The CEO MDR (1977–Present)

Abstract

Abstract Chapter 5 details how the contemporary CEO MDR (1977–present) has legitimized poor and elite emigrants’ financial contributions from abroad (in the form of remittances, savings accounts, investments, and bonds), thereby reframing emigrants as a resource for India (rather than an embarrassment, as in the Nationalist MDR) and building consent for foreign capital inflows. This chapter also explains how the Indian state has justified these changes (which, in fact, echo India’s colonial-era MDR) to retain its political legitimacy, especially among domestic resisters to globalization. The state has emphasized poor workers’ demands for mobility while remaining tethered to electoral expectations of state protection. An important consequence of the CEO MDR’s reliance on circular/temporary emigration is that the state has inadvertently committed to reincorporating poor workers into India’s economy upon their return. Therefore, the state has extended protection in the form of emigration restrictions, oversight, and some welfare upon return. Toward elite emigrants, the state has appealed to shared racial and ethnic solidarity bonds between Indians who remain at home and those abroad (a practice first initiated during the independence movement) and offered elite emigrants material incentives in return for their financial contributions. These attempts have yielded uneven results. While poor emigrants’ economic remittances have been astounding, elite emigrants’ economic contributions have been costly, volatile, and meager given their salary base.