Neemuch, MADHYA PRADESH: Thousands of workers who migrated to the Gulf from Telangana’s villages are now returning home, but many are struggling to find stable livelihoods. A recent survey report by the International Organization for Migration (IOM),  shows that while these returnees often bring back years of work experience and in some cases upgraded skills, the local labour market is unable to absorb them meaningfully. The survey was conducted in March 2024,by Centre for Economic and Social Studies (CESS), an autonomous research institute in Economics and Social Sciences.

The result is a growing mismatch between skills acquired abroad and employment opportunities at home, leading many of them to turn to informal jobs or return to agriculture as wage labourers.

Since the 1980s, young men and women from Telangana have travelled to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries including the United Arab Emirates, Saudi Arabia, Oman and Kuwait, and others chasing steady wages and remittances, the survey notes, adding that the migration was fuelled by recurrent droughts in the region and also Maoaist insurgency that stalled rural development at home. The oil-driven construction boom created a vast labour demand in the GCC nations around the same time, which drew migrants from Telangana, IOM said in its report that came out in February this year.

The process of migration to GCC countries from Telangana, the report states,”is a story of unskilled and low skilled people in search of employment, largely dependent on overseas agents and money lenders, ending up in harsh working conditions at their destination and debt bondage.”

But it also highlights that in some cases, improved remittances have improved living conditions of families back home, and also made education accessible to their children.

The survey estimates that nearly 154,000 people migrated to the Gulf from the three districts of Nizamabad and Jagtial in North Telangana, and Hyderabad, where the survey was conducted. Of them, 73,630 returned since 2018 for reasons ranging from inadequate compensation, lack of wide opportunities, separation from the family and the lack of opportunity to work in the place of origin.

“Earlier the governments did not focus on the issue as much. But after the formation of Telangana and specifically after COVID, the focus shifted towards outmigration to the Gulf Nations. The return of migrants from the Gulf also increased after the rural economy in Telangana changed and people wanted to settle in their own villages,” Dr E Revathi, Project Leader and Professor and Director of CESS, told The Migration Story.

“There is some work in the direction of tracking migrants, but the data is not robust. There are also special cells within the labour department but comprehensive action is missing on the ground,” she added.

LOW SKILL TO UPSKILL, BUT NO JOB

Most of the people who migrated from Telangana to the GCC nations were either semi-skilled or unskilled and took up low-wage jobs in construction, sanitation, driving, retail and domestic work. A few skilled workers took up jobs in care and hospitality sectors as well, the report notes.

Academic Divya Balan, who teaches migration at Flame University, in a 2025 column   that “the Gulf dream for many is shattering due to the changes in the tax system, nationalisation and labour quota policies intended to reduce expatriate labourers, such as the Nitaqat in Saudi Arabia. The Covid-19 pandemic has aggravated their sufferings, and many are facing the threat of job loss, over-work and reduced salaries or have already lost their jobs”. Worse, she noted that the Gulf labour markets were “moving forward with rigorous migrant labour reduction programmes as a response to the economic fragility, demographic transition and rising unemployment among natives”.

Balan noted that those terminated from their jobs and “hurriedly returned without procuring salary arrears and end-of-service benefits such as bonus, PF, gratuity, and so on.”

The reverse migration has not only snapped a livelihood source for tens of thousands of families, but also cast a shadow on the future of these households with jobs in short supply in the home state of the migrants as well.

Before they migrated, 76% of returnees had no formal skills. Most of them lacked formal education and only a little over 1% possessed technical qualifications such as a polytechnic diploma. They largely worked in construction, sanitation and domestic work and also as drivers. Only about 5% worked as technicians.

IOM noted in its report that about 11% of all returnee migrants surveyed acquired new skills or reported an upgradation in their skills during their time – ranging between 5 and 15 years – in the GCC nations.

However, most of them were unable to find employment aligned with those skills when they returned to their villages in Telangana, the survey shows. More than half of the returnee migrants who were surveyed said the skills they acquired were not useful in their current jobs and only about 5% found the training they had received during their time in the Gulf useful.

“Gulf returnees are well skilled and they come back with money and settle in their own villages. This is the situation across the country. The skill and the opportunities do not match.  But unfortunately, there are no programs for the returnees for their reintegration and resettlement,” said Bheema Reddy, vice-chairman of Telangana’s NRI advisory committee.

“While several government schemes exist, including MSME  (Micro, Small and Medium Enterprise) that links self-employment initiatives to bank credit, their implementation also requires supportive infrastructure within migrants’ home districts, along with stronger market linkages. Without local production facilities, supply chains, and marketing support, many self-employment ventures struggle to become sustainable,” he said.

Those who did secure jobs commensurate with their skills, their wages were not aligned with their upgraded capabilities and more than half the returnees reported difficulty in securing jobs for multiple reasons, including lack of consistent work or requisite skills, unsuitable jobs or lack of information.

Owing to the gap between their skills and available jobs, many migrants have returned to agriculture either as wage labourers or cultivators and a very small number of them found employment in the public sector. The survey also points to an alarming non contractual labour work, with 99 percent of those who returned, working with no written employment contract.

Most women of those surveyed did not participate in the local labour market after their return. The ones who did worked as domestic workers or started small businesses. Many reported difficulty in securing regular work and felt that skill upgradation would have improved their prospects.

Telangana is preparing to become the first state in India to frame a dedicated policy for the reintegration of returning migrants. The State’s Labour Department, in collaboration with the International Labour Organization (ILO), the IOM and UN Women, plans to establish a dedicated resource centre to support returnees in accessing employment, skilling and welfare services as announced in 2024. The study is part of the larger process.

If implemented effectively, the initiative would place Telangana alongside countries such as Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal, which have already adopted structured reintegration frameworks for return migrants, particularly in South Asia.

One of the authors of the report, Bharath Bhushan Mamidi, Research Consultant at CESS stressed that reliable and up-to-date data is central to any meaningful reintegration effort. “Even today the Telangana government needs a robust database to address the issue,” he said adding that it should capture the spatial distribution of returnees, where they are located and map their skill backgrounds to assess what opportunities would suit them the best.

He emphasised that such data must be current. “The more you delay collection of such data, the more it becomes irrelevant. Delays would mean returnees exhaust their savings and miss further employment opportunities,” he added.

According to him, the survey offers an important starting point by outlining the scale and nature of the problem. However, he argued that periodic labour market surveys are also necessary to understand emerging demand trends. “This will enable counsellors and policymakers to better guide returnees towards viable employment pathways,” he said. 

Reddy said there should also be a dedicated program for the returnees to register with the state government to help maintain a database of the number of citizens who are now back in their home state.

“Without reliable data how can one design an intervention,” he said.

Aishwarya Mohanty is Special Correspondent with The Migration Story