By Palash R. Ghosh: Subscribe to Palash's RSS feed
February 6, 2012 8:23 AM EST
Illegal immigration is not only a huge problem in western, advanced countries, but also in some parts of the developing world.
Consider what has been happening in India.
Since the 1971 war of independence that created the state of Bangladesh, millions of Bangladeshi immigrants (the vast majority of them illegal) have poured into neighboring India.
While the Indian government has tried to deport some of these immigrants, the sheer number of them, as well as the porous border between the two countries, has made such an enterprise impossible.
It is difficult to assess how many illegal immigrants are currently residing in India. Consider that in 1971, during the civil war in neighboring East Pakistan (the former name of Bangladesh), at least 10-million Bangladeshis poured into West Bengal in India. The majority of those migrants were Hindus fleeing persecution (rape, murder, forced conversion, etc.) from Muslims.
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In subsequent years, the bulk of illegal immigrants from Bangladesh were Muslims seeking to escape poverty.
India's Minister of State for Home Mullappally Ramachandran said last summer that almost 1.4-million illegal Bangladeshis have migrated to India over the past decade alone.
Ramachandran described the illegal immigration from Bangladesh as a "big problem" and that the government is dealing with it.
The rhetoric against illegal Bangladeshi immigration in India is strikingly similar to what right-wing American politicians say about illegal Mexican immigrants –claiming they pose a threat to the economy and very identity of the U.S.
Moreover, some Indian lawmakers allege that many Bangladeshi immigrants also pose a dire threat to India through criminal activity and terrorism.
Ravishankar Prasad, of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), has warned that illegal immigration from Bangladesh should be halted immediately. Prasad’s words are virtually a mirror image of the anti-immigrant sentiments of many Republican politicians in the western U.S.
The bulk of illegal Bangladeshi immigrants have migrated to West Bengal, although many others have settled in Assam, Meghalaya, Tripura, Delhi and Mumbai and even as far-away as Pakistan and the Middle East.
One long-time Bangladeshi immigrant told Indian media: "I miss my birthplace and my brother, but this is the sacrifice we have to make so that our next generation has a better future. My son is studying to be a doctor. Do you think this would have been possible in Bangladesh?"
Concern Universal, an international NGO, estimates that 50 Bangladeshis cross illegally into India every day.
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