This article was downloaded by: [IIPS - The Intl Inst for Population Scie], [R.B. Bhagat] On: 07 June 2013, At: 23:02 Publisher: Routledge Informa Ltd Registered in England and Wales Registered Number: 1072954 Registered office: Mortimer House, 37-41 Mortimer Street, London W1T 3JH, UK Migration and Development Publication details, including instructions for authors and subscription information: http://www.tandfonline.com/loi/rmad20 Emigration and flow of remittances in India R.B. Bhagat a, Kunal Keshri b & Imtiyaz Ali c a Department of Migration and Urban Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India b G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, (Constituent Institute of Central University of Allahabad), Allahabad, India c International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India Published online: 07 Jun 2013. To cite this article: R.B. Bhagat, Kunal Keshri & Imtiyaz Ali (2013): Emigration and flow of remittances in India, Migration and Development, DOI:10.1080/21632324.2013.785255 To link to this article: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2013.785255 PLEASE SCROLL DOWN FOR ARTICLE Full terms and conditions of use: http://www.tandfonline.com/page/terms-andconditions This article may be used for research, teaching, and private study purposes. Any substantial or systematic reproduction, redistribution, reselling, loan, sub-licensing, systematic supply, or distribution in any form to anyone is expressly forbidden. The publisher does not give any warranty express or implied or make any representation that the contents will be complete or accurate or up to date. The accuracy of any instructions, formulae, and drug doses should be independently verified with primary sources. The publisher shall not be liable for any loss, actions, claims, proceedings, demand, or costs or damages whatsoever or howsoever caused arising directly or indirectly in connection with or arising out of the use of this material.
Migration and Development, 2013 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/21632324.2013.785255 Emigration and flow of remittances in India R.B. Bhagat a *, Kunal Keshri b and Imtiyaz Ali c a Department of Migration and Urban Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India; b G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, Constituent Institute of Central University of Allahabad, Allahabad, India; c International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, India (Received 18 February 2012; final version received 13 March 2013) The National Sample Survey Organization in India has collected information on emigration and remittances in its 64th round, for the first time, during 2007 2008 at the household level. It is estimated that 4.4 million Indians who are currently members of the households were living outside the country. The average amount of remittances during the last one year was INR 57 thousands (1US$ = 45 INR in 2007 2008). The paper shows a vast disparity in the levels of emigration across different states of India as well as per capita remittances sent by them. It also analyses the characteristics of emigrants, reasons of emigrations and the related policy issues. Keywords: emigrant; remittances; National Sample Survey; monthly per capita consumer expenditure; Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs 1. Introduction International labour mobility is a means to secure a better life for the migrants and their families. The remittances, skill and knowledge transfers, investments and international business activity that migration generates contribute significantly to economic, political and social advances in countries both of origin and of destination (ILO, 2010). Globally, it is estimated that around 214 million people were international migrants constituting about 3% of the world population. The share of international migrants in the world s population has remained remarkably stable at around 3% over the past 50 years, despite factors that could have been expected to increase flows (UNDP, 2009). It is also estimated that Overseas Indians comprise about 25 million i.e. 2% of India s population, spread across 189 countries. India has the world s second largest overseas community next only to China, but far more diverse (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, 2010). Overseas Indians comprise of People of Indian Origin (PIO) and Non-Resident Indians (NRIs). NRIs are Indian citizens holding Indian passports but residing abroad, whereas PIOs are not Indian nationals but they themselves are either born in India or their fathers and forefathers. The NRIs constituted about 40% of the total Overseas Indians. The Government of India has realized the importance of Indian emigrants in the country s progress, particularly their contribution to the foreign exchange reserve and investment in the country. The total amount of remittances to India in 2008 2009 was recorded at US$ 46.9 1 billion, a steady increase from US$ 15.8 billion in 2001 2002 (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, 2010). *Corresponding author. Email: rbbhagat@iips.net Ó 2013 Taylor & Francis
