The migration route from Kerala to the gulf, built upon centuries of trade with the Middle East, is so well established that is has absorbed successive generations of the same family, like the Athekkatils. Along curving roads in the northern part of the state, one can spot the “gulf houses” — a term for the sometimes comically large residences that well-paid migrants build back home in Kerala. In normal times, tens of thousands of Keralites return each year, having saved enough money or because they’re ready to come home. After the 1991 Persian Gulf War and the 2008 financial crisis, migrants returned involuntarily, but on a smaller scale than what is unfolding now. Those prior episodes demonstrate how wrenching the return can be, said Irudaya Rajan, a professor at the Center for Development Studies and an expert on migration from Kerala. “They went to make money,” he said, “and now they’ve lost everything.”