Abstract: Millions of poor households across the developing world rely on migration to navigate economic uncertainty. In poor rural areas, where viable livelihood opportunities are scarce, insurance markets underdeveloped, and government protections against economic insecurity minimal, migration serves as a critical mechanism for household risk diversification. While a substantial body of research has documented the welfare and developmental impacts of these large-scale migration flows, their political implications remain less understood. In this paper, I propose that access to private self-insurance mechanisms, such as migration, can lead citizens to disengage from politics. I evaluate this argument in India, the world's largest democracy, which hosts an estimated 100 million internal economic migrants. To do so, I first conduct a difference-in-differences analysis of nationally representative panel data to demonstrate that household migration reduces claim-making over the state. To explore the mechanisms of disengagement, I combine extensive qualitative fieldwork with observational data from an original survey of 1,984 households in a high-migration corridor. I find evidence consistent with migrant remittances diminishing incentives among those left behind to politicize their grievances through collective action, and substituting for welfare services traditionally provided by the state. These findings have significant implications for democratic accountability in the Global South.