2 R.B. Bhagat et al. It is assessed that a significant proportion of this is contributed by the increasing number of unskilled and semi-skilled Indian workers employed in the Gulf countries and Malaysia (Annual Report 2009 10, MOIA). The Government of India has thus created a new Ministry known as Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in 2004. The emigration of Indian people has a long history. A huge migration of Indian labour took place during the colonial period to the countries like South Africa, Mauritius, Trinidad and Tobago, Guyana and Fiji in response to the enormous demand for cheap labour that arose immediately after the British abolished slavery in 1833 1834. Indentured system of labour, which was a system in between slavery and free labour, was invented and the Indian labourers were shipped to the colonies of Africa, South America and the Caribbean (Davis, 1951; Madhavan, 1985; Sharma, 2002). The movement of Indian emigrants to Europe, North America and Australia is largely a phenomenon of the twentieth century. There are three main categories of people who migrated: first were those with agricultural backgrounds; second, were the entrepreneurs, store owners, motel owners and self-employed small businessmen who had migrated since 1965 onwards, and the third were professionals like doctors, engineers (1960s onwards), software engineers, management consultants, financial experts, media people (1980s onwards) and others (Sharma, 2002). There was also a steady outflow of migration to the Gulf in the 1970s in the wake of oil boom. But the nature of immigration to Gulf countries is different from the migration to other developed countries, as the majority of the migrants to Gulf countries are either unskilled or semi-skilled and go as contract workers and return home on completion of the contract. 2. Overseas Indians by destination countries The International Union for the Scientific Study of Population the umbrella organization of population scientists has set up several working groups on international migration since 1970. The group has been suggesting how to make improvements in the quality of data on international migration, and also advocating for comparative studies of the determinants and consequences of international migration (Kritz, 2005). Data obtained from the website of the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs shows that largest number of Overseas Indians are found in the USA (2.2 million) followed by 2 million in Malaysia and 1.7 million in Saudi Arabia. However, overseas Indians constitute only about 0.6% of US population. There are about a million Indian emigrants in Canada (2.8% of Canada s population) and about half a million in Australia (see Table 1). It may also be noted from Table 1 that most of NRIs are found in Gulf Countries followed by Thailand. In most of the Gulf countries except Yemen the NRI comprises almost all overseas Indians. The percentage of NRIs is higher in countries where change in citizenship is either not allowed or difficult to be undertaken. On the other hand, in most of the advanced countries namely the USA, Canada, Australia and New Zealand where change in citizenship is allowed, share of NRIs varies from 48% in Australia to 42% in the USA to only 20% in Canada. PIOs are the part of the Indian Diasporas who are in fact non-indians at the moment, while NRIs who hold Indian passport could only be defined as the international migrants or the Indian emigrants in a strict demographic sense. It is worthwhile to mention that the data on international out migration from India was almost non-existent until recently (Premi & Mathur, 1995). A huge effort was made by the Centre for the Development Studies, Thiruvanathapuram which conducted several migration surveys in the states of Kerala and Goa (Govt. of Goa, 2009; Zachariah & Rajan, 2008, 2012). The studies conducted at the Centre for the Development Studies brought out the importance of emigration in the economy of the
