(a) First wave: During colonial period, millions of the indentured labourers were sent to Mauritius, Caribbean islands, Fiji and South Africa by British from U.P. and Bihar to work as plantation workers. All such migrations were covered under the time bound contract known as Girmit Act ( Indian Migration Act). The living conditions of these labourers were not better than the slaves.
(b) Second wave: The millions of professionals, artisans, traders and factory workers in search of economic opportunities migrated to Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Indonesia, Brunei and African countries. It led to steady outflow of India.s skilled and semi-skilled labourers in the wake of oil-boom in West Asia in 1970s. There was also some outflow of entrepreneurs, store owners, professionals and businessmen to Western countries.
(c ) Third wave: It comprises professionals like doctors, engineers, software engineers, management consultant, financial experts, media persons to countries such as the USA, Canada, UK, Australia, New Zealand and Germany. These professionals enjoy distinction of being highly educated and the highest earning and prospering groups.
Implications:
(a) Brain-drain: The highly qualified and skilled people are moving out of the country leaving unskilled and illiterate stuff for domestic economy. It has created scarcity of qualified manpower.
(b) Indian diaspora is playing an important role in the development of the countries of destination.
