Migrant Workers and the Civil Society

"The Poor are the spiritual reserve of the world."

I've just spent two illuminating days at an international conference on Migration at Ahmedabad. Titled "Migration Practice - Pushing Borders", the conference had civil society representatives working in the field of migration from China, USA, Germany, and India. It was organized jointly by Transatlantic Forum on Migration & Integration and Aajeevika Bureau.

  
That Migration for the sake of furthering livelihood is a global phenomena is well known; yet getting to know about the issue from an international perspective -- and how different nations are dealing with it -- was enriching, to say the least. Over the two days, I learnt about the challenges the European Union faces in its free-border policy, of how there's talk of Schengen Visa rules being rolled back. I got a glimpse of the massive rural to urban migration happening in China over the last decade and a half, and of the desperation of Central Americans to get into USA. We were shown an excellent short film on the plight of these central Americans, and the quote that you see at the top of this blog is from this film. 

We also heard some heart-tugging stories of migrants in India: how children as young as ten are smuggled from Rajasthan into Gujarat for cultivation of BT Cottonseed, how poor farmers from the drought prone districts of western Orissa trek to north Andhra each year to work in the brick kilns in harsh, exploitative conditions, and how sex workers from parts of Karnataka have been traditionally migrating to Mumbai and Kolkata for decades on end. Stories that leave you perturbed, humbled, and helpless...

A typical dwelling of a migrant worker at the destination. This
picture was taken in Allahabad, in Feb 2011.

Though migration for work is perhaps as old as civilization itself, its emergence as a theme in the development sector is a relatively new occurrence. Across the globe, the civil society is playing an important role in molding public policy to improve the plight of migrants. In India, thanks to the efforts of organizations such as Aajeevika Bureau, this issue is taking some rudimentary steps towards the limelight, though there's a long way ahead. For me, an important takeaway from the two days in Ahmedabad was the universality of the response to migrants - the middle class is largely indifferent, the unscrupulous view it as an opportunity, and the State chooses to either restrict it or show some tokenism. Amidst all this, the response of the civil society seems to be the most measured and reasonable one. For this very reason, the NGOs working in this field have a huge responsibility on their hands -- perhaps more than they can imagine. Their stance and approach, and the models they create, can potentially decide the fate of millions of migrant workers in the country.