Migration and Development 3 Table 1. Estimated number of Overseas Indians, 2009 (countries with 100 thousand and more Overseas Indians). Country Overseas Indians NRI PIO % NRI USA 2,245,239 927,283 1,317,956 42.1 Malaysia 2,050,000 150,000 1,900,000 7.3 Saudi Arabia 1,789,000 1,789,000 Na 100.0 UAE 1,702,911 1,700,000 2911 99.8 Sri Lanka 1,600,500 500 1,600,500 0.03 UK 1,500,000 Na Na Na South Africa 1,218,000 18,000 1,200,000 1.4 Canada 1,000,000 200,000 800,000 20.0 Mauritius 882,220 15,000 867,220 1.7 Nepal 600,000 112,500 487,500 18.7 Singapore 590,000 270,000 320,000 45.7 Kuwait 579,390 579,058 332 99.9 Oman 557,713 556,000 1713 99.6 Trinidad and Tobago 551,500 1500 550,000 0.20 Qatar 500,000 500,000 Na 100.0 Australia 448,430 213,710 234,720 47.6 Myanmar 356,560 3160 353,400 0.88 Bahrain 350,000 350,000 Na 100.0 Guyana 320,200 200 320,000 0.06 Fiji 313,798 800 312,998 0.25 France (Reunion Island) 275,200 200 275,000 0.07 Netherlands 201,000 6000 195,000 2.9 Thailand 150,000 90,000 60,000 60.0 France (Guadeloupe St. Martinique) 145,000 0 145,000 0.0 Suriname 140,300 300 140,000 0.21 Yemen 111,000 11,000 100,000 9.9 New Zealand 107,000 37,000 70,000 34.5 Total 21,699,822 8,177,657 11,877,005 40.7 Source: Ministry of Overseas Indians Affairs. (downloaded on 9 January 2011). http://www.moia.gov.in/writereaddata/pdf/nrispios-data.pdf. states of Kerala and Goa, reasons for emigration and the impact on women, children and elderly in these states. The studies have been also very significant in understanding the linkages between emigration, economy and social change in the country. The countrywise variations in overseas Indians in terms of the composition of PIOs and NRIs depend upon the history of emigration as well as the prevailing norms of obtaining citizenship of the host country. However, the fact remains that the Indian overseas community is very diverse. In recent years, the Indian government has evidently recognized the contribution of overseas Indians in India s development and encourages them to be partners in future growth; on the other hand, the expectations of overseas Indians vary according to their position and status in the host country. India being a vast country with variety of linguistic and cultural groups, it would be interesting if we could know the states from which they originated. The available data from the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs do not permit to provide a complete picture on overseas Indians by origin of states, although it could be possible to know about the emigrants from a National Sample Survey (NSS) conducted under the aegis of Ministry of Statistics and Programme Implementation, Government of India in 2007 2008. Results from this survey are presented below.
4 R.B. Bhagat et al. 3. Emigration: magnitude and characteristics The NSS 64th round conducted during 2007 2008, collected sufficient information of outmigration along with in-migration data by states of India. With the coverage of 125,000 households, it estimates emigration at the state levels. Also this survey provides information on remittances; years lived in destination, reasons for emigration, engagement in economic activity, etc. An emigrant is defined as a former member of a household, who left the household any time in the past for staying outside India provided he/she, was alive on the date of survey. Using unit-level data of NSS, we have calculated emigration rate which is defined as the number of emigrants residing outside India at the time survey (July 2007 June 2008) divided by the projected population per 1000 as on 1 January 2008 of the respective states. Results presented in Table 2 show that there were 4.44 million emigrants from India out of which 1.58 million belonged to the state of Kerala (35%) followed by 0.49 million in Tamil Nadu (11%) and 0.43 million in Andhra Pradesh (10%). There is a possibility of these figures being an underestimate because information on outmigration has been collected from the households. In cases where whole households have migrated or the parent households from which some members have migrated cease to exist, information for such emigrants could not be collected. However, the impact of such omission would not be very large. This is evident in the fact that in the state of Kerala from where one-third of India s emigrants originated, the 64th round of NSS in 2007 2008 gives the figure of 1.58 million, compared to 1.85 million as per the Kerala Migration Survey in 2007 conducted by CDS (Zachariah & Rajan, 2008). The emigration rate was 4 per 1000 population at the national level. The state-level emigration rates are shown in Table 2 and Figure 1. The emigration rates vary from as high as 47 per 1000 population in Kerala to less than 1 per 1000 in the states of Jharkhand, Madhya Pradesh, Jharkhand and Jammu and Kashmir. The state of Punjab shows an emigration rate of 14 per 1000, Goa 11, Tamil Nadu 7 and Andhra Pradesh 5 per 1000 population. Five states, namely