Emigration Pushed by Shrinking Employment
The United Nations Depart-
ment of Economic and Social
Affairs (UNDESA) released data on
migration – The International
Migrant Stock-2019- in September.
The number of international
migrants in the world had reached
to 272 million in 2019 which is 51
million more than in 2010. This
migrating population is 3.5 per cent
of total world population which
raised from 2.8 % in 2000.
One third of all international
migrants originated from 10
countries – the per centage of
emigrants from India is 6.5, followed
by Mexico 4.5 (12 million), China 4
(11 million), Russia 3.5 (10 million),
Syria 3 (8 million) and Bangla Desh
2 (5.5 million). UAE is the most
preferred destinations for Indian
workers which hosts nearly 3 Indian
migrants.
The UNDESA stated that tw0-
fifths of all international migrants
had gone from one developing
country to another. If forced
displacements are excluded this
figure may reach three-fifths.
Forced displacement is one of
the causes for international
migration. During the period of
2010 to 2017, the number of
asylum seekers and refugees
soared by 13 million. The main
cause is US imperialist wars in the
Middle East, particularly Syria,
turmoil created by it in North Africa,
apart from its war on Libya. All most
all the refugees were hosted in
Europe under severe hostile
conditions and several hundreds
have lost their lives during the
transportation from war ravaged
regions.
The growing unemployment in
India is forcing the youth to go
beyond the borders in search of
livelihood. The money they are
sending back to their families is
bailing out the Indian economy
from being fell into debt trap. Yet
they are the most neglected
people and their hardships are well
documented. Also the migration of
white collar job seekers from India
is a form of brain drain that
deprives India of its scientific and
technological base.
Growing Unemployment
One of the major promises on
during every election campaign
was massive job creation. Even
after the elections are over claims
of creating lakhs of jobs galore.
But the reality is that the number
of new job creation is being out
paced by the number of job
seekers by a large margin. The
Periodic Labour Force Survey
(PFLS) data, made public on May
31, 2019, clearly showed that the
employment situation is worsening
with every passing year.
The PLFS data shows that
there is contraction of aggregate
employment by 1.2 million between
2011–12 and 2017–18. Aggregate
employment, which stood at 472.5
million in 2011–12, came down to
471.3 million in 2017–18. This is
mainly due to the rural women
losing 24.7 million jobs. The decline
in the rural female workforce is
accelerating since the turn of this
century. The PLFS data shows a
October - 2019
fourfold slowdown in employment
creation for rural males. Thus, the
jobs crisis prominently visible in the
previous period in rural female
segment seems to have spread to
the rural male segment now.
With the majority of rural
persons still engaged in
agriculture, a crisis in the rural
economy most prominently
manifests itself in agricultural
employment. People in large
numbers (27.1 million) deserted
agriculture between 2011–12 and
2017–18, once again led by rural
female workers (19.8 million). The
PLFS data confirmed that People
are leaving agriculture not because
there are more job opportunities
available in nonagricultural sectors
but because agriculture is not
providing a sustainable income.
primarily due to push factors, for
there was inadequate absorption
in non-agricultural sectors of the
economy (25.9 million). Precisely,
due to this reason more people
abandoning agriculture than the
available non-agricultural jobs
(25.9).
A larger number of people
moved out of agriculture (34.4
million) between 2004–05 and
2011–12, compared to the recent
period (27.1 million)—2011–12
and 2017–18. However, aggregate
employment still expanded by 14.6
million in the previous period, while
in the present period employment
shrunk by 1.2 million. This is simply
because labour absorption in non-
agriculture almost halved in the
current period; while employment
in non-agriculture expanded by
48.9 million in the previous period,
presently it could only absorb 25.9
million fresh workers.
Thus, the PLFS data shows
that there is an urgent necessity
to
revive
non-agricultural
employment alongside supporting
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