The article examines the impact of international migration on the labour supply of male and female left-behind household members in both market and non-market work. In addition, we examine the labour supply behaviour of women whose husbands have migrated abroad. After controlling for potential endogeneity using the instrument variable (IV-probit) approach, estimates show that the supply of male and female left-behind members in market work decreases. While international migration results in the relocation of labour supply of male left-behind members from salary and casual wage workers to self-employed workers, it increases female left-behind members' participation in household duties and reduces their participation in unpaid family work.The heterogeneity effect confirms that the impact of international migration is greater in rural than in urban areas.

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This study investigates the impact of international remittances on private school enrolment in Kerala. Using data from the 2010 Kerala Migration Survey and employing an instrumental variable (IV-Probit) approach to address the endogeneity of migration, we found that remittances have a positive and significant effect on private school enrolment. After disaggregating the sample into different heterogeneous groups, we found that remittances have greater effect on boys, children residing in rural areas, and those belonging to socially advantageous groups and from higher wealth quintile. Children from lower wealth quintile and belonging to socially disadvantageous groups are least affected by migration and remittances.

The paper examines the wage differentials and returns to human capital of migrant and non-migrant workers in the urban labour markets in India. Using unit-level data from the Employment, Unemployment and Migration Survey (2007)(2008), the regression analysis examines the effect of various factors particularly human capital and years since migration in determining wage differentials in different specifications. The results showed that the migrants (both rural and urban) earned higher daily wages than non-migrant workers across states, but the wage advantage was higher for urban migrants than rural migrants both in regular and casual work. Segregating the wage gap into different observable factors, the results showed that the migrant wage advantage was mainly explained by the difference in nature of employment, type of occupation, location of job and other socio-religious factors but not due to differences in human capital. However, in case of urban migrants, education plays a major role in explaining the wage advantage over non-migrants, particularly in regular wage work. Even though the migrants showed a higher wage advantage, the gap reduced with the duration of stay at the destination labour market. While modelling the occupational attainment among migrants and non-migrants, the study found that education plays an important role in enabling migrants, especially urban migrants, get access to higher-paying occupations.

India is considered as one of the countries with a stringent body of labour laws. Though there is no lack of pro-worker employment protection legislation (EPL) and contract labour laws, the vulnerabilities of workers seem to be increasing rapidly in this neo-liberal phase of the global economy. Over the past two decades, there has been a rising trajectory of in-formalisation even in the organised manufacturing sector. Under this backdrop, we study the in-formalisation of migrant labour and try to find out whether EPL does protect the interests of migrant workers. We found that in-formalisation of migrant workers are higher in the states with relatively stringent labour laws. The finding of our econometric analysis indicates that informal migrant labour is used to evade the social security provisions laid down under the Industrial Disputes Act, 1947 among other legislation. Since informal workers fall outside the purview of most of the pro-workers labour laws, the trajectory of in-formalisation is likely to have serious repercussions on the welfare of workers especially that of migrants. Migrant labour, which occupies a substantive role in the contemporary labour markets, must be brought into an apt regulatory framework to address its vulnerabilities.

The inflow of international remittances to Kerala has been increasing over the last three decades. It has increased the income of recipient households and enabled them to spend more on human capital investment. Using data from the Kerala Migration Survey-2010, this study analyses the impact of remittance receipts on the households’ healthcare expenditure and access to private healthcare in Kerala. This study employs an instrumental variable approach to account for the endogeneity of remittances receipts. The empirical results show that remittance income has a positive and significant impact on households’ healthcare expenditure and access to private healthcare services. After disaggregating the sample into different heterogeneous groups, this study found that remittances have a greater effect on lower-income households and Other Backward Class (OBC) households but not Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) households, which remain excluded from reaping the benefit of international migration and remittances.

This paper evaluates the impact of migration on the labour market outcomes of nonmigrant workers in India using unit-level data from the 'Employment Unemployment and Migration Survey' (NSSO 64th Round, 2007-2008. After correcting for endogeneity bias of migration using an instrument variable approach, the overall results of the study suggest that the inflow of migrant workers increases the wages of non-migrant workers but does not affect their employment. Disaggregating the analysis by sectors, the study finds a positive wage effect in the formal sector, which is more pronounced among the high-skilled workers. In the informal sector, the results indicate an adverse employment effect among both high-and low-skilled workers. The positive wage effect in the formal sector suggests complementarity between migrant and non-migrant workers. The adverse employment effect in the informal sector is possibly due to a preference for migrant workers over non-migrant workers. The estimated results are consistent with alternate specifications.