Kerala, Punjab, Goa, Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, contribute 65% of all emigrants from India. This also shows huge regional disparity in the emigration rates. Most of the Northeastern states have very negligible emigration except Sikkim with an emigration rate close to the national average of 4 per 1000 population. Some of the Union Territories like Chandigarh, Daman and Diu and Pondicherry also have high emigration rates i.e. 10 per 1000 population and even more. The developed states like Haryana, Gujarat and Maharashtra have emigration rates of 2 3 per 1000 i.e. lower than the national average. What is emerging from results is that the Southern states (except Karnataka) are far ahead in emigration compared to other states except Punjab. One of the important findings emerging from Table 2 is that the emigration pattern remains very diverse across the states. It also seems that emigration levels are influenced by a combination of factors like history of emigration, economic development and stages of demographic transition across states of India. About one-fifth of the emigrants are females which show that emigration from India is male selective process. On the other hand, majority (56%) of the emigrants have migrated during the last five years. About 80% of the migration has taken place due to employment purposes, followed by marriages (10%) and studies (3%). However, the state-level results vary significantly, and almost one-fifth of emigrants report marriage as the reason for migration in Gujarat (see Table 3). 4. Remittances: interstate variations Remittances are vital in improving the livelihoods of millions of people in developing countries including India. Many empirical studies have confirmed the positive contribution of international remittances to household welfare, nutrition, food, health and living conditions in
Migration and Development 5 Table 2. Estimated number of emigrants (international out-migrants) and emigration rate, 2007 2008. States Estimated emigrants Emigration rate (estimated emigrants/projected population in 2007 2008) 1000 Andhra Pradesh 4,37,404 5.3 Arunachal Pradesh 109 0.1 Assam 2725 0.1 Bihar 1,04,562 1.1 Chhattisgarh 6716 0.3 Delhi 7033 0.4 Goa 17,597 11.1 Gujarat 1,85,780 3.3 Haryana 50,227 2.1 Himachal Pradesh 15,115 2.3 Jammu and 5674 0.5 Kashmir Jharkhand 17,402 0.6 Karnataka 1,22,767 2.1 Kerala 15,83,232 46.9 Madhya Pradesh 23,499 0.3 Maharashtra 2,28,577 2.1 Manipur 327 0.1 Meghalaya 847 0.3 Mizoram 102 0.1 Nagaland 93 0.0 Orissa 24,765 0.6 Punjab 3,86,423 14.5 Rajasthan 2,14,481 3.3 Sikkim 2190 3.7 Tamil Nadu 4,98,327 7.5 Tripura 3317 1.0 Uttar Pradesh 3,83,625 2.0 Uttaranchal 9958 1.0 West Bengal 81,997 0.9 Andaman and 76 0.2 Nicobar Chandigarh 11,696 9.6 Dadra and Nagar 149 0.5 Haveli Daman and Diu 2527 10.7 Lakshadweep 257 3.5 Pondicherry 12,669 10.6 All-India 44,42,245 4.0 Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010). Note: Projected population as on 1st January, 2008, from National Sample Survey Office (2010, Appendix D). places of origin (Yang, 2009). De and Ratha (2012) found that international remittances help in income mobility and have positive effect on children and overall development in South Asia. Also, the residents of some of the less developed regions in India have been benefited by the remittance based-migration (Tumbe, 2012). India is the top country receiving migrant s remittances to the tune of 52 billion US $ followed by China and Mexico (Ratha & Mohapatra, 2009). However, not the entire remittances flow to the households supporting families. Tumbe (2012) estimated that only one-fifth (10 billion US $) of remittances flow to the needy at the household level. This is because families back home are well off and do not
6 R.B. Bhagat et al. Figure 1. Emigration rates per 1000 population, India, 2007 2008. Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010). need remittances. As a result, fourth-fifth of remittances are channeled as financial and social investments by the emigrants. In this paper, we have examined only the household receipt of the remittances received by the families back home during last year preceding the survey year 2007 2008. Figure 2 shows that about 66% of the emigrants send remittances during the last 365 days preceding the survey in 2007 2008. A higher percentage of both male and female from rural areas send remittances compared to urban areas. Eighty-two percent of rural male emigrants send remittances compared to 69% urban males. Only one-tenth of females send remittances. It seems that the remittances are sent to the needy households and also depends upon the bond between the emigrant and other members of the households.
