Pakistan’s labor migration codes still derive from a British colonial act

Evidence

The current emigration codes of Pakistan are drawn from the Indian Emigration Act of 1837, which was framed by the British. Many of the protections instituted in that code were designed to facilitate labor migration. Although the Pakistani Emigration Act was updated in 1979, it is generally used as the last resort in state mediation of labor problems. The rights of labor migrants are invoked only when specific complaints are lodged—and, more important, when the state regards a case as reasonably significant. The major target of regulation and policing under the act is not labor migration but local counterfeiting, drug tra≈cking, and smuggling. — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 683 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: South Asian labor in Iraq dates to WWI British colonial rule.; Pakistan’s emigration law still descends from a British colonial act of 1837 — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 683; The British Raj defined official migration routes and criminalized all others — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims: Race and Labor in…, 457 (+1 more)

Broader Connections

• Pakistan’s emigration law still descends from a British colonial act of 1837 #expands (0.97) — Junaid Rana, Terrifying Muslims, 683