SOUTH
Blasting the myth that Gulf emigration is a Malayalee thing, Keralites are nowhere near Tamil Nadu, Bihar and West Bengal as per the emigration figures. In the period 2013-15, foreign emigration from India increased by 24 per cent!
Six states including Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, West Bengal, Punjab and Rajasthan are now ahead of Kerala in emigration to the Middle East. The data also shows that the Gulf dream continues to draw Indians as is evident from the fact that 90% of the total emigration was to the Middle East, The Hindu reports quoting the statistics released by the External Affairs Ministry during a session at the Pravasi Bharatiya Divas held in Bengaluru recently.
Emigration files:
- 8.54 million Workers in 17 Emigration Check Required (ECR) countries
- They remit $69 billion annually
- The NRI remittances contribute to three per cent of the GDP.
- Expats from GCC countries constitutes 40 per cent of the total remittances
The population of Overseas Indians is 26,876,136 as on April 2016, according to a reply given in Parliament by the External Affairs Ministry. This includes 11,422,045 NRIS and 15,454,091 persons of Indian origin (POI).
Indians in Gulf countries
- UAE - NRIs: 2,600,000 POIs: 3,293
- Bahrain - NRIs: 295,504 POIs: 2,928
- Saudi Arabia - NRIs: 2,960,000 POIs: 52
- Oman- NRIs: 7, 95, 082
- Qatar- NRIs: 630,000
- Kuwait - NRIs: 880,567 POIs: 1,515
- (Source: Lok Sabha)
The Kerala Migration Survey 2014 conducted by Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram, estimated the number of Malayalee emigrants as 24 lakhs. This was more than double when compared to the figures of a similar survey conducted in 1998. The remittances from expat Keralites to the state increased five-fold to Rs.71,000 crores in this period. At the same time, the number of Kerala migrants who returned from abroad was 12.5lakhs in 2014.
Kerala emigrants to foreign countries
- 2014: 24 lakhs
- 1998: 14 lakhs
- Expats' annual remittances to Kerala:
- 2014: Rs.71,000 crores
- 1998: Rs.13,000 crores
- (Source: Kerala Migration Survey 2014, Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram)