This policy paper presents how our understanding of migration and livelihood could be helpful in designing a mitigating strategy of economic and social impact of COVID-19.
Identity cards and surveillance practices form an important part of migrant experience and politics. Drawing on fieldwork in construction sites and factory premises in Ernakulam district and a market frequented by migrants in Perumbavoor, a small city near Kochi in Kerala, this paper argues that ID-based surveillance of migrant workers occurs through a complex spatial web of state repression, local power structures and fissures within the classes of workers in Kerala. Migrant workers from North and Northeastern India, and unionized Malayali workers in construction sites and factories in Kerala, battle for and against these cards. Migrant workers resist not necessarily class power that inheres in capital, but the state and surveillance practices.
Rural to urban migration in the Indian context is not exceptionally high if we consider the aggregate rates for all urban areas. However, when it comes to large cities , the rates tend to be higher. In relation to urbanization findings suggest that as the percentage of population residing in urban areas rises , the greater is the decline in the unemployment rate after migration in comparison to the rate that prevail ed prior to migration. States with higher urbanization levels reveal a larger increase in regular wage employment after migration. The migration rate in urban areas and the urbanization level are positively associated – very moderately though. With an increase in city size , the migration rate rises mainly because employment prospects are better in large cities due to agglomeration effects . The share of regular wage employment is highest in the million-plus cities and the least in smaller cities, whereas casual employment a nd self-employment follow just the opposite pattern. Migration, urban informal sector employment, and the proportion of Scheduled Caste population in the urban and rural areas are all positively associated , suggesting that the socially backward groups are more likely to migrate from the rural areas and get absorbed in the urban informal sector. But t his pattern is accompanied by a decline in the incidence of poverty in both rural and urban areas: even the urban informal sector activities are able to provide relatively better job opportunities and higher living standards. On the whole, urbanisation and migration show beneficial effects in terms of reduction in both rural and urban poverty as Labour market outcomes tend to improve. However, this process is not strongly evident and hence, more policy interventions are required in order to boost the beneficial effects of urbanisation.
It is well known that the so-called 'Golden Triangle' is a major area of illicit activities and transnational crimes, including illegal drugs and economies of predation such as human trafficking and exploitation of non-renewable natural resources.
Over the centuries, the human race developed its concious gingerly and has become one of the sophisticated social creature of the nature.
This paper studies the impact of migrant children on their parents’ occupation choice and wage income using a dataset from a household survey conducted in 2011. We find that the heads of migrant households with school-age children earn significantly less than those who left them at their place of hukou registration. This result holds when we control for personal characteristics, migration duration, origin location, and family structure. Households migrating with school-age children have a higher probability of doing so within the prefecture/province of their hukou registration and are less likely to target coastal regions. After controlling for migration scope and destination location, the presence of children does not influence wages of migrant household heads. We also find that the presence of children below the age of six has no impact on the income of migrant household heads. Our results suggest that the hukou system still impedes labor mobility.
In contemporary times, the incidence of child labor is very high in Third World countries, and it has been that way for several decades now.
The study maintains that working from an early age impedes the children’s physical growth and intellectual and psychological development, which then also has negative effects on their long-term health and earning potential.
Child labor exists because it is the best response people can find in intolerable circumstances.
The concept of the ‘street child’ and the ‘child labourer’ cannot be understood without relating them to the socio-political agenda behind it.
This article portrays the condition of Indian women and children who are known as the most vulnerable target within the dark world of Trafficking.
Traffi cking of Nepalese women and girls to Indian brothels was established in 1960.
This paper looks into the socio-economic status of women workers in the brick industry of Haryana and underlines the fact that these workers have a very tough life.
This industry contributes 1.5 percent1 to the gross domestic product (gdp) and provides livelihood to about two million people2 largely as informal sector.
The present study investigates the health status of seasonal migrant workers of brick kilns.
Brick industry is highly a labour intensive industry which can provide employment opportunities to a large number of unemployed persons.
The study says that force is understood mostly as physical, coercive force employed by employers, which most believe is non-existent in current times.
The report says that child labour in brick kilns is one of the major concerns in Bangladesh as the children working in the brick kilns have been suffering from various health hazards and occupational risks.
This paper examines the an economic analysis of seasonal migrant workers in brick kiln industry Tamil Nadu as a case study to highlight the extreme vulnerability of circular migrants workers while stressing the diversity of circulation.
The study says that migration has emerged as a major livelihood strategy in Southern Rajasthan over the past two decades.
The major finding of the study is there is no significant difference between Health Problems and the Demographic variables.
The paper attempts to study the brick-making process and an overview of brick kilns of the area along with the socio-economic profile of workers engaged in the brick kilns.
This paper provides a theoretical model of the impact of recession (income shock) on household's child labor (CL) decision.
The present study was done to assess the effects of technological change and industry restructuring on the existence of child labour.
The movement of goods and services across borders has generated a vast literature in international economics around the world and in India.
Child labour is defined not by the activity but by the effect this activity has on the child.
The children in urban area are living on the streets or in overcrowded slums and squatter settlements. 700,000 people have children under the age of 15 who work in urban areas, which is 17 per cent of the total urban labour force.
One of the reasons why implementation often fails is the disagreement about which sectors and which work should be regarded as child labour, or as a worst form of child labour.
Fact sheet on child labor in Asia, compiled by the International Labour Organization (ILO) in 2005.
The process of globalisation and the accompanied integration of world trade and economy has brought about a renewed focus on many of the social concerns wherein the issue of labour standards, particularly the elimination of child labour has surfaced on top of the policy agenda.
Whilst advocacy efforts are the predominant type of intervention, it is difficult to attribute the successes in ratifying conventions and implementing legislative policies and powers to any one organisation or campaign.
The report says that child labour has become one of the social issues in Cambodia after the rectification of the ILO Convention 182 by the government in October 2005.
The report says that child domestic workers perform chores in the households of people other than their immediate family and are extremely vulnerable to a range of exploitation, including physical, emotional and sexual abuse.
The paper says that the loss of livelihood due to increasing water scarcity and variability could force those affected to migrate.
The potential link between climate change, migration, and conflict has been widely discussed and is increasingly viewed by policy makers as a security issue.
The paper talks about human trafficking continues to capture the imagination of the global public.
The paper talks about the Super Belief looks at attitudes and how to align communication messages to social norms and self image.
This study aims to evaluate the link between climate/weather change and farmer migration in Bihar, India. The influence of cognitive conditions and climate-related stress on farmer migration decisions and the socioeconomic characteristics of migrating and non-migrating farm households are analysed. The focus is the role of migration in access to climate and agricultural extension services and the contribution of migration to enhanced farmer coping capacity.
The Hindu Kush Himalaya is undergoing rapid change, driven by twin megatrends of climate change and urbanisation, which threaten their crucial water-provisioning services for over a billion people across Asia and undermine quality of life, economic development, and environmental sustainability within the region. This chapter examines current and future megatrends from a mountain perspective, assessing the impacts for water, energy and food security of glacial melt, altered river flows and drying springs, coupled with unplanned urban growth and outmigration. Further innovation is needed in responding to climate-induced risk, developing hydro-power sustainably and enhancing mountain agriculture.
The paper says that it is extremely difficult to assess the worldwide scale of human trafficking because of the clandestine nature of the crime.
The report says that the subject of human trafficking, or the use of force, fraud or coercion to transport persons across international borders or within countries to exploit them for labor or sex, has received renewed attention within the last two decades.
The paper talks about trafficing in persons (TIP) for labour and/or sexual expliotation is a widespread and serious problem in India.
This paper argues that emphasis needs to be given to such underlying root causes and modes and also crimes related to human trafficking.
This thesis examines human trafficking within Southeast Asia to identify the similarities and differences between the causes of labor and sex trafficking.
The purpose of this paper is to pull together the emerging theoretical and empirical literature on the economics of child labour, and to draw out the underlying commonalities between various contributions in this field.
The paper says that globally some progress has been made in reducing the number of child workers − from 215 million in 2010 to 168 million in 2013.
This paper presents the current status of irregular migration from the State of Punjab and Haryana in India to the EU.
The paper says that the migrant workforce in Thailand, the majority of whom are from Myanmar, is an integral part of the economy.
The paper aims to overview the perspectives of both types of migration. Jagori, a Delhi based NGO has carried out a survey which finds that the majority of these people are illiterate or barely literate with no formal schooling.
This paper analyses the current trend of global child labour, and investigates the causes and consequences of child labour with a particular attention on globalisation-child labour nexus.
The paper says that the importance of gender perspective is very important in understanding the convolution of child labour.
The paper says that with a population of 1.3 billion and a gross domestic product growing at an impressive rate of 10 percent per year, China has quickly become one of the largest contributors to the global market.
The paper says a child labour ban excludes children from employment or work on the assumption that any economic activity is not suitable to them on account of their age.
The paper says that all over the world children continue to work, putting at stake their education, their health, their normal development to adulthood, and even their lives.
The paper says that the pervasive and intractable problem of child labour represents one of the most pressing human rights challenges of our time.
The study implies that potential implementation of the government’s laws and proper monitoring is a key to eradicate child labor.
This paper considers the effects of trade liberalization on child labor that arises out of subsistence needs.
The purpose of this study is to systematically examine the role of NGOs who address the issue of child labour in developing countries.
The paper says that popular opinion in high-income countries often seems to hold that child labor in developing countries is nearly always a form of child abuse, in which children work in hazardous conditions in run-down factories for callous businesses.
The speaker talks about how a developing country becomes a developed country like Europe, America and now-a-days countries of East Asia. Such countries have good infrastructure and technology.
The speaker talks about the folksongs as a medium to communicate as there is less literacy rates among women especially of backward class. There are folksongs accompanying labour processes, agricultural process, lifecycle occations, etc. Bhojpuri Folksongs of Bihar and its interface with migration, gender and caste.
The paper says that trafficking in persons is currently defined by the United Nations as the forced, coerced, fraudulent or deceitful entry into labor including prostitution, entry by abduction, or entry into such work under age 18 years.
The paper says that the forces of globalization have often been connected to the rising levels of migration around the world as well as an increasing prevalence of abusive and irregular forms of migration, among them trafficking.
This paper explores the nature and consequences of trafficking and the position at international law with regard to trafficking.
This working paper reviews recent trends in trafficking in persons in Southeast Asia and the current status of the anti-trafficking regime in the member states of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN).
This paper reviews the global evidence on the interaction between a child’s education and child labour.
The paper says that the government of China opened its doors to the global economy in the late 1970s, with gradually but steadily increasing competition, trade, and production.
The paper says that social protection is increasingly recognised as a key route to reducing children’s poverty and vulnerability
The report says that child labour is an issue of immense concern in South Asia with conservative estimates suggesting that (excluding Afghanistan) there are 17 million children in child labour and 50 million children out of school.
This article explores situations in which forced migrants revisit places and homes they had fled from, drawing on research carried out among Kashmiri Hindus, better known as Pandits, who were displaced following the outbreak of conflict in Jammu and Kashmir in 1990. Due to the breakdown of law and order, selective attacks, and a climate of fear, most of the community had relocated from the Kashmir valley to the south in Jammu and to even cities such as New Delhi, constituting one of the most prominent groups of Internally Displaced Persons in the region. While there is an interest in repatriation/resettlement in scholarship and policy, the experiences of the Pandits reveal the multiple meanings ‘return’ holds for the displaced. This article will draw on the experiences of Pandit forced migrants in Jammu who have returned to visit Kashmir. Their experiences will be situated with work on return migration, the Kashmir conflict, and the political location of the Pandits in the region. The article argues that return migration is an inconclusive phenomenon that critically raises questions of home and uncertainty, and provides a way to understand how the displaced locate themselves in the world.
