INDIA MIGRATION REPORT 2009

The IMDS Team is happy to announce the inaugural issue of India Migration Report 2009 with all of you. For a copy and other details please contact imds.jnu@gmail.com

Power Projects in trouble as Chinese leave India

About 4,000 megawatts of power projects being built in India by Chinese companies may face delays due to non-availability of engineers from these companies, the junior power minister said Monday."These projects are in advanced stages of commissioning and urgently required the services of Chinese engineers for the commissioning activities," Bharatsinh Solanki told the upper house of parliament in a written reply.India asked Chinese engineers to leave the country by Oct. 31 after it found that Chinese nationals with a business visa, which doesn't permit citizens of other countries to work in India, were taking employment here.India in July had decided that business visas will be issued only to businessmen and that business visa holders currently employed in India will have to apply again for employment visas in order to return for project related work."The Ministry of Power has, therefore, requested the Ministry of Home Affairs to expedite issuing of employment visas to Chinese engineers so that plants can be completed on time," Mr. Solanki said.India issued 38,924 business visas to Chinese nationals up to October this calendar year. In 2008, business visas were issued to 58,658 Chinese nationals (Wall Street Journal, November 23, 2009).

What lies for Indian Doctors in the UK

Although the EU has been blowing the trumpet since long now, but Prime Minister Gordon Brown's statement that he is pledged to curb the entry of doctors and other professionals from outside Europe into the UK, as a new crackdown on immigration, is a move likely to adversely impact thousands of Indians. this came as the Labour government signaled a major shift in its immgration policy, the Prime Minister vowed to "stem rising tide of migration" and his government plans to restrict the points based system for determining which migrants can work in Britain. "One of the reasons that immigration will fall is the tightening of the new points system and it will continue to tighten over the next few months," Brown told theDaily Mail in an interview ahead of a major speech on immigration on Thursday.

Even as insisting that immigration had been a source of "economic, social and cultural strength" for Britain, Brown said the points-based system, introduced last year to control the entry of non-EU citizens to the UK by grading incomers on the skills they can offer the country, would be further toughened up.

In a major policy change, Brown is expected to announce that the door is being closed to non-EU hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship's officers, the report said. "I know people worry about whether immigration undermines their wages and the job prospects of their children and they also worry about whether they will get a decent home for their families," he underlined.

At times when the global leaders and experts have warned against the use of protectionist policies during recession, such a move seems to be naive and also promotes restrictions widening the already existent rift among the migrants and the natives. Britain should realise that it has one of the largest migrant diaspora population world over, but no wonder their eyes are closed and blinded with local politics wooing applause for all the wrong decisions and misguiding public as to what stand to benefit at large.

A Multi-entry Visa to 26/11 Suspects???

David Coleman Headley and Tahawwur Hussain Rana the Lashkar operatives and propably the minds behind 26/11 were issued Long-term visas, giving them a free-run across the country, without verification of their claims as required under a 2004 circular. Indian investigators mapping Headley and Rana’s activities during their long stays have found that head of chancery at Chicago had exercised his discretion without calling for verification of their claims.

External Affairs Minister S.M. Krishna had promised to look into the possible lapse that enabled Rana and a woman, Samraz Rana Akhthar, who he claimed to be his wife, get multiple entry visas under the discretion of the Consul General, even though a communique had been sent to all missions abroad in 2004 to verify antecedents of foreigners of Pakistan or Iranian origin, irrespective of their current nationality.

Vishvas Sapkal, Consul General at Chicago — who was left to respond to media queries — told HT that the visas were given after “due scrutiny”. All procedures have been followed, he had said on Monday. As per the procedure, no clearance from the home ministry was required in such cases, he told PTI on Wednesday. Rana was given a year-long business visa and Samraz was here on a tourist visa valid for five years. Both arrived in Mumbai on November 12 last year after which they travelled to Kochi four days later.

“No one can say with certainty that the consulate would have been able to detect Rana’s Lashkar links during the verification process. Or that it would not have…but it was something that should certainly have been done,” a home ministry official in Delhi said Hindustan Times, 19th Nov. 2009).

Abandoned 12-year old on streets of London

Gurinderjit Singh (12) has been abandoned by his parents and he is stuck in London for the last 20 months. Though he wants to be back in Punjab with his grandparents, but without a passport, he can’t be home. Guess what the lonely boy was found abandoned on a street in the Asian-dominated western London suburb of Southall on March 18, 2008. His parents, Mohinder Singh and Deepinder Kaur, used forged documents to travel and are in hiding to aviod being arrested and deported. “Both are in Europe. Mohinder is believed to be in Italy, while Deepinder is stated to be…in the United Kingdom,” the Ealing Council told the Punjab and Haryana High Court last week.

The boy is currently living with an Indian family appointed as his guardian by the West London Borough of Ealing council (local authority), which governs Southall. The council moved the court after the ministry of external affairs and the Indian high commission in London failed to arrange an emergency passport for the boy. As Singh’s passport is with his parents. “This has become a torture for him,” the council said. In its petition, the council criticised the ministry’s non-cooperative attitude. When “Gurinderjit’s uncle (Mohinder’s brother) came forward to claim his guardianship and filed a case in Punjab the council’s lawyer Anil Malhotra told the court that it could not be decided in the absence of the boy. He said the family division of the London high court had asked the Indian authorities to cancel the old passport and issue a new one to Singh.

“The MEA and high commission both have cited rules, saying an application for issuing a passport or an emergency certificate should be signed by parents in case of a minor,” Malhotra told the court. As usual though it been over an year the MEA refused comment, saying it was a matter to be decided by the court. It just shows how least concerned these institutions are with what happens to people they are supposed to be protecting and taking care of. (Hindustan Times: 19th November, 2009)

Significance of International Migration

Human migration has emerged as one of the most challenging and debated issue among the academic and policy-making communities of the developed and the developing nations of the world. However, with time new dimensions have been added to this area. International Migration is a historical phenomenon. For centuries, colonialism and migration have moved together. Recent large-scale movements of people across international boundaries are directly related to the specific nature of the disparity in growth between developed and developing countries. These movements of people in search of greater economic opportunity occur not only because of "push factors" (population pressures, land scarcity, overcrowded cities, joblessness and underemployment), but because of marked wage differentials between the developed and developing world. International migration has been a key factor in the growth of today's advanced nations. As Davis (1974) notes, in the 16th and 17th centuries, "the world as a whole (for the first time) began to be one migratory network dominated by a single group of technologically-advanced and culturally similar states" which eventually were able to start the industrial revolution and "enormously enhance their world dominance". Contrary to the predictions made, world migration has not diminished, but has shifted its directions.

Indians - The Third Largest Diapora

Indians have migrated since centuries, to various parts of the world. They have not only been the most hardworking people but have also carved their niches in various fields may it be science, arts, culture and values or their dedication. Today Indians are the second largest diaspora in the world, marking their presence not only in developed countries like the US, the UK, Australia, Canada but also in the African countires, Gulf countries and Asian countries. As one reads the contributions of Indian Diaspora one comes to know its worth. Well, in the Policy and Practice area of international migration from and into India there lies a whole field to be explored and researched, in order to manage and facilitate migration so that it results in a win-win-win situation for all the migrant, the origin country and the destination country.