Gulf Migration, Remittances and Religion: Interplay of faith and prosperity among Syrian Christians in Kerala

By Ginu Zacharia Oommen

Christians, including the Syrian Christians of Kerala, constitute 18.6 per cent of the population of Kerala accounting for 6 million people. Of them, the Syrian Christians – one of the oldest Christian sects in the world – comprise nearly 3 million. The Syrian Christians of Kerala are defined as persons born to Syrian Christian parents and who follow the ‘Syrian rite’. The Syrian Christians comprise different denominations like Syro-Malabar, Malankara Catholics, Jacobites, Orthodox Syrian Church, Marthomites, Caldhaites, Cannanites, and Protestant Syrians. Earlier, the community was concentrated in and around five or siz districts of Kerala. But, with the high rate of education, occupational diversification, few local job opportunities in the community, Syrian Christians have migrated to other states in India and abroad.

This study focuses on the three Syrian Christian denominations— Syrian Orthodox, Syrian Jacobites and Syrian Marthoma.

The history of Syrian Christian migration dates back to early 20th century when there was a massive flow of them to Southeast Asia, mainly to Singapore and Malaysia. In the beginning of 20^th century the educated and able among the Syrian Christian and Ezhava community from Central Travancore migrated to Sri Lanka, Burma and Southeast Asia as teachers and skilled labours in British-owned plantations. Ezhavas are a prominent Hindu Community with origins in Kerala. Ezhavas make up more than 40 percent of Kerala Hindus.

The migration to Southeast Asia was always unstable due to the hostile situation in East Asia region, a traditional area of emigration since colonial times. Later, in the 1960s, proximity of Syrian Churches in Kerala with Ethiopian Orthodox Church has opened new avenues of migration to Ethiopia and African countries mostly as teachers, paramedics and skilled labours for Syrian Christians. Subsequently with relaxation of immigration laws in the United States of America, paramedics and professionals from the Syrian denominations also emigrated to North America and Canada.

Finally, with the consolidation of oil in the Persian Gulf in 1970s Syrian Christian also joined the fellow Keralites to explore the new fortunes in West Asia. Kuwait was the first Arab Gulf country that had opened doors to the indigenous Christian community of Kerala.

In the late 1940s, a small group of members of the Marthoma Syrian Church was the first to set up worship services in the region. The Oil boom of the 1970s has accelerated further the immigration of Syrian Christians to GCC countries, which simultaneously led to the establishment of Syrian churches across the Gulf countries except Saudi Arabia.

The migration has unequivocally altered the socio-economic landscape of the Syrian Christian community and in 2003 the non-Catholic Syrians received nearly INR 3,000 crores as remittances from abroad. In Kerala the Christians rank second in the proportion of population that emigrated abroad and the Marthoma Syrian community has the distinction of sending the highest number of international emigrants. In 2003 of the total remittances sent to Kerala, Roman Catholic households received 9.4 per cent, Marthoma Syrians, 5.6 per cent, Orthodox/Jacobite Syrians 7.0 per cent and Church of South India and Protestants received 2.0 per cent. Interestingly nearly 31 per cent of the Syrian Marthoma households received minimum. INR 22,000 as remittances in 2004. Moreover Christians’ share in the migration to United States is much higher than the other communities. In 2008 Christian households received nearly INR 7,800 crores as remittances.

Interestingly maximum remittances have been received from the GCC countries. Since the late 1960s remittances from the Gulf States have been a major source of income for Syrian churches in Kerala. It is to be noted that all the Syrian churches have separate Gulf Diocese/Diocesan bishops and serving in a Diaspora diocese is considered a very prestigious assignment among the clergy. The Marthoma Syrian community ranks high when compared to all other communities in terms of literacy, education, migration rate, expenditure in health, ownership of land and house, remittances and so on. The path-breaking prosperity and socio-economic development of the Syrian Christians is highly attributed to the unprecedented flow of remittances from the international Diaspora particularly from Gulf region.

