publications

Kerala Migration Survey 2023

S Irudaya Rajan

Executive Summary
Since the first historic Kerala Migration Survey (KMS) conducted in 1998 by K C Zachariah and
S Irudaya Rajan, there has been an increasing trend of Keralites moving abroad, from 1.4 million
in 1998 to 1.8 million in 2003 and 2.2 million in 2008, reaching its peak in 2013 with 2.4 million
emigrants. However, in 2018, Kerala observed a steady decline in labour migration with the number
of emigrants estimated at 2.1 million. This is understood to have happened due to the changing
demographics in Kerala, stringent nationalization policies in the Gulf after the global economic
crisis, economic downturns, company closures, shifts in the labour market demands and
competition from countries such as those in Africa, which offer emigrants willing to work for lower
wages.
After the last round of KMS in 2018, Kerala experienced unprecedented floods causing severe
destruction. This was followed by the global lockdown, due to the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020
and 2021. This led to large-scale return migration, job losses, compulsory repatriations, expired
visas, increasing fear of deportations, economic disruptions, and wage theft. In his budget speech
on 11 March 2022, the Finance Minister of Kerala told the assembly that 1.4 million non-resident
Keralites, comprising two-thirds of 2.1 emigrants estimated by the KMS 2018, returned to the state
in the aftermath of the pandemic. The Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs (NORKA),
the Government of Kerala, initiated the ninth round of KMS in 2023 in response to the
recommendations of the 3rd Loka Kerala Sabha of 2022 to examine the recent trends in migration,
return migration, and remittances. The KMS 2023 was conducted by the Gulati Institute of Finance
Taxation (GIFT) with technical support from the International Institute of Migration and
Development (IIMAD)