Immigrants from other states rising in cities with Rapid Urbanization

In most Urbanized cities in India, today u would find immigrants from other states. They are everywhere especially across the unskilled labour service segment where an ID card is not required. If anyone have had any electronic item repaired in the recent mass, there is a huge probability that it would be a person from another state.  Most immigrants come from the east. The states of Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar see huge migrations to other states. Construction industry earlier used to bring in workers in bulk for huge housing projects. But now, they are there in several sectors. Initially, apart from housing, they were only in the flower, vegetables, car a/c and mobile repair but the mushrooming biryani houses and their everflowing patrons are clear indication that the demographics are changing very rapidly in not just Tier-1 but also Tier-2 and Tier-3 cities rapidly across India.

IntelliIndia has done some studies to understand the reasons behind these rapid demographic changes. They had done field surveys of several sectors. The average normal minority person born in India is completing his schooling and moving on to higher studies due to liberal government funding of their education and even higher education. He can do an engineering degree today at zero cost to his parents. So why are there still so many minorities being found in unskilled jobs? The demographics should have changed with more minorities in white collar jobs. IntelliIndia found that a small percentage of minorities are continuing in the professions of their fathers stopping their education at school level. Fee Reimbursement was not available in the 90s generation and they all moved into the unskilled sector. The 2000s generation is well educated and again it depends on the economic class. Despite education being free, we find most educated only in the middle income/salaried class. 

Government is giving free housing, rations and free education/loans to all minorities. As such poverty is minimal and unskilled labour are making good money. The huge shift in the majority of the middle class into engineering created a huge void in the unskilled jobs and these jobs are being filled by the migrants from rural classes and surprisingly also from across the borders. Politicians have ignored the rising demographics. IntelliIndia also observed that the largest migration has happened in those states where literacy levels are high, fee reimbursement is punctual and there are more engineers being produced than the market can absorb. The southern states are obvious targets with their high literacy levels and rapid urbanization happening. There is also the ageing factor. The ones in blue collar jobs are ageing & there is no replacement for them from their families and as such since the market forces need to balance supply and demand, they will take supply from wherever available. It is a tragedy of India’s education policy skewed towards IT/service sector jobs that a huge percentage of jobs are being denied to our youth. If India had skills training like in Europe and other countries, a huge percentage of the population would have shifted to blue collar jobs stopping the influx of immigrants from other states. 

USA absorbs Mexicans, Filipinos and other illegal immigrants since there are enough unskilled jobs which are not being done by the local Americans who went to college, studied and moved to the service sector. Urbanization cannot happen without the huge blue collar jobs. In terms of ratios, seventy five percent blue collar jobs are needed to serve 25 white collar jobs. In India, Urbanization obviously needs huge labour forces and hence in cities, migration from rural and foreign shores happens rapidly but what is surprising is the huge influx into even Tier-2 & Tier-3 cities. 

Several businessmen in several sectors with whom IntelliIndia discussed shared that there is huge shortage of labour in the next generation with the educated moving to servicing sector- be it IT,Retail,Banking, Public sector jobs has left a huge void which is being filled in immigrants from other states and also illegal immigrants from other countries. It is a reality that cannot be ignored. There is huge unemployment in white collar industry but there is a huge labour shortage in the blue collar industry. Market forces move faster than government policies. The false narration that blue collar jobs do not earn as much money as white collar jobs and of course the allure of foreign shores has taken away the majority of two generations of educated class to white collar jobs where due to oversupply, the salaries are low. Despite the low salaries, the educated continue in the white collar industry instead of opting for highly paid blue collar jobs. 

In terms of entrepreneurship as well,IntelliIndia found that more blue collar workers are prone to set up a business than an educated white collar worker. They have the fastest growth curves and they go on to become successful MSMEs. In India, due to less manufacturing and more imports, there is a huge gap which is being filled by new MSMes created by erstwhile blue collar workers. So despite all governmental efforts like CAA, etc.For a state government, the illegal immigrants are not a burden since they are also contributing to the local economy through their spending. In the USA, successive governments have worked on legalising illegal immigrants since per studies published by the American government, illegal immigrants have contributed to growing the American Economy. Infact studies showed that illegal immigrants contributed several hundred billion dollars to economic activity rather than the cost they are draining due to absorption of social & economic privileges which are given to citizens only. . 

In INDIA, it is so easy for an illegal immigrant to get an Aadhaar Card & as India today & other investigations have shown, even get a citizenship for a price. When these illegal immigrants get legal status, they become eligible for all government benefits including free education, rations, bank loans, subsidies, and free housing. In effect, they reduce the number of opportunities that would have normally gone to local Indian Citizens. As seen in several european countries where Right wing parties have won public mandate with their stand on illegal immigration, India too would have Right wing parties get public mandate repeatedly yet the number of illegal immigrants will not stop in the states with higher literacy levels since the jobs are available for picking. If one observes the number of new businesses being opened, one would see the traditional retail store owner shutting shop after his generation since the next generation is into IT/Service sector. This generational shift is more responsible for Corporates gaining a huge percentage of Retail space along with rapid urbanization. 

Hence there is rapid growth in several blue collar jobs and several industries being taken over by muslims in several cities. This is an increasing reality which is being seen in several cities. In Andhra, the penetration is visibly high in flowers, vegetables, vehicle repairs, all types of electrical and electronics repairs,logistics, food delivery, courier, tea stalls, fast food, meat, construction and heavy labour areas where unskilled labour is required. All these sectors do not need any ID card to work and hence it is easy for illegal immigrants to join this workforce. Construction, Mining & other sectors facing labour shortage are also bringing in people from other states in bulk. Even in rural areas, agriculture has become a problem during harvest season and we are seeing increasing bulk immigrants joining even the agriculture sector.