Objective of the paper
This paper aims at studying both the causes and the effects of migration from Bangladesh to India with some introspection into the labour market and then recommends the possible change in policies and diplomatic approach that might help in reducing the aggravating problem.
Introduction
Ever since the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, there has been a significant influx of migrants into India. Despite of the risks involved in migration, short term labour migration has proliferated over the years. This movement that continued unabated for three decades (approximately 15 million Bangladeshis have immigrated into India since the independence of Bangladesh ) attracted public and political attention only when economic and …show more content…
Political factors – Apart from the economic factors, the political landscape of the two nations played a pivotal role in the migration of Bangladeshis. Before the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, the tyranny and the atrocities of the Pakistani troops forced large scale immigration into India. After the liberation of Bangladesh, the repressive measures adopted by the government towards the religious minority Hindus and a smaller proportion of Buddhists forced them to flee to India. (See Figure 4)
d. Low cost of migration – Since India is in geographical proximity to Bangladesh, the costs involved in migration and transport is very low. Another reason that many immigrants stated was that the hassle in securing passports and work permits in other destination countries makes India more attractive to migrate. Immigrants also preferred the ease with which they could travel back to their home country at any time they chose to.
e. Higher potential wages – Higher potential wages in India (as compared to the labour market in Bangladesh) along with the high unemployment rate in Bangladesh is another factor that motivates the labourers to migrate to …show more content…
As per the provisions of this theory and the concepts learnt in class, the decision to migrate will be governed by the following equation:
The economic landscape in Bangladesh, characterised by abject poverty, widespread unemployment, landlessness among the vast majority of the rural population and a high and unsustainable population growth rate explains the reason for the migration from Bangladesh to India (economic push factors). Under these conditions, the rational human being ‘homo economicus’ would make a rational decision to insure himself against risks in income.
However one observed fact on the theory of migration, difficult to explain by the postulates of the neo classical theory is that a large majority of the Bangladeshi immigrants are still living on subsistence income in India. These people take up menial jobs in urban cities (like in Delhi and Calcutta) that an Indian would never himself do. A further close introspection revealed that the reason Bangladeshi immigrants readily went into unskilled, low wage jobs was that their educational backgrounds from native country were not sufficient to bridge the skillset gap as required for the jobs they were seeking in
This paper aims at studying both the causes and the effects of migration from Bangladesh to India with some introspection into the labour market and then recommends the possible change in policies and diplomatic approach that might help in reducing the aggravating problem.
Introduction
Ever since the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, there has been a significant influx of migrants into India. Despite of the risks involved in migration, short term labour migration has proliferated over the years. This movement that continued unabated for three decades (approximately 15 million Bangladeshis have immigrated into India since the independence of Bangladesh ) attracted public and political attention only when economic and …show more content…
Political factors – Apart from the economic factors, the political landscape of the two nations played a pivotal role in the migration of Bangladeshis. Before the liberation of Bangladesh in 1971, the tyranny and the atrocities of the Pakistani troops forced large scale immigration into India. After the liberation of Bangladesh, the repressive measures adopted by the government towards the religious minority Hindus and a smaller proportion of Buddhists forced them to flee to India. (See Figure 4)
d. Low cost of migration – Since India is in geographical proximity to Bangladesh, the costs involved in migration and transport is very low. Another reason that many immigrants stated was that the hassle in securing passports and work permits in other destination countries makes India more attractive to migrate. Immigrants also preferred the ease with which they could travel back to their home country at any time they chose to.
e. Higher potential wages – Higher potential wages in India (as compared to the labour market in Bangladesh) along with the high unemployment rate in Bangladesh is another factor that motivates the labourers to migrate to …show more content…
As per the provisions of this theory and the concepts learnt in class, the decision to migrate will be governed by the following equation:
The economic landscape in Bangladesh, characterised by abject poverty, widespread unemployment, landlessness among the vast majority of the rural population and a high and unsustainable population growth rate explains the reason for the migration from Bangladesh to India (economic push factors). Under these conditions, the rational human being ‘homo economicus’ would make a rational decision to insure himself against risks in income.
However one observed fact on the theory of migration, difficult to explain by the postulates of the neo classical theory is that a large majority of the Bangladeshi immigrants are still living on subsistence income in India. These people take up menial jobs in urban cities (like in Delhi and Calcutta) that an Indian would never himself do. A further close introspection revealed that the reason Bangladeshi immigrants readily went into unskilled, low wage jobs was that their educational backgrounds from native country were not sufficient to bridge the skillset gap as required for the jobs they were seeking in