An assessment of the volume, trend, and pattern of international labour migration to gulf countries from India: a comparative study between Kerala and West Bengal

India and Gulf countries have long shared strong connection, which has further accelerated with the the oil boom in 1970s, India continues sending workers to meet labour demands of the Gulf countries. This research article attempts a comparative assessment of the volume, trend, and patterns of emigration to Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries from Kerala and West Bengal by using the data fromMinistry of External Affairs. Statisticalmeasures have been employed for volume and pattern analysis, including the application of the Mann-Kendall method to detect whether a monotonic trend is present. Further Sen.‘s slope analyses has been used to assess the magnitude of the trend. The results indicate an upward trend for West Bengal and a downward trend for Kerala. Another major finding suggests that Kerala was the leading state in regard to labour flow to GCC countries till 2014, but this trend has changed and West Bengal has emerged as one of the leading state’s since 2015. This paper makes an attempt to highlight the factors responsible for this change reflected in both the trend and volume of labour flow to the GCC nations, where five major indicators have been incorporated to assess the change in the trend and volume of migration between Kerala and West Bengal. The data sources are from the Reserve Bank of India, the Directorate of Economics and Statistics, Department of Agriculture and Farmers Welfare, Ministry of Agriculture, the National Sample Survey Office, the Census of India, and the Kerala Migration Survey (KMS). The independent sample T-test has been employed for measuring the significance of the indicators selected. The analysis suggests that there are significant differences for all the selected indicators. To regulate the trend and volume of migration, necessary support from government agencies and policymakers are essential.