ABSTRACT
The profile of the emigrant can be constructed from the various surveys that have been carried out in the major source state of Kerala by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS). Data on the distribution of return emigrants from Kerala by age and gender from the four rounds of Kerala Migration Survey (KMS). In 2011, the average age of the male return emigrant was 37.1 years and that of the female was 31.4 years. The ties in with other findings from studies by the CDS that emigration has a significant cost attached to it and initial employment in India enables the prospective emigrant to save and fund these costs more satisfactorily than raising usurious loans or liquidating family assets. As per KMS data, the proportion of the unemployed among the emigrants has averaged around 28 per cent between 1998 and 2011.
