Since the first US military aircraft carrying 104 deported Indians landed in Amritsar on February 5, a slew of comments has emerged in the Indian media addressing the inhumane condition of the deportees' transportation and the response (or lack of) of the Indian authorities.

Many heart-wrenching stories have been published about the infamous dunki route taken by the deportees, the sacrifice of their families, including selling land, to send them abroad. Their socio-economic profiles and reasons for migration have also been highlighted.

As a scholar who has worked for 25 years on the Sikh diaspora, I found that though interesting, these stories miss a very important point — migration is not per se a criminal activity. It has been projected as a criminal activity recently in the countries of destination of migrants. In the US, it has been done mainly since 9/11. But in Europe, the process had started earlier in the context of the dismantling of EU’s internal borders and the fortification of its external ones.

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