“GULF house”, says Dinesh Kumar every few seconds, gesturing out of the window of a car as it drives through Vennicode, in south-west India. His commentary is hardly necessary. The new houses, built with money sent home by people working in Dubai, Oman and other Gulf countries, flash like gold teeth in this backwater village surrounded by coconut palms. Vennicode has a brand new private school, too, as well as huge advertisements for jewellery shops and much more traffic than its narrow roads can handle. It is a tribute to emigration.
Last year India received $70 billion in remittances—more than any other country in the world. The state of Kerala, where Vennicode is located, got far more than its fair share. A comprehensive household survey organised by Irudaya Rajan of the Centre for Development Studies, a local academic institution, finds that 2.4m Keralites were living and working overseas in 2014. The money they send home is equivalent to fully 36% of the state’s domestic product. “For all practical purposes, it’s a remittance economy,” says C.P. John of the state government.
Economic migration has...
from The Economist: Finance and economics http://ift.tt/1fXets4
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