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The Kerala-based Centre for Development Studies, which has conducted exhaustive studies on various aspects of migration and condition of migrants from Kerala, is embarking on a larger study of Indian expatriates in Saudi Arabia, one of the most conservative countries in West Asia.
A three-member team of researchers led by well-known demographer Dr K C Zachariah, an honorary fellow of CDS, will conduct the study, which is sponsored by the external affairs ministry and supported by associations of Indians in Saudi Arabia.
Dr S Irudayarajan, a senior faculty member, and Dr B A Prakash, head of the Department of Economics at the Kerala University, are other members of the team. Two members of the team will visit Saudi Arabia shortly to prepare for the study, which will be completed in three phases spanning over six months.
Another team will gather field data from cities with large concentration of Indians and a third will confirm the findings. The team will come out with recommendations for implementation by various agencies.
The effort is part of the Gulf Migration Study undertaken by the CDS to gather data on the living and working conditions of the migrants. The first study in this series was focused on Keralites living in the United Arab Emirates. It provided useful clues on the living and working conditions of the Keralites and the problems they faced not only in UAE, but also in their home state.
Dr Irudayarajan said the forthcoming study would cover the entire Indian stock in Saudi Arabia, which is estimated to be around 1.2 million. About 55 per cent of them are Keralites.
The study will also focus on businessmen and industrialists and identify those who are interested in investing in the country. This will be of big use to various state governments, which have been wooing wealthy NRIs.
"We are in touch with the organisers of the Kerala Global Investors Meet, who are trying to woo foreign and non-resident Indian investors into the state. We will interact with leading bankers since banks in Kerala are already flooded with remittances from abroad," Dr Zachariah said.
The study is considered significant, since the Indian stock in Saudi Arabia has been witnessing steady decline over the years. Although the all-India figures about returnees are not available, an earlier CDS study on Keralites showed that 40.83 per cent of migrants from the state had returned till 1998. The total number of Keralites in Saudi Arabia as per this study was 519,000 in the early nineties. Of this, 301,800 returned till 1998.
The volume of return from Saudi Arabia is the highest among the West Asian countries. The study found that the percentage of return from UAE was only 26.03. From Kuwait it was 4.71, Oman 12.48, Qatar 3.14 and Bahrain 5.95.
Dr Prakash said that the study team would look into the reasons for the decline and suggest corrective measures to be taken by government and other agencies.
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