I landed at Kochi airport and had a car driver waiting outside to take me to my destination. While driving, the driver would point to a well-built random house and inform me that the owner is from so-and-so place outside India. He continued to dish out names of countries without any name being duplicated. The names included all Petro-rich countries from the middle east, advanced western nations and even the nations in the southern hemisphere.

Although I was quite impressed with the local knowledge of the driver, I started wondering about the social, political, linguistic, and the cultural impacts of stratospheric rate of immigration on the local environment. In addition, there is another set of impacts on the lives of those who are immigrating to their new alien environments. The first thought that came to me was that the situation in Punjab or Gujarat is not much different either. In any case the following are some of the implications of such large-scale immigration.

1. The first major impact of this phenomenon is the inflow of foreign exchange into the country, bolstering the local as well as the national Indian economy.

2. The foreign exchange inflow has resulted in a huge housing construction boom back home. These immigrants have built lavish homes, equipped with all modern appliances, gadgetry and electronics.

3. The housing construction boom has resulted in further boosting the local economy and creating more jobs in the construction industry.

4. The people who have immigrated abroad looking for greener pastures may have built beautiful houses here compared to their abodes before immigration, but their new dream houses have become empty nests, occupied only on average about a month in a year. For the remaining time these houses remain unoccupied and thus experiencing a faster rate of deterioration resulting in maintenance issues because of lack of use as well as underutilization.

5. These immigrants return home for their annual pilgrimage only to relive their childhood memories and enjoy the benefits of sweat of their own hard labor, but what about their children or grandchildren? This generation, raised abroad, is not as emotionally attached as their parents or grandparents; the result is that they will not be returning as often as them.

6. As the locals have immigrated out in search of greener pastures, the local labor scarcities in the marketplace are being replaced by immigrants from other states of India. The immigration boom has made these immigrants like the migratory birds.

7. Because of the economic opportunity here the benefits of the immigrant’s foreign exchange remittances are helping regions beyond the zones of immigration.

8. The influx of labor from other regions is changing the social, cultural, linguistic, gastronomic, and political fabric and the aspirations.

9. The population mix changes because of two types of immigration – locals out of the region, and inflow into the region from outside the region, can bring about a cataclysmic transformation in the fabric of the society as the others planting their bases here face a dilemma of assimilating and giving up their cultural moorings and accepting those of their adopted land. The acceptance of the influx in the existing social fabric of society can create a schism between us and them.

10. The children of the immigrants face a distinct set of challenges in their new social environment, and these observations are not touching on those challenges.

This is not a question of uninhabited beautiful mansions whose upkeep and maintenance during the period, these are still unoccupied is the problem. The problem is much more complex with social, political, linguistic connotations that will affect the existing social fabric. I am not a social anthropologist, nor is this a rigorous study in any sense of words, these are mere ramblings and observations of a novice.

Illustration by Bhupinder Singh