Migration is abided by purpose.  There is a need to understand what makes an individual leave their country of origin, the drivers that forces people to make a livelihood in another part of the world. A webinar was organized by Global Research Forum on Diaspora and Transnationalism (GRFDT) to understand these drivers of migration out of choice and migration out of necessity. The webinar titled-  ‘Minimize the Adverse Drivers and Structural Factors that Compel People to Leave their Country of Origin’ focused on deconstructing what choices really means and how these drivers can be minimized from the point of  structural reformation and policy making.

Prof. Bello, one of the eminent panelists who is a professor of sociology at the University of New York at Binghamton and Senior Research fellow at the center of Southeast Asian studies at Kyoto University of Japan stated, “Every movement of humans is made by a choice. However choice is conditioned by one’s context and if context is tremendous poverty and suffering then it is quite understandable why people choose to migrate”.

Drivers of Migration

Prof. Bello pointed out that one of the drivers of migration is massive trade liberalization. There is a need to pay attention to a bottom-up approach with respect to economic structural development. The structural adjustment pushed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Banks has led to a rise in inequality and poverty.

Tariff liberalization and massive imports have made countries import dependent economies instead of being self-reliant.  For instance, Mexico is exemplary with the advent of US corn.US exports 31 % of corn from its export quota. It has destroyed the agriculture based economy. Prof. Bello further added, “If we move away from the semantics of these things people have no choice because structural factors impinge on them, hence forced to migrate”.

Trade liberalization has led to large scale Poverty

At a macro level, Prof. Bello exclaimed, “The trade and financial liberation has been identified as the key causes of growing inequality in the world today, there is a need to put an end to it”. He further added, “It is indisputable that liberalization of trade, liberalization of capital flows has created humongous inequality and instability in the economy. The economic structure requires a reboot as conditions of people are worsening, forcing them to fall in poverty.”

According to him, the programmes that are executed by the IMF, World Bank and the Asian Development Banks should be dropped since these are increasing difficulties in people’s lives. Hence, he said that in order to ensure good structural reforms, thorough micro level study is important.

COVID-19 has provided an opportunity to reboot the economic system

One of the problems of migration is globalization, neo liberalization and worship of connectivity. It has created a global supply chain in Industry as well in the agricultural sector; this has destructed dynamics of the local and national economy. COVID-19 has created an opportunity to revive the local economy and local agriculture since global supply chain is in crisis. For instance, in China 50% of agricultural consumption is filled by global and regional supply chains and not local. Similar is the scenario with Latin America and Africa.

Prof. Bello added, “COVID-19 has not only created the possibility of restructuring the local economy but also emphasizing on production policy. It will promote equal income distribution. The silver lining to COVID-19 is the end to the huge flow of people from the countryside to city, and city to abroad”.

“COVID-19 has not only created the possibility of restructuring the local economy but also emphasizing on production policy” said Prof. Bello. He found this consequence of the pandemic to be “silver lining” since it has given the nations an opportunity to not only restructure the local economies but also pay considerable amount of attention to the production policies that aim at promoting equal distribution of income.

Eliminates Scope of Structural Change

To emplace more light on the positive effects of migration, Prof. Bello took an elitist perspective and mentioned that the migration in a way also acts as a safety valve for elites in the country. For instance, in the Philippines, migration has reduced the pressure for systematic change within the country.

It is a safety valve that eliminates the need for the elites to create a structure of equality and democratic participation.

-Snehal Mutha, is a Pune based journalist doing her little and loves to read books, finds her peace in food. Her areas of interest are gender studies, international migration and social issues. She wants to be a pantomath who loves to explore and travel the world. She loves to express herself in the form of creative writing and digital art.https://twitter.com/SnehalMutha?s=08