Abstract: How does internal migration transform citizen-state relations in developing countries? This paper examines the long-run effects of household migration on political engagement in left-behind areas. I argue that migration insures households against macroeconomic uncertainty and siphons away political spearheads, undermining the financial and relational dimensions of political participation.  I develop and test this argument using an original survey and a unique panel dataset that tracked more than 8,000 rural Indian households over a 16-year period. Using a difference-in-differences design, I establish that household migration reduces contact with elected officials and decreases participation in community meetings. Observational analyses of survey data from a high-migration corridor further corroborate these results: members of migrant households are systematically less likely to vote, campaign, protest, and run as candidates compared to members of non-migrant households. Remittance dependence and the selective out-migration of politically active household members underpin this disengagement effect. These findings suggest that labor circulation may carry an understudied political cost: the gradual erosion of democratic voice and accountability in out-migration areas.