33 Migration and occupational shift

Vineet Verma

Table of Content

Introduction

Overview of migration in India

Concepts and Definition

Motive for migration

Solutions to prohibit Migration

Economic Impact of Migration

Health and Education

Impact on Source Areas

Role of Panchayats

Causes of Stagnancy in Occupational Pattern of India

Slow Growth of Industrial Sector
Neglect of small scale and Cottage Industries
Failure of the Employment Policy
Capital intensive Industries
Pressure of Population Growth

Utilising resource flows and human capital of emigrants to strengthen development Improvement in the economic, social and political environment in favour of migration

Summary

Learning Objective

To deals with internal and international migration, both of which are large-scale with impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction in many regions of the country.
To classify Concepts and Definition of Migration and Occupational shift
To focus on the Overview of migration among Indian population
To explore the formation and emergence of Historical development of migration
To discuss on development of major Causes of Stagnancy in Occupational Pattern of India
Examines intergenerational & National Migration and occupational mobility among in India population.

Introduction

In India, three out of four households include a migrant. However despite the large scale of migration in absolute numbers of people involved and India’s long history of population and labour mobility, labour migration has rarely been reliably studied. Migration from one area to another in search of improved livelihoods is a key feature of human history. While some regions and sectors fall behind in their capacity to support populations, others move ahead and people migrate to access these emerging opportunities. Industrialisation widens the gap between rural and urban areas, inducing a shift of the workforce towards industrialising areas. There is extensive debate on the factors that cause populations to shift, from those that emphasise individual rationality and household behaviour to those that cite the structural logic of capitalist development. Moreover, numerous studies show that the process of migration is influenced by social, cultural and economic factors and outcomes can be vastly different for men and women, for different groups and different locations.

An anthropological approach, which is both diachronic and synchronic; includes a consideration of all aspects of people’s social, economic and cultural life including the social habits of the human population; it not only includes the ways in which people in any society live but also how it is affected on the level by everything that is going on in the regional, national and international arena. Globalization of human capital through international migration is no longer about global physical presence only; it is also about global applicability of skills across various fields of specialization. This marks the main characteristics of skilled migration from India to developed countries in the twenty-first century. The focus is shifting away from professionals in specific occupations, like doctors, engineers, scientists, architects, bankers, to information technology professionals embodying, in a way, more generic skills.

Overview of Migration in India

There are very few studies of occupational mobility in India, mainly because there are very few sources of data on the subject Migration and Occupational shift. There are many studies, covering developed and less-developed countries that have documented the persistence of economic and social inequalities across generations based on outcome indicators such as income, earnings, occupation, and level of education. In the literature on social mobility, occupation is considered a good indicator of social status, incomes, and living standards. A low degree of intergenerational occupational mobility implies that the advantages and disadvantages inherent in the occupational status of one generation are transmitted to the next generation. A situation of low mobility across generations may be favourable for families that are in fortunate socio-economic circumstances, but in the case of families that are less fortunate, low mobility often entails “social exclusion, material and human capital impoverishment, and restrictions on the opportunities and expectations that would otherwise widen their capability to make choices”.

There are further reasons why intergenerational occupational mobility in rural India should be of particular interest to social scientists and policy makers. Rural India is marked by extreme forms of social and economic inequality, and in particular by a variety of forms of caste discrimination. The study of occupational mobility can help identify the extent to which the process of economic development and modernisation has broken traditional hierarchies and caste and class barriers to occupational choice. Given the relatively limited employment opportunities available within villages, the main vehicle for intergenerational occupational mobility in India is migration to urban or semi-urban areas. At the same time, since 69 per cent of India’s population still lives in villages, it is important to examine and understand the level of intergenerational occupational mobility within villages themselves.

