Exploring Internal Migration and Corridor Formation

Studies on migration corridors in India have largely focused on international migration, even though the 2011 Census states that there are 450 million internal migrants in India. When it comes to Kerala—a state often associated with Gulf migration and international migration—the phenomenon of internal labour migration has received relatively little scholarly attention. According to the Planning Commission&s;s report on Kerala (2021), the state has 3.1 million migrant labourers; yet, this topic has not been extensively studied. By highlighting the existing internal labour migration in Kerala, this study explores a migration corridor between Kerala and West Bengal, where a significant number of people from West Bengal migrate to Kerala for work. Examining both ends of this corridor—Murshidabad district in West Bengal (the source) and Ernakulam district in Kerala (the destination)—the study identifies two key factors that have contributed to the movement of people over time. These factors are analysed using the framework of New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM) and the Network Theory of Migration.