The Gulf is no longer an El Dorado for the average Malayali. What does their return mean for the state and society?
It’s early in the morning, but the Kozhikode international airport in Malabar in north Kerala is bustling. Purdahclad women, along with male relatives, throng the arrival gates as the PA system announces the arrival of a flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Strangely, the cheers of seeing a relative home on leave from “the Gulf”, is missing. Indeed, this is no happy occasion for many. Many of those trundling out through the arrival gates are making their last exit. They will not be returning.
Even the taxi drivers don’t chase them for trips any more, knowing that many will not want to splurge on the fare. As the arrivals hurry off, taxi driver Mohammed Hakeem says, “That despondent look says it all. Nobody wants to talk about their new ‘jobless’ status. We have been seeing them come in large numbers in the past few months. Many of them use public transport to go home. They don’t want anyone to see them...”
The returnees join a burgeoning band of Gulf returnees in the state, left with no job and little to talk of in savings after years—in some cases decades—of slaving in the desert lands. Of late, you only have to look at the passenger lists of the cheap flights to see the ‘reverse migration’ trend. The Muslim dominated Malappuram district in north Kerala, which accounts for one-fifth of the emigrant population in the state, is the worst hit.
THE LOST ‘NRI VILLAGES’
Bu hikaye India Today dergisinin July 08, 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber ? Giriş Yap
Bu hikaye India Today dergisinin July 08, 2019 sayısından alınmıştır.
Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.
Already a subscriber? Giriş Yap
Grand Young Master
Seventeen-yearold D. Gukesh has become the youngest player to win the Candidates chess tournament
SPORTING SPIRIT
BADMINTON PLAYER ASHWINI PONNAPPA, 34, IS OFF TO HER THIRD OLYMPICS, THIS TIME WITH A NEW PARTNER, TANISHA CRASTO
PORTRAITS OF A PEOPLE
Etchings by the colonial Flemish artist F. Baltazard Solvyns are getting a new lease of life in an exhibition at the Dr. Bhau Daji Lad Museum, Mumbai
Centennial Man
A seminal exhibition of K.G. Subramanyan's works in his birth centenary year at Emami Art, Kolkata takes an imaginative and immersive curatorial approach
Rhythms of Nature
ARTIST AND MUSIC COMPOSER GINGGER SHANKAR'S LATEST SINGLE COMBINES SOUTH INDIAN MUSIC WITH INUIT THROAT SINGING
SEARCHING FOR THE SOUND
Kashmiri musician Faheem Abdullah’s debut album Lost; Found is a collaborative effort
FOUND IN TRANSLATION
With its excellent translations, Songs of Tagore makes Rabindrasangit accessible to the non-Bengali reader
Of Freedom and Friendship
T.C.A. RAGHAVAN'S CIRCLES OF FREEDOM FOLLOWS THREE YOUNG MUSLIMS DRAWN INTO THE FREEDOM STRUGGLE
The Razor's Edge
Salman Rushdie's Knife is an eloquent, first-person account of the horrific attack on him. It's also a love story
THE LAST-MILE PUSH
The India Today Smart Money Financial Summit had top experts discussing how technology could be leveraged to widen the reach of personal finance tools