Concepts and Definition

Migration (human) is the movement of people from one place in the world to another for the purpose of taking up permanent or semi permanent residence, usually across a political boundary. An example of “semi permanent residence” would be the seasonal movements of migrant farm labourers. Migration, sociological studies of Migration involves the (more or less) permanent movement of individuals or groups across symbolic or political boundaries into new residential areas and communities. Sociological studies of migration are diverse and usually form part of larger problems in (for example) research into kinship, social networks, or economic development. It is conventional to distinguish push from pull factors in the analysis of migration. The former

(for example high rates of unemployment in the area of origin) are usually viewed as inducing migration of a conservative, security-maximizing nature, while the latter (economic expansion in the host country or region) are said to encourage risk-taking and income-maximizing migration.

There is a considerable literature on rural-urban migration in developing countries, and this has confirmed the importance of family and friends in the destination area, as an explanatory variable for the rate of migration out of particular areas of origin. Money through government doles and relief cannot solve the problem of small-farm viability. But there is no salvation at all for the landless rural poor, who migrate to urban areas to occupy slums. Seasonal migration changes to permanent migration. It is estimated that the metros are swelling with a daily influx of people, with somewhat less into large and small cities and towns. Thus the suffering of both rural and urban slum populations is compounded, making for the typical lose-lose situation. They do not need or want pity. What they want is a fighting chance to live in dignity, even if poor. That can only be provided by proactive change in the present wrong agricultural policy that is at the root of the problem.

Motive for migration

The primary motive for migration, recorded by the census is an important indicator of how mobility is influenced by conditions:

Changed place of residence,
Moved for employment reasons and
Business motives

Technology-driven industrialisation has necessarily caused a shift in human values, certainly among those sections of society that have benefited from industrialisation in India. Such people speak and think about liberty and freedom without stopping to think whether there are others who cannot even dream of those desirable conditions of “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness”. The freedom they seek is to “consume” without the responsibility of leaving something for others, or regenerating resources or even a thought for the resources for generations as yet unborn.

Solutions to prohibit Migration

There are so many things new about the study of man by man through the scientific approach on the origins, the behaviour and the physical, social, cultural development of humans. Anthropologists using cultural perspective to understand patterns view human populations as biological as well as cultural entities. In short, anthropologists of one kind or another are liable to investigate almost everything about human beings: our evolution, our genes, our emotions, our behaviours, how people organize their living, our language, our religion, our behaviours and so forth. Is there at all a solution for this situation? But before looking for solutions, the causes of the problem need to be understood. The main causes are:

No land or poor land due to neglected land reforms,
Farmers’ food-security being based on the market by purchasing food for himself through income earned by sale of his farm produce,
Agricultural policy encouraging cash-crops rather than food crops, or marketable, water-intensive food crops rather than rain-fed food crops,
Neglect of rural agricultural water-security by neglect of localised watershed management,
Soil erosion due to deforestation,
Loss of soil fertility due to continued use of chemical fertilisers and pesticides,
Lack of micro-credit to farmers,
Industry-based high-input-cost technologies in farming including “high-yield”, water-demanding seed, instead of sustainable organic methods, and caste-based limitations to cooperation between farmers.

These main causes have a self-evident set of solutions, which will reduce the seasonal and permanent migration of rural people to urban centres. People who migrate to urban centres need jobs (employment) and this causes the government to attempt to create more jobs by further industrialisation. Sensible solutions to the causes of today’s farmers’ crisis situation will not only largely relieve the government of the need to “provide jobs” since rural people will have occupations that will keep them independent and working on the land, but will also increase food grain production.

Economic Impact of Migration: At the aggregate level, labour emigration affects the sending country’s economy through its impact on the market, on macro-economic variables (savings, balance of payments and so on), and social relations. These impacts are summarised below.

Four major categories of interventions can be envisaged, which will differ for internal and external migration.

