Illegal migration from Bangladesh into India turned up as an important electoral issue while campaigning in West Bengal. While BJP didn't give a specific solution to it, it did show its tough stand that illegal migration is not acceptable. In this post, I suggest a WIN-WIN solution which can be helpful to both India and Bangladesh.
A fundamental issue to understand is why migration happens. Essentially there are two reasons for migration: economics and politics. If people don't find job opportunities or other income sources in their native place, they tend to go to other more prosperous places in order to find jobs. The prosperous places are always in need for more blue collar workers or even general labor. So there is an economic benefit associated with them to allow illegal migration to happen.
The second reason is political. There are two sides of this. When a small group of people is harassed in one locality, it attempts to run away and find refuse in some other more friendly place. On the other hand, politicians sometimes allow illegal migration as long as they can cultivate their vote bank.
Of the two, majority of migration happens due to economical reasons and vote bank politics is just incidental to it. Thus, if the core reasons for migration due to economic reasons can be taken care of, then migration will automatically come down. Not many people really want to leave her home place and wander in foreign lands.
In order to solve this problem, it makes sense for India to help Bangladesh develop into an economically prosperous nation. If India can help develop infrastructure in the country, build ports, roads, and help grow labor intensive industries, then most of the Bangladeshis who have left the country, will naturally be motivated to go back to their home land and stay there. Further, with right kind of partnership between India and Bangladesh, this will also help India develop its north-east region much more effectively. As the roads through Bangladesh will help connect the north-east to the Bay of Bengal and excellent ports on the coastal line will help increase international trade, India will automatically benefit a lot. Such an excellent India-Bangladesh partnership will help solve so many problems in one go.
Now, it doesn't mean that the illegal immigrants problem will be solved completely through this master stroke. The political refugee problem will still remain and will have to be addressed differently. But, its good to solve the 80% of the problem first and then come out with more challenging approaches to solve more tricky problems.
A fundamental issue to understand is why migration happens. Essentially there are two reasons for migration: economics and politics. If people don't find job opportunities or other income sources in their native place, they tend to go to other more prosperous places in order to find jobs. The prosperous places are always in need for more blue collar workers or even general labor. So there is an economic benefit associated with them to allow illegal migration to happen.
The second reason is political. There are two sides of this. When a small group of people is harassed in one locality, it attempts to run away and find refuse in some other more friendly place. On the other hand, politicians sometimes allow illegal migration as long as they can cultivate their vote bank.
Of the two, majority of migration happens due to economical reasons and vote bank politics is just incidental to it. Thus, if the core reasons for migration due to economic reasons can be taken care of, then migration will automatically come down. Not many people really want to leave her home place and wander in foreign lands.
In order to solve this problem, it makes sense for India to help Bangladesh develop into an economically prosperous nation. If India can help develop infrastructure in the country, build ports, roads, and help grow labor intensive industries, then most of the Bangladeshis who have left the country, will naturally be motivated to go back to their home land and stay there. Further, with right kind of partnership between India and Bangladesh, this will also help India develop its north-east region much more effectively. As the roads through Bangladesh will help connect the north-east to the Bay of Bengal and excellent ports on the coastal line will help increase international trade, India will automatically benefit a lot. Such an excellent India-Bangladesh partnership will help solve so many problems in one go.
Now, it doesn't mean that the illegal immigrants problem will be solved completely through this master stroke. The political refugee problem will still remain and will have to be addressed differently. But, its good to solve the 80% of the problem first and then come out with more challenging approaches to solve more tricky problems.
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