Immigration: Not eyewash seminars; go for ‘hardcore research, says NU chief

NE People afraid of Bangladeshi immigrants’

EMN Dimapur, March 12 Nagaland is a place where more seminars and workshops take place almost every day everywhere across the state but few offer intellectual inspiration. Perhaps this was one reason why the Vice Chancellor of Nagaland University, Prof Bolin Kumar Konwar, on Thursday advised against feeble seminars; rather one should go for ‘hardcore’, hands-on-the-ground research into issues and subjects facing the people and society. The professor asserted strongly that simply organizing seminars without conducting deep research would not bring tangible results. Prof. Konwar has called upon scholars and researchers to undertake ‘hardcore research’ which he said was the need of the hour. The vice chancellor stated this encouragement during his address to a host of eminent academicians and scholars at the inaugural function of a two-day interdisciplinary national seminar about migration and regional development in India. The seminar is being conducted by the department of Geography, Nagaland University and sponsored by Indian Council of Social Science Research. During the session on March 12 Prof Konwar maintained that conducting seminars alone would not tackle the issue of migration. He called for ‘deep hard-core research’ into the aspects and problems concerning migration, and their implications, to help create practical solutions. Referring to migration, he pointed out that people of the northeast region were ‘afraid’ of the Bangladeshis and the Nepali immigrants because of the apparent potential for destruction of the socio-economic fabric of the region. In this regard, Prof Konwar urged academicians and researchers to undertake serous in-depth research to understand why migration was destroying the social-economic fabric of the northeast communities; understand the underlying causes for the ‘positives and negatives’ of migration and understand the problems faced by migrants and the native people. He said that conducting seminars and giving out recommendations alone would not suffice unless deep, serious research and ‘hardcore work’ was undertaken to understand the problem. The vice chancellor said that India was one of the countries that sent out the most number of immigrants to foreign countries, who go either for quality education or to find a good career. Prof Konwar lamented that most of the Indian migrants – the ‘good minds’ – do not return to India. In this connection, he questioned whether those Indians who studied abroad would be willing to work in India given its lack of facilities despite good salaries. He therefore pointed out that the number of Chinese immigrants to other countries have come down over the past few years because the economic development of China. He urged the academicians to delve into the migration issue from a world perspective.