further, here’s a reading list we’ve put together for you:

• 6,500 migrant workers have died in Qatar since it bagged the rights to host the World Cup.
• ‘Our dreams never came true.’ These men helped build Qatar’s World Cup, now they are struggling to survive.
• Migrant workers say their labour made the World Cup possible and they paid a heavy cost for it.
• How has Qatar treated foreign workers?
• World Cup 2022 and Qatar’s construction projects
• Building a better World Cup.
• FIFA World Cup and Human Rights
• Health and social needs of migrant construction workers
• Progressive International Interview with Hiba Zayadin, Gulf researcher at Human Rights Watch
• The Paperclip Twitter Thread on Indian Migrant Workers and Football in Qatar.
• ILO’s 2021 Report on Worker Deaths and Injuries in Qatar.
• Death and Dishonesty: Stories of two workers who built the FIFA stadiums in Qatar

Pooja Bhatia is part of the Editorial and Communications Team at India Migration Now. Khyati Gautam is currently interning at India Migration Now.

Back in 2019, two years into our journey, it became clear that to progress our research and advocacy work, we needed to be on the ground in both rural and urban areas- observing, collaborating, and building. We started with a desk on a construction site in Thane, surveying and interacting with migrants. Along with this, we tried pushing a well-intentioned digital financial app on a large construction workforce of migrants from more than 10 states. Those were challenging months as we struggled to break through to workers who were desperate to get paid and leave as soon as possible — to another site, profession, or home. The only universally popular service was our Aadhaar correction/updation offering; from helpers to site engineers, everyone wanted their Aadhaar fixed.

I personally filled in at least 50 tedious forms, while shuttling workers to nearby Aadhaar centres and bank branches. But before we could wrap our time on the site, the 2020 COVID-induced crisis was upon us. Overnight, our service delivery operations became relief operations. The people we spent our best four months with, drinking tea, discussing smartphone brands and optimal savings plans (which no one signed up for), were suddenly hungry, petrified and now desperate to just go home.

Suddenly, we had the attention of migrant workers (and even their elusive contractors), service providers and funders. We conducted numerous rapid surveys telephonically to analyse the nature and scale of the distress. We seeded a geospatial database to connect relief needs with relief providers. A new set of service delivery challenges came to the fore: the lack of real-time data about where migrants were located in and around cities (more often than not in the peripheral worksites and informal settlements); the complete lack of suitable state infrastructure and understanding of these suddenly very visible citizens (lack of PDS shops near migrant settlements for instance); the supply-demand mismatch (need for cooked food while the supply focused on grains and sugars with no cooking oil).

When combined with the endless constraints and distress of the pandemic, the situation became very challenging. We fielded 3 am calls from desperate contractors with 50 hungry workers confined to a barren piece of land, or spouses and mothers of stranded workers pleading for assistance. It was a harrowing experience for all concerned. Unfortunately, many of our assumptions and priors about the last mile gaps and challenges faced by migrants were confirmed.

In the months following the initial lockdown, we reformulated our service delivery model to our updated experiences and learnings. The Chalo Network was born. Our model won the Equal Cities Challenge organised by the Nudge Foundation and a fruitful learning partnership with Dvara Trust came into being. We started pilots in several source regions of NCR/Delhi, training and placing CSCs/banking agents and community influencers to deliver financial, social welfare and identity services. We iterated ruthlessly, making and correcting errors, obsessing about effective last mile approaches, and optimising the lives of agents so they can better service their migrant customer bases.

While we saw a steady rise in transactions and customers, agent sustainability was a massive challenge. This was largely down to a lack of suitable products and services for the considerable agent ecosystem along with inadequate commission structures for government services. As the Delta wave came, our agent network joined the national vaccination push, registering and nudging thousands of migrants and non-migrants alike on the CoWin platform.

Today, almost two and half years into our operational journey, financial sustainability and building a great product roster for our agent network remain our primary challenges. Thanks to JP Morgan’s Force for Good program, we are well underway towards automating our agent program with a customised remote training and management solution. We have partnerships with last-mile organisations throughout India, working with migrants and informal workers. We have also developed a novel migration credit product and plan to extend our services for Indian overseas workers in the coming year. Chalo Network is currently present in the source regions of Shivpuri, Tikamgarh in Madhya Pradesh, Madhubani in Bihar and in destination regions of Delhi NCR, Thane and Ahmedabad. We also have expansion initiatives in Hyderabad, Bangalore and Odisha and have served almost 30,000 customers overall.

Through our experiences, we have learned a lot and we are excited to share Chalo Network’s journey and learnings with you. We feel that we have developed a fair understanding of the migrant ecosystem. We will continue reflecting and learning with more experiences on the ground.

While migrants continue to face deep distress and exclusions, especially in urban destinations, a lot of great progress has been made by governments and civil society alike. We want to highlight the advances, learnings, challenges and insights of the ecosystem in the upcoming editions of this monthly newsletter called Pravasi.

We hope you join us in our journey.

The Chalo Network is India Migration Now’s (IMN) attempt to execute, test and scale solutions for low-income migrants, their households, and communities. The IMN team has established itself as an important research and advocacy engine, merging migration studies with research, policy, and programs in the Indian context.

Launching Pravasi: Chalo Network’s Monthly Newsletter was originally published in India Migration Now on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.

