NRT Migrants - Challenges and Remedies

Table of Contents

1Introduction

2Background

2.1International instruments

2.2Migration – The Indian Context

3Labour Migration: Issues and Challenges in an Era of Globalization.

3.1Emigration to the Developed World – USA, U.K, etc.

3.2GCC Context

3.3South Asia

3.4Forecasting Future Trends in Migration

4Strategic Priorities for the State Labour Migration Policy

4.1Labour Migration Policy Framework – Vision of the State.

4.2APNRT Society

4.3The Structure and Activities of APNRT

5Policy Initiatives

5.1Potential Migrants - Proactive Measures

5.1.1Protection of Migrant Workers

5.1.2To improve the competitiveness of our emigrants

5.1.3Migration Workers Loan Guarantee Fund

5.2Established Migrants - Supportive Measures

5.2.1To Improve Safety and Wellbeing

5.3Returned Migrants - Sustainability Measures

5.3.1Rehabilitation and Economic reintegration

5.4Supplemental Measures

5.4.1Investment Opportunities

5.4.2Creation of a Shared Information System

6Proposed Action Plan for Three Years

6.1Plan for Year 1

6.2Plan for Year 2

6.3Plan for Year 3

7Proposed Budget

8Definitions

9References

Appendices...... 20

1Introduction

Considering the prevalent social and economic aspirations and compulsions among Telugus to emigrate to other countries to take advantage of superior opportunities and better living standards, there is a need for a comprehensive governmental policy that would balance the twin objectives of assuring the safety of emigrants and equipping migrants to enable them to earn a better living and be competitive in their host countries landscape.

There is a need to create an institutional mechanism in the state to cater to the needs of prospective and current migrants as well as returnees. The State should provide adequate and timely social, economic and legal services to the migrant workers from the State, safeguard their dignity, fundamental human rights and freedoms. The State also needs to take measures to deal with migrants facing unforeseen adverse situations in host countries.

This entails creating a policy of pro-active as well as welfare measures to be made available for all Non-Resident migrants from Andhra Pradesh, living across the world, including legal assistance, repatriation and relief through ex-gratia and other grants for eligible and the needy. The policy would enhance or balance the economic benefits that accrue to the migrants from cross border migration, while minimizing the hardships they face.

2Background

The 2030 Development Agenda, adopted in 2015, recognizes “the positive contribution of migrants for inclusive growth and sustainable development”. Migration can enable progress towards the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) on poverty reduction and economic growth, on health, education, and on gender equality. The SDGs also include a specific target (10.7) to ‘Facilitate orderly, safe, and responsible migration and mobility of people, including through implementation of planned and well-managed migration policies’. Moreover, migrant workers are identified as a specific target group for the SDGs.

2.1International instruments

International treaties and instruments have been adopted with each generation to govern migration more effectively, meet labour market needs, protect the rights of migrant workers and enhance the impact of migration on development. These include:

•ILO Convention concerning Migration for Employment (No.97), 1949

•ILO Convention concerning Migrations in Abusive Conditions and the Promotion of Equality of Opportunity and Treatment of Migrant Workers (No 143), 1975

•International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families, 1990

•ILO Multilateral Framework on Labour Migration, 2006

Governments around the world have drawn from these instruments to adopt laws and policies to strengthen the governance of labour migration. The following guidelines on formulating labour migration policies are drawn from the Multilateral Framework.

Guidelines for an Effective Labour Migration Policy

1. Formulating and implementing coherent, comprehensive, consistent and transparent policies to effectively manage labour migration in a way that is beneficial to all migrant workers and members of their families and to origin and destination countries;

1. Ensuring coherence between labour migration, employment and other developmental policies, in recognition of the wide social and economic implications of labour migration.

1. Formulating and implementing multilateral labour migration policies guided by national and international labour standards and multilateral agreements concerning migrant workers;

1. Implementing policies that ensure that specific vulnerabilities faced by certain groups of migrant workers, including workers in an irregular situation, are addressed;

1. Ensuring that labour migration policies are gender-sensitive and address the problems as well as particular abuses women often face in the migration process;

1. Establishing a mechanism to ensure coordination and consultation among all departments, stakeholder institutions and bodies, employers’ and workers’ organizations involved with labour migration and ensuring specific structures and mechanisms to develop, formulate and implement labour migration policies, including, preferably, a special unit for issues involving migrant workers; and

1. Ensuring that the relevant departments have adequate financial and other resources to carry out labour migration policies.

