A transnational social contract: Social protection policies towards Non-Resident Keralites

Following the oil boom in the 1970s, the Gulf Cooperation Council countries (GCC) have been the key destination region for low-skilled labor migrants globally, of which the largest number originates from India. An estimated 8.5 million – mostly semi-skilled and low-skilled laborers – out of a total of 13 million international Indian migrants moved to the GCC region for work (Ministry of External Affairs, Government of India, 2018). In these destination countries in particular, low-skilled labor migrants experience major human and working rights abuses (Rajan & Joseph, 2016; United Nations, 2018). Recognizing these migration-related risks and vulnerabilities as collective problems is paramount for formulating public policy responses. As among the first sub-national states globally, the South Indian state Kerala has institutionalized various social protection policies towards emigrants and returned migrants under the department of Non-Resident Keralites' Affairs (NORKA) and its implementation agency NORKA ROOTS. Taking the case of Kerala, this article investigates why migrant origin states assume collective social responsibility for emigrants and include them in social protection policies. By drawing on original data, the analysis shows that (returned) emigrants' access to social protection schemes is built on understandings of deservingness based on a combination of protection rationales and economic rationales, rooted in the state's specific developmental and identity discourse. By describing how migration shapes social protection policies, this research adds to the literature on transnational social protection policies and contributes to the study of sub-national governments in social and emigrant policy-making.