A Socio-Cultural Perspective on Migration and Economic Development: Middle Eastern Migration from Kerala, India

More and more countries around the world are turning to short-term international migration to solve their labor shortage problems. By hiring a rolling stock of temporary and cheap international labor, countries save on social and educational expenditure and also solve the problem of keeping their culture intact. Labor-importing countries impose a variety of restrictions on international workers concerning the length of stay and the admittance of dependants. Thus, unskilled and semi-skilled workers in particular are only given contracts of a few years at a time and in most cases (through income and visa restrictions) family members are not permitted to join the migrant. Consequently, short-term migrants are oriented toward their home countries, visiting frequently and living frugally so that they can remit a large portion of their income to their families.

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