Journal Articles

The Covid 19 migrant crisis could be seen as a watershed moment for policy in the realm of internal migration. Despite the lack of an omnibus migration policy, several disparate policy initiatives emerged at multiple levels of government, across various sectors leveraging multi-stakeholder collaborations. To stitch these responses together into a more coherent inclusionary policy framework for migrants, policy actors need to recognise the importance of migrants and their agency on the one hand, while seeking to redress their vulnerabilities. Based on a brief analysis of policy responses to the migrant crisis in India, this paper suggests that migration policy in India has already taken the initial steps towards adopting a ‘mainstreaming’ approach. Taking this momentum further through an enhanced understanding of migration processes, reflexive policy design, an iterative approach towards intervention and a systematic embedding of migration into mainstream policies, institutions and structures, India can contribute significantly towards fulfilling the SDGs and the ‘Leave No One Behind’ agenda.