Return migration in India: internal and international dimensions

India is a country with one of the largest emigrants with 17 million Indians living outside the country compared with 450 million internal migrants. During the 1970s and the 1980s, there was concern that India was losing its educated and skilled workforce to the Western countries, popularly known as ‘brain drain’. With the recent changes in the global economy, growing unemployment rates in the developed countries and rapid growth of Indian economy there is a likelihood that the reverse brain drain has also been occurring. This is equally applicable for internal migration as well. However, there is no systematic study to know the magnitude and characteristics of return migration in India. This study examines the return migration, both internal and international, in India and also examines the socio-economic and household characteristics of return migrants. Data from the National Sample Survey (NSS) 64th round, India, 2007–08 has been used to study the magnitude and characteristics of return migrants. This study fulfils an important gap in India’s migration studies.