Democratic Decline and Migration

Moving beyond the traditional economic interpretations of migration, Democratic Decline and Migration offers an original account of how political change shapes human mobility across one of the world's most migration-intensive regions ^—^ South Asia. Covering India, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Nepal, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Bhutan, and the Maldives, the book develops a democracy–mobility framework to explain how democratic erosion influences migration aspirations, capabilities, and outcomes. Ullah and Huque argue that people move not only in search of better economic opportunities, but also because shrinking civic spaces, weakened institutions, authoritarian tendencies, contested citizenship, and political uncertainty reshape their sense of security, dignity, and belonging. However, migrants remain connected to their countries of origin through remittances, diaspora politics, exile networks, activism, and transnational claims to belonging. The book also examines how South Asian states increasingly use migration as a governance strategy: exporting labour, capturing remittances, managing unemployment, engaging diasporas, and externalizing domestic pressures. This generates a central paradox: migration may stabilize fragile and hybrid regimes in the short term, while reproducing inequality, weakening accountability, and creating new arenas of political contestation beyond national borders. By bringing migration studies into dialogue with comparative politics, regime theory, transnationalism, and South Asian studies, Democratic Decline and Migration positions South Asia as a critical laboratory for understanding the deepening relationship between democracy, mobility, and governance in the contemporary world.