The plight of Indians deported from the United States offers a reflection of the unyielding pressures that drive migration, shedding light on the harsh realities that so many are forced to confront. For these individuals, migration was a desperate escape from the socio-economic hardships that have plagued their lives. They sought a better future: improved livelihoods, better opportunities, and a hope for a life far removed from the crushing poverty they had known.

Instead, they found themselves living in the shadows, undocumented, vulnerable, and caught in a constant state of fear. Living in an alien land without legal protection, their existence was a tough balancing act of going to work, returning home, and never daring to imagine a future outside the margins.

Deprived of rights to formal employment or even basic identification, these migrants lived in a continuous state of limbo. While it may have appeared ordinary to the outside world, their daily lives were far from normal. The threat of deportation was a shadow they could never escape, knowing that one day it would fall on them, pulling them back to the very life they had tried to flee.

For those deported, it is the destruction of a dream, the collapse of all they had hoped to build. They return home, not just empty-handed but often weighed down by debts incurred in their dangerous journey. Loans taken to survive in a foreign land or pay smugglers compound the financial strain, while the emotional weight of failure lingers long after the plane touches the Indian soil.

Returning as a “failed Dunki” comes with its own inescapable burden. This would be with a deep sense of shame. It is a stigma that would show the individual as one who failed to achieve the ultimate........

© Free Press Journal