ABSTRACT
This chapter explains about return emigrants in Kerala, based on information on return emigrants collected by the Centre for Development Studies (CDS) through several of its recent large-scale household surveys. The term return emigrants is to mean Kerala-born persons, who have lived outside India for a minimum of 12 months or worked/studied outside for shorter periods. The geographic spread of return emigration follows that of emigration, as return emigration is a follow-up of emigration. The chapter focuses on Kerala's population. Even in the peak of recession, when many of the emigrants were returning home some return emigrants who were already in Kerala, were migrating back to the Gulf. The largest number of emigrants from Kerala lives in the United Arab Emirates (UAE), but the largest number of return emigrants is from Saudi Arabia. The Gulf countries that are relatively more attractive for the Kerala emigrants are Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, UAE, and Kuwait.
