Debt-financed emigration, migration experience, and household economy: insight from Kerala, India

This present study intends to investigate the pattern and predictor debt-financed emigration and its impact on migration experience and the household economy in Kerala using Kerala Migration Survey (KMS), 2018 data. Bivariate and multivariate analyses (binary logistic regression) were performed, and the debt-to-income ratio (DTI) was computed to fulfil the study's objective. The result shows that 45.52% of Keralite emigrants borrow debt regarding their socio-economic status to finance their emigration process. Debt-financed emigrants spend high costs on visas, air tickets, and passports as majority of them recruited through agents than non-debt-financed emigrants. Debt migration may not be a profitable or sustainable endeavour, as non-debt migrants' annual savings and monthly expenditures are higher than debt migrants. The debt-to-income ratio (DTI) also shows that the financial health of the debt-financed migrant household is in more severe condition than the non-debt.