Bangladesh Migrants
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The Migrants
Our home minister ordered the deportation of 'illegal' Bangladeshi immigrants and these non-citizens, wearily made their way back from the country they had made their home. It was a sequence so bizarre, it jars the senses: That globalised India, with a proud population of emigrants pravasis, H1B visa holders, even illegal migrants should think nothing of turning out immigrants settled on its own soil. Inevitably, then, the train to Bangladesh brings to mind searing images of another time 55 years ago: Images of frightened men and women huddled into trains shuttling across partitioned India. It is clear that 'operation illegal immigrants' is a political move.
There are an estimated 15 million Bangladeshis living in India It is jobs which are the biggest attraction for the majority of them. There is also a small percentage of Hindus who have fled their homeland to escape repression. But some of us tend to believe that the Hindu immigrants are refugees while Muslims are infiltrators, which is an irony to the two-nation theory. It is an irony to how we justify our emigration to the appealing west, but turn down their appeal to immigrate to India, where life seems to be much more exciting to them.
I accept, a large, unaccounted for immigrant population can pose difficulties. But the solution to this lies in seeing migrants as less a legal than a humanitarian problem...