Targeted terror attacks in Kashmir triggering an exodus of migrant workers back to Bihar highlights another sad dimension of the many hardships faced by this invisibilised workforce. Killing of migrants in Kashmir has received justified attention. But across India, rhetoric against migrants engendered by nativist politics keeps going uncontested. Migrant workers are the source of cheap labour in destination states and despatch remittances back home, thereby keeping the economy chugging at both ends. The economic logic is uncontestable. But states often choose to ignore the obvious.

Take Haryana’s law granting reservation to locals in private jobs, which received governor’s assent. But last year, the state had wooed back migrant workers in desperation when the national lockdown was lifted and factories were starved of labour. At least ten Indian states like Jharkhand, MP, Andhra, Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Gujarat and Karnataka have recently proposed or passed laws or sought to enforce earlier laws reserving jobs for locals. And all these states will face the same conundrum Haryana faced.

In urban and robust agricultural societies, low-paying or back-breaking jobs spurned by locals are done by migrant workers. Alternatively, there are also fast-progressing states short of high-skilled human capital, who require educated migrants. Instead of laws excluding migrants that push up labour costs or drive away employers, states, while investing in school and higher education, should welcome outside workers – their arrival is almost always a sign that the local economy is doing well to create a supply shortfall of certain types of labour.

The 2016-17 Economic Survey tracked annual interstate mobility to estimate 6 crore interstate migrant workers, while Census 2011 indicated that India had 45.6 crore migrants, nearly 40% of the population. These big numbers aren’t surprising. After the economic stagnation of the socialist years triggered anti-migrant sentiment in states like Maharashtra and Jharkhand, 1991 economic reforms and resultant growth quieted those emotions and accelerated migration. Parochialism always surfaces when economic growth slows. Now that the economy is in revival mode, migrants should be welcome everywhere. The free flow of willing, hardworking migrants has served India well. And they are as vital today as they will be in the future.

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This piece appeared as an editorial opinion in the print edition of The Times of India.

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