Population mobility across the Pakistani border: fifty years experience.

This paper discusses the population mobility across the Pakistan borders during the last 50 years. Political, economic, and religious factors generated the various inward and outward flows of population. While outward flow mostly represents a job-oriented move, the inward flow is basically caused by political factors like the partition of the subcontinent and the Afghan war. This paper uses four classifications: 1) refugee movements between India and Pakistan at the time of its independence and influx of Afghan refugees to Pakistan in the 1980s; 2) illegal immigration of Bangladeshis and Burmese during the last decades; 3) permanent emigration of Pakistanis, including brain drain; and 4) temporary migration of workers to the Middle East. Tabulated supporting data are provided in this paper to explain further the population mobility of Pakistan.