This study says that the child labour problem has become one of the most striking issues in the developing countries
The paper says that the gender dimension within the migration studies began to be explored since the 1970s.
This paper speculates on certain likely medium-term trends and problems in Indian development, and derives from it possible trajectories of migration in India.
In this paper, the nature of work and conditions of migrant labour in the stainless steel utensil manufacturing industry located in the Wazirpur Industrial Area in the National Capital Region of Delhi.
The paper says that formation of East Bengal created a geographical barrier in the northeastern part of India.
This paper examines the patterns and trends in inter-state migration across Indian states and observes that migration is affected by demographic profile as well as the fiscal profile of states.
This report is a result of my doctoral work on Bhojpuri women’s folksongs in the context of male out-migration.
This is a study of such marginalized groups whose life is incomparable with the general urban poor in many aspects, right from their physical appearance to their existence.
The report says that the geographical and ecological aspect of terai gave it the status of periphery for both the Nepal Durbar and colonial authorities much before the treaty.
This paper focuses on the Bengali Hindu refugees who entered West Bengal. It explores a particular “rehabilitation” policy of the West Bengal Government, known as the dispersal scheme. It was a peculiar form of refugee movement that was initiated and regulated by the government to prevent, on one hand, congestion of the refugees in particular areas like Calcutta and, on the other, to provide a labour force for underdeveloped and thinly populated areas like the Andaman Islands and Dandakaranya.
The papers present a broad overview of current research and data on trafficking in particular regions of the world.
This paper addresses the situation of human trafficking in South Asia, particularly in India, Bangladesh and Nepal.
This paper examines human trafficking within Southeast Asia to identify the similarities and differences between the causes of labor and sex trafficking.
This study centers on the political aspects of human trafficking and sexual exploitation in Southeast Asia.
The present paper overviews urbanisation and migration process in Asian countries at macro level since 1950s, including the projections made till 2030.
The paper says that migration and mobility continue to attract much interest, but also growing concern.
The report says that to know the problem of brick kiln workers, the study is carried out in Jhajjar district of Haryana.
The research paper investigates different facets around the problem of debt bondage at brick kilns in the vicinity of Peshawar.
The study is based on a rapid assessment through short visits to over 100 brick kilns in and around the urban and peri-urban areas of the districts of Hyderabad, Multan, Lahore, Rawalpindi, Peshawar and Haripur.
The paper discusses the international law instruments on forced labor, debt bondage, slavery and trafficking to demonstrate that these four abuses are not the same, although they all contain elements of forced labor.
The paper says that the bonded labour stems from a variety of causes, which are highly debated in the literature.
A brief study of the various Socio-legal legislatures formed by the Indian Government, and its implications at the ground level, projects clearly, the road to reform is still a long way ahead.
The paper says that the public interest litigation has contributed significantly to the development of the law concerning child labor.
The paper says that although modern slavery is not defined in law, it is used as an umbrella term that focuses attention on commonalities across these legal concepts.
Agriculture is intimately connected with migration and at the primary instance out-migration simply aggravates the problem of agriculture. But migration and remittances can also foster household farm investment and agricultural production. Besides agriculture, male out-migration has a bearing on farm women also due to transfer of responsibilities. The present study has assessed the impact of out-migration on agriculture and workload of women. Primary data were collected from 90 migrant and 60 non-migrant member households in Pithoragarh district, Uttarakhand. Regression, conventional economic and tabular analyses were used to analyse the data. None of the migrant households made any attempt to create productive assets on the farm through remittances, though they spent some amount for hiring labour and for purchasing material inputs and cattle feed. In migrant member households a larger percentage of land was kept fallow and the number of livestock was also lower. The magnitude of workload of farm women was more in the case of migrant member households than in non-migrant households due to additional burden of non-households and non-farm works in the absence of male members (migrants).
This paper have identified three factors of migration namely environmental, economic and social factors.
The paper says that itt is crystal clear that unorganized labours are living their life below the minimum standards level.
This paper explores the international economic effects of forced labour, namely the linkages of forced labour with comparative advantage (trade) and foreign direct investment flows.
This paper brings labour back into the literature on legal empowerment against poverty.
This study is a rapid assessment of one of the most prevalent, yet least known, forms of hazardous labour in Afghanistan – for both children and adults – and one of the worst forms of labour for children in particular.
The paper says that the social evil of bonded labour thrives on the desperate socio-economic conditions and weaknesses of legal and administrative systems working together to create a vicious cycle.
The conference brought together a wide group of participants representing the diversity of stakeholders who are becoming involved in this issue.
The paper says that as in many other resource-poor countries experiencing rapid population growth, economic stagnation, conflict and political instability, issues related to trafficking and severe forms of forced labour continue to plague Nepal.
This was a study of the prevalence of working children and child labor in the production process of the export-oriented handmade carpet industry in India in 2009-2011.
This report is a comparative study of human rights at work, sometimes known as labour rights, with regards to current labour law in India.
The paper says that child labour has serious consequences that stay with the individual and with society for far longer than the years of childhood.
The Report suggests the manner in which bonded labour should be contextualised in the discussion to improve labour standards.
This study examined the process of microcredit disbursement among brick kiln labourers and paying off loan in monthly installments.
The paper says that the existence of this type of labour has both new and old dimensions to it, and there is growing consensus that the incidence of forced labour is on the rise (Bales 2000, International Labour Organization (ILO) 2001a, 2001b).
This paper examines the brick kiln industry in Tamil Nadu as a case study to highlight the discrepancy between normative categories of decent work and workers’ experiences and subjectivities.
The paper says that drawing on a number of case studies from Tamil Nadu, this article shows that bonded labour is not a relic of the past, but surprisingly contemporary.
Bonded labor – also known as debt bondage or peonage – designates the practice of pledging labor as payment or collateral on a debt.
The bonded laborers, in India, are generally those working outside their homes in quarries, on big farms and in construction works taken up by contractors.
This paper is an attempt to illustrate the nature of bonded labour in the agricultural sector and the brick kiln industry in the country.
Also known as debt bondage, bonded labor is a specific form of forced labor in which compulsion into servitude is derived from debt.
This paper identifies a host of system-level factors that significantly affect the educational access and achievement of migrant students.
The education opportunity has been open up to migrant children of unskilled migrant families and displaced persons in Thailand. Education is considered as a protection mechanism for these children from the risk and exploitative situation as well as the development mean for their future. This issue raise different debates which arises from different perspectives, My argument is that Thailand existing policy towards migrant children is based on national security but not yet enough consideration for the security of the children. Thus has led to the imbalance of the country benefit and the benefit for the children.
The study intends to analyse and map the profile of overseas migrants from India vis-a-vis the jobs available abroad.
This report outlines patterns of migrant smuggling in Asia and presents evidence-based knowledge to guide policy and strengthen international cooperation.
This study contributes to the literature on this subject by estimating the effects of various measures of financial inclusion (together with some control variables) on some measures of financial stability, including bank non-performing loans and bank Z-scores.
The study focuses on the role of financial inclusion, in strengthening the India’s position in relation to other countries economy.
The paper presents a real challenge given its technological backwardness and mass illiteracy as people are still caught in ancient financial systems that were both exploitative and futile.
The paper says that the majority of the rural population is still not included in the inclusive growth, the concept of financial inclusion becomes a challenge for the Indian economy.
This paper discusses the relevance of definitions related to the distinction between rural and urban by utilizing the Indiapolis geo-localised database developed in a companion research project funded by the French National Research Agency, e-Geopolis.
The paper says research into global environmental change(GEC), itself a deliberately broader and more encompassing term than climate change, has been dominated by natural sciences concerned with climate change and modelling and the processes and impacts of landuse cover change, industrialization and the like.
The paper show a general picture about urbanization and its consequences, we introduce the most common concept of urbanization and review the urbanization history briefly.
This paper aims to understand the relationship between urbanisation, growth and development in the context of India, with a focus on presenting a series of stylised facts and, where questions remain, a research agenda for the future.
This paper attempts to discuss the principles of “smart urbanisation” in light of sustainable cities of tomorrow.
The report says that migration is a key feature of a more interconnected world.
The report narrate about the cities, which have powered the world economy for decades, are now facing a significant demographic challenge to their growth.
The aim of this paper is to present the major trends of research on Arab towns, on the basis of an analysis of urban contexts in the Arab world.
The original project was primarily a methodological project designed to see if using this technology we would indeed find strong correlations between quality and date of appearance of housing and a variety of socio-economic variables and environmental concerns.
This paper examines the impact of migration on educational outcomes of children.
The present paper aims at investigating the socio-economic background of the migrant sugarcane harvesting workers.
The paper summarizes the key routes through which internal and international migration impact rural development and some of the evidence pertaining to these effects in low income countries.
This paper suggests that non-farm employment opportunities have to be increased, rural infrastructure improved and the development of small and medium towns encouraged.
The paper says that household costs were found to be complex and while the broad areas of fees, other mandatory and voluntary contributions are burdensome expenses on the household, they do not constitute the principal costs on the parental budget.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a detailed overview of the state of the recent empirical literature on why and how children work as well as the consequences of that work.
The paper then turns to challenges in migration and integration research that these overviews suggest before concluding with pointers to new research directions.
The paper, explored self-employment among Mexican return migrants.
This article traces back the historical origins of migrants' rights and analyses their contemporary features under general international law.
This research aims to reveal how the integration policy and language education for adult immigrants have evolved in Japan and how these have contributed their socioeconomic integration.
The papers says that the current refugee crisis is a catastrophe affecting millions of families, endangering the stability of nations that are hosts to large numbers of migrants, and of the region around them.
The important Labour Laws involved in regulating migrant workers are the InterState Migrant Workers Act, 1979, the Bonded Labour (Abolition) Act, 1976 and Contract Labour (Regulation and Abolition) Act, 1970. Inter- State Migrant Workers form a large part of Contract Labour with the additional and aggravating character of having come from another state. In its turn, contract labour is by and large bonded labour. Contract and Migrant Labour, sub- species of bonded labour is peculiar in Indian industries. All three share one other characteristic. In the light of the above, it will be useful to examine the provisions of the Inter- State Migrant Workmen (Regulation of Employment and Conditions of Service) Act, 1979 along with other labour laws and their success, if any, in securing the intended reliefs and benefits to the Inter- State Migrant Workers in the country.
This article evaluates women’s migration to urban areas, identifies exclusionary processes against migrants in cities, and suggests strategies for implementing the “right to the city” perspective.
The research says that there was migration from one place to another in response to famine, war, and displacement in traditional economies, and all three combined to encourage the migration of 60 million Europeans to the Americas in the 19th and early 20th centuries.
The research suggests strategies that can make migration cheaper and make migrants more productive.
The research is based on six years of studying more than 100 Bangladeshi villages, randomly assigning various strategies across the communities.
The paper says that the diverging conclusions on the average expected GDP growth reflect the specific aspects of various economies, but also a different way of viewing the dynamics of the economic system itself.
