By Dr. Sawraj Singh
Last Sunday, one of the leading newspapers of Punjab, the Tribune, came out with the main feature about the exodus of the educated youth from Punjab. The impact of the educated young people leaving the area in such massive numbers can be devastating. However, many pseudo intellectuals and pseudo Marxists are not only justifying this mass migration which mainly serves the interests of the imperialist countries but are presenting migration as the only solution for the unemployed youth.
Canada is the number one destination for the migrating youth. An official of the Canadian embassy was clearer about the situation than many of the so called intellectuals. The official said that Canada needs these people because of the low fertility rate and falling population. The official said that we want to make clear to our people that these people are coming to Canada to do the jobs which our people do not want to do so that there is no such feeling in our people that these migrants will take away their jobs. The official also blamed the travel agents for misleading the people.
The main problem with our pseudo intellectuals and pseudo Marxists is that they have not grasped the new trends in the migration and their thinking has got ossified in the past trends which are no longer relevant. They feel that migration is mostly limited to the poor peasantry which has no alternative but to send their children abroad so that they can earn there and send money back to improve the financial condition of the family. Some of these pseudo Marxists have called migration as a safety net to prevent farmer suicides.
However, the new trends in migration are completely different than the perceptions of our pseudo intellectuals. It is not the children of the poor farmers but the children of the educated middle class which now form the bulk of the migrating youth. These families are spending about 40 lakhs to send their child abroad for higher education. These children do not send any money back. On the contrary, many of these families send money to help these children with their fees and other expenses. These expenses can be enormous because many Canadian universities charge them three times the fee they charge the Canadian students.
Many pseudo intellectuals and pseudo Marxists claim that these young people are migrating from Punjab because they could not find any jobs here. However, the fact is that a majority of these students have just finished their ten plus two (high school) and passed the IELTS test. They have not yet even entered the job market. The often made statement by our pseudo intellectuals that there is nothing left in Punjab to do is not completely true. More than 6 million people from the other states have migrated to Punjab and still more are coming.
An official of the Punjab and Sindh Bank told us that they have a great difficulty in hiring Punjabi speaking employees and are forced to hire non Punjabis. I went to give a talk in one of the well known universities in Punjab. The university also invited a person to talk about the employment opportunities in the army, the air force and the navy but there was very little response from the students. Still at another public gathering where I gave a talk, a speaker told about his experiences and the employment opportunities in the Merchant navy. However, there was very little enthusiasm among the audience. Many Punjabis are now convinced that their future and the future of their children are only secure in the foreign countries. This is like an open and shut case with very little room for any discussion.
It was the duty of the intellectuals and particularly the Marxists, to start a healthy dialogue about the various issues related to this massive migration of our educated youth. However, not only our so called intellectuals failed to do this, they have become defenders and promoters of this one track mind policy on migration. They do not seem to understand the grave consequences for Punjab and the Punjabis are going to face as a result of this policy. Punjabis both in Punjab and those who migrate to the other countries will end up paying a big price for the betrayal by these so called intellectuals and Marxists.
Dr. Sawraj Singh, MD F.I.C.S. is the Chairman of the Washington State Network for Human Rights and Chairman of the Central Washington Coalition for Social Justice. He can be reached at [email protected].
