The migration of Malayalis gained momentum in the mid-1960s when the West Asian countries required cheap labour for building their cities, malls and huge plazas from the petrodollars generated through their newly-discovered gushing oil wells.
Battling empty stomachs and thoughts of a family back home, Malayali men took the risky path, forced by rising unemployment and false self-esteem to do hard labour in their homeland.
The trickle, which started more than five decades back, soon became a flood with hundreds of thousands of Malayalis spreading far and wide across the world. Express looks at the migration phenomenon and population of Non-Resident Keralites (NRK)