| dc.description.abstract | The socio-economic dynamics of emigration from Kerala to the United
States of America exhibit a unique migration pattern compared to migration to the
Gulf region. This is because migration to the US is characterized predominantly by a
skilled emigrant population. This study has four objectives: (1) Analysing the socio-
economic characteristics of both migrants and non-migrants, (2) Identifying the
accelerators and brake pedal of the Indian economy in the context of migration, (3)
Evaluating the endowments and capabilities that help to respond to the factors
contributing to migration from Kerala, and (4) Analysing the impact of emigration
on migrant households. This study involves a comparative analysis of migrant and
non-migrant households. The literature shows that most of the research on migration
addresses the reasons for emigration, the impact of remittances on the economy,
return migration and the influence of migration on the psychological well-being of
the parents left behind. All these studies were exclusively focused on migration to
the Gulf region. Examining emigration to the USA, unfolding the inner dynamics
and rationalising the nuances using suitable theoretical underpinnings to explain the
underlying factors is a less ventured arena. Therefore, it is crucial to investigate
emigration from Kerala to the US, its implications, its determinants and the impact
on migrant households. Data for this study were collected from two districts of
Kerala, Pathanamthitta and Kottayam, which are considered significant migrant
pockets to the US. The total sample size for this study is 358, comprising 143
migrant households and 215 non-migrant households.
A descriptive analysis is carried out to trace the socio-economic
characteristics of both migrants and non-migrants. The analysis reveals that younger
individuals, particularly those around thirty years old, are more likely to migrate
with males dominating the migrant demographic. Christians form the majority of the
migrant community, likely due to established social networks in the US. Most
migrants hold postgraduate degrees, indicating a significant brain drain and the
majority work in nursing, highlighting the high demand for healthcare professionals
in the US. The notable thing is that despite their educational qualifications, some
migrants face the problem of underemployment. In the context of migration, this
phenomenon is called brain waste. Additionally, professions like doctors, engineers,
business, company lawyers and system analysts are solely occupied by the Male
population. Christians dominate in jobs like anesthesia technician, legal advisor,system analyst, accountant and microbiologist. The characteristics of non-migrants
reveal that the majority are younger to middle-aged and belong to the Hindu
community. Both Hindus and Christians are predominantly involved in rubber
tapping and degree holders often work in jobs like sales and construction,
highlighting employment challenges among the educated non-migrant community.
To examine the second objective, the Auto Regressive Distributed Lag model
(ARDL) was employed. The result of the ARDL shows that emigration is negatively
correlated with India‟s economic growth but positively correlated with human
capital development and population density. This suggests that increasing domestic
economic opportunities may reduce the pace of emigration from India to the USA,
thereby addressing the problem of brain drain. The Logistic regression model
(LOGIT) is used to analyse the third objective, the influence of individual (age &
education), social (religion & social networks), family (land owned) endowments
and gender on emigration from Kerala to the USA. Endowment means anything that
a person possesses and that enhances the choice of the people. The results indicate
that compared to females the probability of emigration among males is high, and the
Christian community is more likely to migrate compared to non-Christians.
Moreover, the results show that pre-existing social networks in the USA
significantly increase the probability of migration. The overall result of LOGIT
shows that social and human capital factors, including educational attainment and
family resources, are crucial in migration. Finally, this study examines the impacts
of emigration on migrant households. The impacts of emigration on migrant
households are quite visible, with increased asset accumulation and a higher
standard of living in the post-migration period, caused by remittances and increased
earnings. Emigration increases the asset holdings of migrant households compared
to non-migrant households and also enhances the standard of living through
spillover effects. However, no significant differences in the standard of living were
found among different religious communities within migrant households. These
findings underline the positive effects of migration on the growth of assets and
living standards of migrant households after migration. | en_US |