Migration and Development 7 Table 3. Background characteristics of emigrants in selected states and India, NSSO, 2007 2008. India State Punjab Gujarat Maharashtra Kerala Years lived in current place of residence % % % % % N <1 8.8 3.6 1.9 9.7 8.2 437 1 4 43.6 36.4 35.9 37.5 47.9 2527 5+ 47.6 59.9 62.2 52.8 43.9 1966 Total 100 100 100 100 100 4930 Reasons for Migration Employment 70.7 43.6 68.2 87.2 80.4 4195 Marriage 10.6 19.0 14.1 6.9 9.8 321 Migration of parent/earning member of the family 10.6 16.3 8.7 3.9 5.8 438 Forced migration 0.4 2.6 0.0 0.0 0.1 3 Studies 4.4 17.2 8.1 0.7 2.9 146 Others 3.4 1.4 1.0 1.3 0.9 53 Total 100 100 100 100 100 5156 Sex Male 77.3 59.8 64.5 86.5 81.7 4227 Female 22.7 40.2 35.5 13.5 18.2 940 Total 100 100 100 100 100 5167 Engaged in economic activities Yes 82.7 71.6 75.8 88.5 84.3 4276 No 17.3 28.4 24.2 11.5 15.7 891 Total 100 100 100 100 100 5167 Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010).
8 R.B. Bhagat et al. Figure 2. Percentage of emigrants sending remittances. Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010). It may be seen from Figure 3 that it is the urban males who send one and half times more remittances compared to rural males. Females send much lower remittances but the urban rural differences by sex are almost same. On an average, an urban male emigrant sends 72 thousand rupees compared to 52 thousand rupees sent by a rural male. There exists a vast difference in the percentage of remitters as well as amount of remittances at the state level. The economy of Kerala and Punjab has been greatly influenced by remittances, but not the states of north-east (Singh, 2011). Remittances constitute one-fifth of Kerala s net state domestic product (Zachariah & Rajan, 2008). The total amount of remittances depends upon number of remitters as well as per capita amount sent. Table 4 shows both indicators at the state level. It is noteworthy to mention that among the states of high emigration rate the proportion of remittance sending emigrants is the least in Gujarat (25%). The amount of remittance was as high as Rs. 342 thousand in Chandigarh followed by Delhi (240 thousand). On the other hand, the lowest remittance was reported by the emigrants from the state of Chhattisgarh (12 thousand) and Sikkim (18 thousand). It appears that per capita remittances are closely associated with the level of social and economic development of the states. It also seems that the skills of the workers, their earning capacity and the links with their families are crucial factors influencing the per capita remittances at the household level. Figure 3. Amount of remittance per emigrant. Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010).
Migration and Development 9 Table 4. Percentage of emigrants sending remittance and amount of remittance, 2007 2008. States % Remitters Per capita during last one year (Rs 00) Andhra Pradesh 53.9 544 Arunachal Pradesh 13.7 537 Assam 63.6 203 Bihar 79.9 510 Chhattisgarh 81.4 122 Delhi 18.0 2404 Goa 88.5 1774 Gujarat 25.4 572 Haryana 58.7 1061 Himachal Pradesh 35.2 399 Jammu and Kashmir 68.1 374 Jharkhand 85.9 328 Karnataka 54.2 516 Kerala 73.1 576 Madhya Pradesh 22.8 473 Maharashtra 36.4 735 Manipur 73.6 430 Meghalaya 11.3 1128 Mizoram 70.5 354 Nagaland 17.0 200 Orissa 66.6 459 Punjab 55.2 992 Rajasthan 79.2 480 Sikkim 7.9 186 Tamil Nadu 85.2 487 Tripura 64.5 405 Uttar Pradesh 84.6 329 Uttaranchal 71.3 336 West Bengal 56.9 447 Andaman and Nicobar 100.0 590 Chandigarh 19.7 3421 Dadra and Nagar Haveli 32.0 924 Daman and Diu 53.7 842 Lakshadweep 76.3 245 Pondicherry 65.4 618 All-India 65.8 571 Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010). 5. Factors associated with emigration and remittances In the absence of income data, we have used the information on consumer expenditure of migrants to assess the relationship between economic status and emigration. We worked out monthly per capita expenditure (MPCE) by dividing the total household expenditure from the household size. We construct variable MPCE quintile by distributing households into five equal percentile groups, which are defined as lowest, lower, medium, higher and highest quintiles, respectively. Furthermore, in order to examine the association between household socio-economic factors with the emigration and remittance status we have used multivariate binary logistic regression models, as dependent variables are dichotomous. In Model I dependent variable is coded as 1 if a household has at least one emigrant member and 0 if otherwise; In Model II, we have considered households with at least one out migrant and dependent variable is
