Ever the alien

Not a cricket telecast or a news bulletin goes past these days without a government advertisement cautioning viewers against being lured by emigration touts. In recent days, two cases show the extraordinary spread of the shadowy emigration industry in India: the Mumbai police are currently probing the alleged complicity of airline staffers in helping illegal migration and the CBI has registered a case against army officials. The criminalisation of migration is one of the gravest challenges to countries around the world, to those that receive illegal migrants and those whose citizens so venture out.

When it is successful, it gives an organised mafia a way of financially squeezing predominantly good people desperate for nothing more than to earn well. Even when they find employment, their dubious legal status disallows them from accessing social security measures in countries benefiting from their work. They cannot also access financial services to lucratively invest their savings. And when these people are found out by the authorities, the processes of deportation renders them legally and socially isolated. Therefore, when the government cracks down on illegal emigration rackets, it should know it is doing just half the job. In a globalised world bound by trade in goods, trade in services is still to be adequately systematised and rationalised by international cooperation. Yes, outsourcing is a high-growth sector. But governments tend to steer clear of negotiating their citizens’ desire to tap employment opportunities overseas, especially in the unskilled categories.

This is unfortunate. India is, for instance, the biggest beneficiary of workers’ remittances. In 2006, of $268 billion remitted worldwide, a tenth came into India. Beyond benefiting the national economy, this money sustains many local communities. Reticence in acknowledging this issue at a government level allows countries to benefit from the labour of illegal migrants while withholding from them rights and security that come with residency — this was amply illustrated in the US when the so-called illegal aliens showed how they could bring parts of the country to a standstill if they struck work. In the past, mechanisms like a ‘World Migration Organisation’ along the lines of the WTO have been mooted. They deserve to be considered seriously.