6 difficult for low paid migrants, even if they are willing to file legal complaints. Moreover, most of them preferred to rush back home due to the fear of the virus (the COVID-19 cases in major destination countries were much higher than in India during the initial wave). It shows that the 'wage theft' impacted migrants regardless of their class and skill set possessed. However, the class question will be relevant in the future because the high-skilled and well-paid migrants had awareness about the issue, and most of them had issued powers of attorney to lawyers in the destination countries to approach the legal mechanism. Where the claim amount was small, it was difficult to find lawyers who would take up the cases. 2.5. Impact on remittances The occupation-wise wage theft results indicate that wage theft must directly impact on the flow of remittances to the country. Most of the low and medium-skilled workers from India do not invest or save the earnings in the destination countries. They instead prefer to transfer their wages to commercial bank accounts or transfer via money transfer platforms. So, the loss of jobs, non-payment of regular wages, and reduction in the wages may harm the remittance flow in the long run. In the short run, an increase in remittance may be visible due to two reasons. a) The preference for formal channels since the informal options are limited during the pandemic b) Many small-scale entrepreneurs and highskilled workers who either lost their jobs or resigned from jobs had transferred all their assets to Indian accounts during the pandemic9. However, any trend toward the increase in remittance will be a shortrun phenomenon, and it would show a declining trend in the long run. 2.6. Gender The number of female workers among the repatriated workers was minimal. However, most female workers who lost their jobs were employed in service sectors, especially in hospitality and domestic work. Among the domestic workers, 58.3% were asked to leave during the pandemic. In typical exploitation cases reported, the employers did not allow the domestic workers to leave their jobs before the end of the period of their contracts. The workers were only able to leave after paying the recruitment cost or fee paid by the employers. The domestic workers were facing the issue of nonpayment of wages even before the pandemic. However, many employers could not afford the domestic workers since the pandemic affected their ability to pay wages. So, the employers preferred to send back the workers. A few respondents who had severe health conditions sought permission to return due to the panic created about the pandemic. In such cases, the employers refused to pay the wages and demanded the cost of recruitment from the workers. The women workers in the hospitality sector, such as hotel staff and 'beauty workers' faced 'wage theft' and extra hours of work during the pandemic. It was evident that the job loss accompanied by wage theft during the pandemic added to the existing vulnerabilities of Indian women migrants. 2.7. Sustainable reintegration and facilitation of remigration Among the victims of wage theft, people of working age prefer to emigrate for work. The others plan to reintegrate back to the domestic labour market or become self-employed. However, the most vulnerable returnees, such as low-skilled workers who crossed the working age, and women domestic workers, prefer assistance from the stakeholders for reintegration. The workers who prefer to 9https://www.worldbank.org/en/news/press-release/2021/05/12/defying-predictions-remittance-flows-remain-strong- during-covid-19-crisis