This paper sets out the relevance of international human rights obligations in light of the multiple constraints climate change poses to the sustainable development of developing countries.
The papers says that concern for climate change has been gaining greater attention in the political agenda of most countries.
The papers says that United Kingdom started to pursue policies to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at a relatively early date and now has a comprehensive set of measures in place.
This paper will offer compelling evidence from a large body of research that global climate change caused by global warming is already underway and requires our immediate attention.
The paper says that sctuaries are becoming more aware of the combined impact of climate change and limitations of resources—two separate and very significant issues—putting at risk the sustainability of the current socio-economic systems that support our way of life.
This report says that globally, migrant smuggling receives a considerable amount of media, policy and public attention, but how much do we really know about it based on sound evidence?
The report says that unemployment and low wages prevailing in the domestic market pushes female workers to look for better employment abroad.
This paper describes the effects of immigration on overall population growth and the skill composition of cities, focusing on the connection between immigrant inflows and the relative number of less-skilled workers in the local population.
This paper explores, using a new 16-year panel of UK cities. Over time, net migration affects both local labour markets and the wider economy.
The paper says that the migration in search of urban jobs provides a path to higher income for poor rural residents, but migration can be costly and remittance-sending inefficient.
The article does not deny the real impacts that climate change is already having on communities, nor that migration is a normal adaptive response to such change.
This report examines issues that arise when addressing displacement in the context of disasters, when urban areas are a source and/or destination of displacement.
This paper discusses the existing literature on migration and innovation, with special emphasis on empirical studies based on patent and inventor data.
The paper says that the dominant ignorance of spatial concepts within the debate on methodological nationalism fits well into the whole picture.
This paper intends to inquire comprehensively into trends and patterns of male out-migration from rural Uttar Pradesh.
The present study analysed 605 male migrants (collected by PC and TISS) on their socioeconomic and demographic variables of income, age, occupation, education and marital status determining HIV knowledge, risky sexual behaviour (RSB) and sexually transmitted infection (STI) reporting.
The study household and context determinants of child labor for 150,000 children in 11 developing countries, with child labor rates ranging from 2 to over 20 percent.
The study says that in many countries child labour is mainly an agricultural issue.
A study of the legendary migration of five Brahmins, accompanied by five Kayasthas, from Kannauj in North India to Bengal to form an elite subgroup in the caste hierarchy of Bengal, combines genetic analysis with a reappraisal of historical and genealogical works.
This study attempts to insert xenophobia in this debate on migration and development by examining the growth of this phenomenon in host countries in the South.
This study focuses on the gender dimension of migration in urban India using the data from two successive rounds of the Indian National Sample Survey.
This paper attempts this, beginning with an examination of recent trends in women’s migration, internationally and within nations.
The paper then turns to immigrationís impact for the public Önances of host countries.
The study on the subject encompasses a vast area, including assessments of the implications of skilled labour migration for equity and efficiency in economic outcomes, examinations of the links between growth in international trade and trends in international migration, and optimum strategies to address losses to sending countries due to emigration.
The paper provides a detailed evaluation of the Emigration Act, 1983, the most important policy instrument governing the migration of Indian workers for overseas employment on a contractual basis.
This paper is an attempt to provide a tentative framework for an objective, factual and systematic look at important dimensions of the child labour problem in rural India.
This paper attempts to summaries the different meaning to the word child and also give a brief overview of the magnitude of the issue from an Indian perspective.
This study note summarizes the conceptual and theoretical dimensions of the relationship between migration, urbanization and development and also presents their potential and actual impact on development in general and India in particular.
The study says that the numerous small industrial units in the district also engage migrant workers.
The study says that construction, cashew, fishing, seafood, brick kilns, mining and hospitality are the major economic sectors in Kollam and all of these employ migrant labourers significantly.
The study says that although fishing is a livelihood option along its coastal belt, there are no major fishing harbours in the district.
The study says that the district also has several industrial estates. Laterite mining, fishing and plywood industries are heavily dependent on migrant workers.
The study says that though the migrants from northern and eastern Indian states are not skilled enough to work in these plantations, the shortage of labour has been forcing plantation managements to hire them.
The study says that at the large scale constructions, migrants stay in accommodations provided by the construction companies or contractors. Mainly single men work in the construction sector in Alappuzha.
The report says that over the years, a corridor has evolved between Kozhikode and Bardhaman, South 24 Parganas and North 24 Parganas districts in West Bengal.
This article contributes to filling this gap by eliciting and analysing perceptions regarding climate change and migration from an understudied population labelled as being amongst those most immediately and directly affected by climate change: Indian Ocean islanders.
The Bangladesh Flood Impact panel household survey to evaluate how the 1998 “flood of the century” affected wages in Bangladesh. Long-term declines in wages were found where nonagricultural labor markets are more severely affected. We also evaluate how soil quality and proximity to auxiliary labor markets cushion labor markets against the disaster. The most compelling evidence shows that workers in areas further from centers of economic activity are more vulnerable to flood-induced wage losses.
This paper contrasts manufacturing with construction, an industry where physical building labor is dominat-ed by rural male migrant labor. http://bit.ly/2z6hYHj
The article presents the findings of a qualitative study, a series of semi-structured interviews of overseas domestic workers. http://bit.ly/2AZlPqp
What are the choices for female rural-urban migrant workers of where to give birth during their migration? The reasons why they make this decision.
The study says that the workers from Kanyakumari district in Tamil Nadu are mostly engaged as captain, and migrants from West Bengal work as deck hands.
This study narrates about tea, coffee and rubber plantations in Nelliyampathy hills, Attappady hills and Mannarkkad engage migrant labour.
This paper reviews the literature on the development impact of migration and remittances on origin countries and on destination countries in the South. International migration has development implications for origin and destination countries in the South and in the North. Some 215 million people or three per cent of the world's population are believed to live outside their countries of birth (United Nations 2009). While the focus in the literature has been on South-North migration, the number of migrants between developing countries is estimated to be as large as the number of migrants moving from South to North (Ratha and Shaw 2007).
This study says that during 2001-2011, the district registered negative population growth (-3 per cent) according to Census 2011. A major pilgrim centre in the state, Pathanamthitta is also popular for its emigrant population.
This study says that the district depends heavily on migrant labourers for its growth and development.
This study says that Thiruvananthapuram is a major hub of construction activities in Kerala.
This report says that this sector is more dependent on migrant labour compared to the plantation sector.
This paper deals with internal and international migration, both of which are large-scale with impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction in many regions of the country.
This paper shall attempt to discuss in brief the problem of child labour in India, International Conventions relating to protection of child, the mandates envisage in our Constitution.
This study focuses on the migrant workers of rural Rajasthan and their food habits.
There must be emphasis on compulsory primary education and the education of the girl children needs to be especially taken care of.
Paper also finds out some major problems regarding implementation of the law.
The report narrates that there is a need to protect girl child, advocate reduction in family size and promote parental education/economic empowerment in order to reduce the urge on children to perform economic roles.
The paper demands therefore an analysis from political economy perspective as well as socio-cultural perspective.
Today in India, there are more than 10.12 million children who are spending their childhood learning carpet-weaving, beedi-rolling, domestic labour, agriculture, firework and apparel manufacture and countless other occupations instead of going to school and receiving quality education.
This paper is an attempt in analytical look at the official sources of information on the scale of child labour in India.
This paper critically examined child labour in India and Nigeria and how both governments undertake various programs to eradicate child labour through different organizations and agencies.
This informative note presents soil carbon sequestration as an option for offsetting this emissions through a market-based mechanism within the Carbon Offsetting and Reduction Scheme for International Aviation.
The report says that conflicts, violence and natural disasters are among the root causes of migration and forced displacement.
This study uses Nepalese data to estimate the impact of individual, household and cluster/community level variables on child labour and child schooling.
In this study we try to study the lives of these street venders who are regularly offering their service from dawn to dusk in the Kashmir valley.
Studies predict that the demand for domestic workers will continue to increase due to a steady increase in women (who are traditionally assigned to domestic work) entering the formal work sector and contributing to Vietnam’s rapid economic growth.
The paper presents various studies and research findings from across the world and further explores strategies for influencing public attitudes and promoting integration.
This paper considers both the risks rural workers in the construction industry face because of the work they do and the risks they face and because of their being rural workers.
This paper discusses the role in cities of street vendors, also known as hawkers, selfemployed workers, and independent outdoor businesspeople.
This Study indicates that poverty, migration from rural area, low education, exorbitant supply of labor and large family size are the major driving forces of carrying out this business.
The role of the informal economy in promoting genuine economic development remains a contested one.
The study is exploratory in nature and their situations have been explained with the help of both quantitative and qualitative paradigms.
The paper highlights the some differences in the nature and scope of the problems encountered by Muslims in the US as opposed to those faced by Muslims in Western Europe including some of the reasons for these differences.
Despite the lack of major industries, migrant workers from most of the source states are found in Kasaragod district. One significant difference from the rest of the districts, except Wayanad, is the presence of a large number of workers from Karnataka. The district shares its border with Karnataka and naturally one would expect workers here from the adjacent Dakshina Kannada, Mysuru and Kodagu districts. Although workers from these districts are present, the majority of the migrant workforce from Karnataka in Kasaragod is from the backward regions of northern Karnataka, especially from districts like Bagalkot, Belagavi, Gadag, Haveri, Koppal, Hassan, Dharwad and Ballari. Workers from Shivamogga and Davangere districts also are present in large number. A lot of these migrant workers are here with their families that include kids
The study supports the proposition that migration and remittances in India are not panacea to structural development constraints and that poor long-distance migrants need to be integrated in poverty alleviation programs.
Kerala state over the past few decades has been one of the most attractive destinations for migrant workers from various Indian states. A lot of migrants now come with their families. Ernakulam district, which is the commercial capital of Kerala, has several pockets where migrant workers with families live. Some of the pockets include Vathuruthy, Ayyappankavu, Elamakkara, Binanipuram, Kalamassery, Perumbavoor and Nellikkuzhi. A rapid assessment of the top three schools in the district with the largest number of children of migrant workers.
Stories of six migrant homeless men from Uttar Pradesh and Nagaland who live, for various durations, in shelters along the western bank of the Yamuna River in North Delhi, locally referred to as ‘Yamuna Pushta’. Through tracing their journeys from villages and towns to Delhi’s streets, the paper explores how these men became homeless and how they survive homelessness in Delhi.
This paper addresses two specific issues concerning the labour market resilience with special reference to the Indian experience. First, an effort has been made to engage in exploring theoretical foundations of the discourse on the flexibility and rigidity of labour markets; and, second, an analysis of the Indian labour market responses to policy (or, its behavior, particularly, during the post-reforms period) have been made with specific reference to the dominant phenomenon of informality that has pervaded both the production and labour processes. The first part attempts to have clarity on the concepts of flexibility and rigidity in the labour market context distinguishing between labour market specificities as between industrially matured economies and developing economies as India. The second part brings in informality as a crucial variable influencing labour market characteristics and behavior. Further, it critically reviews several important labour regulations in India in terms of their actual implementation and relevance in an informal sector driven industrial economy. Reflections on labour reforms in times of growing interface between Indian enterprises and global buyers have been made commenting on the functional dynamics of global production networks.
