Bangladesh Migrants
...t attraction for the majority of them. There is also a small percentage of Hindus who have fled their homeland to escape repression. But some of us tend to believe that the Hindu immigrants are refugees while Muslims are infiltrators, which is an irony to the two-nation theory. It is an irony to how we justify our emigration to the appealing west, but turn down their appeal to immigrate to India, where life seems to be much more exciting to them. I accept, a large, unaccounted for immigrant population can pose difficulties. But the solution to this lies in seeing migrants as less a legal than a humanitarian problem. It might be perfectly permissible to round up and deport illegally staying Bangladeshis. But for this to work, economic conditions need to become more attractive across the border. Take our own people. It’s unlikely they would have emigrated to foreign shores, had they got better jobs and a higher quality of life here itself. But they still retain strong emotional ties with this country and this proves my point. Besides suffering from a 'small neighbour-big neighbour' syndrome, bilateral ties are also weighed down by historical baggage of Bangladesh having been part of Pakistan. We need to look away from Pakistan for some time and stop the habit of putting it to blame for anything and everything, which goes wrong. Before we order a crackdown on Bangladeshis, we must ponder the possibility of creating employment options and improving the living conditions for them across the border. A number of economic issues that could ...