‘Lending a helping hand to my people back home in times of crisis’: Kerala diaspora network’s presence in times of crisis in the Gulf migration corridor

ABSTRACT

Diaspora philanthropy is integral to the development of India and generations of emigrants have made significant contributions to propel the growth of the country. Its intensity was evident during the Kerala floods in 2018 that resulted in numerous fatalities, property damage and displacement of millions of people. The Malayalee Diaspora was integral in rebuilding Kerala by aiding the rescue operations that were happening on the ground through their global network support. A similar outreach was also observed during COVID-19, where in the diaspora also supported stranded migrants in different parts of the world. The article focuses on the nuances of diaspora philanthropic scholarship and how it helped Kerala recover from the floods and COVID-19. Semi-structured in-depth interviews using snowball sampling with migrants, migrant organisations and beneficiaries from diaspora in the understanding of the impact of diaspora philanthropy during times of crisis.

KEYWORDS:

• Diaspora
• migration
• philanthropy
• floods
• transnationalism

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Notes on contributors

S. Irudaya Rajan

S Irudaya Rajan is Chair of the International Institute of Migration and Development (IIMAD), Kerala, India and chair of the KNOMAD (the Global Knowledge Partnership on Migration and Development) thematic working group on internal migration and urbanisation, World Bank. He is one of the expert committee members to advise the Government of Kerala on Covid-19. Prior to this, he was a Professor at the Centre for Development Studies (CDS). Professor Rajan is the Founding Editor in Chief of Migration and Development (Sage) and the editor of two Routledge series - India Migration Report and South Asia Migration Report. He is a lead editor of the new Springer series – South-South Migration. Professor Rajan has close to forty years of research experience working on broad areas of population, migration and development. He has coordinated nine major large-scale migration surveys in Kerala since 1998 (along with Professor K C Zachariah), Goa (2008), Punjab (2009), Tamil Nadu (2015) and was instrumental in conducting the Gujarat Migration Survey 2011, Jharkhand Migration Survey (2023) and Odisha Migration Survey (2023). Professor Rajan has published extensively in national and international journals on the social, economic, demographic, psychological and political implications of migration on individuals, communities, the economy and society. Recognising the work done on international migration, the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Government of India has set up a Research Unit on International Migration (RUIM) at CDS in 2006 and he was a chair professor of the RUIM from 2006-2016.

S. Shibinu

Shibinu S is the Head of the Department of Economics at PSMO College. He is also a Senior Research Fellow at IIMAD and is the Director of the MK Haji Chair for Migration Studies. He has coordinated two research projects funded by the UGC and the IUCAE. He has published innumerable research papers and has authored three books on migration.

Rohit Irudayarajan

Rohit Irudayarajan is a Master's graduate in International Development from the University of Northumbria, United Kingdom. He has earlier completed his bachelor's of Economics from Madras Christian College India His major areas of Interest are Student Migration and Climate Change. He is currently working as a research associate with IIT Hyderabad on the Project ‘Odisha Migration Study’