Economic Integration in South Asia

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Liberalization of Movement of People and Enhancing Tourism in South Asia

Introduction

South Asia is the home of more than 1.45 billion people of the world. The eight countries of the region constitute the second largest source of migrant population (after China) in other parts of the world in the last two centuries. India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka and Nepal are the five densely populated countries of South Asia which have been the five major sources of overseas migrants of South Asian origin in order of importance on the basis of estimated numbers of such migrants.¹ On the other hand, there is a long history of intra-regional movement of people among the countries of South Asia. The most prominent of such mass movements of people was ...