THIRUVANANTHAPURAM, 10 November 2007 — Almost half of Kerala’s overseas emigrants are Muslims who send 50 percent of total annual remittances to the state, which is about 20 percent of the Net State Domestic Product (NSDP), according to the Center for Development Studies here.

The study carried out by the Research Unit on International Migration of the CDS reveals that the total number of emigrants from the state has increased slightly from 1.84 million in 2003 to 1.94 million in 2007 while the number of returning emigrants increased from 890,000 to 930,000. However, the emigration rate has declined from 26.7 per 100 households in 2003 to 25.7 in 2007.

The corresponding decline in return emigration rate was from 13 to 12.3 percent. The rate of NRK per 100 households has declined from 39.7 to 38.0 percent showing that the Gulf migration is not as widespread as it is often depicted to be in the media.

The northern districts such as Malappuram, Kannur and Kasaragod are gaining importance as areas of emigration. In the Muslim-dominated Malappuram district, where per capita income at Rs.18,960 is still half that of prosperous districts like Ernakulam, three out of four households have either an emigrant or one who has returned. Among the Muslims one in every two households (52.5 percent) has an emigrant but among the Hindus one in seven households only has one.

Unemployment rate among emigrants is as high as 26.9 percent before emigration, but is only four percent among those who have returned. Emigration has had a significant salutary impact on the unemployment situation in the state.

Outmigration (OMI) from Kerala to other states in India has registered a significant decline, not only in terms of the rate as in the case of external migration, but also in absolute numbers.

OMI declined from 1.11 million in 2003 to 958,000 in 2007. OMI per 100 households has declined from 16.2 in 2003 to 12.7 in 2007. Return out-migration (ROM) has registered a small increase not only in absolute numbers but also in terms of the rate.

“Demographic contraction could have been underlying factor in the near-stability of migration from the state. Demographic trends seem to have started exerting its inexorable pressure more effectively on migration than earlier from the state in recent years. The effect of demographic contraction on migration is accentuated by Kerala’s retrogression in the employability of its graduates in general arts and sciences,” the study says.

The state received Rs.24.5 billion in 2006-07 as overseas remittances through banking channels, representing a modest but consistent acceleration. However, they have not kept pace with the growth of NSDP — in 2003 remittances formed 22 percent of NSDP and in 1998, it was 25 percent.

In 2006-07, the Muslim community received half of the total remittances while the share of the seven northern districts of the state (62 percent) was almost double the share of the seven southern districts.

According to the study, the most unexpected result was in the employment scenario that witnessed a total turnaround. Now there are 560,000 more jobs than four years back, mostly in the private sector and the self-employment sector. In the private sector, employment has more than doubled during 2003-07 and in the self-employment sector the increase has been 25 percent.

The number of the unemployed decreased by 124,000 and consequently, the unemployment rate declined to 9.4 percent in 2007 — less than half its level four years ago (19.1 percent).

The decline in the unemployment rate is reflected in all the sections of the population, men and women, young and old, the well educated and the less educated, among all religious groups and between the north and the south. Reasons for the rapid decline in unemployment rate is attributed to three factors — the decline in the proportion of population in the prime unemployment ages, economic liberalization and investment-friendly environment that fuelled NRK investments in job-creating areas and India’s Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme.

Two districts with the lowest unemployment rate in 2007 are exactly the two districts where the scheme is under implementation in the first phase: Wayanad with an unemployment rate of 2.6 percent and Palakkad with an unemployment rate 5.0 percent.

These two districts also have the highest employment rate: 48.9 percent in Wayanad and 45.2 percent in Palakkad compared to the state average of 38.9 percent.

