Migrant's messiah

PASSING THROUGH: Jan O Karlsson

On his return from a Luxembourg assignment in December 2001, Jan O Karlsson went to a government department at Stockholm to register as a Swedish resident.

This was mandatory for all Swedish nationals returning home after spending some years abroad. Registration in the migration office can be a cumbersome process.

But now that he had been invited to join the Swedish cabinet as the minister for migration and development, Karlsson thought his registration would be completed without any hassles.

How mistaken he was. That dawned on him when he presented himself before a lady officer. The first complication arose when the lady noticed that Karlsson had not given any reason for his return to Sweden in response to a specific question in the registration form.

So, why do you want to return to Sweden, asked the lady. "Because I have been invited to become the minister for migration and development in the Swedish government," Karlsson replied.

The lady didn't believe Karlsson, assumed that she was faced with a loony and was about to press a red button on the side of her table to call the police to whisk him away.

But just before she pressed the button, she took another look at Karlsson and mumbled, "Hasn't your picture appeared in the newspapers a few days ago along with other members of the new cabinet?"

Karlsson looked relieved and nodded. The lady apologised and stamped the application form to register Karlsson, the new Swedish minister for migration, as a resident of Sweden.

That was in 2001. Two years later, when Karlsson was nominated to co-chair the United Nations Global Commission on International Migration, it was this experience at the Stockholm migration office that made him realise how difficult a migrant's life could be.

That realisation made him more resolute in his mission to make the life of migrants less cumbersome by ensuring that at least their human rights were not violated. The commission is expected to submit its final report later this year.

Early this month, Karlsson was in New Delhi meeting senior ministers in the Indian government to assess how migration could become a virtuous cycle and how the gaps between conventions and their enforcement could be reduced.

Much to his relief, Karlsson found that the Indian government was very positive on the migration issue. "I find the Indian government's attitude to migration as an issue very relaxed and the associated problems are defined clearly without any emotional charging," Karlsson said.

What impressed him the most was that the ministers he met (among them Home Minister Shivraj Patil and Finance Minister P Chidambaram) had a matter-of-fact approach and betrayed no nervousness about migration issues.

This was reassuring because India did suffer from the migration of labour from Bangladesh on the one hand and from the emigration of educated Indians to developed countries on the other.

"Our goal is to convert migration problems into a virtuous cycle and, seen from this perspective, our visit has been fruitful," Karlsson explained.

He hoped that India would be well-placed to take on a leadership role in resolving migration issues across the world. The inter-governmental consultations that should follow the commission's submission of its report should not be seen as the end of this process.

Rather, it should start a new process to give adequate protection to migrant workers, who are vulnerable because their political empowerment is low. "There has to be a system to defend their human rights," he said.

This was Karlsson's first visit to India. This he himself finds surprising because as a close associate of Olof Palme, the Swedish prime minister between 1982 and 1986, he was indirectly involved with independent India's biggest political controversy over the payment of bribes for the purchase of Howitzer guns by the Indian Army from Bofors, the Swedish company. Does he remember anything about that controversy?

"Well, the controversy from our side was more about the export of arms to another country and less about whether we violated any Indian laws. Politically, it was an ideological battle over whether Sweden should export arms or not, but what did not become clear to us was whether any irregularities were committed," Karlsson explained.

Known for his out-of-the-box thinking, Karlsson had another close brush with the Indian authorities. As a senior functionary in the Swedish government, he questioned the need for offering aid to India with a controversial question: "Does India have a Swedish strategy that we need to offer aid to them under our India strategy?"

To be sure, Karlsson was not an anti-Indian. All he wanted to ensure was that aid should not be a one-off exercise and must result in lasting cooperation. The aid to India was resumed once a strategy to strengthen Indo-Swedish co-operation was put in place.

Does he see himself as controversial? Karlsson does not. "I take decisions that seem correct to me. The NGOs in my country called me the minister for deportation when as the minister for migration and development I was insisting on the enforcement of rules. But that does not worry me," he explained.

With such a reputation, the report that Karlsson will submit by the end of the year will be a document worth a close look at.