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A significant segment of internal migration in India at large, and in the states of Rajasthan and Orissa in particular, continues to be distress-led. Colossal collapse of rural employment generation, the economic setbacks at cultivation, and, the largely deficient employment opportunities in urban centres among others, are believed to be the driving force bebind the rise of a more insecure type of movement now. Paradoxically however, this movement occurs in a world supplemented by a renewed belief in sanctioning equality of opportunity as a way of life, propagating fuller economic growth, and endorsing greater social cohesion (Aldridge 2001), across the socio-political spectrum. As a result, migratory processes and their subsequent impacts thereof, attains critical significance in the present times. It is in the above context that the proposed paper contextualizes migration debates within historiography, policy, and economy of the states of Orissa and Rajasthan in India, and seeks to elucidate the formidable challenges it represents for the Indian social fabric. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]