Given very well-established channels of regular emigration, the co-existence and mushrooming of irregular emigration from Indian Punjab presents a peculiar case and therefore, requires to be deeply investigated. The study finds that irregular migration is largely a forced migration rather than a wilful one. Migration policies of destination countries largely enforce irregular migration by restricting less-educated and semi-skilled Punjabis to migrate through regular mode. The prospective migrants after being rejected under the regular migration system adopt irregular migration. Thus, irregular migration compliments regular migration, rather than substituting it. Although irregular migration is found to be economically unviable in the initial years but offers net economic gains as it gets older. Liberalisation of the migration policies in destination countries, improvement in the quality of school education and its infrastructure and strictly monitoring business of travel agents in Indian Punjab can check the menace of irregular migration effectively. © 2021 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.