Migration, Health and Development in India, South Asia and China: Perspectives in the COVID-19 Era

Abstract

This chapter revisits the relationship between migration, health and development in the context of Global Compact for Safe, Orderly and Regular Migration (gcm) objectives interrupted by the external shock of the covid-19 pandemic. By using recent and emerging data from global sources like the United Nations (UN), World Health Organization (who) and World Bank, it looks at health indicators, migration stocks and economic development parameters in select South Asian countries, including India, over the last three decades-1990-2020. These are compared against both the world totals and those for China-the East Asian country at the epicentre of covid-19. The chapter provides background on comparative indicators of economic development in India, other major South Asian countries and China, and critically examines three issues: (a) lessons from the challenges covid-19 posed to the gcm objective of making migration 'safe, orderly and regular' (sor); (b) indicators of the relationship between migration, health and development in the context of the gcm and covid-19; and (c) challenges emerging from the dynamic relationship between migration, health and development in the covid-19 era.

Migration of high-skilled and STEM professionals from India: Addressing Global Compact for Migration objective 1

“…During the International Migration Review Forum (IMRF) that took place in May 2022 to assess the implementation of the Global Compact for Migration (GCM), policymakers paid considerable attention to the GCM objective 1, that is, "collect and utilize accurate and disaggregated data as basis for evidence-based policies" (United Nations, 2022). One of the countries of origin of migrants that has a large stake in this context is India with its large pool of well-trained and English-speaking mobile professionals abroad comprising both workers and tertiary level students (Khadria et al, 2022). The level of significance of the data on this pool is the subject of this research note with its disaggregation of migrants in various fields of specialization moving to the selected destination countries.…”