Kerala Emigrants in the Gulf

S. Irudaya Rajan () and K. C. Zachariah
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S. Irudaya Rajan: Ulloor Medical College
K. C. Zachariah: Centre for Development Studies

Chapter Chapter 8 in India’s Low-Skilled Migration to the Middle East, 2019, pp 189-205 from Springer

Abstract: Abstract India to Gulf emigration is not a new phenomenon. Its history dates back to several centuries ago. The massive flow of emigration from India significantly started from the mid-1970s. During 1973–1974, the oil companies were mushrooming in West Asia. Thousands of Indians came to the Gulf countries, especially those who were mostly from Kerala. In India, Kerala has significant number of emigrants who end up in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries every year. According to Centre for Development Studies (CDS) migration survey series from 1998 to 2014, international migration from Kerala accounted for 13.6 lakhs people in 1998, which increased to 24 lakhs in 2014. Among the gulf emigration registered, about 93.9 per cent of the total emigration was recorded in 1998, which declined to 86.3 per cent in 2014. Based on this background, the study attempts to analyse the trend of Keralite emigrants to the Gulf countries and the role of their remittances on Kerala’s economy. In addition, the study also analyses socio-demographic conditions of emigrants from Kerala to the Gulf countries. The study used the data obtained from Kerala migration survey series from 1998 to 2014 undertaken by the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. The study uses ratio method to estimate the total number of migrants in Kerala during this survey period (2014). In this survey, to estimate the total emigrants from Kerala, two approaches of ratio method have been employed. The first method is referred to as household method in which the migrant ratio in the sampled locality is used with the same locality Households (HHs) number. The second method is referred to as population method; in this, migrant ratio in a locality is used with the same locality population. This study found that gulf emigrants and their remittances significantly contributed to the state economy and at the same time improved educational profile of the emigrants. Based on these results, it can safely be assumed that similar trends in the socioeconomic conditions of the emigrants from Kerala would be seen wherever they had migrated.

Keywords: Kerala; India; Migration; Gulf (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2019
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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:spr:sprchp:978-981-13-9224-5_8

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DOI: 10.1007/978-981-13-9224-5_8

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