The Assertion of Religion among Kerala Immigrants in the Host Setting

Currently there are nearly 60 Malayalam churches in the GCC countries that include both Syrian Christian and Catholic denominations, besides various neo-Pentecostal and Charismatic groups. Until the 1990s, the Church trying to woo immigrants was nothing more than a routine and low key affair. However, in the last one decade or so the role of religion has dramatically increased among Indian immigrants, especially within the Syrian Christian community.

During the author’s field research among the Kerala migrants to the Gulf, it was observed that religion is a salient factor in a migrant’s day-to-day life, as it fills the emotional vacuum created in the context of extreme social isolation that migrants experience in foreign countries. The Christian immigrants of Kerala in Kuwait have noted that in the last one decade or so the spirituality and the role of religion have increased exorbitantly among Kerala migrants.

Till the 1990s in Kuwait religious activities in Kerala and among the migrants in the GCC, was nothing more than a routine and low key affair. Charismatic religious groups such as the neo-Pentecostal and Evangelical Christian denominations, Muslim groups with strong Wahabi traditions such as the Jamaat e Islami, and Hindu  groups like the RSS and various cults like Matha Amrathandamayee have made deep inroads in the lives of Kerala immigrants in the GCC states particularly Kuwait. These religious groups are transnational in nature and they are actively linked to both home and destination countries. Moreover the lack of social interaction with the local people and social alienation felt by the immigrants in GCC countries has only strengthened their quest for spiritual and religious identity.

The major development among migrants particularly Christians in the beginning of 1990s was the rise of neo-Pentecostal and new religious groups. Digging deeper, one can see that there is a gamut of issues that led to the assertion of the religious organizations in the life of expatriate workers. Two major Gulf Wars and the subsequent War on Terror contributed to the emergence of a new politico-religious context that aggravated the situation further. The region’s political instability and economic slump, the hostile social environment and the community’s continued social alienation from the host society has invigorated the phenomenon. For instance, in Kuwait, Iraq’s invasion of the country in 1990 and the subsequent expulsion of immigrants from Kuwait inflicted a sense of insecurity and deep-seated fear in the minds of the migrants. The proliferation of prayer groups with charismatic priests, huge donations to missionary activities, popularisation of donation to religious activities, increasing dependence on godman/ sadhus/ pastors/clergy, and emerging trends for pilgrimage to the holy shrines in India and abroad reflects the exuberant presence of religion in an immigrant’s life.

The re-assertion of belief among the immigrants has some personal reasons also. The stress in the life of a construction worker to earn the requisite money in the limited contract period or the anxiety over the extension of the period of stay deepens this assertion. Interestingly the major activities of the transnational religious groups are mainly in labor camps which were neglected by the mainstream host society for many years thereby garnering a vast majority of discipleship from the working class section. Geo-political churnings, socio-political isolation and the exclusion of immigrants from the social structure of the host society has further consolidated the religious space.

The accumulation of wealth remains another major concern for immigrants and struggle towards this process is met with anxiety, stress, competition and insecurity. Consequently in Kuwait, ‘popular religion’ like neo-Pentecostals has attained an upper hand over the ‘official religion’ since the popular religion emphatically stresses on the prosperity gospel. The volatile situation is being exploited successfully by the former with a large number of immigrants especially the youth moving towards the new religious movements.

Diaspora religious practices play a major role in sustaining the transnational links between home and host settings and also it creates an alternative sense of belonging to the sending country. In the contemporary context, religion provides the opportunity for immigrants for community formation and produces intense conflict between the ‘mainstream’ and ‘popular/conservative’ religious groups and also helps to carve a unique ‘denominational/Born Again identity’. Moreover the host settings have paved the way for the emergence of ‘popular religion’ and it creates unique ‘global identity’ which transcends the national boundaries.

Excerpted with author permission from the forthcoming book by Prof. Irudaya Rajan & Ginu Zacharia Oommen (eds) ‘Asianisation of Migrant Workers in the Gulf Countries’.  Springer London. 2019.

Aditi Bhaduri

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