Communities that have thrived for centuries in Nepal’s rugged mountain environment appear to be on the brink of precipitous population declines. Population growth in Nepal as a whole remains significant (MOHP 2011). However, as Karan (1987) points out, aggregate population data in the Himalayan region mask considerable local variation. Here we present evidence that rapid population decline is underway in highland valleys of Nepal populated by ethnic Tibetans. The primary driving force is the outmigration of children to monasteries and boarding schools. Although population decline in mountainous regions of the world is not a new phenomenon as it has been well documented in Europe (Viazzo 1989; Batzing et al 1996), Japan (Okahashi 1996), and elsewhere, this is perhaps the first documented case where a major cause is parental decisions to send children away from their natal villages. The purposes of this paper are to document recent demographic trends, project their future effects on the population size and composition, and discuss potential social and economic consequences that may jeopardize the viability of Himalayan communities.
Economic change has driven parents across the Indian Himalayan Region to send their children to major Indian cities for higher education. Himalayan students' urban experience and understanding of the nation is profoundly shaped by the movement between the Himalayan context and the foreign experience of Indian city life. We draw on interviews with students to discuss their experiences in the sometimes liberating and sometimes hostile cities of India. In their perceived cultural and racialized difference, we argue, Himalayan students form a diaspora within their own nation, and we suggest that attention to their micropractices of belonging and movement between home and city is critical to understanding India as a nation-state. Here, we suggest that education-driven migration to urban centers results in challenging spaces of encounter, and that minority students cope with these encounters both by forging diasporic ties with those from their homeland and other marginalized Himalayan students, and by building a cosmopolitan sensibility that reaches beyond India's borders. Our research is based primarily on a set of twenty interviews conducted in 2011 in Delhi, Sikkim, and Leh, Ladakh, but is informed by our ongoing work on the topic, and on our previous and continuing research on family politics in Ladakh and in Sikkim on youth politics and development.
The present study is an attempt to understand the factors that cause labour migration. It purports to inquire into pull and push factors of migration of semi-skilled and unskilled migrant workers in Tirunelveli district. Primary data collected from the field through a structured questionnaire has been used in this study. A number of variables causing migration have been identified by the researcher. The reliability of the variables is tested through reliability analysis applying Cronbach’s alpha. Exploratory Factor Analysis is employed using SPSS 19 to reduce the variables, identified as the causes of migration, into handsome number of factors. Confirmatory Factor Analysis has also been applied to confirm the factors causing migration developed through Exploratory Factor Analysis using AMOS 18. Structural Equation Models have been developed for this purpose.
The present study has been conducted to know the general profile, educational status, activities performed and income of the migratory child labour vis-a-vis the natives engaged in agricultural activities in Punjab. The study is based on a sample of twelve villages randomly taken from three agro-climatic zones. In all the villages, 302 children working in agricultural sector were identified and all of them were the respondents of this study. It has been found that about one-fourth of the child labour working in agricultural and allied activities in the state of Punjab are migrants from other states, viz. Uttar Pradesh, Bihar, Uttarakhand and Himachal Pradesh. Most of the migrant child workers were in the age group of 12-14 years. The ratio of female child labour was higher in migrants than in natives. A very high number of child labour belonging to both migrant and native families were from scheduled caste families. All the migratory working children belonged to the landless families of labourers. The educational status of the migrant child labour portrayed a very grim picture. None of them was found going to the school and the reason behind their absenteeism was migration from other states. The child labour was belonging to the low income families. Children were engaged in various agricultural activities such as ploughing, sowing, irrigation, paddy transplantation, crop watching, cattle grazing, crop hartvesting wheatear picking stubble harvesting, pea plucking, cotton picking, potato digging, etc. Children were also employed in dairy farms and poultry farms. The wage earnings of working children were meagre. Special schools for migrants in the rural areas of the state can be opened where they may be taught through their mother tongue. Night schools or schools on the pattern of Charwaha Schools of Bihar may also be started to cater to the needs of working children. The study has also suggested that more employment avenues for adult labour, especially for the women in the villages of the state, should be generated through promoting agro-based industries and traditional handicrafts such as embroidery, pickle-papad making, etc.
Number of studies have shown that adult male migration from rural areas for harnessing better employment opportunities, assist in achieving financial stability to the migrants family but research shows that the absence of parent can be detrimental to a child’s social and psychological development. Migration of adult household members can affect the education of the Children who are left behind in several ways. On the basis of a sample survey of 200 households spread over six villages in three blocks of Kendrapara district in Odisha, India, this paper analyses the educational status of the children left behind. The results indicate that migration matters for the education of children. It is evident from the study that enrolment-wise children of migrant households are ahead of those of returned migrant and non-migrant households, in the case of school attendance, continuation in education and educational attainment they lag behind the children in the latter two categories of household.
Much internal migration in India, including the states of Rajasthan and Orissa, is distress-led. Previously issues pertaining to gender were overlooked, because migration tended to be viewed as chiefly a male movement, with women either residual in the process, or dependent followers. Contemporary migration is taking place in a world marked by a deeper belief in the importance of equality of opportunity across socio-political divides. This article stresses the need to analyse migration through the differential experiences of women and of men in the context of a highly gendered world.
This paper attempts to study the role of MGNREGS in improving the household living standards and it impact on seasonal distress out-migration, conducting a primary survey of 400 households from Mayurbhanj and Jajpur districts of Odisha during 2011- 12. The major findings suggest that MGNREGS has contributed enormously in creating job opportunities for the needy poor and socially backward households. The accessibility of NREGS prevented huge number of distress seasonal out migration and brought financial autonomy for the landless poor (Below Poverty Line) and socially backward (Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes) households through regular wage income. This helped them to come out of hunger and debt traps, and hence an improved living standard. Therefore, the government should take proper measures to continue this programme in rural areas and allocate the resources based on demands calculation to avoid wastage of funds. Furthermore, an attempt should be made to create inter-industry linkages within rural regions through this programme that could generate a set of economic multipliers; and hence will provide sustainable source of rural employments and income generation to the socially and economically marginalized groups in India.
India is a huge country and its own history has been formed by the migration of entire populations across and between its borders. In the present neoliberal era, immigration to urban India guarantees a controlled and disciplined labor supply and facilitates the capital in keeping the working class fragmented along regionally and socially constructed divides. This is well illustrated by the case of the construction industry in New Delhi. The lives of construction workers are characterized by the harshness of their working conditions and the lack of social mobility. However, the advance system – according to which workers are paid before the beginning of the working season, when they need the money most, for example to celebrate weddings, and by which means intermediaries can secure laborers at the lowest cost – and the debt trap do not seem to be key explanatory factors, as observed by scholars writing on other Indian sectors and contexts (Breman 1996, 2008; Guérin 2009: 170). In what follows I shall suggest what the explanatory factors may be in cases like that of New Delhi, with reference to medium- to large-scale development projects characterized by the massive use of migrant labor.
Labour migration is an important feature in the development process in India. Macro level surveys shows that there has been an increase in magnitude of labour migration over the years. It is more prevalent among the males for employment related reasons and occurs prominently from certain backward regions of the country. The two macro data sources on migration which are the Census and the NSSO show that rural to rural migration is the most dominant stream. Though migration is found to be positively related with monthly per capita expenditure, the case of short term migration differs sharply in its characteristics features. From a policy perspective, it is therefore important to correctly examine the magnitude and underlying dynamics of short term migration which is most often a distress driven phenomenon.
In 2007-08, short-term migrants constituted 4.35 per cent of the rural workforce. A total of 9.25 million households in rural India had short-term migrants.Using a nationally representative data for rural India, this paper examines differences in consumption expenditure across households with and without a household member who is a short-migrant. We use an instrumental variable approach to control for the presence of a short-term migrant in a household. We find that households with a short-term migrant have lower monthly per capita consumption expenditure and monthly per capita food expenditure compared to households without a short-term migrant. Short-term migrants are not unionised, they work in the unorganised sector, they do not have written job contracts and state governments are yet to ensure that the legislations protecting them are properly enforced. This could be one of the reasons why we do not observe higher levels of expenditure in households with such migrants.
The paper firstly discusses briefly the urbanization trajectories of both the countries and urban policy regimes. This is the content of section 2. It then moves on to discussing the housing policies in both the countries and the changes therein, drawing implications of these on the housing of the migrants, in section 3. Section 4 discusses the brief methodology and findings from the study of migrant workers’ housing in Dungguan in China. Section 5 does the same for Surat in India. Last section draws conclusions on the implications of the study on urban studies in both the countries and also for policy purposes in both the countries.
Continuous urbanization in Delhi, like most other metropolitan cities, has contributed to the expansion of construction industry. Most unskilled and semi-skilled labours get absorbed in this industry as it enters the city in search of livelihood. Rural to urban migration in search of better working and living conditions, however, is like a mirage. The life is often harsh, pathetic, and deplorable in places of destination like Delhi, yet migration continues, as the place of origin is even more appalling where even survival is not secured. The present paper captures this through the experience of 500 migrant women workers in nine districts of Delhi engaged in construction work. Largely hailing from the neighbouring states of Uttar Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Bihar, Orissa and West Bengal, they have migrated during the past 40 years. About 80% of them are Scheduled Caste, landless agricultural laborers who find it difficult to survive back home and therefore migrated to Delhi with hope, dreams and aspirations. The present paper also discusses the relevance of providing skill building and role of social protection by facilitating the construction workers to register and get the benefits under the State provisions like ‘Building and Other Construction Workers Act, 1996’ and ‘Building and Other Construction Workers’ Welfare CESS Act, 1996’. A huge amount of money is available for welfare of workers, but lack of a clear planning, commitment and sensitivity to use this fund for the workers’ welfare leaves it unused. Most of the migrant women workers live in slums. Except for acquiring a few assets, their life in Delhi is as challenging as in the place of origin, with many women working hard to meet the ends. Among these construction workers, 99% are engaged in non-mechanical work, mostly as head-loaders, and bajari makers, earning around 150 rupees per day, lesser than the minimum wages. About 71% live in kaccha (semi-permanent), single room unit. Only one-fourth have separate toilets and some place to rest. Violation of legal provision is visible in the absence of crèche facility to 86% of them. They often get injured and meet with accidents. Instead of getting any compensation, they are often laid off, especially if the accidents render them disabled. Provision of basic minimum facilities and better living conditions are missing for those who form the backbone of the urbanization in cities through construction work. The heterogeneous characteristics of the women workforce with growing informalization of employment, lack of visibility calls for improvement in the quality of employability and extension of social protection.
Agriculture is the mainstay of Indian economy because of its high share in employment and livelihood notwithstanding its reduced contribution to the nation’s gross domestic product (GDP). The share of agriculture in GDP has registered a steady decline from 36.4 per cent in 1982-83 to 18.5 per cent in 2006-07. Yet this sector continues to support more than half a billion people providing employment to 52 per cent of the workforce (Government of India, 2008a). In spite of rapid urbanisation during last few decades, India’s rural population still accounts for about three-fourths of the total population. The rural population constitutes about 80 per cent of the total population in 1971 and the population has been continuously falling marginally since then to 76.7, 74.3 and 72.2 per cent in 1981, 1991 and 2001, respectively.
