Blue‐collar Emigration from India and Governance

Abstract

AbstractIndian expatriates numbering about 6.5 million, i.e. one‐third of the Gulf population, have been engaged in skilled, semi‐skilled and unskilled work since the time of the oil boom in the Persian Gulf regions. Putting monetary benefits to one side, emigrants' problems, such as false promises of recruiting agents, high visa charges, hurdles at workplaces and a defective system to address the grievances of Indian workers in the 18 Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries, are still unaddressed. With this background, the aim of this article is to concentrate on emigration from India to the 18 ECR countries listed by the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), Government of India (GoI). The GoI has identified these 18 countries because they are not labour‐ (emigrant‐) friendly, and are vulnerable to exploitation with regard to their labour standards. The article begins with conceptualizing ‘emigration’ in the Indian context. By focusing only on the ECR countries, the real picture concerning the situation of Indian emigrants is unfolded. These 18 ECR countries are almost the same in their treatment of blue‐collar emigrants. So, only this category of countries is selected for this work. The following key areas are discussed in this article: the role of the MOIA and the respective state governments in supporting and protecting these emigrants and their families; shortcomings in Indian embassies' administrative structure in protecting blue‐collar Indian workers; and the existing legislative provisions and welfare schemes for Indian emigrants working in the 18 ECR countries. In addition, the existing programmes at both central and state government level for returning and deporting workers are covered in this article.