GRFDT

Positioning Migration Studies to Understand the Short and Long Term Impact of Covid 19 Pandemic

Positioning Migration Studiesto Understand the Short and Long Term Impact of Covid 19 Pandemic

10-11 September 2020

Organized By Centre for Diaspora Studies (Independent Centre) Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar-India With the Collaboration Banaras Hindu University (BHU), Jawahar Lal Nehru University (CSRD-JNU), International Institute of Population Studies (IIPS-MUMBAI) and International Geographical Union (IGU-India)

Details attached in the PDF File

Today, the world is facing an unprecedented economic crisis induced by COVID-19 pandemic. It is evident from the immediate lockdowns, ban on international and national travels, efforts to improve health infrastructure, practice of physical or social distancing etc. by the countries across the world to curtail the effects of the pandemic and thereafter the unlocks in different phases to restart the economic activities slowly. It could be a deep and widespread issue if viewed through the lens of migration.

As per the estimated numbers, Indian international migrants or diaspora is constituted more than 31.2 million (MEA, 2017) across the world. It is mainly constituted as Persons of Indian Origin (PIOs) & Non-resident Indians (NRIs). These migrants’ groups are geographically spread in more than 206 countries. Moreover, recent estimation made by the UN-DESA reports (2019) says that India has the largest diaspora or international migrants (17.5 million or 6.4 percent of the total global migrants’ population) living abroad followed by Mexico, and China. On the other side, India has also large numbers of circular or seasonal or temporary internal migrants which constitute more than 10 million population. Out of the total population, 37 percent (Census of India, 2011) of the total population belong to the internal migrants which have many folds higher than the international migrants. The larger proportion of them belonged to an unskilled or semi-skilled population who are mainly engaged in the various urban informal activities in cities like Mumbai, Delhi, Ahmedabad, Bangalore, Surat, etc. It is clear from the works of various scholars that migrants, both internal and international, have done positively a lot in destinations and places of origin in India as well as abroad.

Almost all the countries of the world (developed, developing and under developing countries) have been severely affected by the Coronavirus. The impacts of COVID-19 pandemic have much larger on the world economy and almost all the countries have a significant increase in the share of GDP to save the life & livelihood of their citizens. The Government of India has taken various steps to mitigate the difficulties emerged with COVID-19 pandemic and to assure the safety & security and livelihood of many Indians in general and particular to migrants living in India and abroad, such as Vande Bharat Mission (MEA,GoI) & Aatma Nirbhar Bharat or Self-reliant India. The different types of migrant groups within the country and across the globe have been affected by this unforeseen worldwide pandemic and impact could be seen easily as closing the borders, declining flow of remittances, mass reverse migration, burden on health facility, closed industries & services and so on. Therefore, different migrants groups have been disproportionately affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic within national & international borders. It has many short and long-term impacts on world migrants’ population and on India too because of larger number of migrants across different geographical spaces. The short & long term impacts of COVID-19 pandemic on different migrant groups would be varying across the countries. Keeping in view the issues of migration, policy measures and administrative framework have been initiated by the countries across the world. If this pandemic remains to continue and there is no clear-cut sign of the developing vaccine, the situation will become more uncertain.

In this above background, this International Webinar with the help of different academic panellists drawn from various reputed national & international migration/diaspora studies would share their academic expertise, existing information, causes, associated challenges, prospects and will explore the possible future strategies, plans, policy recommendations to provide safe, orderly & regular migration.

Themes and Subthemes:

1. Migration & Pandemics: Historical and Current Scenario
2. The impact of COVID-19 Pandemics on Global Migration, Remittances and Economy
3. Brain Drain/Brian Gain and Reverse Migration during and Post COVID-19 pandemics
4. Migration, Urbanization, and Marginalized groups during and post COVID-19: A Way Forward
5. Migration & Diaspora Management during COVID-19: Best Practices
6. Migration Policies, Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and Managing the Future Human Mobility
7. Contribution of Diasporas communities during COVID-19 pandemics at Origins and Destinations.

For More Information, Contact to: Dr. Naresh Kumar Asst. Professor, (Webinar Convener & Coordinator), Centre for Diaspora Studies, Central University of Gujarat, Gandhinagar (India). Email Id: [email protected] . For more updates about the webinar, kindly follow our university website www.cug.ac.in

Time and Place: