Socio-economic Impact of International Migration on Family: The case of Female Domestic Workers in Kerala, India

In India, a reasonable proportion of migrants are originating from the state of Kerala. Although the pattern of migration shows dominance of males, females also constitute a significant section especially in the working age. The present paper, based on primary data collected from six villages in Kerala, focuses upon the remittances, its utilization pattern and socio-economic impact of female migration on migrants and their family. The analysis revealed that more than 90 percent of the migrants sent money to their family. The remittances were used for day to day living, repayment of loans, health care, constructing new houses and education of children. There was a significant increase in the mean standard of living of migrants after migration and the background characteristics, type of work at the destination, frequency of remittances, and any saving as a result of migration showed significant association with the standard of living after migration. Migration has also brought some kind of social impact in the family such as improvement in social life, better autonomy, educational status of the family, health care, shopping, recreation, and life satisfaction. Qualitative data revealed that there were some adverse effects of migration such as divorce, separation, conflicts in sharing of remittances.