AMIDST the Covid-19 pandemic-induced financial disaster, 5.52 lakh individuals who have returned to Kerala from overseas since May final yr have given lack of jobs as motive, in keeping with authorities information.
As per figures compiled by the Department of Non-Resident Keralites Affairs, 8.43 lakh individuals returned to Kerala from overseas international locations between the primary week of May 2020 and January 4 this yr. Of them, 5.52 lakh mentioned that they had misplaced their jobs — with 1.40 lakh of them returning within the final 30 days.
Another huge chunk of returnees, 2.08 lakh, acknowledged that their job visas had expired or talked about different causes for his or her return. The relaxation embody senior residents, or youngsters, and relations of expatriates.
With the figures indicating that the job disaster triggered by Covid-19 continues, Kerala economic system could also be going through long-term impression, with remittances from overseas, primarily West Asia, its lifeline.
Prof S Irudaya Rajan, an skilled on worldwide migration, nevertheless, doesn’t see a trigger for alarm. “The precise determine of migrants in misery could be much less… I feel a bit of them, it could possibly be two-third of them, would discover new locations for migration within the coming months. Already individuals have began returning,’’ he mentioned.
Chair Professor on the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs’s Research Unit on International Migration, on the Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram, Rajan mentioned he doesn’t see remittancesdeclining by loads both. Kerala noticed annual remittances of Rs 85,000 crore in 2018, and was anticipating this to extend to Rs 100,000 crore in 2020. Rajan mentioned there could possibly be 10 to fifteen per cent decline in remittances within the present fiscal.
He added that one among new corridors of migration post-pandemic could possibly be the well being sector. “But we have to wait another year to get a clear picture about the next trajectory of migration.”
Incidentally, as expatriates fly again to Kerala, NRI deposits within the state’s banking sector have been rising. (NRI deposits are overseas foreign money deposits made in Indian banks by NRIs, whereas remittances are overseas foreign money funds despatched by NRIs to their households.
Ajaya Kumar, AGM (NRI Cell) of the State Bank of India, which accounts for 29 per cent of the NRI deposits in Kerala’s banking sector, mentioned that they had seen regular progress within the first six months of this fiscal, when “every month, NRI deposits in SBI grew by Rs 300 crore”. There was a mix for causes for this, Kumar mentioned. “The growth in the first half could be due to fall of rupee against the dollar, which generally prompts NRIs to send more money. Also, people preferred to park money in banks as there were less avenues for spending or trade.”
However, since December, with the rupee rising in opposition to the greenback, there was a fall in progress of NRI deposits, the SBI official mentioned. “Also, now people might have started spending more due to the easing of lockdown restrictions and resumption of business activities.”
According to Kumar, “The real impact of the crisis stemming from expatriates’ return is likely to be felt in the NRI deposit arena in the next fiscal.”