Impact of Migration on Livelihood of Migrants and Their Family: a Study of In-migrant Workers in the Palakkad District, Kerala

The chronic shortage of labour in Kerala and the resultant higher wage rates received the attention among the workers from other states and they began to move to Kerala in search of work. This has opened a new era of replacement migration to Kerala. This led to the state again become an in-migrating state after a break of about 60 years since the 1960s. Though initially the in-migrants in Kerala were from the neighbouring states like Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh mostly seasonal and short-duration migration, at a later period the state started getting migrants from far distant states. This book analyzes the working, living and economic conditions of in-migrant workers, the expenditure pattern of in-migrants and also examine the factors that influence the amount of remittances send back to their left behind. The analysis is based on data from a sample of 109 in-migrants workers in the Mannarkkad Panchayat, Palakkad District. While existing studies on in-migration in Kerala provide evidences for short distance migration from nearby states to Kerala, This study observed the long distance migration from far distant states.