Climate change and climate-induced migration have become significant global challenges over the years. Policymakers are increasingly concerned with understanding the phenomenon and its implications for the future of policy discourse. In terms of definition, climate migrants refer to a subset of environmental migrants who were forced to flee “due to sudden or gradual alterations in the natural environment related to at least one of three impacts of climate change: sea-level rise, extreme weather events, and drought and water scarcity.” Thus, climate migration as a branch of study focuses on understanding people on the move due to climate change. This article aims to highlight the growing repository of global knowledge on climate migration as well as regional and country-specific case studies. Additionally, we highlight some relevant gaps in the literature that can help develop a robust framework for future studies looking at climate change and migration.

What Drives Climate Migration?

With changing global climate patterns, extreme weather events and natural disasters have become more frequent over the last century. Rapid-onset climate hazards such as hurricanes, floods, etc. cause short-term population displacement and a likely return to the source regions. Slow-onset climate events, on the other hand, are incremental changes in climate systems like rising sea levels, desertification, global warming, etc. These slow-onset events are more likely to cause permanent migration, and also present the possibility of voluntary movement of populations before climate conditions get worse.

Both types of climate events also interact with existing social vulnerabilities such as age, gender, ethnicity, poverty and livelihoods, which can drive climate-vulnerable populations to migrate. The drivers of climate migration are nuanced, and recent studies have begun exploring the complexities of migration patterns of climate-vulnerable people. Climate events may have a direct impact on migration, but it is more likely to be an extra nudge to marginalised people’s decision to move, along with other socio-economic and political drivers.

The ‘push-pull’ theory has been prevalent in the traditional literature on climate migration; environmental degradation can reduce employment opportunities in the source areas and thus, environmental factors become a ‘push’ factor for economic migrants. This subject area has long been defined by the framework of environmental changes as a push factor and migration as an adaptive strategy to climate risk. This is changing, however, since new studies are applying the aspirations-capabilities framework to understand the nuances of climate migration. Moving away from the deterministic push-pull theories, the aspirations-capabilities framework supposes that a person may aspire to move to a less climate-sensitive area with better livelihood options, but their ability to migrate depends on various social, natural and financial factors.

Migration is an expensive endeavour, and often, those with the greatest vulnerability to climate change lack the financial and social resources to successfully move to more stable regions.

This leads to such populations being ‘trapped’ in worsening climate conditions, despite wanting to migrate. Climate migration research is steadily expanding beyond livelihood impacts and includes the effect on human rights, health, community, quality of life, etc. This has also led to the growing perception that climate migration doesn’t occur in a vacuum but in a ‘continuum of agency’. Recent climate migration studies using the aspirations-capabilities framework have begun to explore environmental immobility. Usually, this consists of trapped populations, but voluntary non-migration is also becoming a key research area in certain regional studies.

Drivers of Climate Migration in Developing Countries

Research on climate change migration is predominantly focused on developing countries, particularly regions like Sub-Saharan Africa, Latin America and Asia. One reason for this regional focus can be that most livelihoods in these areas are heavily influenced by environmental and climate changes.

While the popular climate migration debate mostly focuses on cross-border movements, evidence suggests that most climate migration trends are internal and follow a seasonal, rural-urban pathway.

The agricultural pathway is the most commonly studied in terms of climate migration, especially with respect to migration as an adaptive strategy for farmers. Other areas of interest include livelihood systems in coastal regions, forest regions and urban areas.

There is a regional disparity in climate migration: coastal and flood-related migration research is mostly focused in tropical areas (e.g. Bangladesh, India), while drought-related migration is commonly studied in Mexico, Pakistan, and Tunisia. A majority of literature in this field views migration as an adaptive response to climate risk, revealing that policies which give people the chance to move can help reduce vulnerability and build resilience in climate-vulnerable communities.

On the other hand, restricting migration and forceful relocation is likely to expose communities to more risk, especially if they have no say in the decision to migrate. Research has also highlighted some possible positive outcomes from climate-induced migration. One study in India found households of rural farmers who migrated due to climate risk now benefit from outcomes such as livelihood diversification, increased climate resilience, transfer of skills and remittances.

New studies in developing countries are also seeking to understand the phenomenon of voluntary non-migration. Non-migration is often treated as the default state. However environmental non-migration can’t be explained by push-pull theories that view migration and non-migration in a binary. Beyond neoclassical theories, anthropological studies have highlighted that it is community, not a lack of capabilities which makes people stay in a place despite climate risk.

In the rural Himalayan region of Nepal, for instance, people prefer to stay put due to factors like ancestral attachment, social groupings and confidence that they can adapt local survival strategies. In flood-prone regions of Assam, people would rather stay in their villages since they don’t believe their income prospects will be assuredly better in the cities. Among coastal villagers in Bangladesh, some trapped non-migrants became voluntary non-migrants over time, since they had significant access to local natural resources (forests, fishery) that could support their livelihoods and social capital.

What’s Missing in Climate Migration Research?

Some scholars have pointed out that climate migration research seems to have evolved somewhat independently from other fields that study climate change. So much so, that the risk assessment framing found in the IPCC is often missing in climate migration literature. Some of the most relevant areas of future research in this space include an understanding of non-migration drivers, comparative analyses, global and local datasets that allow for more empirical study and evidence-based policymaking.

Studying climate change linkages to the entire migration ecosystem is key- the impact on host communities and regions is quite understudied when it comes to climate-induced migration.

A consistent gap in this field is the lack of conceptual frameworks — even the definition of ‘climate-induced migrants’ is yet to have a universally agreed-upon meaning. There is a persistent need to develop conceptual and methodological means that can address the complexities of climate-induced migration, right from typologies of climatic processes, drivers of mobility as well as immobility.

This article was first published as the May 2022 issue of our newsletter, Gotta Keep On Movin’.

A Primer on Climate Migration was originally published in India Migration Now on Medium, where people are continuing the conversation by highlighting and responding to this story.