Emigration has been an important part of Goa’s social and economic life from the colonial era. This study portrays the emigration scenario from St. Estevam (Census Town Jua) in Tiswadi taluka of North Goa. Many families in the village have members working abroad or on cruise ships and migration has continued over a long period. The main aim of the study is to understand why people migrate, identify migration trends and examine how emigration affects families and the village they leave behind. The study uses both primary and secondary data. Primary data were collected from 120 emigrant households through structured questionnaires, interviews and field observations. These households were selected using purposive and snowball sampling methods. Secondary data were taken from the Census of India 2011 and Panchayat records. The analysis uses simple methods like percentage and frequency analysis. The findings show that people migrate mainly because of limited job opportunities in the native place and the desire for better income and living conditions. Money sent home by migrants has helped improve housing, living standards, asset ownership and financial stability considerably. At the same time, emigration has created several challenges, viz. ageing population, shortage of local labour, weakening of cultural practices and emotional stress for family members who stay behind. The study concludes that emigration is an important source of income and development for St. Estevam. However, it has changed the village’s social and demographic structure highlighting the need for better local development policies that addresses the concerns at the place of origin.
Parab et al. (Fri,) studied this question.