Objectives: To understand the recent trend and magnitude of international migration from Kerala to the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and major non-GCC destination countries.
Methodology: The study is entirely based on secondary sources of data. The data is obtained from various sources, which includes Census of India, Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), Government of India and Kerala Migration Survey (KMS), Centre for Development Studies, Kerala. The simple statistical tools like growth rates and percentages are used to analyse the trends and magnitude of migration and various migrant destinations from Kerala. The migration destination countries divided into GCC and major Non-GCC countries.
Findings: The study found that there is a declining trend in emigration from Kerala over the last two decades. The decline in crude oil price and strict localization policies in the Gulf region are found to be the major external (destination) factors. The higher wage rate and decline in the population of migration-prone age-group in Kerala are found to be the internal (origin) factors.
Improvements/Applications: The decline in emigration will directly affect the households depend on the emigrants and the economic stability of the state as well. So policymakers should consider this issue with utmost importance and take appropriate actions to mitigate the adverse effects caused by the emigration decline from the state.