Representative image.
Credit: PTI Photo
Thiruvananthapuram: Karnataka seems to be the most preferred destination of Malayali out-migrants as 45.2 percent of out-migrants from Kerala in other states in India are in Karnataka.
Among Malayali student out-migrants, 50.8 percent are in Karnataka, says the Kerala Migration Survey-2023 (KMS) that was released recently.
The study also suggests a trend of more female out-migrant students from Kerala preferring to settle down in the destination states as female students are seen low in numbers among the students returning.
Males constitute 64.4 percent of Malayali out-migrants and 75.2 percent of Malayalis returning from other states. But with regard to students, 57.8 percent of out-migrants are females, whereas females constitute only 35.8 percent or out-migrants who return.
The Gulati Institute of Finance Taxation (GIFT) and International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD) conducted the KMS for Kerala government's Non-Resident Keralites Affairs department. IIMAD chair S Irudaya Rajan led the study.
According to the KMS, around 4.8 lakhs Malayalis have migrated to other states in India. Karnataka is estimated to have 2.18 lakh Malayalis, including 67,195 students.
After Karnataka, states like Tamil Nadu and Maharashtra have high numbers of Malayalis. Tamil Nadu comes second with 79,697 Malayali migrants and Maharashtra third with 48,868. Delhi comes in fourth place with 25,584.
It was also found that the unemployment rate among those migrating to other states is low. While the pre-migration unemployment rate among out-migrants is 15.1 percent, the post-migration unemployment rate is 2.4 percent only.
Palakkad, Kochi and Kollam are the districts in Kerala from where Malayalis in large numbers migrated to other states.
A sample size of 20,000 households across all the 14 districts of Kerala were covered for the study.