An International panel discussion titled “Gulf Migration: During and Aftermath of COVID-19” organized by Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism on 27th May, 2020 focused on the issues the migrant workers in Gulf countries are facing during COVID-19. One of the eminent panelists, Prof. Irudaya Rajan, Centre for Development Studies who has been researching on the issues of Gulf migration and has recently written an article called, “International Migration Governance” put forth his observations on the varied nuances of the issues related to Gulf migration.
Incorrect statistical data
Prof. Rajan pointed out the reason behind the discrepancies in the statistical data. According to him, the number of migrant workers who are reported to have migrated from India to the gulf is incorrect. He took the example of a survey conducted in Kerala and Tamil Nadu, the results of which showed that 3.5 million people from the two states of India have migrated to the gulf countries in order to prove that this estimation negates the number of overall movement of people from India to Gulf countries which is taken to be 9 million. This underestimated approach towards statistical calculation indicates at a lack of interest in migrants’ problems and issues related with it.
Lack of statistical data on return migration
Prof. Rajan said that issues revolving around transnational migration are a perennial one. COVID-19 has successfully brought the migrants’ problems to the forefront. Nevertheless, problems such as overcrowding, non-payment of wages, recruitment cost, return migration have persisted for years. He believes that in the light of the ongoing health crisis, 10-15% of the Indian migrants in Gulf is likely to return back India.
While talking about the aspect of return migration from Gulf to India, he said that such movement of people would continue till December, 2020. He figured out that Kerala probably would receive 3 lakhs return migrants from Gulf by December, 2020. He again drew our attention to the issue of return migration which he said is an “old story” since departure and return is an incipient characteristic of gulf migration, but lacks proper statistical data on the number of the Indian migrants who return back India.
Furthermore, the Immigration Bill of India does not mention about the return migration. However, he also feels that it is not possible to categorize all the return migrants in one frame. Return migrants who fall under the category of ‘normal returnees’ tend to return to the home countries with money in hand and thus Prof. Rajan said the government should make policies so that they can effectively invest the money. The other group of people that he mentioned falls in the category of “re-migration.” This group consists of workers who come back to their home countries for a short period of time only to return back again. In this light, he said that migration to and fro is likely to pick up during the Coronavirus pandemic and workers should be equipped to migrate not only in Gulf countries but also in other parts of the world.
COVID-19 is both a boon and curse for the migrant workers in the Gulf countries
Situating the migration issue during COVID-19, he mentioned about the possible failure of nationalization policy, spike in oil prices leading to employment boom in Gulf and the need for worldwide network to fight against COVID together. To this end, he urged the government to focus on amnesty programs such as facilitating return and rehabilitation through employment exchange programmes.
In his concluding remarks, Prof. Rajan highlighted on the issue of negligence towards documentation. He said that 20-30% of the South Asian migrants in gulf are undocumented. The cold shoulder attitude towards documentation indicates towards the presence of a parallel shadow labour which further points at a huge job market in Gulf countries. Focusing on the health issues of the migrant workers who are a constant risk of embracing death than non-migrants, he said that the short terms migrants would suffer from lack of communication facilities, proper payment and even death. He concluded his statement in an optimistic tone as he regarded the migrant workers as worriers who are incessantly fighting against the negative consequences of COVID-19. Thus, he believed that these workers would see a new dawn full of new opportunities in 2021.
Sukanya Bhattacharya