“After 15-20 years of continuous increase, migration from the state seems to be losing some of its steam and edging toward a more stable stage. In the early period of construction worker’s emigration, much of the financial dividends from emigration were used up for household consumption, subsistence, education of children, house construction and renovation, dowry payment, etc. Not much was left for productive investments,” the study says. “Moreover, the business climate was not as investment-friendly as it is today. The early returning emigrants did not have decent education or know-how for starting new business ventures. But now more than a million emigrants have returned with accumulated savings, acquired expertise and contacts that matter much in business. The stage is now set for more efficient utilization of the acquired wealth and we may look forward with some degree of confidence to an era in which emigrants and returning emigrants take leading roles in the developmental activities of the state.”

Surprisingly students seeking professional education constituted the largest proportion of outmigrants (29.1 percent of the total or about 280,000) from India’s most-literate state. Among them, 47.4 percent were Christians, although, in the general population, Christians are just 19 percent.

Muslims have been a mere 8.4 percent among outmigrant students, although they constitute more than 25 percent of the total population. One of the smallest districts in the state, Pathanamthitta, has sent out the largest number of students outside the state — 47,000 or 17 percent of the total migrating students from the state-filling up the supply-demand gap in post-metric educational facilities within the state, thanks to the political muddle.

Some 26.9 percent of outmigrants are unemployed among whom the unemployment rate is as high as 53.6 percent before migration and 42.4 percent among returned outmigrants. Internal migration has had only a marginal direct effect on the unemployment situation.

The CDS conducts periodic sample surveys on migration covering the entire state. The present study, conducted during April-September 2007, was the third in this series based on a sample of 10,000 households selected using the multi-stage random sampling technique. Data on migration and related factors were collected using a questionnaire consisting of 50 questions in 10 blocks. Fieldwork for data collection was entrusted to the Kerala Statistical Institute. All the other activities such as data entry, tabulation, analysis, and report writing were done in-house.

Haj House Opens

Chief Minister V.S. Achuthanandan last week inaugurated the Haj House constructed near the Calicut International Airport at Karipur. The Central Haj Committee gave Rs.15 million, state government Rs.10 million and nearly Rs.20 million collected by way of donations.

The four-story 72,000 sq. ft. facility has a large prayer hall, dormitory that can house 1,000 pilgrims at a time and dining hall that can serve 500 pilgrims at a time where they can also complete the check-in process.

The first Haj flight will take off from here on Nov. 21 followed by 30 more flights carrying some 7,300 pilgrims to Jeddah this year. The last flight is on Dec. 6, Haj Committee Chairman A.K. Abdul Hameed said.

He said the Haj Committee would not allow pilgrims to perform more than one Haj within a period of five years. The cash deposit of those found repeating the Haj in five years would be confiscated.

Rehab Plans for Gulf Returnees

The Kerala government is planning to set up a company to help rehabilitate Gulf returnees, the draft proposal of which will be presented at a meeting of expatriate groups to be held in Kochi in January.

“The draft proposal is ready with us. Schemes will be finalized in consultation with the representatives of the community bodies attending the Global Malayali Meet in Kochi,” S. M. Najeeb, the general manager of Norka-Roots, the Non-Resident Keralites’ Affairs (NORKA) department’s field agency, said.

According to the draft proposal, the shareholders of the company will be mainly low-income expatriates; the state government will hold 51 percent stake. It will promote a cluster of small and medium units to be set up by the returning migrants.

“Non-resident Indians can invest in the company which ensures a decent income for them after returning from the Gulf. The Rs.100 million company will set up NRI investment zones at different parts of the state,” Najeeb said.

The NORKA will provide guarantee for the investment and ensure returns. Besides government’s representatives, the investors or their relatives will be included on the board of directors of the company.

Kerala, which abandoned a plan to issue smart cards to the NRIs three years back after the federal government expressed its intention to take up the project at the national level, has also decided to issue identity cards that will ensure speedy delivery of services at government offices.

The cards will be launched at the Global Meet where the state government will also unveil a welfare fund to help expatriates in distress. Applications for the ID cards with photos will be accepted at the village level. Another draft bill on pension for migrant workers is also under the consideration of the state government.