ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at exclusion and inclusion in South Asia taking place through international migration—exclusion by outmigration of people being driven by the push factors of deprivation and underdevelopment in the home/origin countries, and inclusion through immigration by the pull factors of better living and working conditions in the host/destination countries. The chapter applies the author’s generic framework of ‘hubs and hinterlands’ to migration within Asia, and thereby emphasises inclusion and exclusion through the simple distinction between immigration and emigration: Some countries in the region have emerged primarily as the destination hubs for inclusion of migrants from within the region while some others experience exclusion as hinterlands from where the migrants originate. The focus of the chapter is on eight countries in South Asia, and it is structured as follows: Section 1 discusses the empirical dimensions of migration in eight South Asian countries in a global context. Section 2 deals with intra-regional South Asian Migration within Asia. Section 3 talks about three divides of intra-regional migration in South Asia—the labour market divide, the education market divide, and the gendered divide. Section 4 deals with the question of exclusion of the low-skilled migrants through the selectivity in favour of high-skilled South Asian migrants. Section 5 poses the policy question of whether and how a trans-South Asian Diaspora Policy could be perceived for making migration inclusive through a number of select objectives of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM).
