A moving story

This will be the next big thing in our lifetimes. Moving is a term I use to overcome the taint of the term migration. So from here on in, when I say move you exactly know what I am talking about. Or when I say migrate, if you take offense at such a term, substitute with move.

An international issue

In the past few months we have seen a few things unfold on the international stage. To quote a few:

1. The mega Europe migrant crisis which has made quite a few heads turn.
2. Brexit, Britain’s exit from the EU- many people feel that immigration is a very central issue in comparison to the economics.
3. The US racial discrimination and violence episodes which is happening very frequently in the last few months. A look at 1 such issue. Though the issue is not the native vs migrant problem, it still remains a insider vs outsider debate. The Mexican migration is another problem which the USA has seen too.

These are few issues that we see are reported. We have experienced and heard about the individual experience proving that there is some tension when the natives interact with the migrants. Many of the migrants have soft peddled it as they typically do not have an option. But we are seeing a storm brewing after there was lull of varying time frames in some of these countries

I will park this for a while and revisit this after looking at more micro problem

The Indian migration conundrum

Back home, India is a continent in itself. We have so many different types of people, so many languages, so many customs etc. When people move from one place to another it results in similar reactions from the natives.

Some examples:

1. Mumbai and its outsider vs insider debate. The Shiv Sena tirades against the Tamilians and the UP, Bihar folks is a very common feature of news
2. Bangalore and its share of migration related issues. Violence meted out to some folks from North east etc.
3. Delhi and its debate about reservations in Delhi University to Delhites
4. Chennai has a steady unwelcoming towards people who do not speak their language

What we are seeing here is not a crisis that we see in the ‘developed world’ but a fight for opportunity and limited resources in our urban areas.

The consequences of the 2 however remain the same. The debates on whose land, the equal opportunity for all, the migrant driven economies etc. will continue to rage and it neither has an intellectual closure nor has an implementation closure.

Is migration really a problem?

Migration is actually more common in history than we think and know. There are some theories which were created to make migration and its effects seem natural, but leaving them aside, there are many instances where people have moved due to varied reasons. The present migration issue can be looked at from 2 differing perspectives:

1. A xenophobic view towards people who migrate
2. A developmental and settlement view of migrants

Essentially these views can take vantage positions to understand the long and short term effects of migration. I will take similar position to argue my viewpoints, but from the latter perspective as xenophobia itself has negative connotations and anything negative is not a stand worth taking.

Let us take a step back- why do people migrate. In simple words, in search of the better, to follow their dream of the better. Human nature has the tendency to look at things which are afar with a lot more positive outlook in comparison to things which are nearer and even dearer. We are far more critical of the people who are close to us than an outsider, whom we give benefit of the doubt. This sort of a view is the one which drives migration.

Next, we have an unequal distribution of resources between the developed and under-developed, urban and rural, country to country, state to state, district to district etc. This has always been the case, this is not new to human beings. But the only change is awareness and maybe even the increase in concentration of prosperity. This too makes people want to move

There are some good things that migration drives like cultural exchanges, the increase hard work due to uncertainty and the things that they have given up to have a good life and many more things. So economically and socially they seem to do so many good things.

Then is migration really a problem? No, it is just a symptom of what is fundamentally wrong in the models we are following. This will create more varied problems in the coming times which I will broadly talk about.

The ugly face of migration

Cultural exchanges will happen when the migrants belong. In recent times there is no sense of an emotional connect (needs verification)to the new environment for many migrants, and what is worse is they seem to have no connect to the parent land as well(again my own hypotheses and I have no proof). And I can completely understand why it is like this- the new economy simple does not allow this. So when the migrants have to migrate again they do gleefully- in search of the better. So what happens is we create a disconnected, nomadic society which is constantly looking outside. Identity in the long run becomes a concern for these people as well

The modern political system is one more which drives migrations. Be it wars in Syria, Afghanistan and more globally or the constant policy shocks which hurt sections of the society to only have political gains here in India we see that politics has a very selective and hence not achieving greater good outcome. So the migration many number of times is under duress. Economics is a fundamental driver, which in this case is jobs. But there are social residues which the political play leaves which makes it impossible for the natives to stay put.

So, we have the new found land(not only America)which is taking in these migrants. So we have more people vying for the same amount of resources. So what does that do- conflict, in the case of India. Urban centers are fighting to remain habitable and culturally too the move is towards something neutral rather than combining and evolving to something new and better. So again, there is conflict.

Europe and USA on the other hand does not have a resource problem, given how they consume so much by themselves. But they look at it as a threat to their way of life which is an elitist view, which is also fine. But where I have problem is, is that these conflicts that were created were fundamentally creations of these first world nations. Unfortunately for them this is just consequences of certain actions which they have undertaken. But being a global singular economy they have had to do certain things which has brought the problem to their doorstep

So how should we address this?

1. Create strong local economies which create local jobs. Export and import economies have external risks which is hard to predict and counter
2. Create strong sense of global citizenship, but have them rooted in their own background (pride yet not with head-weight that stops learning)
3. Reset the better to suit the broader societal goals- educate the mass, not Math, Science only but more on lifestyle etc.
4. Stop the conflict that we have world over (Wow, what a solution to world’s peace problem! I know, facepalm!). I mean it, fundamentally at individual, societal, national and even international we need to find harmony
5. Stop focusing on the wrong problems for personal gains. Wealth and other parameters that we are running after in the long run, really have no I meaning

I might be off on so many points here and some of it might even look ludicrous in connection to reality, in simple words impractical. But again I ask, is it, really? Have we become so decadent as a society to not even focus on what is fundamentally human. Migration is just a symptom of what is wrong with us in terms of economic models which is driving our behaviors and actions. Can we at least re look?

Migration is good when the primary motive is not food and shelter. It should be about ideas and that is what we need. Newer and fresher ideas.