Why Do So Many Indians Risk Illegal Migration?

A planeload of 104 undocumented Indians detained on US soil landed in India on 5 February in the first deportation after President Trump took office. This has effectively grounded the deportees “American dream” that led them to stake their all in its pursuit.

Right now, there are about 700,000 Indian citizens living in the US illegally, a number on par with those from from Central American countries like El Salvador or Guatemala. Of these, about 18,000 have received removal orders, and about 3,000 have already been detained. It is this group of about 20,000 Indian citizens that are most likely to be deported, mostly because they are the easiest to trace.

The US has conveyed to India in the past that there could be a total of 18,000 such deportations of illegal Indians in the offing and that at least 487 of them have been proved to be those fit to be deported in the immediate future.

Illegals have been deported by the US to India in the past as well. While a total of 15,668 “illegals’ from India have been deported since 2009, US authorities have deported more than 1,100 Indian nationals between October 2023 and September 2024, reflecting a “steady increase” in deportations. India has stated that it opposes illegal immigration due to its links with organised crime and has confirmed that New Delhi will accept verified Indian nationals who have either overstayed or lack documentation.

So what was different in the recent deportation? The Trump administration chose to return the first batch of illegal immigrants to India after he took office on a military plane–a C-17 Globemaster--not a commercial or chartered flight since it classified this as a “national security operation”. Similar military flights have deported illegal migrants to some Latin American countries. Public attention and the opposition have focused on the fact that the Indian deportees were chained and handcuffed (apparently a procedure followed since 2012) and questions have been asked why the Indian government has not insisted on bringing them back in civilian flights from the US at our expense if required.

Indian foreign Minister S. Jaishankar and Foreign secretary Vikram Misri have both clarified that the restraints could perhaps have been avoided, and that India was engaged in conversations with the US authorities in this regard. While impressing upon the need for a more “humane’ repatriation; for India, the priority has to be avoiding any backlash against legal immigration.

There are 3,51,000 Indians on student visas in the US. 72% of the 4 lakh H1 B visas issued were to Indians. Much is at stake for both partners in the overall bilateral relationship. The larger question remains why do so many of Indian citizens risk their all to migrate illegally. Quality of life, governance issues, and social security are pushing even relatively prosperous families to send wards abroad. More than job scarcity, aspiration for a better future-– even simply following the trend--has fuelled the exodus. Successive governments have delivered mostly rhetoric to address the issue.

While the government needs to target the illegal migration industry, it would help to address the root causes of the economic distress that pushes some to seek better pastures, even if it is done illegally. To mitigate the compulsion to migrate, states, along with the central government, need a multi-pronged strategy. This will need to include making agriculture sustainable, creating entrepreneurship and job opportunities, investing in infrastructure, stimulating economic growth, and ensuring a curriculum in universities which churns out employable graduates.

Manpower exports should be a state subject with codified laws and training modules which include the knowledge of risks which arise with the whole process. The central probe agencies and state police forces need to take preventive and exemplary measures for a strong crackdown on the illegal migration and human trafficking industry. The centre and states had notified 3094 “illegal agents” on the e-Migrate portal until October 2024. Many of these have since shifted operations abroad, especially to the Gulf countries like UAE.

To ease the emigration process and facilitate the employment of Indian workers abroad, the MEA has signed several MoUs, Migration and Mobility Partnership Agreements and Labour Manpower Agreements with the governments of various countries like UK, France, Germany, Austria, Australia, Italy and Denmark. Labor Welfare Agreements have been worked out with Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, UAE and Jordan. Mobility Agreements have been signed with Denmark, Japan, Portugal, Mauritius, Israel, Taiwan and Malaysia. There is, however, a complex network of agents and facilitators in India, Canada and the US who help Indians to illegally enter the US via bogus admissions in Canadian colleges. More than 8,500 monetary transactions and some international financial companies that are remitting funds abroad are also under the investigative scanner of the Enforcement Directorate. India is now looking at overhauling its Migration and Mobility Policy through the Overseas Mobility Facilitation and Welfare Bill, 2024 which will replace the Emigration Act of 1983.

However, the menace of tackling illegal migration will take some doing. Legitimate travel agents always have licenses and follow legal ways. Those who send people abroad illegally are never registered travel agents and change their contact details frequently. This requires awareness, and education.

(Anil Wadhwa is a former Secretary (East) in MEA, and Ambassador to Italy, Thailand, Oman and Poland. Currently, he is a Distinguished Fellow with the Vivekananda International Foundation, New Delhi.)