"History in its broadest aspect is a record of man’s migration from one environment to another" -- Ellsworth Huntington (1876-1947)

Among the many factors including economic, socio-cultural, political and environmental issues that compel people to migrate, some are broadly categorised into ‘push factors’ and some ‘pull factors’ as elaborated below: 

Push Factors:

These result in self-motivated migration on account of perhaps an ongoing familial conflict; natural calamity like floods, drought, famine or even religious fanaticism, lack of employment or job opportunities; racial or other forms of cultural discrimination; persecution on the ground of political inclination etc. According to a report, employment abroad has been dominating push factor for millions of Pakistanis. Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are still the leading providers of employment to Pakistanis, though job opportunities are shrinking for our workforce due to increasing demand for highly skilled human resource. In 2015, a total of 947,718 workers landed jobs abroad out of which a little more than half, or 522,932, secured jobs in Saudi Arabia which amounts to 55.17 per cent of the total workforce sent abroad as per statement given in  the Senate by Minister for Overseas Pakistanis and Human Resources the other day. 

Pull Factors:

Contrary to pull factors (also called place utility), these envisage some kind of an attraction available in another region that motivates people to migrate. Sometimes, considerations as climate, lifestyle, comfort, better economic prospects and their like are powerful enough to force people to leave their homeland. There is a possibility of misconception about certain places yet these are sufficient to induce individuals to opt for moving there.

Migrating to other lands in search of greener pastures does not necessarily weaken one’s love for his/her birthplace or where one developed a strong sense of cultural identity as the Greek word ‘topophilia’ (topos "place" and philia, "love of") aptly describes this sense of belonging. On the contrary, those who indulge in corruption and plunder of national wealth, stashing their assets abroad are the ones who constitute the antithesis of topophilia. Many who move out of their countries for betterment of their own and other family members’ economic conditions and also with the object of remitting valuable money back home are undoubtedly loyal to their motherland.

The emergence of two nation states based on religious ideology led to exchange of massive populace representing one or the other religion, on both sides.

Whether migration is close to home or too far off places, it brings in its fold a number of complications especially in terms of adaptation to new surroundings. Yet there are innumerable instances where people have managed to settle in their adopted abodes, successfully merging with the local community. At times the host countries also prove accommodating, welcoming the migrants with open arms and at times they are hostile towards newcomers, yet people continue to try their luck at making their lives better.

One such migration took place way back in 1947 when the Indian Sub-continent was partitioned into two independent countries, India and two wings of Pakistan, one in the west and the other in the east. The emergence of two nation states, in fact, two countries based on religious ideology, led to exchange of massive populace representing one or the other religion, on both sides.

In Pakistan, the incoming people hailed from various regions of India but were predominantly either from East Punjab or were Urdu-speaking. Despite the heavy bloodshed, cruelty, acts of violence, loss of wealth and separation of established family institutions, there was a sense of anticipation and dreams of a new and better world. So, overcoming their indelible stains of tragedies, immigrants (popularly known as mohajirs) took to their adopted homeland while the locals opened up their hearts and homes to embrace the migrants with brotherly affection. While the Punjabi migrants settled all over Pakistan, Sindh and particularly Karachi became the choice areas of majority Urdu-speaking ones.

Amazingly, the genuine ‘mohajirs’ never referred themselves by this term in the first three decades of the existence of this country. Interestingly, by then a whole new generation of born-in-Pakistan emerged who were, by no stretch of imagination, migrants and yet we have seen the creation of a political party under the ‘mohajir’ banner in the early nineteen eighties. All of a sudden Karachi, which boasted as a melting point of different socio-cultural-religions communities that lived in peaceful harmony in mixed neighbourhoods, was ripped apart on ethnic grounds disrupting the peace and scrapping the city of its beauty and glamour, forcing many to emigrate either abroad or other parts of the country.

Remarkably, on the basis of the concept of ‘mohajir’ this party continued to exert its tenacious influence for the last forty years until the recent showdown and break-up after its mainstream leaders parted ways. The young generation of party workers who had no affiliation with its parents’ origins was made to believe that it had no homeland, being migrants. With this mindset one cannot expect this generation to have the patriotism that is essential for the growth of a country. Resultantly, the atrocities its members committed knew no bounds.

Besides, the contaminating effect of this type of political maneuvering is that we have all been rendered mohajirs. On the one hand we have a born-in-Pakistan immigrant lot that came from across the border and on the other we have a huge population that is eager to emigrate to greener pastures of the world. In other words, instead of unifying different nationalities into one Pakistani group, the already mutilated (in 1971) country stands at the brink of further disintegration at the hands of existing and aspiring migrants.

A close observation would reveal that anyone who has the capability, is a dual nationality holder. These include the elites, consisting of civil-military bureaucrats, industrialists, professionals, traders, even uneducated workers and above all, politicians. One gets the impression that Pakistan has become merely a platform for people to fill up their wallets and prepare to escape whenever the situation so requires. Those who are supposed to work for the uplift of this country do not seem to have any stakes here then what should inspire them to remain loyal to this land? Consequently the monster of corruption let loose by vested-interest has tattered apart the entire socio-economic fabric of the Pakistani society allowing it to be poisoned by corrupt rulers and public office holders who are bent upon bone-drying the country’s rich resources while their monstrous assets safely tucked abroad are waiting for their double-faced masters to return when the going gets critical for them.

To cut a long story short, one should learn to understand that we must remove the germs of disunity, faithlessness and above all the concept of being migrants -- whether incoming or outgoing. Instead of dreaming of lands yonder and seeking foreign nationalities, if efforts are directed towards the betterment of Pakistan, we may be able to convert this country into a dreamland for our own generations to come.