Saudi-returnees more conservative, finds study, Tharoor wants Muslims to introspect

For decades, Keralam's relationship with the Gulf has been measured in remittances. The stories of Malayalis working abroad were about the money sent home, the houses built with remittances and the families whose lives have been transformed by Gulf earnings. But a World Bank study has put a "disturbing" dimension of that migration in the spotlight. It is about the social and gender attitudes, and normalisation of domestic violence that migrants return with from Saudi Arabia and other Gulf countries.

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Saudi returnees tended to exhibit extreme attitudes relating to physical violence against women, says the World Bank paper, which was published in March 2022 but went largely unnoticed and unreported till now. After it was highlighted by several prominent personalities, Congress MP from Thiruvananthapuram, Shashi Tharoor, expressed concerns about the findings of the study and called for dialogue within the Muslim community.

The research paper found that Keralam migrants returning from Saudi Arabia were significantly more conservative than non-migrants on several measures of gender attitudes, including attitudes towards gender-based violence, household decision-making and extreme gender norms.

On Sunday (August 23), Tharoor called the findings "disturbing reports" and warned about the import of "conservative and even reactionary attitudes and customs from abroad".

The World Bank's paper examined the transfer of gender norms and whether exposure to more conservative societies might influence attitudes among migrants after they return to Keralam.

Keralam's society has long been known for its tradition of religious syncretism. In 2020, a mosque in Alappuzha hosted a Hindu wedding conducted with traditional rituals, including yagna fire and ceremonies led by a priest, to help an economically disadvantaged family. During the 2018 floods, the Purappullikkavu Ratneswari Temple in Thrissur opened its premises to local Muslims for Eid al-Adha namaz after the nearby mosque was submerged and inaccessible.

THAROOR SHARES CONCERNS OVER GENDER ATTITUDE OF KERALAM'S SAUDI-RETURNED MEN

Shashi Tharoor was reacting to a post by Milan Vaishnav, Senior Fellow at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, who shared the World Bank's policy research working paper. The research paper is titled Beyond Money: Does Migration Experience Transfer Gender Norms? Empirical Evidence from Kerala, India.

Tharoor pointed to Keralam's history as a liberal and progressive practice of Islam, particularly its record in educating Muslim women and girls.

"These are disturbing reports. Kerala has long been host to a liberal, progressive practice of Islam, fully in tune with the coexistence and communal harmony prevalent across the state. Kerala is proud of its record of educating Muslim girls and women to the same levels as boys and men," Tharoor posted on X.

He added that the import of conservative attitudes and customs from abroad was at odds with Kerala's social traditions.

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"The import of conservative and even reactionary attitudes and customs from abroad, as suggested by this [World Bank] report, is fundamentally at variance with what Kerala has long been about. This requires serious introspection and internal discussion within the Muslim community as well," Tharoor said.

While speaking to journalists on Monday at Thiruvananthapuram, Tharoor reiterated his stance. "I am not seeking anything from anybody. My tweets are also reflections of what interests me intellectually. Therefore, I draw the attention of people so that people think about it," he said.

The study's findings also drew a response from Shamika Ravi, member of the Economic Advisory Council to the Prime Minister.

Ravi said the findings matched "numerous anecdotal reports from Kerala over the last 3 decades".

She highlighted one of the study's central findings that compared with people who had no migration experience, attitudes of migrants returning from Saudi Arabia towards gender-based violence were more conservative by three standard deviations.

"These empirical findings confirm the numerous anecdotal reports from Kerala over the last 3 decades. Compared with those who have no migration experience, the attitudes of returning migrants from Saudi Arabia toward gender-based violence were more conservative by three standard deviations. This is a great cause of concern to all of us," Shamika Ravi posted on X on Sunday.

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SAUDI ARABIA'S MIGRANTS TREATED SEPARATELY IN THE STUDY. HERE'S WHY

The World Bank's study, published in March 2022 as World Bank Policy Research Working Paper 9966, was authored by George Joseph, Qiao Wang, Gnanaraj Chellaraj, Emcet O Ta, Luis Andres, Syed Usman Javaid and Irudaya Rajan.

Its central question was whether migration transfers not only money but also social norms and values from destination countries to the migrants' home communities.

The research used the Kerala Migration Survey 2013, conducted by the Centre for Development Studies in Thiruvananthapuram. The survey covered 14,575 households across all 14 districts and 63 taluks of Kerala (now Keralam), with information on 63,230 household members.

For the study's main analysis, researchers examined three groups: 256 returning migrants from Saudi Arabia, 322 returning migrants from other Gulf countries and 8,614 non-migrants.

The researchers treated Saudi Arabia separately from other Gulf countries because of its "relatively more conservative social environment, particularly concerning women's roles". The other Gulf group included Bahrain, Kuwait, Oman, Qatar and the UAE.

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SAUDI-RETURNED MIGRANTS SHOWED STRIKING CONSERVATIVE SHIFT

The study measured attitudes through five broad indices: employment, general gender attitudes, household decision-making, gender-based violence and extreme gender attitudes.

The differences for Saudi returnees compared with non-migrants were particularly striking.

Saudi returnees were 6.0 standard deviations (SD) more conservative on general gender attitudes, 2.3 SD more conservative on household decision-making, 3.0 SD more conservative on gender-based violence and 2.6 SD more conservative on extreme gender attitudes.

At the same time, they were 7.8 SD less conservative on the employment index, showing that the findings did not point to a blanket rejection of women's participation in the workforce.

The paper summarises the finding by saying that Saudi returnees tended to exhibit conservative values concerning gender-based violence and extreme attitudes relating to physical violence against women.

WOMAN TO BLAME FOR BEING MOLESTED IF...: REPLY OF SAUDI-RETURNEES SHOCKING

The survey responses cited in the World Bank paper provide a clearer picture of what the researchers mean by "conservative". Among Saudi-returnees, 43% agreed that a man has the right to beat his wife if she disobeys him. While among returnees from other Gulf countries who think the same was 37%.

On women's mobility, 75.3% of Saudi returnees believed that if a wife or daughter moves freely outside the home, the man loses respect in the community. The figure among other Gulf returnees was 67.7%.

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The study also found that 85% of Saudi returnees believed a "man who cannot control his wife" loses respect in the community, while 64.8% believed that the man should have the final word at home.

The differences were also visible in attitudes towards sexual violence. Among Saudi returnees, 53% believed that a woman or girl who goes out alone after dark is herself to blame if she is molested, while 70% believed women's "immodest dressing" provokes men to behave badly.

A FINDING ABOUT MIGRATION BEYOND REMITTANCES

The significance of the World Bank's policy research working paper lies less in proving a simple cause-and-effect relationship between Saudi Arabia and social conservatism and more in raising a question about the non-economic consequences of migration.

Kerala's Gulf migration story has been about economic transformation for years. Remittances have changed households, education, housing and consumption patterns. But migrants also live for years in different social and cultural environments before returning home. The World Bank study asks whether some of those experiences travel back with them.

The answer, at least for Saudi returnees and gender norms, is that "there is evidence of a significant difference in attitudes".

That makes Tharoor's intervention politically significant, but it also calls for precision. The sharper question raised by the study is therefore not simply what Keralam's migrants bring home in their bank accounts, but what ideas and social norms they return with. Because, slowly and silently, that might be chipping at the syncretism that Keralam prides itself on.

- Ends