Low interstate migration is hurting India’s growth and states are to blame.

Kerala ranked first out of seven states for migrant friendly policies on the Interstate Migrant Policy Index 2019 (IMPEX 2019), an index compiled by India Migration Now, a Mumbai-based nonprofit, which analyses state-level policies for the integration of out-of- state migrants. Maharashtra ranked second with a score of 42 out of 100 compared to Kerala’s 62, and Punjab came in third with a score of 40. Internal migration, both within a state and across states in India, improves households’ socioeconomic status, and benefits both the region that people migrate to and where they migrate from, research shows. Yet, interstate migration in India is less than in other countries at a similar stage of economic development, studies show. A 2016 World Bank study attributed this partly to the migrant unfriendly policies in many parts of the country.