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Migrants at a crossroads: COVID-19 and challenges to Migration.
Published on June 2, 2021
Details
The article examines the role of large scale migration surveys in understanding that future. Focusing on the example of Kerala, the article highlights the role of the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) which has provided data on stocks of emigrants, return emigrants, cost of migration, use of remittances and migration corridors since 1998 The article shows how the Government of Kerala effectively utilized this data to manage the spread of the pandemic and its subsequent socio-economic impact on individuals, communities and society and organize policies and programs as well as to prepare for eventual return migrants for their integration and rehabilitation. Given that the KMS model has been successfully replicated in some of the major states in India, we proposed the KMS model to be replicated nationwide as an India Migration Survey and globally, given the challenges to come in terms of new emerging trends and patterns of migration in post-pandemic world.