MIGRATION: A WORLDWIDE PROFILE ~ Dr Manju Antil (Counselling Psychologist and Psychotherapist)

Coppens (2004) narrated that the process of human population migration begins with the movement of Homo erectus from Africa to different parts of the world about a million years ago. Primal migrations were usually in seeking out food but were also the consequence of invasion by other people. However, the era of exploration and European colonialism resulted in hastening in the pace of migration during the 18th century and it further stimulated during the 19th and 20th centuries. About 10% of the world’s inhabitants were migrated from one place to another temporarily or permanently during these centuries. Millions of agricultural labour left their villages and moved to the cities for better socio-economic status. According to Joseph (1988), this phenomenon began in Britain and later on, spread all over the world and even, prolonging till today. In the 1950s and 1960s, people from former colonies of European powers were migrated to the prosperous and urbanized countries of the West in hunt of employment. Such as Indians, Pakistanis and West Indians migrated to the UK. The Vietnamese, Cambodians, Algerians, Tunisians, Moroccans and other Africans migrated to France (Waddington and Wheeler2003:15). In the early, The 1970s, the rapid hike in oil prices remarkably stimulated the oil-producing countries of the Middle East to invest in infrastructural development in a big way which needed the huge number of the migrant labour force.

Migration: Indian Perspective

India has a large boundary in the north which is secured by the Himalayas. Most of it is extended in the south and west coastal regions. Almost all migrations from European nations to India were from south to west coastal regions. After the elimination of the slavery system by the Britishers in their colonies, an unparalleled wave of migration of unskilled labour from India to different parts of the world begins. Such migration was predominated to the countries of South Africa, Mauritius, Fiji, Sri Lanka, Malaysia, Singapore, Guiana, etc. Mainly to do labour on the Tea Garden, Sugarcane fields and Palm plantations and in mines ( Dewal et al 2004:53; Chand 2002:2).After independence of Indian, another beckon of migration from India to Britain, Canada, the USA, Australia and other European countries were seen. The peoples who migrated to these countries especially to USA and Australia were well cultured and belong to approximately every part of India. An international migration on a large scale from India happens in the middle of 1970 due to the oil boom in the Middle East. A vast number of these migrants were untrained or semi-skilled labours employed in manual or secretarial jobs on a bond basis. Similarly, in the mid-1980s, Indians also made their journeys towards the newly developed economies of South East Asia including Malaysia, Singapore and the Philippines.

On the immigration side, historically, India has been a paradise for an extensive figure of migrants from adjoining countries like Nepal, Sri Lanka, Pakistan and Bangladesh. In accumulation to this, the country continued to be a safe place for refugees from internally disturbed countries of Afghanistan, Sri Lanka, Tibet, Bangladesh, Bhutan and Myanmar in the post-independence period (UNHCR 2006:4). People especially nomadic labourers in large numbers, from rustic areas, moved to the metropolitan areas for better employment opportunities and living standards. This trend saw its origin in populace forceful movement and financial growth of the nation At the same time, migration in India was largely fuelled by the escalating regional disparities, rural-urban development imbalances and urban bias in economic planning as well.

The labour class in India was not a homogenous class but the workers were drawn from all parts of the country and from all sections of the society. It was, however, momentous to note that Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Orissa, Kerala have been the out-migrant states since long because of higher density of population and absence of proper employment opportunities in these states. The migrants from these states were focussed on the prosper states such as Maharashtra, Gujarat and Punjab and the mammoth cities like Mumbai, New Delhi, Bangalore, Calcutta, Dehradun, Srinagar and several other such cities which had shown uneven economic growth, subsequently formed more and more jobs in all fields including industrial and non-industrial economic activities

Migration: Punjab and Jammu Kashmir Scenario

Punjab, the gateway and one of the richer states of India, has been a dream destination for a considerable number of people not only from various parts of the country but also from many other countries. In the post-1947 period, Punjab emerged as a pioneer in the green revolution in the country with the adoption of modern methods and techniques of cultivation in the agriculture sector. Consequently, the state registered the highest rank in gaining per capita income and became food basket for the whole country (Gill 1990:3). The green revolution, thus, was accompanied by a great deal of job avenues both in agriculture and industrial which gave the instant push to the internal movement of poor and landless young male labourers from various parts of India and a large proportion of them made their journeys towards Punjab. The modern agricultural methods and technologies used in Punjab generated massive demand for agricultural labour, particularly during the sowing and harvesting seasons but the local labour was unable to meet such demand. The farmers had to rely on the migratory labour from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. At the same time, migrant labourers from Jammu & Kashmir and Rajasthan were also got attracted towards Punjab for reaping better employment opportunities with good wages and less social and economic exploitation (Sidhu and Grewal 1984:2). Besides, the end of terrorism, restoration of peace, political stability and economic prosperity in Punjab multiplied the process of industrial and urban growth which also attracted the inflow of migrant labour in the state of Punjab but more significantly in Ludhiana.

Ludhiana generally termed as ‘small scale capital’ of India witnessed uneven industrial and urban growth. It has been the centre of hosiery manufacturing, cycles, machine tools, sewing machines, oil engines and a variety of consumer goods. This considerable growth created a wide range of jobs, beyond agriculture, in industrial as well as in other urban economic activities in Ludhiana which acted as a pull factor for a huge number of the labour force not only from other areas of Punjab but also from the states of Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West Bengal, Assam, Uttrakhand and some neighbouring countries including Nepal (Oberai and Manmohan Singh 1980:23; Karan 2003:104). Almost manual activities in agriculture and industries relied on migrant labourers. Besides, other occupations such as rickshaw pulling, brick making, building and road construction, roadside kiosks, etc. were also being run by these migrants. They provided all types of services with their labour as they worked in factories, produced food, provided domestic services, services in hospitals and contributed to a wide range of basic needs. They, with the passage of time, became vigilant about their political rights and role in the city. They played a decisive role during the last Assembly and Municipal Corporation elections in Ludhiana. However, certain sections of the local society believed that migrants were taking away jobs from the local labourers and were directly responsible for creating an unemployment situation.

As the topic of our research is concerned with Kashmiri migration. So to know the history of Kashmiri migration is necessary for our research. The history of Kashmiri migration is very old and drastic.