Neither Here nor There: An Overview of South-South Migration from both ends of the Bangladesh-India Migration Corridor

This review essay draws on a survey of available literature to explore key themes, dimensions and opportunities for future research on South-South Migration flows. Through an analysis of the Bangladesh-India migration corridor, the paper attempts to explore nuances in South-South migration flows and suggests a shift from simplistic analysis towards a framework that adequately considers regional complexities. The paper demonstrates the predominant focus on narrow aspects of Bangladeshi transnationalism within academic research and how this has obscured issues of gender, rights and social justice within the cross-border migration process. It further explores tacit assumptions regarding women’s cross-border mobility and draws attention to the missing gender dimension in the discourse on South-South migration and concerns of vulnerability and exploitation, while simultaneously suggesting the limitations of these views. In doing so, the authors attempt to map challenges in research, management and protection of migrants in the region and their implications for poverty, gender, health, and migrants’ rights.
In reviewing the literature and policies governing these flows, the authors identify and unpack the dichotomy between the Indian government’s obvious anxiety about unauthorized migration from Bangladesh and the government of Bangladesh's overt denial of the scale of this phenomenon. It is clear that framing suitable policies will require consolidated efforts by sending and receiving countries to improve data collection and analysis of Bangladesh-India migratory flows. Policymakers must also pay attention to the challenges that arise due to India being not only a country of origin of migrants, but also a key destination and site of transit for migrants in the region.