Q: Elucidate the main problems and challenges faced by the migrant labourers in the recent 'Lockdown period'.

Model Answer:

The COVID-19 lockdown exposed the acute vulnerabilities of what Jan Breman terms “Footloose Labour.” The crisis shattered the Functionalist view of migration as a simple equilibrating mechanism (Everett Lee’s push-pull theory), instead validating the Marxist perspective that capitalist urban economies rely on cheap, disposable labour where employers externalize the social costs of reproduction.

Dimensions of Precarity and Crisis

The Precariat and Alienation: The lockdown epitomized Guy Standing’s concept of “The Precariat.” Instant job losses and wage theft highlighted Marxian alienation, where migrant “city-makers” were abruptly alienated from the very urban spaces they built, functioning merely as a reserve army of labour.

Resource Exclusion: Evictions and non-portable welfare destroyed Weberian “life chances.” The severing of livelihoods from social protections perfectly illustrated Karl Polanyi’s concept of disembedded markets.

Anomie and Social Capital: The sudden halt of transport and livelihoods triggered profound normlessness, echoing Emile Durkheim’s anomie. To survive the long march home, migrants relied entirely on “bonding social capital” (kinship networks) as they completely lacked “linking social capital” (connections to the state), referencing Robert Putnam.

Stigma and Othering: Migrants were frequently labelled as disease “carriers,” demonstrating Erving Goffman’s stigma and the cultural marginalization of outsiders.

Intersectional Harms: Feminist perspectives highlight how female migrants faced dual burdens of job loss and intensified unpaid care work, alongside rising domestic violence.

This marginalization is a global feature of neoliberal capitalism, not just a local administrative failure. The plight of Indian migrants paralleled the strict lockdowns of migrant dormitories in Singapore and the vulnerabilities of workers under the Middle Eastern Kafala system. ILO and SWAN (Stranded Workers Action Network) reports sociologically documented this universal surge in severe food insecurity and wage distress.

Conclusion

The lockdown revealed migrants’ structural invisibility within informal capitalism. While institutional responses like the e-Shram portal aim to create visibility, durable protection necessitates a shift from welfare-as-charity to T.H. Marshall’s framework of Social Citizenship, ensuring enforceable labour rights, portable welfare, and inclusive urban governance.