10 R.B. Bhagat et al. coded as 1 if a household received international remittances and 0 if otherwise. The results are presented in the form of odds ratios (ORs), which are simplified linear form of probability coefficients, with corresponding significance levels. These ORs are used to interpret the expected risks of likelihood in particular dependent variable associated with a unit change in an explanatory variable, given that other correlates in the model are held constant. We have considered place of residence, MPCE quintiles, caste/social group, religion, size of land possession, size of the household and state/region as independent variables for multivariate analyses. Logistic regression results are presented in Table 5, which presents two binary logistic models. Model I is related to the determinants of emigration and the model II examines the Table 5. Results of logistic regression analysis showing determinants of emigration and international remittances, India, 2007 2008. Covariates Model I (N = 125,351) Model II (N = 53,881) Place of Residence Rural 1.00 1.00 Urban 1.71 2.30 MPCE Quintiles Lowest 1.00 1.00 Lower 1.37 1.54 Medium 1.94 2.11 Higher 2.72 2.85 Highest 5.03 4.39 Caste Scheduled Tribes/Caste 1.00 1.00 Other Backward Classes 1.91 1.81 Others 1.97 1.86 Religion Hindu 1.00 1.00 Muslim 3.95 4.84 Others 1.99 1.90 Land Possession Less than 1 hectare 1.00 1.00 1 4 hectare 1.13 0.87 More than 4 hectare 1.39 0.99 Size of the Household Less than 5 1.00 1.00 5 or more 1.23 1.18 State Bihar 1.00 1.00 Punjab 17.86 11.80 Gujarat 3.65 3.22 Kerala 23.32 16.36 Tamil Nadu 6.88 6.60 Andhra Pradesh 5.96 5.75 Uttar Pradesh 1.24 0.83 Others 1.60 1.38 Log-likelihood 14,183 9272.1 Pseudo-R2 0.1931 0.2106 Notes: p < 0.1, p < 0.05, p < 0.01, Reference category, Model I (Dependent variable: emigrant HH = 1, non-emigrants HH = 0), Model II (Dependent variable: HH received international remittance = 1, HH not received international remittance = 0). Source: Data from National Sample Survey Office (2010).
Migration and Development 11 determinants of international remittances. Model I suggests that the likelihood of emigration of a household member increases with rising economic status of the household, for which we have taken the proxy of MPCE. For instance, the chance of emigration is almost five times higher for the households with highest MPCE than that of the households with lowest MPCE. Also, urban households with non-scheduled Caste and Tribe status, and Muslim with larger household size have higher chances of having an emigrant member. Expectedly, households from Kerala have the highest likelihood i.e. 23 times higher chance of having any emigrant member as compared to Bihar one of the poor states in India. Similarly, the households in Punjab having 17 times higher probability to emigrate, Tamil Nadu seven times and Andhra Pradesh six times than Bihar. We also find almost similar results related to international remittances (Model II). Overall, the propensity of emigration and international remittances increases with rising economic condition measured through MPCE. However, a part of the rising per capita monthly expenditure is fueled by remittances itself. Also, however, the relationship between emigration and social and landed status is also positive and same can also be said in respect with remittances. It is not the poor who emigrate but the better off households who also receive higher remittances. It is also true for social status categories like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes who not only have lower propensity to emigrate but also receive lower remittances. 6. Conclusion and policy issues Studies on international out-migration from India are scarce due to lack of adequate data. There are two groups of overseas Indians from India; one is the PIO and other is the NRI or Emigrants. The PIOs mostly belong to later generations of emigrants whose fathers and forefathers migrated long before and are no longer Indian citizens; on the other hand, NRIs/ Emigrants are Indian citizens who continue to hold Indian passport. The NRIs/Emigrants constitute about 40% of the overseas Indians. The 64th round of NSS Organization (NSSO) was perhaps the first NSS survey to have collected data on Indian emigration during 2007 2008 at the household level. It is estimated that 4.4 million Indians who are currently members of the households were living outside the country. The state of Kerala has contributed more than onethird of the emigrants (1.5 million) followed by Tamil Nadu (0.5 million) and Andhra Pradesh (0.4 million). Majority of emigrants reported employment as the reason of migration. The average amount of remittance was Rs 57 thousand during the last one year. The remittance was as high as Rs 342 thousand in Chandigarh followed by Delhi (240 thousand). On the other hand, the lowest remittance was reported by the emigrants from the state of Chhattisgarh (12 thousand) and Sikkim (18 thousand). The paper shows that a vast disparity exists in the