Migration is a very personal issue and no two cases are the same in terms of factors
leading up to the decision to leave Punjab/India. However there seem to be some criteria
which become evident. A major variable is the time horizon. In later years migration
became easier and more importantly there was the comfort of increasing numbers of
fellow migrants. Initial spear-heading by an immigrant, is soon followed by others so that
family presence gets increased and in many cases gets skewed in favor of overseas
compared to India.
While earlier major migration from Doaba, Majha and Malwa regions of Punjab were due
to economic and financial reasons due small land holdings and because these people
had more exposure to overseas through Army and in the case of South East Asia via
police recruitment. From Lachhman Singh’s family story, the main reasons for migration
can be summarized as:
1. This immigration is post independence phenomenon and in fact post 1970’s
phenomenon which accelerated in the 1980’s, 1990’s and is continuing to be so. With no
children settled abroad, the grand children are almost equally split between India and in
this case USA.
2. Earlier going abroad was for studies mainly higher education. Scholarships for
graduate work (Assistantships and Fellowships) were easier to get while financial
assistance for undergraduate work was difficult and rarely covered full expenses. The
situation changed somewhat in later decades when Mini got almost full financial
assistance for undergraduate work.
3. In 1960’s going overseas was at a more mature age (twenties) for higher education
than at undergraduate level (teenage). The chances of returning were more in the former
case when one was less vulnerable. It was also difficult to get immigration till
liberalization of the mid 1960’s. USA appeared on the horizon as a more favorable
destination than the UK because of financial support offered to overseas students.
4. Migration to Canada or UK was possible but US laws were more stringent up till mid
1960’s and even that to highly qualified persons. Relatives and dependents were
allowed a bit later which opened the flood gates to exponential growth in immigration.
5. Marriage was another avenue for migration particularly for girls. In this family case, it
just happened that the bridegroom was from overseas These marriages were to
professionals and hence were not motivated by migration. In fact there were
considerable doubts on getting married abroad. One positive factor of marrying abroad
was expectation of better job satisfaction and husband-wife relationship equity (contra to
experiences at lower income group or marriages to non professionals in Canada and
UK).
6. Some migration such as Mini Kahlon’s was basically for life style purposes. She felt
the social environ more conducive to her value system and provided her with a wider
canvass to explore job opportunities and relationships both at personal and societal
levels.
7. In some cases migration took places as a part of job opportunity and upgrading by the
husband though initially this was not a factor in getting married.
8. In case of relatives from the villages, the motivation was to have better living standard
and to have more income in comparison to earnings in India. The land sub-division
amongst children was looming large whereby living standards were expected to be
under pressure. More over with other relatives being there as a result of marriage
alliances, it was felt that migration was merely shifting from the India based cluster of
relatives to overseas cluster with the support system already in place. Better future for
off-springs was an added incentive. In Canada the old age benefits were attractive for
senior citizens.
9. The motivation per se for each person to strike a new course (and emigration is
certainly so) may not be sufficiently strong where local affluence or opportunity is
attractive enough. Efforts to migrate at a later age have not been less successful, with
men having more difficulty than women. For some years, a woman parent, in fact, is
sought after by migrant children for obvious reasons. How long for, is a different matter?
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