Preliminary communication
South Asia: Migrations as a Factor of Inter-State Relations
Ružica Čičak
; Institute for Migration and Ethnic Studies, Zagreb, Croatia
Abstract
The cultural, ethnic, economic, and historical unity of the region of South Asia (or the Indian subcontinent), as well as the recent historical experience of British colonial rule in the region, have considerably influenced the character of international migration flows in that part of the world within the context of both historical and contemporary inter-state relations between South-Asian countries. As political power passed into the hands of the indigenous population, the economic dominance of the Indian communities in relation to the indigenous population lost its political backing and resulted, in Burma, in massive emigration of Indians. In Sri Lanka inter-ethnic conflicts between the Tamil (Indian) and the indigenous Sinhalese communities have remained the main source of social tension in the country and impaired bilateral relations between India and Sri Lanka. An open Indian-Nepal border has partly prevented the economic domination of Indian migrants in Nepal from becoming an acute problem. A continual inflow of the former East-Pakistani refugees, today's Bangladeshi migrants in India aggravates the otherwise tense conditions in the North-East of India, it is a permanent hindrance to inter-state co-operation between the two neighbouring countries. In the context of South-Asian countries which have been experiencing major social and political changes, migration processes and inter-ethnic disputes are often caused by religious and political conflicts and traditional heritage even though their causes are, above all, of an economic nature.
Keywords
migration; inter-state relations; South Asia
Hrčak ID:
128927
URI
Publication date:
29.3.1985.
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