This paper attempts to review some of the existing theoretical and empirical studies on occupational diversification and rural-urban migration. Theoretically, the changing occupational structure has come to be explained from both the developmental and the distress angles. Empirical studies suggest that forces of development and distress are influencing rural occupational structure simultaneously. However, the extent of their influence is difficult to judge from the available evidence. The paper emphasises the need for a new focus in diversification studies to explain the phenomenon not only in terms of the micro-level dynamics but also from a broader perspective considering various macro processes. As regards rural-urban migration, given its peculiar nature, the phenomenon needs to be understood separately from the general process of diversification.
Since the mid-1990s, migration of work forces from rural to urban areas has accelerated in south India accompanied by remarkable urban-based economic development. To investigate the nature of such rural-urban migration in detail, especially any differences influenced by economic class, a study village was selected from the Madurai District. The detailed analysis found the existence of clear inter-class difference in terms of the shift to non-agricultural occupations; that is, the wealthier class tended to find more remunerable non-agricultural jobs, such as white-collar jobs. The most striking finding was that the traditional class structure in rural India based on ownership of farmland was basically unchanged even after non-agricultural jobs became much more important. This was because of the huge expenditure for education necessary to acquire remunerable jobs and the differential access to credit markets among the different classes.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) is the largest employment programme in the world. It aims to provide at least 100 days of guaranteed paid employment per year, in the form of unskilled manual labour, to any household providing interested adult volunteers. This ambitious programme has several objectives in addition to providing economic security, such as creating durable assets (e.g. roads and canals), strengthening natural resource management, empowering rural women, promoting decentralisation, making government processes more transparent, and reinforcing grass-roots procedures for democracy. The evidence base strongly suggests the need for a strategic reorientation of research and evaluation funding towards conducting more theory-based impact evaluations that use a counterfactual, especially when the evidence is readily available and applicable to such methodologies. More studies need to look into how effective MGNREGA is in improving beneficiaries’ and communities’ lives, in particular contexts and for particular groups of beneficiaries, and into whether and how to adapt the programme to improve these impacts, instead of stagnating on highly frequented variables such as beneficiary participation. If studies do look at the impacts on beneficiaries’ lives, we recommend that those studies be designed to disaggregate by key social and structural determinants of inequality and use a suitable gender-relations framework for the overall analysis.
Migration from developing countries to developed countries is not a new phenomenon. The causes of migration has been well explained by many authors. The rate of population growth and the proportion of youth in the population, their education and training, employment opportunities, income differentials in society, communication and transportation facilities, political freedom and human rights and the level of urbanization are the important causes of migration (Samuel and George 2002). According to Kaur (2013), among developing countries, South Asia is considered the hub of migrant workers because of populated countries like India, Bangladesh etc. These migrant workers help make up for the shortage of labour in the developed world and their remittances are major sources of foreign exchange reserves for South Asian countries. The study revealed that during the study period (1980-2010), remittances did not result in a reduction in poverty. Although remittances are considered as a tool of poverty reduction, the slow trickle down effects in these countries may be the one of the reasons for the negative relation.
In our project we discusses how migration is continuing in different parts of India and how it is becoming more and more crucial towards improving livelihood status. In 2004-05, Indian labour force consisted of about 430 million persons, growing annually at about 2% (Economic Survey, 2007). Slightly less than 3/5th of it is employed in agriculture, mostly residing in rural areas and producing a little over 1/5th of the domestic product. Cultivators form about 2/3rd of the rural workforce, the remaining are agriculture workers. Industry (mining, manufacturing, construction and utilities) employs around 18% of the workforce, producing about 27% of the domestic output. The construction industry is important for Indians rural to urban migrants. Over 90% of urban construction workers are rural migrants, and over a third of all rural migrants work in construction. The construction industry is not only particularly important, but is also different from other industries in its pay and labor recruitment practices. In common with other rural workers, construction workers have long suffered from various problems, including delayed payment of salaries and exclusion from urban social security schemes. State policies designed to deal with these problems have in general had mixed success. Partly as a result of the peculiarities of the construction industry, state policy has been particularly unsuccessful in dealing with the problems faced by construction workers. Our project considers both the risks rural workers in the construction industry face because of the work they do and the risks they face and because of their being rural workers. It shows that social protection needs to take into account both the work related risks and status related risks. The authors first review the literature concerning work related risks, and then build up a framework to analyses the risks embedded in their work and status. The relationship between these risks and the existing formal social protection. 20 persons in depth interviews with construction workers, carried out in industry workers, are used to demonstrate both the risks and the inability of the state-led social policy to tackle these risks. The results suggest that rural construction workers in cities were exposed to all sorts of problems from not being paid for their work in time to miserable living conditions, from having to pay for their own healthcare to no savings for old age. This paper highlights the problems of policy prescriptions that failed to recognize the complexity of the problems faced by these workers and criticizes the tendency to seek quick fixes rather than long-term and careful institutional design.
Despite its growing significance, the link between poverty and migration remains an understudied subject in India and migration has largely remained outside of the public policy realm. In the theoretical migration literature, the primary motive for the movement of people from one sector/region to another is the differentials in earning opportunities, which could reflect differentials in employment opportunities or wages or both. These are in turn a result of the emerging patterns of development leading to the growth of the more productive sectors in specific spatial locations. If migration is a response to the expectation of improvement in earning opportunities, it should lead to an improvement in the income of migrants. Other beneficial changes should follow, unless these are counteracted by the growing congestion and worsening condition of public goods delivery in urban areas, which are usually the principal kind of destination areas. However, the income of migrants may not improve if migration is an involuntary response to distress and loss of income and livelihoods, or if migrants become involved in exploitative labour markets, or if the expected earning differentials are not realized. In the migration literature, this has led to an examination of push and pull factors underlying migration.
How do shocks to agricultural productivity affect the allocation of labor across sectors of the economy? To answer this, I use data from rural India to show that exogenous increases in agricultural productivity — caused by abnormally high levels of precipitation — lead to an increase in the labor share of the non-agricultural sector. I further show that the non-tradable sector expands significantly when agricultural output increases. This evidence is consistent with increasing agricultural output causing increased demand for local non-tradables, which in turn increases the non-agricultural labor share.
This paper studies three important issues of Indian agricultural sector, namely, the determinants of the agricultural wages in India, the extent to which gender inequality is present in it, and the variations in this inequality within various population hierarchies of Indian villages. The paper employs robust regression technique to deal with the presence of outliers and heteroskedasticity. Results suggest that there are four major factors that determine the agricultural wages, namely, non-farm wage factors, accessibility factors, production factors, and individual factors. Gender wage disparity is to an extent of 23% against women in comparison to the men. Furthermore, village growth is detrimental to the agricultural wages in comparison to non-farm wages and female agricultural wages are more disadvantaged with growing dynamics of villages.
Rural agriculture is also experiencing a dramatic transition away from traditional farming systems towards increasingly mechanized, commercial farming systems (Majumdar, Dolui and Banerjee 2001; Mamdani 1972; Self 2008; Vosti, Witcover and Lipton 1994; World Bank Publications 2008). New technological innovations (e.g., mechanization, high-yielding crop varieties, improved animal breeds, chemical fertilizers and pesticides) and development of new markets have dramatically transformed subsistencebased farming into market-oriented commercial farming around the world (Majumdar et al. 2001; World Bank Publications 2008). Many rural subsistence farm households now increasingly rely on modern farm technologies (e.g., tractors, pumpsets, and improved farm implements), and chemicals (fertilizers and pesticides), resulting in a large surplus of farm labor.
Using National Sample Survey data from 1983 to 2007–08, we investigate rising rates of female marriage migration in India. We find little evidence to support the idea that marriage migration is a form of disguised economic migration by women. We hypothesise that it is instead a result of the changing patterns of marriage by socioeconomic status. Regression analysis indicates that poor families are increasingly more likely to have brides who in-migrate, a finding that is robust across a sectoral disaggregation of marriage migration. We also find that urban inequality increases the likelihood of migration by intensifying class stratifications within urban India, increasing the need for poorer urban households to seek migrant brides. Marriage thus serves to reinforce rather than undermine larger patterns of class (and not just caste) inequality.
This thesis examines the role of internal migration as a livelihood strategy in influencing food access among rural households. Internal migration has become a key component of livelihood strategies for an increasing number of rural households across many countries in the developing world. Importantly, unlike earlier periods when migration was often viewed as a problem, there is now a growing consensus among academics and policy makers on the potential positive effects of migration in reducing poverty and promoting sustainable human development. Concurrently, the significance of “food security for all” as an important development objective has been rising, particularly since the 2007-08 global food crisis. However, the academic and policy discussions on these two issues have largely tended to proceed in silos, with little attention devoted to the relationship they bear with each other. This thesis attempts to fill this gap in the specific context of India, the country with the most underfed people in the world and where internal migration has traditionally been central to rural livelihoods. Using a case study approach, involving primary survey data collected from an equally representative sample of 392 migrant and non-migrant households from the high outmigration district of Siwan in western Bihar, this thesis provides empirical household-level insights on the interface between migration and food security. Contrary to conventional wisdom that posits migration as a household food security strategy only in times of food shortages, this thesis argues that the relationship between them is bidirectional. Food insecurity can be a critical driver of households’ migration decisions, and subsequent remittances can ease household food insecurity. The empirical evidence in this thesis asserts an appreciation of three key pathways that shape these forward-backward linkages: i) the role of food and livelihood safety nets in influencing households’ food security situation and their migration decisions; ii) the extent to which migrants’ remittances are received by households and the manner in which they are used; and iii) the ways that migration affects gender dynamics within households. The evidence presented in this thesis shows that these processes manifest at various levels, and hence produce complex outcomes with respect to the migration-food security relationship. In the wake of recent evidence on the rising significance of migration in rural livelihood systems in India, and indeed, across a number of developing countries, the findings reported in this thesis warrant a pressing policy need to better integrate migration in future food policy research and practice.
Emerging economies are witnessing the large-scale movement of internal migrants. While the popular discourse on internal migration imagines migrants from villages flooding into the large metropolis, scholarship is increasingly emphasizing the existence of multiple migration pathways, as well as the emergence of more dispersed patterns of urbanization. To root these discussions in particular geographies, this paper introduces the concept of ‘migrant-intensity’ as an empirical way of understanding the places that experience migration in the most profound and transformative ways—where the challenges and opportunities inherent in transience and mobility are most apparent. Analyzing census data from India and Indonesia, we show that ‘migrant-intensity’—a measure of in- and out-migrant concentration—is highest in a diverse set of non-metropolitan spaces, including secondary and tertiary cities and ‘rurban’ geographies. We argue that migrant-intensity as an empirical tool can advance scholarship on complex migration patterns by identifying the places at the crossroads of migrant pathways. Moreover, it can help planners and policymakers to address unique challenges, opportunities and constraints of migrant-intensive places.
The present paper using Census data describes the recent past trends and patterns of Punjab’s urbanization from 1961 to 2011. It investigates the relevant determinants of urbanization in Punjab. Finally, it measures the impact of urbanization on urban economic growth in Punjab. The empirical results show that the growth rate of urban population is higher than that of the total population in Punjab. Urban agglomerations and urban areas of in Punjab also are increasing rapidly. Most importantly, it has been seen that urban population in Punjab is concentrated in an around Class I cities than other class of cities/towns. The OLS regression results show that road distance to sub division (or nearest city population of 1 lakh and more) has a negative effect on urbanization in Punjab measured by size of city population.
