Surat, in the state of Gujarat, is rapidly developing as one of India's most industrialized cities, thanks largely to the hard work of migrants whose number as a proportion of Surat's industrial labor force is estimated at around 55 to 65 percent. Notwithstanding the substantial contribution made by this group of workers towards the city's development, existing empirical research has yet to clearly identify and document the economic, industrial, and urban mechanisms that are involved in migrant labor contributing to growth within these sectors. To fill this lacuna, this study uses a mixed-method approach that combines a quantitative questionnaire with 1,386 migrants from six important industrial sectors, semi-structured interviews with 48 factory owners, labor contractors, urban planners, and migrant workers, an analysis of development documents from the municipal administration for the period 2010 to 2024, as well as systematic review of 54 published studies and reports on migration. Results show that migrant workers account for 61 to 79 percent of the industrial output of the diamond polishing, textiles, and construction industries, and make inter-state remittances totaling INR 8,400 crore per year, and form the main labor for MSME led industrial development in Surat. The urban structure analysis has brought forth a dual character where migrant laborers generate considerable demand pressure on housing, sanitation, and healthcare amenities but at the same time also represent the work force responsible for the actual physical creation of Surat's urban form. This suggests an agenda for policy formulation concerning the structural conflict between the necessity of migrant labor to support the economy and the failure of the urban service provision system that caters to the needs of the established local citizenry as opposed to the mobile labor required by the industrial urban model.