["Asia‐Pacific Economic History Review, EarlyView. ", "\nAbstract\nDoes the official criminalisation of a group lead to permanent out‐migration? In the early 20th century, British officials in south India designated multiple castes as inherently criminal under the Criminal Tribes Act (CTA). The CTA required police registration and could force entire groups into special settlements. Utilising unique, individual‐level administrative data on all south Indian indentured labourers in Fiji, I analyse criminalisation's effects on return migration. Members of criminalised castes returned to India less even when offered free repatriation, with a statistically and economically significant fall of 18%. My results show the impact of policies of criminalisation on migration.\n"]