Migration is defined as the movement of people from one place to another across the political boundaries- national (internal) or international. It is an integral part and an important factor in redistributing the population over time and space. Migrants who move within the boundaries of their own country are known as internal migrants.

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Positive impacts of migrants:

Labour mobility has a positive effect on the economy because they are engaged in the construction industry, domestic work, textiles, mines and quarries, agriculture, food processing and the hotel and restaurant business.

• The rising contribution of cities to India’s GDP would not be possible without migration and migrant workers.
• Migrants also take their skills and knowledge back with them, generally called ‘social remittances’.
• The backbone of the Green Revolution in Punjab was actually migrant labour.
• With rising incomes, migrant remittances also encourage investment in human capital formation.
• Migration may provide an opportunity to escape caste divisions and restrictive social norms.
• Migrants may return with renewed social attitudes and act as a channel of knowledge.
• Migration and inter-cultural dialogue between populations bring in new ideas, energy, and diversity to urban spaces.

Negative impacts of Migration:

• Internal migration has created a demographic divide among states.
• Unplanned migration and urbanisation can also create serious development challenges.
• The problem is multiplied in cases where there is a high level of segregation between the migrants and the host community.
• There are examples where conflicts between the two have turned violent.
• The host states are increasingly under pressure to keep up with the needs of the incoming migrants.
• The source states suffer from outflow of human capital.
• People’s ration cards are invalid in their destinations of work.
• So a migrant family will lose out on their rations in their new homes and purchase food in the open market.
• This significantly increases their cost of living and reduces the additional earnings they might hope to remit to their families.
• A migrant’s family may also lose out on schooling and health.
• Many smart city proposals identify slums as a “threat” to the city in their “SWOT” (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities, Threats) analysis while totally failing to account for migrant labour in the schemes.
• Women migrants are victims of gender-based violence, physical, sexual, or psychological abuse, exploitation, and trafficking.

Way forward:   

• A national policy on migration should facilitate the integration of migrants into the local urban fabric, and building city plans with a regular migration forecast assumed.
• Lowering the cost of migration, along with eliminating discrimination against migrants, while protecting their rights will help raise development across the board.
• It should distinguish between the interventions aimed at ‘migrants for survival’ and ‘migrants for employment’.
• It should provide more space to local bodies and NGOs which bring about structural changes in local regions.
• It should focus on measures enhancing skill development would enable easier entry into the labour market.
• It should also distinguish between individual and household migrants, because household migration necessitates access to infrastructure such as housing, sanitation and health care more than individual migration does.
• The policy should improve financial infrastructure to enable the smooth flow of remittances and their effective use require more attention from India’s growing financial sector.

Conclusion:

India must safeguard the rights of internal migrants. Continued dynamic interventions over long periods of time would yield better results compared to single-point static interventions. The need of the hour is for the government to consider the needs of this section of the economy and design special assistance for them.