These categories relate to:

Addressing underdevelopment and improving the synergy between migration and development;
Improving labour market outcomes;
Ensuring basic entitlements to migrant workers; and
Improving the social and political environment for migration

Health and Education: labourers working in harsh circumstances and living in unhygienic conditions suffer from serious occupational health problems and are vulnerable to disease. Those working in quarries, construction sites and mines suffer from various health hazards, mostly lung diseases. As the employer does not follow safety measures, accidents are quite frequent. Migrants cannot access various health and family care programmes due to their temporary status. Free public health care facilities and programmes are not accessible to them. For women workers, there is no provision of maternity leave, forcing them to resume work almost immediately after childbirth. Workers, particularly those working in tile factories and brick kilns suffer from occupational health hazards such as body ache, sunstroke and skin irritation

Impact on Source Areas: The major impacts of migration on source areas occur through changes in the labour market, income and assets, changes in the pattern of expenditure and investment. Although seasonal outmigration potentially has the effect of smoothing out employment over the annual cycle, rural outmigration could cause a tightening of the labour market in some circumstances. However, empirical evidence from out-migrant areas does not often attest to this. This may be because outmigration often takes place in labour surplus

Role of Panchayats: Panchayats should emerge as the focus of the resource pool for migrant workers residing in their area. They should maintain a register of migrant workers and issue identity cards and pass books to them. Further, it should be mandatory for recruiters to deposit with the Panchayats a list of the labourers recruited by them along with other employment details. With growing IT based communication; it may become possible for Panchayats or NGOs to maintain a record of potential employers and employees.

Problems Encountered by Migrants:

Problems encountered by the migrant workers may be examined at two levels.

First in relation to recruitment violations and
Second in relation to working and living conditions in destination countries; commonly reported violations are delayed deployment or non deployment of workers, overcharging or collection of fees far in excess of authorised placement fees and illegal recruitment.

Illegal recruitment is another serious violation of the rules as workers get recruited and deployed overseas without the government knowing about them. Being unlicensed, illegal recruiters are beyond the reach of the normal regulatory machinery of the national overseas employment policy.

Some major problems encountered by the migrants in their countries of employment include:

premature termination of job contracts,
changing the clauses of contract to the disadvantage of the workers,
delay in payment of salary,
violation of minimum wage standards,
freezing of fringe benefits and other perks,
forced over-time work without returns and
denial of permission to keep one’s own passport

Causes of Stagnancy in Occupational Pattern of India

Slow Growth of Industrial Sector: The cause of stagnancy in occupational pattern is the slow growth of industrial sector especially the manufacturing sector. Thus the slow growth of our industrial sector has kept the occupational pattern traditional.
Neglect of small scale and Cottage: The neglect of small scale and cottage industries is the factor responsible for the traditional nature of our occupational pattern. These industries use labour intensive technique of production. With small amount of capital these industries can employ more labour.
Failure of the Employment Policy: Another reason for failure to change the occupational pattern was the failure of our employment policy. A review of the employment policy during the last several decades of planning reveals that no serious attempt was made by the Indian planners to develop and diversify the rural economy. The unemployment alleviation programmes could not succeed due to poor management and leakages of fund. No sincere efforts have been made by planners to develop agricultural sector like road construction, land reclamation, digging of canals etc. Infect planners failed to give emphasis on rural industrialisation. As a result occupational structure remained traditional.
Capital intensive Industries: Since the beginning of planning the planners gave emphasis on capital intensive heavy industries in the producer goods sector. This had very limited employment generation effects. Besides there was rapid expansion of luxury durable consumer goods industries using capital intensive methods. As a result there was no shift of surplus labour from agricultural sector to the industrial sector.
Pressure of Population Growth: Rapid growth of population in India is a major cause of the traditional nature of our occupational pattern. Due to population explosion, there is sharp increase of our work force especially in rural part of the country. Generally more than two thirds of increased labour joins labour force. Lack of alternative source of employment in agriculture, leads to disguised employment and underemployment.
Financing outmigration: It would also be worth establishing a government system of offering low interest loans to less well-off emigrants to finance outmigration. Such a system of financing out migration may also ensure that those emigrants availing the low interest loans would resort to formal banking channels to transfer their remittances back home. This would further augment the foreign exchange resources, which are vital for a developing country like India.

