Migration Matters ─ Mobility in a Globalising World

International migration remains the orphan child of Globalisation. From the last quarter of the twentieth century development has resulted in a world more unequal than ever before. Mobility of people needs to be understood as the natural corollary to international trade and capital. Sustaining global economic growth rates and progressing towards an equitable global order will be predicated substantially on the free movement of people.

Transnational economic migration will be the next frontier of globalization. There is thus an urgent need to move to a rule based, binding set of principles that would require states to willingly cede some degree of their sovereignty on matters of economic migration, to a multilateral process. Failure to do so will likely generate conflict of an order that can jeopardize the very basis of a modern, progressive and democratic future for all.

Gurucharan Gollerkeri is Additional Secretary, Ministry of Consumer Affairs, Government of India.

Natasha Chhabra is Assistant Manager, International Migration and Diaspora Division, Federation of Indian Chambers of Commerce and Industry (FICCI).