BANGLADESH INSTITUTE OF INTERNATIONAL AND STRATEGIC STUDIES

MIGRATION INTO ASSAM: SECURITIZATION AND BEYOND

Author: Rubel Molla

DOI Link: https://www.doi.org/10.56888/BIISSj2019v40n4a4

ABSTRACT

Migration into Assam has long been a debated issue due to cross-border family ties and seen by aboriginal Assamese as a threat to the fabric of the Assamese society. The ‘rhetoric’ of recovering Mother Assam’s lost sanctity by deporting all ‘illegal’ migrants is a key focus of politics in Assam. On 31st August 2019, the government of India had published the final list of National Register of Citizens (NRC) which excluded about 1.9 million people out of the list, effectively making them stateless. Migration into Assam is historical and this paper argues that this historical movement of the people to Assam has led to the socio-political and economic changes in the course of time which brought the issue of securitization in the forefront and the NRC is the outcome of that securitization. The paper highlights the historical evolution of the migration into Assam and the securitization debates in this regard. Moreover, the contemporary political and social debates are also analyzed to understand the socio-economic and political consequences of this securitization.