Of Migrants and Mindsets

Interestingly, they were talking about the strange and funny habits, behaviour, and beliefs of Malayalees: their obsession with personal cleanliness and daily bathing rituals, their children who are rarely found playing on the streets, working in paddy fields, or loitering in the neighbourhood, their general aversion to manual work, etc. Most importantly, such reactions reflect and capture the essence of the migrant life in curious ways; a very pungent summary about the tenor and texture of the hospitality they receive at the destination where they have come seeking livelihood, leaving their homes behind. Kerala has been a "money order" economy for a long time, and during the last century, Malayalees have migrated to all the major cities in India and South East Asia, to the Middle East in the 1970s, and to the United States and Europe in recent decades.