Indians now make up the second-biggest cohort of Channel migrants: 675 Indians arrived in small boats in the first three months of this year, according to Home Office figures. This amounts to almost a fifth of the total 3,793 crossings made in the first quarter of this year. The number represents a stark rise: only 683 Indians made the journey in the whole of last year. Albanians, yes, Afghans and Iraqis possibly – but the revelation that so many from India are making the dangerous crossing to England has taken many by surprise.
The Indian government insists that the growth in emigration is linked to a rise in Sikhs fleeing the country because of a crackdown on the separatist movement in the state of Punjab. Lawyers acting for some migrants have previously claimed the surge in undocumented Indian migration is linked to the rise of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata party, or BJP, and the sectarian violence it has inspired. There is no hard evidence to back either claim. More likely is that the increase is due to work opportunities in the UK. The gig economy, in particular the food delivery business, is notorious for its use of illegal migrant workers.
This isn’t quite the traditional story of people fleeing war, violence or political persecution
On the southern border of the United States, a similar story is unfolding: after migrants from Latin America, more Indians were detained last year for attempted illegal entry than citizens of any other country. A record 16,000 Indians were caught by the border patrol in 2022, a huge increase from just a decade earlier when only 77 were detained.
So what’s really going on? This isn’t quite the traditional story of people fleeing war, violence or political persecution. Many of the latest cohort of Indian migrants face no significant threat to their safety or liberty, nor are they necessarily the poorest or most destitute of people desperate to make their way to Europe or the United States. It is really a story based first and foremost on hard economic realities. Many are simply leaving India for a better life, or for a chance to reunite with families who have already emigrated. Some may have been rejected for official visas because they possess none of the specific qualifications needed to apply for a work or education visa that would allow them to take up legal residence. Paying smugglers to get them there illegally is often the only way left.
Just as telling is another statistic: India now has the largest diaspora population in the world. More than 18 million Indians were recorded as living outside their homeland in 2020, according to a United Nations report. The United States has been the historically preferred destination, but Indians are increasingly turning their sights on other destinations, including Canada, the Middle East as well as Europe, in particular France, Germany and Britain.
This prompts a bigger question. Why are so many Indians apparently keen to leave their own country, one that is routinely hailed as one of the world’s fastest growing economies? Surely there’s a better economic future in staying put? Not so, apparently. This points to a paradox at the heart of modern India and its ambitions to be seen as a global superpower. It may have pretensions of becoming an economic powerhouse, but it also remains one of the world’s most unequal countries. It is a society that is riddled with divisions and social tensions based on caste, religion and region. Nor is it a stranger to corruption and cronyism.
As some Indians get richer, many continue to struggle: access to healthcare is seen as an unaffordable luxury rather than a basic right. India spends barely two per cent of its GDP on health. Its cities, stricken by decades of underinvestment in infrastructure, are groaning under the weight of population movement from the countryside: it is estimated that another 270 million Indians will end up living in urban areas by 2040.
The country is producing far too few good jobs, with large numbers of Indians in work without regular pay or social benefits. Thousands upon thousands of graduates find it difficult to find opportunities that match their qualifications.
Female participation in the workforce is an even bigger struggle, in part due to social pressures on women to leave work after marriage. Simply put, India’s rulers are failing to deliver. The growing number of Indian migrants crossing the Channel is stark evidence of this brutal economic reality: more and more Indians prefer a life elsewhere and are resorting to more and more desperate means to achieve it.
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