Chandigarh: A study conducted by the Punjab Agriculture University (PAU) in Ludhiana has found that the state’s youth are migrating abroad not only because of “unemployment and agricultural distress”, but also because of “rampant corruption and unbridled prevalence of drugs”.
Titled ‘Overseas Migration from Rural Punjab: Trends, Causes and Consequences’, the study authored by professors Shalini Sharma, Amit Guleria and Manjeet Kaur, was made public Saturday. It was conducted by the department of economics and sociology during 2021-2023.
For almost 42 percent of households with migrant members, Canada was the destination of choice, followed by Dubai at 16 percent and Australia at 10 percent, noted the study.
It highlighted that among these households, 72 percent reported “low income”, “less employment and employability”, and “corruption” as the top drivers for overseas migration.
As many as 62 percent respondents said that “poor governance” and “systemic problems” also made the youth leave Punjab, while 52 percent believed that the “prevalence of drugs” was an additional factor leading to the exodus. As many as 51 percent cited “factionalism in villages” as one of the reasons for leaving. Only one-fourth cited debts as the cause of migration, the study found.
The authors gathered information from almost 9,500 households in rural areas and concluded that 13.34 percent of the rural households of Punjab had at least one member as a migrant.
Of the total households with migrant members, almost 10 percent belonged to the general category, the majority being Jat Sikhs, another 2 percent were from the Scheduled Castes and 1.5 percent were backward class households.
Of households with migrants, 10 percent were engaged in farming occupations and over 3 percent in non-farming occupations like small businesses, service and labour.
Of the total households with migrant members studied, more than 73 percent migrants had moved abroad after 2015, of which 18 percent had moved out between 2021 and September 2022, despite the restrictions imposed due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
“During the period 2016 to 2020, migration assumed the form of exodus all through Punjab,” noted the study.
The study also looked at the gender and age profile of the migrants and the money spent for households for these members to migrate abroad.
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Key findings
Among the migrants, more than 70 percent were males and almost 60 percent were aged up to 30 years. Of these, nearly 8 percent were less than 20 years of age.
“Between 2016 and 2022, very young migrants who were well educated migrated to Canada, Australia, Italy, UK, USA mostly on study visas, while middle-aged migrants with a medium education level preferred to move to the Gulf countries for better earnings,” noted the study, pointing out that migration to the Gulf to earn could be considered a temporary loss for India but mobility of the very young generation to Western countries depicted a permanent loss of a productive generation.
The study found that the extent of migration was the lowest in the Doaba region of Punjab, comprising the districts of Jalandhar, Hoshiarpur, SBS Nagar and Kapurthala, and was the highest in the Majha region, comprising the border districts of Gurdaspur, Amritsar, Tarn Taran and Pathankot.
In some districts like Amritsar, Gurdaspur, Shahid Bhagat Singh Nagar and Ferozepur, the extent of migration was so high that 30 percent households reported at least one member’s migration, found the study.
The districts of Kapurthala, Pathankot, Barnala, Bathinda, Patiala, Mohali, Muktsar, Fazilka and Mansa registered the lowest migration, with less than 10 percent of households reporting one migrant member.
The study also found that for the majority of male migrants, a work visa was the first choice followed by a study visa, while female migrants chose to go abroad on a study visa followed by spouse visa, reversing an earlier trend when Punjabi women moved abroad only following marriage.
The study also observed that among the migrant households between 1991 and 2015, the number of male migrants was more than women. However, “since 2016, when there has been an unabated flow of Punjabi migrants to foreign shores, women migrants have outnumbered men”, the PAU study stated.
Expenditure
According to the study, more than half of households with migrant members had spent Rs 18 to 25 lakh per household on a study visa and up to Rs 4 lakh on work or spouse visa or a permanent residency. Those who went abroad illegally had to spend Rs 25 to 33 lakh, according to the study.
More than 19 percent of migrant households had to sell assets to finance the migration. These included gold, land, house, car or tractor, the study added.
The study also found that over 56 percent of households had to borrow money to send members abroad. While 61 percent of the borrowers took loans from institutional sources, 39 percent resorted to borrowing from non-institutional sources.
The study noted that the highest migration was found to be among small farmers (5.6 percent), followed by landless farmers (3 percent). Of the migrant households, 2 percent each were medium and large farmers.
The study further pointed out that households with migrant members were headed by old men and women as compared to non-migrant households, in the absence of young men who had left for greener pastures abroad. The majority of households with migrant members were joint families.
The authors noted that while 95 percent of the migrants were found to be satisfied with their decision to go abroad, the parents and family members of some of the migrants were grappling with the problem of loneliness and neglect, suffering from the empty nest syndrome.
(Edited by Nida Fatima Siddiqui)
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