Madhukar Sabnavis: Migrants are good

They stimulate and facilitate growth and development.

Ashok Kumar Updhyaya, about 50, came to Bombay in 1974 and has been working here since. He started in the suburbs as an auto-driver and moved into the city in the late 90s. He is today a driver to a senior multinational executive. He still has land in his hometown in Saharanpur, Uttar Pradesh, maintained by his elder brother. He is married with three children. Ashok's wife and daughter spend six months in their native town, the rest with him. His dreams that his daughter gets married into a good family, his sons, pass school and get a permanent job in a company. He could then retire and go back to his 'gaon' and lead a less stressful life. He currently owns a 'kholi' (chawl) in central Mumbai.

Thakur is about 45 years old. He is married with six daughters and a son. His wife and children stay in Shahabad, a little village outside Ghaziabad. His younger brother has usurped whatever little land the family had and so Thakur was forced to come to Mumbai to earn a living. He works as a masseur at a local gymnasium and on his weekly off-days does massages to individuals at their homes for side income. His 'salary' income is sent home to his family in Shahabad while he uses whatever he earns in 'freelance' to survive in Mumbai. He shares in a 10 by 10 foot flat with seven fellow migrants. He travels as much as possible on foot to save travel costs. His dream is to get all his daughters settled one day "" he however doesn't know how to make that possible but keeps working at it.

Both Ashok and Thakur go home once in six months. They speak Hindi but their hometowns are now only "break" destinations. They are city evangelists who tell people about city opportunities and get others from their "biradari" (brotherhood) to come and find work in Mumbai.

These are typical stories of migrants coming to big towns in search of jobs and better lives. If one were to typify the IT worker migrating from small towns to cities like Bangalore and Delhi, the stories may not be as grim but the essence of living and dreams is quite similar. Whether low income or high income, migrants are those who leave the security and comfort of home turf in search of better living to explore new opportunities for growth. They struggle, fight, adapt and then adopt the new environment to survive and thrive.

Migration is a product of the fundamental human need to progress. Big cities are the centres of opportunities and so people move from small towns to big cities. Unfortunately this often means extensions of existing urban centres rather than growth of more "urban" centres. And this is the root cause of "pressure" of migration on existing cities and metropolises. Urbanisation is both a requisite of and an output of economic development. So fighting migration is fighting development and progress. The challenge for administration and growth managers is to ensure that urban infrastructure is simultaneously developed and integration of migrants is well managed.

There are, however, economic, social and cultural benefits of migrants and migration in a country like India. It stimulates economic equity. Migrants are the window to better products and lifestyles to their brethren who are in the villages. Rural and semi-urban adoption of a number of new products like clothes to shampoos to music systems to two-wheelers can be traced back to migrants who see them in the big towns and take them back home. Kerala owes much of its both material and intellectual progress to the widespread migration to West Asia in the 70s and 80s. Little conscious attempts have, however, been made by marketers to actually target migrants "" it is often a fallout of their larger effort to drive consumption in large urban centres "" an opportunity waiting to be tapped!

Migrants create social restlessness. Restlessness is good: it provides the stimulus for progress. The United States has been built by the restless energy of Europeans who left their continent to discover new lives in a new land. There is no place for complacency for migrants as they need to first survive and then prove themselves in a new environment. The laziest races at home suddenly transform into hardworking ones once displaced into a new environment. In an era of growth and development, this is necessary and provides energy that can be positively harnessed.

They provide a platform for cultural exchange of ideas. It forces society to appreciate multiple viewpoints and learn to live with diversity. It helps to get cultures to adapt best practices of each other and that makes for a more evolved and mature society. As the western world is coming east, they are beginning to realise the value of new ways of doing things. This could help evolve a new business and management philosophy that brings together the performance orientation of the west and merge it with the people-centric view of the east. Paradoxically, as cultural integration takes place, it strengthens traditional roots ... as people mingle with a new culture, they work doubly hard to protect the better rituals and values of their roots and this provides for a good balance between progress and tradition.

In 1990, Norman Tebbit proposed his 'cricket test' in the Los Angeles Times. He said that the ultimate test of social and cultural integration was a migrant's answer to the question: "Which side do you cheer for?" in a cricket match. He went on to criticise Asian and African immigrants into the UK with the claim that they mostly rooted for England's opponents and this was unacceptable. In fact, when two West Indian-born bowlers bowled fast against their own people "" the West Indies "" he said they had proven their loyalty. This was roundly condemned "" recognising that with an open economy, one must accept open society. Indian critics of migrants may well consider this.

In an age of market supremacy, mass migration is a natural product. Indians will move westwards and give glory to the country. Small towners will move to large towns to seek glory. It's inevitable and it's more prudent to think of how to manage this rather than fight it or attempt to stop it.

Something worth thinking about.

madhukar.sabnavis@ogilvy.com