2.2Migration – The Indian Context

Migration has always been the other side of the coin of globalisation. Large migrations from India in the form of unskilled labour between the late nineteenth and early twentieth century played a fundamental role in the first phase of economic globalization. Post-Independence, two patterns of emigration have emerged which have also had a significant impact on the global economy:

1. The emigration of professionals to the industrially advanced countries such as the USA, UK, Canada, etc., and
2. The emigration of skilled and unskilled labourers to West and South-East Asia.

The emigration of skilled and unskilled labourers from India is entirely different in its economic and social implication from the 19th and early 20th century emigration. The new migration is voluntary and temporary in its nature. In the wake of the oil price boom in the 1970s in the Gulf region there was an increasing demand for expatriate labour in these oil exporting countries of the Gulf region such as Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates (UAE), Oman, Bahrain, Qatar and Kuwait.

South-East Asia, especially Malaysia has also seen a boom in the demand for expatriate labour. Most of these emigrants are semi-skilled and un-skilled workers such as construction workers, domestic workers, cooks and drivers. Kerala has contributed the largest share of these migrants, however, Andhra Pradesh in not far behind, it is estimated that there are around 9,00,000 Telugu workers in the Gulf region alone.

There has been much speculation about the costs of migration: the problems borne by migrants, anxieties about the destabilizing impacts of migration on families, apprehensions about materialism, and so forth. Although it is acknowledged that migrants and their families have benefited from labor migration, mostly because of remittances, the economic impacts beyond the family level are less tangible.

The Emigration Act, 1983 governs labour migration from India. It covers the licensing and regulation of recruitment agencies, emigration procedures, the role of different bodies, etc. However, within the bounds of the framework set out in the Emigration Act there is substantial scope for States to set out their own strategies in relation to labour migration.

3Labour Migration: Issues and Challenges in an Era of Globalization.

Migration is a complex global phenomenon that has been indispensable to human histories, cultures, and civilizations. It has occupied one of the most crucial positions in the economic and social development discourse in various countries of the world. Studies on migration both internal and international have now come to occupy an important place in social science studies. Return migration has recently received the attention of researchers and policy makers. It has become a top socio-economic and political issue worldwide.

Labour migration affects countries in different ways. In countries that are predominantly countries of origin problems emerge concerning the recruitment process, pre-departure preparations and placement costs. High rates of unemployment and poverty create an abundance of lower-skilled workers looking for employment. These individuals are easily attracted to jobs overseas, which often pay more than they could earn for the same work in their home country. However, illegal recruitment practices and high recruitment fees can result in workers becoming trapped in situations of debt bondage overseas. Labour migrants are often not properly trained, have not been made aware of their rights and are thus easily exploited.

Countries of destination and transit face problems relating to irregular migration, organized criminal networks involved in trafficking in persons and people smuggling as well as other social problems. The trans-national nature of labour migration requires that its associated challenges are addressed by countries of origin, transit and destination.

Andhra Pradesh has a somewhat unique context in terms of labour migration. Secondary and higher education is available in all major towns and cities of Andhra Pradesh due to the State Government’s initiative to make education widely accessible. This emphasis on education has given rise to a steep growth in the number of professionals where the supply has far outstripped the demand. The I. T. boom in the late 1980s has exacerbated the trend.

Developed countries such as the USA, Canada, Germany, Australia, Singapore, etc., deliberately formulate immigration policies to attract professionals. Highly skilled workers tend to be better protected overseas in comparison to low or semi-skilled workers as they are often more highly valued by the governments of destination countries as they fill acute labour market needs with their special skills set. Andhra Pradesh is a leader in the migration of I. T. professionals and other white collar workers overseas. There is also a fairly high migration of students for higher studies, many of whom chose to also work abroad after completing their courses.

However, Andhra Pradesh also ranks behind only Kerala in the number of low- and semi-skilled migrant workers. Though such workers fill jobs that destination country nationals are not willing to perform for the prevailing wage, these workers are vulnerable to therestrictive policies relating to their stay in the destination country and are often subject to harsh punishments for even trivial infractions of the conditions of their stay.

** These figures are an estimate put together by collating data from Overseas Associations, consulate data, etc.

3.1Emigration to the Developed World– USA, U.K, etc.

From the late 80s on there has been a large scale migration of students and Information Technology professionals to the USA, which continues to the present day. As of 2017, as per the American Consulate general in Hyderabad, one every four Indians going to USA is a Telugu person. It is estimated that almost 1.75 lakh students from Andhra Pradesh are in the U.S.

Around thirty percent of these students are in programs that have an Optional Practical Training (OPT) component which enables international students to work in paid positions after completion of their degree programme in the US. The OPT gives the students the necessary experience that makes them employable and most of the students are absorbed into regular employment through the OPT. The cost of education in the U.S. is very high and the students invest huge amounts in an American education in the hope of forging a good career. The new policies of the American Government, however, may see the OPT program reduced or abolished and make it very difficult for the students to obtain any work in the USA after the completion of their education making it very difficult for them to recoup their investment in their education. A majority of the students, after becoming employed repatriate money home to reimburse the costs of their education as well as support their families and these remittances are also likely to be substantially affected.