levels of emigration originating from different states of India as well per capita remittances sent by them. The logistic regression analysis shows that the emigrants originate mostly from better off socio-economic status households and also the households with higher per capita monthly expenditure receive higher remittances. There has been a significant departure in the thinking with regard to international outmigration from India. However, there is a need to give more attention to the issues related to labour emigration from India which really contributes to the remittances leading to the rising foreign exchange in the country. Although emigration process has been liberalized with the provision that only those who are below matriculate may require Emigration Check Required, there is a lot to be done in removing barriers to emigration and also protecting their rights in the host countries. The process of emigration has always been mired in the issues of legality or illegality even at the origin making difficult for those who want to emigrate. On the other hand, in many destination countries immigration is not encouraged. The Government of India
12 R.B. Bhagat et al. has realized that emigration is important for the country and established a new Ministry named as Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs in 2004 to look after the interests of Indian emigrants abroad. India s policy on emigration could be ascertained from the following official statement. To quote from the Ministry of Indian Overseas Affairs, In one of the enduring ironies of the present times, we live in a world in which the free movement of capital, goods, and technology is seen as a virtue, but also one in which the movement of people across borders is more difficult than ever in the past. Ironically, in a rapidly globalising world, legal migration is being rendered increasingly difficult. It is in this backdrop that we must see the growing problem of illegal migration and people smuggling. The question is no longer whether to allow migration, but indeed, how to manage migration effectively to enhance its positive effects on development and mitigate the negative. Which forms of migration are desirable, and should be facilitated and under what circumstances? Which forms are undesirable and need to be prevented? (Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, 2010) We must recognize that emigration is a growing aspiration of the people of India and the right to emigrate should be bestowed. There is a need to change our mindset to appreciate that the emigration is a positive process and the Government should enable its citizens in realizing their right to emigrate as well as in protecting them at the place of destination so long they remain Indian citizens. According to ILO sources, meeting economic needs, ensuring productivity and competitiveness, and improving wellbeing in a globalized world will necessarily involve migration and diversity. Ensuring that migration is a road to decent work will be a key indicator of progress in building economies and societies based on social justice (ILO, 2010). Note 1. As per World Bank Estimate India s remittances was 52 billion US $ (Ratha & Mohapatra, 2009). Notes on contributors Ram B. Bhagat, PhD, is currently working as Professor and Head, Department of Migration and Urban Studies, International Institute for Population Sciences (Deemed to be University), Mumbai. His research interest include migration and urbanization; demography and ethnicity; population, health and environment. He was a member on the IUSSP panel on Demography of Armed Conflict, 2006 09 and the Co-ordinator of ENVIS Centre on Population and Environment at the International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai, funded by the Ministry of Environment and Forests, Government of India from 2007 12. He is currently associated with UNESCO-UNICEF India Migration Initiative as a Resource Person, and prepared a policy paper on Migrants Right to the City. Apart from research work, he is engaged in teaching, and guiding of M.Phil and PhD students in population studies in the areas of migration, urbanization and related fields. Kunal Keshri is working as Assistant Professor at the G.B. Pant Social Science Institute, affiliated to the Central University of Allahabad, India. His area of interest is temporary migration, livelihood and health issues. He is about to complete his PhD work on temporary and seasonal migration in India from International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai-400088, India. Imtiyaz Ali is a research scholar doing M. Phil from International Institute for Population Sciences, Mumbai-400088, India. He is working on health issues related to emigration and remittances.
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