Resources collected to understand return migration from the Gulf during covid-19

pandemic

The material we collected are largely four types:-

i) Media articles/news publications

ii) Posts from Facebook groups of Gulf Malayalis

iii) Government reports and data from government agencies on Gulf returnees

iv) Scholarly work published in the last one year that directly discuss return migration during
the pandemic

i) Media articles/news publications

Tools used: The primary tool that was used to gather media articles is “Media Cloud” which
is an online, open source platform which helps to collect, analyse and organize media
material available on the web. In the “Media Cloud”, we used the “Topic Mapper” tool. All
keywords related to the topic and the time frame we were looking up were given as inputs.
The “Topic Mapper” then generated articles, newspaper reports and interviews based on the
inputs we gave.

We have online news, publications around covid-19 and return migration from the Gulf,
largely spanning the time frame from March 1st, 2020 to May 2021. Three major topics
were focused on while doing the searches on “Topic Mapper”:

1. Larger reports on return migration from the Gulf to Kerala, owing to the pandemic.

Most of the articles on return migration from the Gulf focus on the number of returnees and
the issues faced by them on being back home in Kerala, especially on the job front. The
media articles collected include national as well as international news websites. A running
theme in many of these articles are that of the migrants having to return without receiving
their payments for the work they did until then, loss of jobs and the anxiety they feel on
finding a suitable job in their hometowns. Hence, these articles give an idea of the larger
problem of return migration and acts as sufficient background for our study.
E.g. lins: https://www.livemint.com/news/india/the-gloomy-reality-of-gulf-returnees-
11597673455177.html

https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2020/world/coronavirus-migration-trends-gulf-
states-india/

https://www.cnbctv18.com/economy/keralas-hr-problem-finding-jobs-for-lakhs-of-gulf-
returnees-6393571.htm

2. Articles on Nitaqat laws in the recent past which has also contributed to a lot of return
migration.

Articles on Nitaqat laws collected using “Topic Mapper” includes news that was published in
Saudi websites and other news websites in the Gulf. These articles point to how the Human
Resource Ministry is intending to levy a fee from expatriate workers on a quarterly basis. A
number of these articles also point to the latest reservation policies of the Saudi government
to give Saudi nationals more employment opportunities. The articles talk about 30% of
accounting jobs, 50% of aviation jobs, 100% in customer clearance sector, all for Saudi
nationals. All the news collected are during the time frame March 2020 to May 2021.

E.g. links: https://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/601993/SAUDI-ARABIA/HR-Ministry-

moves-to-allow-quarterly-payment-of-expat-levy-and-iqama-fee?
ref=rss&format=simple&link=link

https://www.saudigazette.com.sa/article/601755/SAUDI-ARABIA/Al-Rajhi-30-of-
accounting-jobs-to-be-Saudized-9800-more-jobs-for-Saudis?
ref=rss&format=simple&link=link

3. Government policies on rehabilitating and helping the migrants who returned during the
pandemic.

This set of news items cover the rehabilitation plans by the state government of Kerala for the
Gulf returnees. The Kerala state government devised various rehabilitation plans for the
migrants who returned from the Gulf during the pandemic. The focus of rehabilitation plans
were largely on entrepreneurship and bringing schemes to grant licenses in a week’s time to
make it easier to set up new ventures. The government also announced programmes to help
the returnees set up IT ventures and startups.
The Non Resident Keralites Affairs or Norka, a government body, also gave financial
assistance of Rs. 5,000 to those non-resident Keralites who were stranded in Kerala owing to
the nationwide lockdown in March 2020, and hence were unable to return to the countries
they work at. Norka, as well as the Kerala Pravasi Welfare Board ensured that the people who
were affected by covid-19 also got some financial assistance.

E.g. https://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/thiruvananthapuram/norka-sets-up-helpdesk-in-
9-nations-for-trapped-malayalis/articleshow/75111615.cms

https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/news/politics-and-nation/focus-on-rehabilitation-of-
foreign-returned-workers-kerala-cm-pinarayi-vijayan/articleshow/75610883.cms

https://www.hindustantimes.com/india-news/kerala-announces-rehabilitation-project-for-
expats-who-returned-home/story-h4u0blmGifIzEfzrapK04K.html

ii) Posts from Gulf Malayali Facebook groups

The second set of sources that we have looked at include Facebook groups of non-resident
Malayalis residing in different countries of the Gulf region.

The search was made on Facebook with two keywords, “ Gulf Malayali” and “pravasi”,
which means expat in Malayalam. Results for groups from different Gulf countries like UAE,
Qatar, Oman, Kuwait and Saudi came up in the search. A couple of groups also came up
which were for all Gulf Malayalis.

The members in the top groups that came up range between 200,000 in the common group
for expats to 7000-50,000 in the smaller groups pertaining to each region. A majority of posts
on most of these groups focus on job opportunities and vacancies in the respective regions.
From April 2020, there are posts on the evacuation flights from India, the Vande Bharat
Mission, and details on how to register for the flights.

E.g.

III) The third set of sources include from the government on the number of return migrants.

The Non Resident Keralites Affairs or NORKA is the government body that handles all
matters relating to Non-resident Keralites. During the pandemic, NORKA platform saw over
4 lakh registrations to come back to Kerala from Malayalis living abroad.
The data is currently reported in newspaper articles.

IV) The final source of material that we have collected include scholarly works that have
been published in the last year, which directly deal with the discussion on return migration
from the Gulf to Kerala during the pandemic.

E.g. Menon, Devaki Vadakepat, and Vanaja Menon Vadakepat. "Migration and reverse
migration: Gulf-Malayalees’ perceptions during the Covid-19 pandemic." South Asian
Diaspora (2020): 1-21. https://doi.org/10.1080/19438192.2020.1820668

Rajan, S. Irudaya. "Migrants at a crossroads: COVID-19 and challenges to migration."

Migration and Development 9, no. 3 (2020): 323-330.