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Determinants of International Remittance: Evidence from Kerala, India

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India’s Low-Skilled Migration to the Middle East

Abstract

This chapter investigates the determinants of international remittance flow into the Kerala economy. It explores the influence of socio-demographic and migration-specific characteristics of the migrant and the migrant-sending (remittance receiving) households on the amount of remittance transfers. Using data from the 2011 Kerala Migration Survey, we employed Heckman selection correction model and Tobit model for the analysis. The results suggest that the migrant’s individual characters have a strong influence in the remittance-sending behaviour while the characteristics of the remittance-receiving household have a weaker influence. The migration-specific characteristics—the duration of migration, destination country and presence of dependents abroad—significantly affect the amount of remittance sent.

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Notes

  1. 1.

    Since cash transfers account only for a part of the transfers from abroad, we take into account the money value of goods sent from abroad also as part of remittances.

  2. 2.

    Spouse of the household head, children of the household head and others based on classification given in NELM (Lucas and Stark 1985).

  3. 3.

    Occupation is coded into ten broad categories according to the National Classification of Occupations—2004. The NCO is based upon a classification scheme adopted by the International Labour Organization (ILO), suitably modified for the Indian conditions. It divides workers into various categories, going down to four-digit codes, with the broadest classification being ten single-digit codes: (1) Legislators, Senior Officials and Managers; (2) Professionals; (3) Technicians and Associate Professionals; (4) Clerks; (5) Service Workers and Shop & Market Sales Workers; (6) Skilled Agricultural and Fishery Workers; (7) Craft and Related Trades Workers; (8) Plant and Machine Operators and Assemblers; (9) Elementary Occupations (e.g. sweepers, street vendors, loaders etc.); (10) Workers not classified by occupations. This scheme tries to group workers based on the similarity of tasks they perform, but can also be interpreted as organising workers into broad skill or status groups, for example, professionals occupy a status higher than the associate professionals, who are higher than the unskilled labourers. In our sample, NCO category 6 has zero entries and we have combined NCO categories 1 and 2.

  4. 4.

    The government appointed committee to study the socioeconomic and educational status of the Muslim community in India, known as Sachar Committee, found that Muslims rank somewhat above STs/SCs but below Hindu OBC in all indicators (Social, Economic and Educational Status of the Muslim Community of India (2016).

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. SAMSOE, NMIMS (deemed to be University), Mumbai, India

    Anu Abraham

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  1. Anu Abraham
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Centre for Development Studies, Ulloor Medical College, Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, India

    S. Irudaya Rajan

  2. Department of Population Studies, American University of Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon

    Prem Saxena

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Abraham, A. (2019). Determinants of International Remittance: Evidence from Kerala, India. In: Rajan, S.I., Saxena, P. (eds) India’s Low-Skilled Migration to the Middle East. Palgrave Macmillan, Singapore. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9224-5_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-981-13-9224-5_10

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