An analysis of migration and urbanisation patterns in recent decades suggests a distinctly declining trend. It can be argued that the migration process has an inbuilt screening system, which is picking up people from relatively higher economic and social strata. The decline in the share of migrants moving in search of employment and an increase in business and study-related mobility further confirms this proposition. In contrast, poverty-induced migration has become a less important component of mobility over time. At the same time, in a bid to attract private capital, urban centres have become less accommodating to the poor, restricting their entry and thereby increasing rural-urban economic inequalities. The strategy of spatially unbalanced growth through "dispersal of concentrations" advocated by the World Bank and others, therefore, needs to be examined with empirical rigour.
URL : http://www.epw.in/special-articles/migration-and-exclusionary-urbanisation-india.html