From Welcome Hands to Witch Hunt: Punjab’s Migrant Meltdown
From fields to factories, from gurdwaras to ballot boxes, the very hands that sustain Punjab’s economy and culture are being cast as outsiders—revealing a dangerous drift from tolerance to fear.
Punjab is at it again. The land of Bhangra, lassi, and the legendary sarbat da bhala is suddenly passing panchayat resolutions to “protect” itself from fellow Indians. Migrants from Uttar Pradesh and Bihar—who have fed our fields, built our cities, and even ensured our gurdwaras stay humming—are now the latest bogeymen in a familiar drama: fear of the outsider.
Let’s pause and be brutally honest. Punjab’s youth are off in Canada, the UK, Italy, and the US chasing opportunities. Who harvests the wheat, lays the bricks, cleans the homes, and powers the factories? Migrants. And now, because someone in the village council read a sensational news headline, these same workers are suddenly accused of “changing our culture” and “stealing jobs.”
From Welcome Mats to Walking Warnings
This isn’t new. Mumbai has been here before. The Shiv Sena’s anti-migrant crusade in the 1960s and 70s, targeting South Indians and later North Indians, is the blueprint. Initially, migrants were tolerated—they filled the city’s labour gaps, cooked the meals, cleaned the streets, and kept the economy ticking. Over time, the narrative changed: they became outsiders, criminals, and threats to Marathi pride. Punjab’s panchayat resolutions smell like déjà vu.
Globally, the pattern repeats itself. In Europe, right-wing parties warn of migrants “taking over” schools, hospitals, and neighborhoods. In Australia, South Asian students were attacked for being visible and prosperous. In the US, migrants are routinely scapegoated for crime, poverty, and “culture dilution.” Even in the UK, Brexit rode on fear of immigrants—while a man of Indian descent, Rishi Sunak, now sits at the very apex of government.
Migration is Intimate, Not Just Economic
Here’s what nobody in Ludhiana or Amritsar wants to talk about: migration changes families. It changes bedrooms, kitchens, and the very DNA of a society. Cross-cultural marriages, sexual unions, and new generations are inevitable. Punjab today sees Bhojpuri-speaking migrants marrying locals. The children of these unions grow up speaking Punjabi and Bhojpuri, celebrating Diwali and Eid, eating dal with butter chicken. They are the hybrids that scare purists, the living proof that culture is never static.
Look abroad. In Latin America, Indian indentured labourers married across ethnic and racial lines, producing communities that now dominate politics and culture in Guyana, Suriname, and Trinidad. In North America, interracial marriages—once illegal—are now celebrated, producing generations that redefine American identity. In the UK, British Asians navigate both curry and Yorkshire pudding. Migration is not just labour; it’s intimacy, inheritance, and identity.
Economic Engines, Political Pawns
Migrants do more than clean homes and till fields—they shift political power. In Punjab, migrant votes influence parliamentary outcomes in Ludhiana, Jalandhar, and Amritsar. Globally, second-generation migrants in Canada, the US, and the UK are rewriting politics, winning elections, and shaping policy. Those who rail against “outsiders” conveniently forget that today’s migrant labourer may be tomorrow’s elected official—or Prime Minister, as history in Guyana, Trinidad, and even the UK proves.
Yet, the same migrants who sustain economies become targets of rage. Why? Because migration unsettles the neat little boxes of ethnicity, caste, and “purity.” Right-wing ideologues everywhere—from Mumbai to Melbourne—love to blame migrants for crime, poverty, or even “eating our culture.” The absurdity is breathtaking: migrants take the jobs no one else wants, build the cities no one else can, and feed the families no one else will—and are still accused of ruining society.
The Punjab Paradox
Here is the irony of Punjab’s current hysteria. Punjabis migrate to foreign lands seeking dignity, respect, and opportunity. And yet, the same Punjabis—now comfortable and established—turn around and make fellow Indians feel like criminals at home. Beating them, stopping them from entering gurdwaras, pushing them back on trains… this is not tolerance. This is paranoia masquerading as “protection.”
History, both local and global, tells us the same story. Aryans intermarried with indigenous populations. Islamic, European, and African migrations shaped India, the Americas, and Europe. Every society that claims to be “pure” is, in reality, a mosaic of movement, mixing, and hybridity. Punjab is now rewriting this history in real time—and not in a flattering way.
Conclusion: Migration is Inevitable. Prejudice is a Choice
Migration is neither a crime nor a threat; it is a human condition. It shapes economies, creates families, forges cultures, and even rewrites politics. The only danger is the mindset that treats fellow humans as outsiders in their own country. Punjab, Mumbai, Europe, the US, Australia, and the UK have all flirted with this deadly illusion. History—and common sense—proves it never ends well.
If Punjab wants to retain its soul, it must remember that the hands that sow its wheat today might also cast a vote tomorrow. The children born of cross-cultural unions are not “foreigners”; they are the future. To deny them, or their parents, is to deny humanity itself.
References / Studies for Context:
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1. Castles, Stephen & Miller, Mark J. The Age of Migration: International Population Movements in the Modern World. 2009.
2. Gilroy, Paul. The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. 1993.
3. Sassen, Saskia. Guests and Aliens. 1999.
4. UN DESA. International Migration Report 2020.
5. Deshingkar, Priya & Akter, Shaheen. Migration and Human Development in India. 2009.
6. Vertovec, Steven. Transnationalism. 2009.
7. Chandavarkar, R. The Origins of Industrial Capitalism in India: Bombay, 1900–1940. 1994.
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