A World On The Move

New Delhi, Feb. 8 -- "Migrants are not a problem

to be solved. They are people

whose rights and dignity must

be protected (at all cost)."

- António Guterres

Every night, somewhere in India, someone decides to leave. A farmer's son boards a rickety bus to an unfamiliar city; a nurse signs a contract for a Gulf hospital; a student mortgages family land to fund a foreign degree. These are not impulsive acts. They are measured decisions, taken after long arithmetic with shrinking opportunity and mounting risk. India's migration story is not an outlier; it is one of the clearest reflections of a world where staying put is increasingly unaffordable.

With 18 million people living abroad, India is the largest source of global migrants. Their journeys span construction sites in the Middle East, hospitals in Britain, tech corridors in America and care homes across Europe. In return, they send home staggering sums. India has become the world's largest recipient of remittances, with the total number touching $111 billion (over Rs 10 lakh crore) in 2022. This is money's annual pilgrimage, one that sustains households, pays for education and healthcare, and props up consumption in districts where local employment has not kept pace with dreams.

Remittances are also the economic shadow of absence. They are proof not just of success abroad, but of unmet promise at home. Each transfer reflects labour that could not be absorbed domestically, ambition postponed until a visa was approved, and families stretched across borders and time zones. Celebrated in macroeconomic tables, migration is lived at home as separation, risk and uncertainty. India sits squarely within a larger global churn. The number of global migrants has doubled, from 154 million in 1990 to over 300 million. If migrants formed a country, it would be the fourth most populous on Earth. Migration is no longer a side-effect of globalisation; it is one of its organising features.

This is One Deadly trek

Behind these numbers lies a darker ledger. Migration is becoming increasingly dangerous, not because people underestimate the risks, but because desperation has narrowed the range of choices. Since 104, the International Organization for Migration's (IOM) Missing Migrants Project documents deaths along global migration routes. Its conservative estimates suggest that more than 33,000 people have died or disappeared in the Mediterranean alone over the past decade. Even these figures, the IOM admits, are incomplete; quite unable to account for boats that vanish without trace.

South of Europe's shores lies a quieter graveyard. The Sahara Desert, crossed by thousands attempting to reach North Africa, claims more lives annually than the Mediterranean. These deaths do not make the headlines. They occur far from TV cameras, beyond the moral perimeter of wealthy states. For migrants from South Asia, including India, danger often takes subtler forms. Exploitative recruitment practices, withheld passports, unpaid wages, unsafe living conditions and limited legal recourse define the experience of many overseas workers. Distress calls from overseas are rising, particularly from the Gulf, revealing a system where mobility is celebrated but protection is thin.

In 2024, global migrant deaths reached a record high for the fifth year running. It is an unmistakable pattern: as borders harden and legal pathways narrow, migration does not stop. it simply becomes more lethal.

Why Do People Leave?

Rather than ask the question above, we must answer why so many feel they must. The riposte lies in inequality, within countries and between them. Much of the Global South faces underinvestment bordering on the chronic, informal labour markets, low wage growth and weak public services. For millions, education no longer guarantees employment. And even when it does, employment no longer guarantees dignity. In India, for instance, this plays out both internally and externally. Rural-to-urban migration is massive, driven by agrarian distress and uneven regional opportunities. Global migration extends the same logic, this time across borders. When development clusters in a few cities or countries, mobility becomes a survival strategy, not an ambition.

Climate change has intensified this pressure. Rising temperatures, unpredictable rainfall and extreme weather events are eroding agricultural livelihoods across South Asia and Africa. These environmental shocks blur the distinction between economic migrants and refugees, pushing families to move even when legal categories fail to recognise their displacement. Conflict and political instability add urgency all the way from West Asia to parts of Africa and the underlying logic remains consistent. Migration is less about chasing prosperity, more about escaping stagnation.

Parallel Migration Economy

Despite its human costs, migration has become a real pillar of the global economy. Remittances now exceed foreign aid and rival foreign direct investment flows to developing countries. In 2024, global remittance flows crossed $900 billion. One in eight people on the planet depends on this income to manage household expenditure. If the world's migrants were treated as an economic bloc, their financial footprint would surpass the combined outward foreign investment of the US, Japan and China. These flows stabilise fragile economies, smooth consumption during crises and fund education and healthcare where public systems fall short.

Destination countries rely heavily on migrant labour. Ageing populations and labour shortages across advanced economies are being offset by foreign workers - doctors, nurses, caregivers, engineers, farmhands - many trained at the expense of poor countries. Migration exposes a quiet contradiction; nations that publicly resist immigration privately depend on it. And yet, this interdependence is rarely matched by shared responsibility. Migrants power economies but remain politically marginal, legally vulnerable and socially invisible.

No Fences or Teleprompters

Migration is not a temporary crisis to be managed with fences or teleprompter-fed rhetoric. It is a reality shaped by how the international economy allocates opportunity. Attempts to deter movement without addressing its causes merely displace risk; from airports to deserts, from visas to smugglers. For India, the response must begin at home. Job creation cannot be limited to headline growth sectors; it must generate stable, dignified employment across regions. Education must align with labour markets, not just credentials. Rural development, urban housing and climate resilience are not migration policies. they are migration solutions.

Equally urgent is protection for those who do leave their borders. Recruitment practices need tighter regulation, pre-departure training must be meaningful and bilateral labour agreements must move beyond symbolism to enforcement. Migrant welfare simply cannot depend on crisis helplines alone. Globally, migration governance needs a reset. Safe and legal pathways, recognition of climate displacement, portability of social security and enforceable labour standards are no longer optional. They are prerequisites for a system that already sustains the world economy.

Migration is often framed as a success story; one featuring resilience, adaptability and a global connect. It is all of these. But it is also a measure of failure. When millions leave not because they want to but because they must, development has fallen short of its promise. India's migrant story is vast, complex and human, and it perfectly captures this contradiction. Remittances may strengthen balance sheets, but they also ask an uncomfortable question: why must opportunity be so distant, unavailable at home?

The future of migration will not be decided at borders. It will be decided by whether societies choose to build economies where movement is a choice, not an escape. Until then, the world will remain in motion. It will not move toward prosperity, only away from deprivation.

The writer can be reached on [e-mail]. Views expressed are personal. The writer is a veteran journalist and communications specialist

Published by HT Digital Content Services with permission from Millennium Post.