The Globalization has great impact on the country like India, which increases the economic growth of the country, and because of this, we are seeing a growing urbanized India. Historically, India’s population has been predominantly rural, but since the year 1991 the urban population was increasing, and today it stands about more than 30% of the total population of the country. Although, urbanization in India has been underpinned by the rapid growth in the economy especially from the last decade of the 20th Century, and there is transformation from rural economy, based on agriculture and its allied activities to the modern economy related to industrial activities. However, as India’s urbanization process is increasing we are seeing its negative impacts on the urban areas, by way of lack of basic facilities like infrastructure, drinking water, housing, transport etc. Thus, this article tries to present the urbanization taking place in India, and also gives particular attention to the emerging issues and challenges, associated with the urbanization process in India and some suggestions to overcome it.
Migration is a complex phenomenon influenced by economic, social, political, geographical and environmental factors. Emigration from India to GCC countries are one of the major migration flows in the world migration flow, for different reasons people emigrate to GCC countries. This paper empirically analyses the flows and its influence on various factors. The paper found that GDP, Exchange rate, population of origin and destination countries, language, distance between origin and destination countries are the factors influencing the emigration flows India to GCC countries.
Trafficking of women and children is a regional, as well as an international and global, issue. Trade liberalization and globalization have encouraged the influx of trafficked victims and traffickers from one country to another, as in India and Malaysia. However, the primary policy that governs labor migration in India, Emigration Act of 1983 and its consequent Emigration Rules, is problematic, they actually encourage irregular migration or even trafficking, and further, stringent laws enforcing restrictive movements also further strengthens organized crime. In a similar vein, Malaysia’s labor migration policy as governed by the Immigration Act 1959/63, and other pertinent laws not only encourages even more irregular migrants, but also facilitates trafficking. Hence, this paper affirms the contention of various authors (Castles 2004; Chuang 2006; Jandl 2007) that globalization, labor migration and human trafficking are inextricably linked to each other. Moreover, this paper affirms that the governments of both India and Malaysia, have tried to address the issue of trafficking, however, problem areas are still abound. In addition, the presence of non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and the partnerships they established with the government’s law enforcement agencies in order to address the issue of human trafficking is also affirmed. This partnership is beneficial for the society because where the state may not be able to provide basic services, NGOs and civil society groups can provide such necessary services. The dynamics of state – society partnership thus encapsulates the politics of human trafficking in India and Malaysia.
Rural to urban migration has become a salient feature of the country. However, there is a dearth of study highlighting impact of this movement on mental health of the migrant people. The main objective of the present study was to examine the relationship between specific components of social environment and psychological well-being of migrants in an urban center. The National Capital Territory of Delhi was selected for intensive study and has an exploratory design supported by cross-sectional primary data. A standardized questionnaire was used to obtain data about the socioeconomic characteristics of the respondents. For measuring the mental well-being, the World Health Organization Well-Being Index (WHO5) was used. The required information was procured through interview method from 1230 sampled respondents. Influence of socioeconomic variables on mental well‑being of the people was estimated through multivariate logistic regression methods. For different combinations of risk factors, five models were developed based on unstandardized likelihood coefficients. Results: Poor mental health was significantly higher among single/widow/divorced/separated (odds ratio [OR] =0.76,P < 0.01), unskilled (OR = 2.26, P < 0.01), daily wager (OR = 2.57, P < 0.01), and illiterate (OR = 2.55, P < 0.01). Longer year of immigration, younger age, and higher income level (P < 0.001) were positively related to mental health. Poor housing conditions (P < 0.001), adjustment problem (P < 0.001), and feeling insecure (P < 0.01) were independent predictors of poor mental health. Socioeconomic and environmental problem caused by the migrants and faced by the migrants is required in-depth study to formulate comprehensive policies.
Women constitute only a quarter of the total labour force in India though they form nearly half of the Indian population. The total workforce in the country is 314 million, of which 224 million are men, and 90 million are women. Workingwomen constitute only 17 per cent of the women folk in India. The percentage of female workers in the total working force is 31.5 and the percentage varies from state to state and from community to community. For instance the percentage of female workers ranges from 9.43 in West Bengal to 43.99 in Madhya Pradesh. In addition to the low work participation rate, women are largely concentrated in the unorganised sector. More than 90 per cent of the female working force is concentrated in the unorganized sector. They are concentrated in this sector due to the biased social value, less skills required for the job, ease of entry, traditional role assigned to them, technological advancements in the organized sector etc. The women labour in Kerala is no exception to this, though women in the state enjoy a high status compared to their counterparts in other states. In this context, it is necessary to have an overview of women employment in Kerala.
This article argues for an understanding of wages as a cultural and spatial relation. By examining the wages of migrant workers and local unionised labour in Ernakulam in Kerala, South India, it demonstrates that ‘wage’ embodies practices and processes. The article details the labour practices in a port building site and in spot labour markets for construction work. It examines skill as a social relation and non-payment of wages as an accumulation strategy. Wages of local workers and that of migrant workers differ not only in terms of quantity, but also in terms of the processes and practices that surround them. These differences are viewed through the lens of cultural politics and spatial differentiation.
This paper calculates select urban inequality and poverty indices and finds their policy linkages. In order to empirically estimate the links between poverty and inequality, it uses the new theoretical framework which was proposed by Araar and Timothy (2006). In addition, it estimates the determinants of urban poverty and inequality by using data pertaining to 52 large cities in India. The main results show that higher levels of city economic growth and large city population agglomerations are associated with a reduction in the poverty level of cities and an increase in the extent of inequality between cities.
Despite rapid economic growth coupled with benefits of the demographic dividend, evidence from both the NSSO 66th and 68th Rounds reveals a decline in female labour force participation in India. This decline is difficult to explain in terms of economic variables as the country is experiencing rapid economic changes. Perhaps the age and cohort factors or educational and time period advantages might be leading to the postponement of female labour market participation. This paper attempts to explore the reasons for the decline in female labour force participation by sorting out the trends into age, period and cohort effects. In order to study these aspects, a linear regression model has been applied and the data has been drawn from various NSSO rounds. The empirical estimates suggest that age and period changes can account for a substantial decline in labour force participation. The provision of higher education and creation of employment opportunities for younger cohorts of women would help increase the labour force participation rate in the near future.
Mobility is not a new phenomenon, people move for many reasons and factors that drive mobility often stem from unequal distribution of resources, climate change, conflict and political unrest. In India, for the poor and for the people from less developed area, migrate to developed area for better economic opportunities, considering a migration as an opportunity to change their life. But migration is not an unmixed blessing, has some serious negative impacts as well. In recent year’s studies found that migrants are disadvantaged in many ways, which lead them to seek alternative support that may engage migrants in risky behaviors like visiting to sex workers, injecting drugs, drinking alcohols etc. making them more vulnerable to HIV infection. Delhi is the major destination for the migrants from less developed cities/states in India. So in this context, this paper intends to examine the relationship between migration and HIV prevalence among the migrants to Delhi. Also our aim is to examine the socio-economic conditions that increase the degree of vulnerability to HIV/AIDS. For the purpose we have a sample of 40 HIV patients who are migrants from Bihar and Uttar Pradesh in Delhi and 10 HIV patients who belong to Delhi. Using primary data collected through field survey and observation method, it is observed that the lower education status, poor wage and being separated from the life partners make migrants susceptible and vulnerable to sexually transmitted diseases especially HIV/ AIDS. It is found that after hard work the poor migrants resort to drinking wine and enjoy with sex workers, which is an important way of getting infected. Hence the migrant's previous conditions and present circumstances make them more prone to HIV infection. The Findings of the study are revealing that it’s become very necessary to implement effective programs that can aware migrants to prevent themselves from HIV infection and to lead a better life.
Since 1901, Urban Primacy has been a feature of urbanization of West Bengal and continuous increase of population in highly urbanized districts around Kolkata. This subsequently led to slowing down the process of urbanization from 1951 onwards and quite a different trend has been noticed during 2001-2011. The Census data of 2011 reveals that urbanization process of the state exhibits a growing trend and begins to spread into the interior districts (Maldah, Murshidabad, Nadia, Birbhum and Jalpaiguri) of West Bengal. These have been accompanied by a noticeable decline in the percentage share population share in Class I towns and substantial population growth in small towns. This study makes an attempt to explore this changing pattern of urbanization in West Bengal over the last decade and find out the significance and future of newly developed small towns over the urban landscape. For each of the districts, annual growth rate of urban population (All Towns) during 2001 – 2011 is calculated. Such rate has also been calculated separately considering only those towns which received urban status in 2001 or before i.e. Old Towns. Now the difference between these two rates represents the contribution of towns which emerged in between 2001 - 2011 to the growth of urban population in the districts. To make our understanding more trustworthy, all towns of each district have been classified into three broad groups. Population belonging to each town group has been converted into percentage share to the total urban population. To visualize the spatial spread of urbanization we used 'kriging' to interpolate a continuous surface from point samples of district headquarters. Results show for the first time in 2011, a proper decentralization of urbanization could be seen both in terms of spatial context and size class distribution. This may be attributed to the speeding up process of urbanization into the interior districts placed distant from Kolkata featuring with small towns, proclaiming their state of existence by holding significant population share. It could explain the increasing trend of urbanization in the state as a whole in 2011 characterized by the dispersion of dispersed urbanization.
In case of migration studies in India, the role of caste has been largely ignored. But it plays a role in facilitating, barring migration and in creation or perpetuation of migration patterns. Social networks and capital which enable and encourage migration are caste based networks. Hence, certain migration streams may be easily accessible to migrants while others will be closed. Migration patterns differ across caste groups. For the erstwhile lower castes, migration offers an opportunity to escape oppressive caste practices, while for the dominant castes it is a way of consolidating power in the spaces that they inhabit. Economic and ‘social’ remittances of migrants play a role in shaping caste practices and also in weakening or strengthening the power of certain caste groups. This paper looks at the differing migration outcomes and examines the role that caste plays in determining them. It explores the relationship of caste and migration based on primary data collected in Beed district of Maharashtra.
This paper examines the impact of inward remittances flows on per capita gross domestic product (GDP) growth in Bangladesh during 1976–2012. We find that the growth effect of remittances is negative at first but becomes positive at a later stage, evidence of a non-linear relationship. Unproductive use of remittances was rampant in the beginning when they were received by migrant families, but better social and economic investments led to more productive utilization of remittances receipts at later periods. This suggests a U-shaped relationship between remittances and per capita GDP growth. Unlike what is suggested in the literature, that the effect of remittances is more pronounced in a less financially developed economy, our evidence does not show that the effect of remittances on per capita GDP growth in Bangladesh is conditional on the level of financial development.
Around the world, women are marginalized and their liberty has been violated despite women rights and movement. The women and girls are still treated as subhuman. They are subject to sexual exploitation, sexual slavery, and a forced labor. The problems of women based discrimination are widespread all over the world and trafficking of women issues is taken as the most intolerant criminal activity in the earth. Though the world is advancing but Nepal is still dragging behind and its one of the problem is sex exploitation. Human rights of women are denied in Nepal due to problems like caste discrimination, political instability, corruption, poverty, illiteracy, and unemployment. These factors of example have made women to become survivors of trafficking to neighboring Gulf countries and India. These women have a traumatizing experience as they are brutally exploited and enticed by the ‘syndicate’ who is equivalent to ‘Johns’ of America’. Nepali women are sold in the brothels and start serving as commercial sex workers and, are forced into force labor. Nepalese women are more likely opt to go with Johns due to these problems. Thus, this paper will research to analyze the magnitude of sex trafficking on Nepalese women from the perspective of human rights context.
