Labour Force, Occupational Changes and Socioeconomic Level of Return Emigrants in India

The study examines labour force participation, occupational changes and unemployment levels of Indian return emigrants at the time of leaving from their country of destination and after return to the country of origin. Further, this article extends the debate on the socioeconomic level of return migrants, post their return, in comparison to the non-migrants. The data from the 64th round of the National Sample Survey (NSS), which is the latest available data on return migration, has been utilised for this study to explore the pre- and post-return migration statuses. The result shows that the occupational changes are substantially different in the pre- and post-return phases. Meanwhile, the labour force participation ratio is seen to have significantly declined among the return migrants. In addition, unemployment ratio is seen to be significantly higher for both pre- and post-return periods while economic level of return migrants is observed to be better than non-migrants. However, among the return migrants, the poorest are most likely to return than the richest and the category of middle class five times more likely to than richest. The study concludes that return migrants drastically suffered from unemployment and financial problems after return to the country of origin. As a way of addressing these issues, some appropriate policy levels indicated by this analysis are discussed.