Return of Keralites on downtrend: Study

Thiruvananthapuram: All is not lost for the Keralites working abroad as the feared massive job losses and retrenchments have not happened.

This has been revealed by a study that shows that there is a declining trend in the number of returnees from different parts of the world.

However, the number of emigrants from Kerala has shown a negative growth for the first time in 2016, according to the study by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS).

While the number of emigrants came down by around 1.54 lakh in 2016 compared to that in 2014, the number of returnees also dropped by 2.14 lakh during the corresponding years. There has been a drop in remittances by Rs 7,853 crore, according to the preliminary findings of the Kerala Migration Survey 2016 carried out by CDS professor S. Irudaya Rajan.

The number of emigrants in 2014 was 24 lakh. It came down to 22.46 lakh in 2016 - a negative growth of 1.54 lakh. Over the last several years, the increase in the number of emigrants was showing a declining trend. But it showed a negative trend only by 2016, points out the study.

For instance, there was an increase of 4.7 lakh in the number of emigrants in 2003 compared to 1998. But in 2008,  the increase was only 3.5 lakh compared to 2008. In 2011, the increase in emigrants was only 87,000 compared to 2008. In 2014, compared to 2011, there was a slight increase of 1.2 lakh emigrants. However, by 2016 the number of emigrants declined by about 1.6 lakh compared to 2014.

The number of return emigrants was also increasing since 1998. But it witnessed a reverse trend in 2016. The number of returnees in the state was 12.5 lakh in 2014. It came down to 10.3 lakh by 2016 — a decline of about 2.2 lakh.

The survey  pointed out that remittances from the state, which were also showing an increasing trend, had come down in 2016. The figures are: Rs 18,465 crore (2003), Rs 43,288 crore (2008), Rs 49,695 crore (2011), Rs 71,142 crore (2014) and Rs 63,289 crore (2016).