After the successful completion of the sixth five-year plan (2010-2015), Bangladesh has been promoted to a lower-middle income country. However, this was just one of the many goals that were set – many other goals have not been successfully achieved. Bangladesh still faces several crises on multiple fronts. The majority of the population still lies in rural areas that are prone to natural disasters. The rising population and the quest for rapid urbanization (which causes people to move into the major urban centers – namely Dhaka and Chittagong) are two major issues which need to be addressed immediately. Problems pertaining to climate change, gender roles, migration and resettlement still persist. Such issues create the driving force for migration and resettlement into newer surroundings – surroundings that potentially offer better livelihoods and safety. Several government and private sector policies exist to account for these changes. Some of them are timeworn and ineffective, and some of them do not address issues clearly. There is need for adjustment of these policies. This review analyzes migration and resettlement in Bangladesh, its causes and concerns (in relation to climate change and gender roles), and recommends strategies and policy reforms to accommodate migration and resettlement in order to make Vision 2021 a reality.
Water is essential for human health, agriculture and livelihoods. Its depletion is predicted to lead to conflict, instability and migration. Irrigated agriculture contributes to a large portion of food production in South Asia making it highly vulnerable to predicted changes in the runoff of major rivers. Large parts of South Asia exhibit a near-permanent state of water stress and this is expected to be further exacerbated by climate change. Water scarcity will exacerbate existing problems such as poverty and food insecurity, while creating instability and potentially driving mass migration. More recent studies, however, warn that linking water directly to conflict and migration is too simplistic. A lack of water resources alone is usually never the only factor that drives migration. Migration is dependent on many other factors that might exist alongside water scarcity including: socio-political tensions and preexisting conflict, such as border disputes, and water infrastructure projects such as dams and reservoirs. Other factors may include existing poverty, political leadership, and investment and mitigation efforts. These contributory factors need to be better understood in order to develop policies that address local and international population movements linked to water scarcity in South Asia.
The study on causes of interstate out migration of rural youths of Assam was conducted with 150 respondents. The present study was conducted at Hyderabad. The respondents were rural youths of Assam migrated to Hyderabad and worked in unorganized sector. The Snow ball technique was applied to select the respondents. Majority (56.00%) of the respondents satisfied with their earnings at destination place. Total three fourth (75.67%) of the respondents waited for getting a job after the out migration at destination. A majority (65.34%) of respondents suffered with asthma problem at destination place. The mean working hours of the respondents at destination was 10.44 hrs. Most of the respondents living in katcha houses in group to save money.
The purpose of this work, based on a survey in the North-West Pakistan, is to assess the impact of various socioeconomic factors on rural-urban migration. Using the binary probit model, our results suggest that economic factors play an important role in the household’s decision to migrate but are not the only determinants. Therefore an in-depth analysis of the socio-economic conditions prevailing at the rural and urban areas is necessary to understand the causes of rural-urban migration in Pakistan. Our empirical analyses indicate a positive and significant relationship between employment type, family members in the labor force, years of education, land holdings and migration. Moreover, a negative and significant relationship was observed between living conditions, opportunities of non-farm and farm income and rural-urban migration. Based on our empirical findings, we recommend that investment in urban infrastructure should be supplemented by investment in rural areas so as to reduce the mounting pressure on the urban infrastructure.
This research report is produced on the basis of the findings of field survey, which was carried out as an integral part of the initiatives of BOMSA and WARBE Development Foundation. The research included the response of cross-section of female workers and their family members from 6 selected upazilas of 4 districts (Narayanganj, Manikganj, Rangpur and Jessore districts) in Bangladesh. It has applied qualitative methods and tools to extract all relevant information from both primary and secondary sources to explain its set objectives. All the collated information is systematically analyzed in the research with special focus on “Female Migrant Workers’ Remittances and Contribution to the National Economy of Bangladesh”.
This paper presents an emic perspective on the drivers and outcomes of migration brokerage through a study of low-skilled migrant construction workers from Chapainawabganj – a district in the north-west of Bangladesh – travelling to Qatar. The paper problematises assumptions underlying dominant discourses on the relationship between migrants and brokers by showing the differences in migrants’ own perspectives on brokerage and the way in which the migrant welfare and humanitarian organisation narratives frame the process. The paper draws on interviews with migrants back in Bangladesh who were either on holiday before returning to Qatar again or who had completed a period of migration there and had returned home for good. It also draws on interviews with brokers in Chapainawabganj and Dhaka. The research on which this paper is based sought to understand why Bangladeshi men continued to migrate through brokers for construction work, despite all the efforts to discourage this practice. It also aimed to understand how migrants view the process themselves in terms of exploitation, hardship, success and failure and how closely this corresponds to the way in which it is conceptualised by outsiders. Finally we attempt to convey the long-term view that migrants take on the process in order to provide a different perspective on the costs and risks, as well as the benefits, of migration through brokers.
Over the last few years, impacts of environmental variability on population migration have been an increasing concern over the world. Estimates have suggested that between 25 million and 1 billion people could be displaced by climate change over the next 40 years. Though it is very difficult to delineate the specific drivers behind human migration, an attempt has been made in this chapter to discuss various reported cases across the world and more specifically, India where environment has played a major role in population movement. The chapter begins by outlining important definitions of migration and environmentally induced migration. It focuses on how environmental change and environmental hazards, especially water scarcity, contribute to human migration by exploring the mechanisms through which vulnerability and migration are linked. The process of movement and migration is usually subject to a complex set of push and pull forces, where push forces relate to the source area while pull factors relate to the destination. Emphasizing water scarcity as one of the prime push factors behind migration, various instances of population movement have been discussed from various parts of India. Understanding the importance of migration in development of a sustainable society, the chapter identifies various gaps that need to be addressed, which, in turn, will help in incorporating environment-induced migration into the decision-making process.
An increasing number of people worldwide are migrating to improve or secure their livelihoods, and mountain regions play an important role in this trend. Migration is often the result of a combination of push factors (eg conflict, poverty, disaster) and pull factors (eg job opportunities) (Stark and Bloom 1985; Massey et al 1993). In Asia, smallholder farmers have increasingly diversified their livelihoods in the past decades, usually by finding employment in the same area or by migrating (Rigg et al 2016). Remittances from migrants are an important source of income in many developing nations, at both country and household levels, especially in mountain areas (World Bank 2016). They change household consumption patterns and create ‘‘remittance landscapes.’’ In some Asian countries such as the Philippines, paddy fields have been replaced by cash crops, such as beans, due to labor and water shortages (McKay 2005).
The paper focuses an account of the origin, history and migration of the Banjara tribe. Banjaras have a unique culture of their own and spread all over the country. They give priority to community life, community values and have collective property resources for common use. To study the origin and historical background of Banjaras, to analysis the various connotation on Banjaras and their migration, to focus the significance of the Banjara culture in the present day scenario and to suggest appropriate measures to restore their culture for future generation. This paper provides historical evidences from the ancient period to present day scenario in India. It attempts to list out different connotation and terminology used for the same community in different parts of India and their migration to South India and Telangana. It intended to examine criticallly on various theories and stories connected to Banjaras and their origin and migration to south India.
To assess the socio-economic conditions of the tribal women. To study specific factors responsible for migration of tribal women. To examine income and expenditure patterns of migrants. To investigate into the type and the level of moral physical economic exploitation of migrants. To suggest various ways and means for improving the socio-economic and health condition of tribal women and empower them. Majority migrants are small farmers having 0.5 to 1 hectare of land and lack of irrigation facilities. 90% migrants are at young age group. 78% respondents opined that agriculture forced them to migrant. 88% migrants resorted to degraded employment. More than three fourth of the migrant women have reported that, their fathers occupation as farming and about 15% as wage labour. 86% are facing health problems. Women are often exploited physically and sexually and they are more vulnerable than men. 82% women migrants are earning more than Rs.3000-4000 per month. Majority migrants spent Rs.2000-3000 on food and non-food items. Migrants are facing different problems at their native place and at place of migration. They are withdrawing children from schools, started doing degrading jobs, old family members left on attended, increased land mortgage, reduction in food consumption, increased silver loss, increased debt, increased intensity of migration, unpaid hospital bills, reduced fodder availability and short term land transfers. Increase of slums, increase of health problems, increase of pollution, low-wages, increase of crimes and suicides, reduce in nutritional food consumption, increase of trafficking and accidents and insecure life. As it is revealed by the empirical study, the inability of the rural agriculture sector to absorb the rural labour, especially women labour, they are migrating to the nearby urban centers where they get employment causing population pressure in cities/ town and resulting in frictions between migrants and natives. It is hence imperative that appropriate policy measure is to be undertaken to encourage agricultural allied activities, rural industries and emerging new services.
The present study is focused on the economic and non- economic issues and the challenges confronted by the inmigrant workers in the construction sector of Kerala. It also discusses the extent of protection measures available to the inmigrant construction workers in the study area. The study used both the qualitative and quantitative data from 150 samples of the inmigrant workers in the rural and urban areas of Kannur district and also analyzed twenty of local workers for comparing the employment, work, and availing social security provisions to the inmigrant workers in the construction sector of Kerala. The qualitative method, Likert scale used for measuring the level of satisfaction of the inmigrant workers in term of their working and living conditions. The qualitative method, Likert scale mentions that majority of the workers are dissatisfied with their existing living and working conditions. Study collected data from inmigrant construction workers, contractors and supervisors for the problems in discussion. The problems faced by the inmigrant workers in the domain of income, employment, wage and living conditions, the working conditions, health related issues and the prevailing social security benefits to the inmigrant workers. An understanding of the problems and issues confronted by the inmigrant workers in the construction sector of Kerala will provide further scope for the area under study.
This study examines in a relational manner the daily living conditions of South-Asian ‘regular workers’ (‘work permit holders’) in their workplace and ‘irregular workers’ (‘special pass holders’) who are seeking refuge due to trouble with their employer. Particular attention will be given to the distressed living conditions and how these are addressed by a non-governmental organization in Little India.
Development induced displacements of human communities is one of the major social disruptive processes happening all over the world. Among the various impacts of large developmental projects, the displacement by large river valley projects in forested and tribal areas is an exceptionally devastating one. The studies of the International Commission on Large Dams and the World Commission on Dams calculate that at least 40 – 80 million people have been directly displaced by large dams all over the world. India which has 4200 dams completed since Independence has the distinction of having 30 – 50 million dam displaced people. The majority of them have not been resettled or given any compensation. In Kerala, there are 60 large dams built for irrigation and power generation, but no documentation of the people displaced or the measures taken to resettle them had been done.
Seasonal migration of women workers, both independent and associational, is reported to be high in Andhra Pradesh. The patterns and process of migration, working conditions of migrants at places of destination of the seasonal migrant women workers engaged in sugar cane-cutting, chilli-plucking, brick-making and dam construction in the villages of Andhra Pradesh and consequences of migration for the migrants and their households are discussed in this paper.