Utilising resource flows and human capital of emigrants to strengthen development

There is an absence of any policy framework regarding the effective utilisation of financial inflows from emigrants to strengthen the development process at national or state levels. Similarly, the existing policy regime in India hardly addresses any concerns related to the migration of persons with technical or professional expertise, many of whom are willing to make a contribution to the development process, either in their non-resident status or as returnees. These issues need close consideration at national and regional levels and effective policies need to be formulated which can integrate development concerns with the migration process A focused approach is required to ensure that the basic entitlements of the poor to food, elementary education, basic health are fulfilled, as also their entitlement to other government programmes and subsidies.

Improvement in the economic, social and political environment in favour of migration

Disadvantages faced by poor migrants are accentuated because of their low political voice in source and destination areas; because they often comprise a distinct ethnic, social or cultural group, and are seen to be threatening to the livelihoods of workers in the destination areas. As a consequence, they can be victims of strong prejudices. There is, thus a role for advocacy to remove stereotypes and misapprehensions and for a campaign to buttress the voices of poor migrants. In the case of Indian emigrants and people of Indian origin, it is critical to address how they can participate in selected but specific developmental activities. Another significant issue is the identification of possible ways in which human capital can return to India and, having returned, can contribute to the development process.

Summary

Anthropologists provide information about communities that help agencies adapt projects to conditions and needs. Thus an anthropological perspective on issues of human development is cross-cultural, and includes an examination of the present social, political and economical theology of globalization, with a clearly articulated emphasis on the context-appropriate rebuilding or retention of economies, with a view toward the protection of the environment, the preservation of cultural diversity, and the empowerment of communities and their members. In India, three out of four households include a migrant. However despite the large scale of migration in absolute numbers of people involved and India’s long history of population and labour mobility, labour migration has rarely been reliably studied. Migration from one area to another in search of improved livelihoods is a key feature of human history. While some regions and sectors fall behind in their capacity to support populations, others move ahead and people migrate to access these emerging opportunities. Industrialisation widens the gap between rural and urban areas, inducing a shift of the workforce towards industrialising areas.

There is extensive debate on the factors that cause populations to shift, from those that emphasise individual rationality and household behaviour to those that cite the structural logic of capitalist development. Moreover, numerous studies show that the process of migration is influenced by social, cultural and economic factors and outcomes can be vastly different for men and women, for different groups and different locations.

These issues need close consideration at national and regional levels and effective policies need to be formulated which can integrate development concerns with the migration process A focused approach is required to ensure that the basic entitlements of the poor to food, elementary education, basic health are fulfilled, as also their entitlement to other government programmes and subsidies.

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SUGGESTED READING

Das, B. (1993). Migrant Labour in Quarries and Brickkilns: An Overview. Surat, India: Centre for Social Studies [mimeo].
Breman, J. (1994a). Wage Hunters and Gatherers: Search for Work in the Urban and Rural Economy of Gujarat. Delhi: Oxford University Press.
Centre for Social Studies (1990). Report of the Study Group on Migrant Labour. Surat, India: National Commission on Rural Labour.
Chandra, N. and Singh, C.S.K. (1983). Working Condition of Brick-Kiln Workers. National Labour Institute Bulletin, 9(1).
Joshi, V. ed. (1987). Migrant Labour and Related Issues. Delhi: Oxford and IBH.
Lewis, A. (1954) Economic development with unlimited supplies of labour. Manchester School of Economic and Social Studies, May.
Madhavan, M.C. (1985). Indian emigrants: Numbers, characteristics and economic impact. Population and Development Review, 11(3).
Nayyar, D. (1994). Migration, Remittances and Capital Flows: The Indian Experience. New Delhi: Oxford University Press.

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