Malayali

Malayalis from Kerala are the largest single community among Bahrain's roughly 340,000 Indians and have been part of island life since before independence: the Bahrain Keraleeya Samajam, founded in 1947, is the kingdom's oldest and largest expatriate association. They range from labourers, drivers and shop assistants to nurses, engineers, teachers and the owners of supermarket and trading chains. Unlike most other migrant groups they are evenly split between Islam, Hinduism and Christianity, and Malayali Orthodox, Mar Thoma, Catholic and Pentecostal congregations are among the oldest churches in Bahrain, with Malankara Orthodox worship dating from 1937. Each year the Samajam's two-month Onam season ends with a vegetarian feast of more than twenty dishes for thousands of people.

Malayalis in Israel, perhaps 10,000 people, are mostly Christian women from Kerala who work as live-in caregivers for elderly Israelis, many of them trained nurses who could not get nursing licences. They came from the 2000s onward through private agencies, and some arrived on Holy Land pilgrimages and stayed on to work. Most are Syro-Malabar Catholics and other Kerala Christians from the hill districts of Idukki and Kottayam, and they see their years in the land of the Bible as both a job and a blessing. The community has suffered war losses: caregiver Soumya Santosh was killed by a rocket in Ashkelon in 2021, and farm worker Pat Nibin Maxwell by a Hezbollah missile in the Galilee in 2024.

Malayalis from Kerala have worked in Kuwait since the early oil years, and today they are the best-organised of the country's Indian communities, with nurses, engineers, accountants and shopkeepers alongside drivers and construction workers. Their heartland is Abbasiya, a dense quarter of apartment blocks nicknamed Little Kerala, where Kerala restaurants sell take-away Onam feasts on banana leaves. Unlike most migrants they are split between Christianity, Islam and Hinduism, and Kuwait's Malankara Orthodox, Mar Thoma and Syro-Malabar Catholic congregations, some meeting in basement chapels of 1,500 people, are among the largest Malayali churches outside India. The community suffered a heavy blow in June 2024, when 24 Keralites died in a fire at a workers' building in Mangaf.

Malayalis from Kerala have been coming to Oman since before the oil era, and about 140,000 live there today as nurses, shopkeepers, accountants, engineers, drivers and supermarket and construction workers in every town of the country. Unlike most South Asian workers in Oman, they are split between three faiths: Muslims from northern Kerala, Hindus, and Christians of the ancient Saint Thomas churches, who fill Malayalam services at the Mar Thoma, Orthodox and Catholic churches of Ruwi, Ghala, Sohar and Salalah. At Onam thousands sit down to a feast of up to 26 dishes served on banana leaves, and Omani friends often join them. Their numbers have fallen from earlier estimates of 200,000 or more as Omanisation pushed Keralite nurses and office staff out of government jobs.

Malayalis from Kerala, about 200,000 people, are the backbone of Qatar's Indian community, present since the oil boom of the 1950s to 1970s and spread across every level of work, from drivers and grocery staff to nurses, engineers and owners of supermarket chains. Unlike most South Asians in Qatar, many live with their families, and their children fill Indian schools in Doha and Al Rayyan. They are split almost three ways by faith, with Muslims the largest share, Hindus next and a Christian minority that runs some of the busiest parishes in the Mesaimeer church complex, including the Arabian Peninsula's only independent Syro-Malabar church. Two Malayalam radio stations broadcast from Doha, and Onam feasts served on banana leaves are a fixture of the community's year.

Malayalis from Kerala were the first great wave of Indian workers in Saudi Arabia, arriving with the oil boom of the 1970s, and today about 364,000 live in the kingdom, one in six of Kerala's emigrants. They range from labourers, drivers and grocery-shop workers to engineers, accountants, nurses and the owners of supermarket and trading chains. Their heartland at home is Malappuram and the Muslim districts of northern Kerala, so Muslims are the largest part of the community, alongside Hindus and Christians who can worship only in private. Malayali life in the kingdom is unusually organised: Muslim League, leftist and religious associations run welfare cells, ambulance and body-repatriation help, Onam festivals and Malayalam classes, and in October 2025 Kerala's chief minister came to Dammam, Jeddah and Riyadh for Malayalam language festivals.

About a million Malayalis from Kerala live in the Emirates, the largest Malayali community anywhere outside India and about two-fifths of all Kerala's emigrants. They came in large numbers with the oil boom of the 1970s and now fill every level of work, from labourers, drivers and supermarket staff to nurses, accountants and the founders of some of the country's biggest retail and hospital chains. They are split three ways by faith, with Muslims the largest share, Hindus next and a Christian minority that fills Malayalam-language Catholic, Orthodox, Mar Thoma and Pentecostal congregations in the church compounds of Dubai, Sharjah and Abu Dhabi. Malayalam newspapers are printed in the Emirates every day, Malayalam radio stations broadcast around the clock, and at Onam thousands sit down to banana-leaf feasts in Karama restaurants and Sharjah exhibition halls.