There are also around 3.75 lakh professionals from Andhra Pradesh in the USA, most of them on H1B work visas. The American Government is however, rethinking the H1B visas in terms of restricting and possibly abolishing them. These visa issues may have the impact of the majority of these professionals losing their livelihood and having to return back to India. However, most of the employers are strongly in opposition to the American Government’s intent and are also assuring their employees that their jobs will remain secure even if the workers have to relocate.

Similar protectionist moves are being made by the Governments in the U.K. and other countries, which could become serious issues for the students and workers currently resident in those countries as well as those planning to migrate.

3.2GCC Context

Many countries of origin and destination have delegated private agents to manage the placement and protection of lower-skilled labour migrants. This often results in a lack of protection for workers, especially for those in the domestic sector, irregular labour migrants and victims of human trafficking. The potential for private recruitment abuses is perhaps most visible within the Kafala system of the Gulf countries. The Kafala system in the Gulf binds migrant workers in a direct relationship with their private sponsoring recruiters or employers to a particular job for a specific period of time. The system codifies the centrality of sponsors, as workers cannot change their employment or leave the country without approval.

Recruitment agencies, often sponsors themselves, orchestrate nearly every stage of labor migration, including filing visa documentation and providing migrants with information, logistical support, and loans for placement fees, which are often quite onerous. The competitiveness of the market compounds this dependency by increasing the costs of employment services, and indebting many migrants to their sponsor with high initial or return deployment costs and placement fees. The Gulf labour market is also undergoing upheavals which impacts the continued safety and employability of the estimated 9,00,000 migrants from Andhra Pradesh in the GCC region.

3.3South Asia

In Malaysia, which has a large low skilled-migrant population from Andhra Pradesh, migrant conditions have elicited censure for the exploitation that can result from reliance on sponsors. An investigation commissioned by the U.S. Department of Labour found abusive workplace conditions in electronics factories for global brands including Apple, Flextronics, Samsung, and Sony. Sponsors charged migrant workers illegally high recruitment fees, and with the confiscation of passports for nearly one-third of workers, most feared that they could not leave their jobs until they paid off their debt.

There are also several professional workers in Malaysia, Singapore, etc., who face several problems from the protectionist policies of the respective Governments.

3.4Forecasting Future Trends in Migration

Population ageing and evolving economic dynamics affect the global demand for migrantlabour. There is huge uncertainty about how future social, economic and political change will affect the contextual environment in which future migrations will take place. The role of countries and regions in the global migration order will likely change fundamentally over the coming decades, with some of the current major emigration countries potentially transforming into major destination countries.

The lack of good quality data on migrants results in the design and implementation of policies without having a reliable idea about the current (and future) figures on migration and its determinants. Data has to be collated from multiple sources such as the Indian Consulates/Embassies overseas, international organisations, overseas citizens associations, NGOs, etc., on demographic and workforce trends. This would be essential for imaging the fundamental changes on the global and international level that alter the macro-structure within which migration takes place and formulating successful migration policies that are sensitive and responsive to the evolving global labour migration trends.

4Strategic Priorities for the State Labour Migration Policy

4.1Labour Migration Policy Framework – Vision of the State.

Over the last two decades’ globalization and liberalization have triggered a sharp rise in emigration from the State to countries like the United States, Canada, Australia, Saudi Arabia and many other countries in the Middle East region, Europe and Africa. The State’s population has become migration-savvy, having developed the ability to respond and to adjust to the changing demands of the global labor market. Regardless of government involvement or policy, labor migration will persist thanks to the social networks, social capital, and social remittances that have flourished. While it is acknowledged that remittances have buoyed the State's economy, the development impacts have not been clearly assessed and documented.

Individuals make decisions based on perceptions of what would be beneficial for them. But those decisions can have a cumulative effect on communities and the State. The I. T. sector is a concrete example of how perceptions of the international labor market have also woven their way into the educational and work aspirations of the populace. The anticipation of future demand for I. T. professionals, for example, had resulted in the proliferation of I. T. colleges and training centres with often questionable quality of training. The remarkable increase in student enrollment in I. T. programs (even doctors were studying I. T. to have better chances of working abroad) has raised the specter of an oversupply of I. T. professionals. The potential mismatches between skills needed and available human resources create societal-wide concerns that must be considered and must be weighed vis-à-vis individual aspirations.