Kerala migrants will cope up with the Dubai financial crisis, say experts

Thiruvananthapuram, Nov 28 (ANI): In the wake of crisis in the Dubai World conglomerate, Thomas Isaac, the State Finance Minister said that Kerela would be the worst hit if construction activities in Dubai are affected. Whereas the experts claim that the migrants of the state are able to cope up with the crisis.

Dubai World shocked the global financial world on Thursday, when it announced that it would need to restructure its debt, estimated at $59 billion, to pre-empt default and asked the creditors for a six-month deferment.

Sensex toppled on Friday and the bonds fell as Dubai's debt problems flashed concerns about corporate exposure and the risk of foreign investors.

However, amidst all these trends, the economists and sociologists assert that Kerala migrants in UAE are 'resilient' to this crisis.

"Because in the last crisis, we had globally, we were expecting Kerala would be affected very badly but both migrations and remittances have not been affected much. Kerala migrants are resilient to this crisis. They are able to adjust; they are able to work for lower wages. They are able to move. People who lost their jobs in Dubai, they moved to Sharjah, they moved to Abu Dhabi, some people even left even Saudi Arabia. So I think Indian migrants are able to adjust this crisis," said Prof. S Irudaya Rajan, Head, Research Unit on International Migration, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs Chair Professor, Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs, Thiruvananthapuram.

The industry insiders said though at present, Dubai may not be the right place to invest but alternate cover-ups are being made through other UAE markets.

"Our builders who went who went out to various countries, they felt that there is definitely good response to the real estate investment in Kerala. May be we have not touched Dubai because it was already in our mind that Dubai may not be the right place to market anything now because people are still uncertain about their jobs, uncertain about their money and uncertain of whether they will have enough resources to invest in Kerala. So this is one worrying factor as far as Dubai market is concerned but we are getting covered up by other UAE markets," said S. N Raghuchandran Nair, Secretary General, Confederation Real Estate Development Association of India, Kerala. (ANI)