This paper aims at a comparative study of South Asian labour migration flows across the Bay of Bengal into South East Asia and the subcontinent during colonial rule. In what way did these labour flows impact Indian migrant communities in the long term? And what kind of relationship evolved between them and the indigenous communities at the place of arrival across time and space?
The horror of India’s urban spaces cannot be understood without recognizing the core errors in planning and in the approach of infrastructural development. These stem mainly from the low FSI’s that are used, the lack of any recognition of central place needs of different economic activities, the lack of even a modicum of integration of transport planning with layout planning (the so called “Master Plans”), an” architects’ approach” to urban design, and most importantly to the organization mess-up that the urban local bodies are. Unless these change the large sums of money that would be spent would actually result in much subtraction of social and public value.
Due to construction of Peddagedda Reservoir in the agency area of Vizianagaram district about 184 tribal families from seven tribal villages were affected and displaced. The project affected tribal families were rehabilitated in colonies at five different places, located nearer to the reservoir. After displacement, about 14 families were migrated to other places in search of livelihood. Displaced tribal people were forced to change their traditional occupation, basically for survival and subsistence. This research paper presents a case study of displaced tribal people of the Peddagedda reservoir,who belongs to Konda dora, Manne dora, and Nooka dora tribes. It is an anthropological holistic study, employed Anthropological Ethnographic Methodology for collection of empirical data. The research article is mostly descriptive in nature and comprises of both semantic and scientific explanations. The research paper forms the part of the major research project titled “Displacement, marginalization and exclusion of tribes due to construction of dams and reservoirs in Andhra Pradesh” sponsored by University Grants Commission, New Delhi. It highlights the problems of displaced tribal people, specifically forced migration and occupational change. It also reveals that, how the enforced and involuntary displacement leads to social exclusion, in addition to various impoverishment risks such as landlessness, joblessness, homelessness, marginalization, food insecurity, increased morbidity and mortality, loss of common resources and social disarticulation. All these factors coincide with the Michael cernea’s observations on the issue of human displacement on the name of development projects.
Drawing on a number of case studies from Tamil Nadu, this article shows that bonded labour is not a relic of the past, but surprisingly contemporary. Refuting the tenets of the semi-feudal thesis, we argue that unfree labour can go hand in hand with capitalism, and that it can be initiated and sustained by capital itself in order to accumulate surplus value. Going against the tenets of the de-proletarianization thesis, we suggest that bonded labour is not always the preferred working arrangement for capitalism. Bonded labour should be examined in connection to specific historical contexts, the changing nature of the economy, the evolution of political forces and modes of socialisation. I argue that bonded labour results from a specific regime of accumulation characterized by cheap labour, increased domestic demand sustained through household debt, as well as modes of conflict, contestation and worker identity formation that engage with both governmental programs and consumerism.
Female domestic workers are the part of unorganized workforce of India. This trend of keeping females as a domestic worker has increased day by day this could be because of lack of education, Unemployment and lack of other Vocational skills. This study highlights the “Condition & problems of female domestic workers” which basically focuses on the “condition of work” & “working conditions” and problems related to health, wages, work security, family related problems because of work, mental, physical & sexual harassment at workplace. The study also reveals the awareness of the respondents about the Governmental Organizations (GO’s) & NonGovernmental Organization (NGO’s) working for their welfare. The results and discussion part gives a clear picture of the “Condition & Problems of the female domestic workers of that area”. The suggestions given in the study can be cited to improve the conditions of Female domestic workers in India.
This paper aims to analyse the problems of workers in construction industry. Construction industry is one of the most important sector which generates employment opportunities and improve the standard of living of many people in rural and urban areas. In fact, majority of people depend on this industry for employment and income. It is important to note that this an unorganized sector which is the basis for economic development. The workers engaged in construction works are socially and economically backward and so that they are unable to organize themselves in pursuit of their common interest. This is because of certain constraints like casual nature of employment, ignorance, illiteracy lack of mobility poverty, small scattered size of establishment and lack of co-operation among the workers. Consequently, construction workers face a lot of problems such as lack of work security, low wage, more hours of work, and lack of social and medical welfare facilities. Generally construction workers face financial problems, health problems, diseases, mishaps and even loss of life. Moreover, lack of social welfare measures and social security and medical benefits affect the construction workers.
Migration refers to the mobility of people from one place to another; it may be a permanent or temporary migration, as well as a short or long term migration. The study aims to analyze changing patterns, reasons for out-migration and also focus on spatial patterns, tempo of urbanization in West Bengal based on Census data. It is noted that the proportion of migrants in West Bengal has increased from 27% in 1991 to 30% in 2001. In the case of inter -state migrants, West Bengal has more in-migrants than out-migrants. Bihar continues to be the main state of origin of immigrants in West Bengal with 62.43% in 1991 and 63.68% in 2001. West Bengal, the most favored destinations are in Bihar, comprising 36.76% in 1991 and 28.17% in 2001. It is also found that employment is the main cause of men's movement and marriage remains the most dominant for female migration. The focus on level of urbanization increased from 27.81% in the 2001 Census to 31.16% in the 2011 Census, but the pace or speed of urbanization is not uniform over the years in West Bengal.
The heavy flow of out-migrants from Bihar has always been a part of scholar’s interest, as it became a metaphor of out-migration led by under-development and poverty. The violent reaction of the political class and host community to Bihari migrants has further accelerated the debate on different issues related to outmigration from the state. Bihari migrants are facing increasing hostility from political class but the ongoing policy of urban planning, which is flipped towards the richer section of urban residents and is also increasing difficulty to survival of poor migrants. In this scenario, it is important to understand the actual pattern of out-migration and its importance for the community of origin. In this study, the volume, trend, pattern and causes of outmigration has been tried to explored. The amount of remittance is also assessed and its role to support the household has been examined. The main source of data for the present study is Census of India, 2001 and NSSO 64th Round, 2007. Census data is useful to understand the volume and stream of out-migration because it is based on complete enumeration. While, NSSO data give extensive information on causes of out-migration and remittance send back to the household.
Migration can be linked with various factors. In the context of North East of India, population dynamism is one such factor. There has been a high growth rate of population in these regions, of over 45 million. It is characterized by underdeveloped agrarian economy with a very backward industrial sector and on the other hand a very inflated service sector. Even so, agriculture remains the backbone of the economy and is dominated by shifting cultivation. Migration may take place within the same district, between rural and urban; within the same state, between rural and rural or urban and urban; another state or even another country. There are numerous reasons why people migrate from their own homes, a search for employment or better employment. In this research paper, we will take a glimpse of the migration story and relate it with employment at different education level and different status of employed workforce. We will look at only one time period using the NSS 55th round and analyze the patterns of migration in North East Region. We use binary logistic regression to find out the likelihood or probability ratio of the migration due to employment related reasons at different education level, different status of workers and different social groups.
About more than half of the migration population across the globe are women. Even though women had equal participation as men in the process of migration in search of job opportunities outside their home by crossing the national and the international boundaries from the 1980’s onwards, they are not given due space as a separate category in migration studies. This was brought to the notice in the 20th century. The low-end service jobs have replaced male employees with ethnic migrant women for multiple reasons. The gender, race and ethnicity are playing an equally crucial role in the hiring and recruitment of the new service sector industries. In this paper, an attempt has been made to conceptualise certain changes in the demands of skills and training that are reconstructing the image of a favourable employee desirable in the service sectors. Emphasis on the embodiment of the workers in the current global market especially is (re)establishing their demand/recruitment in specific job opportunities in the labour market.A case of the North-Eastern women working in the low-end service jobs reflects on the feminisation of migration which indirectly influences the changing labour market in India. The study has taken up the case of the migrant women workers in Chennai. The methodology of the paper is descriptive, and the required information is collected with structured questionnaire survey of 300 female migrants from the North-Eastern states working in the low-end service jobs in Chennai.
India is a place of diversity in population having comparative migration in the dynamic macroeconomics phenomena in the emerging Asia. Simultaneously it is pursuing the activities of brain gain and brain drain through migrating from one geographical phenomenon to a growing pick up subsistence level area. The main objectives of the paper are to structure the determinants and patterns of the labour migration in Bijepur block of Bargarh district of Odisha. The primary data were collected from the two Gram Panchyats of the Bijepur Block name as Sanbausen and Talpadar through structured questionnaire. Purposive sampling method was used in collecting information. Data has been collected from 56 respondents’ with the help of household interview schedule. Interview schedule contained both open ended as well as close ended questions. This study reveals that there are 55.36 % migrants who are from SC, 30.36% from OBC and 14.28% are from ST communities respectively. Among the youths 52% are unmarried. The migrants family average annual income is between Rs 30,000/- to Rs 40,000/- only. The family of the 85.71% of the labour migrants is in possession of ration cards while 14.29% possess no ration card. The economic conditions of families of more than 90% of the young migrants are not sound. For the settlement of path of divergent of labour migration, employment generation renounces wage rates, efficient and skilled labour should be employed to overcome the problems.
The present article studies the impact of migration to the construction sector on rural poverty in India based on field survey. The survey has been carried out in two phases, the first phase involving the survey of construction workers in National Capital Region and the second phase comparing the wellbeing of migrant households with non migrant households in selected source villages. The study finds that at destination, workers have poor living and working conditions, lack citizenship rights, entitlements and voice. However, at the cost of hardship, low consumption levels, and possibly a smaller working life span, they manage to save a good portion of their income which they remit or take back home. At origin, migrant households report higher expenditure on consumption, residential housing, and children’s education, as well as some other assets. These differences are a result of higher employment and wage incomes among migrants. However, we were not able to control for differences in initial conditions, and life cycle and other issues, which influence both participation in migration, as well as long-term impacts.
Two years ago, Nepal was struck by a devastating earthquake. It displaced nearly 2.8 million people and shocked the country’s economy, with an estimated US$ 7 billion in damage and losses in a country whose gross domestic product (GDP) stood at only US$ 19 billion. The human face of this macroeconomic landscape emerged not long after the earthquake, in stories of Nepali workers employed abroad who were unable to travel home to help their families rebuild because of strict and exploitative contracts. The irony that workers laboring abroad to provide for their families were unable to assist them in a time of emergency brought into harsh focus the realities of Nepal’s labor market. The earthquake has indeed renewed calls for a different kind of development in Nepal, one focused on creating more and better employment within the country. This report argues that Nepal must adopt a new approach to economic development – one focused on sustainability, inclusion, and the creation of good jobs.
In the last decade, large numbers of indigenous youth from the uplands of Northeast India have migrated to metropolitan cities across the country. Many end up in the new service sector, getting jobs in high-end restaurants, shopping malls and spas. The demand for their labour is due to their un-Indian ‘exotic Asian’ appearance and a reputation for being hardworking and loyal. Such labour market value is a remarkable reversal of their position considering the earlier colonial stereotypes of their savagery and disobedience, reproduced through the de-politicisation of their armed insurrections during the post-colonial period. This paper addresses their daily experiences of vulnerability and marginality as well as the freedom and aspirations that a migratory life seem to engender.
The present study aims to explore two prominent international mobility routes between Bangladesh-India and Nepal-India with a holistic approach capturing the range of HIV-related vulnerabilities faced by the key mobile populations at the origin, transit, and the destination. The study also aims to look at the gradual perpetuation of these vulnerabilities at the place of origin from the destination and finally present issues and challenges for making the cross border migration safe within the concept of continuum of care from a macro perspective. The basic data used for the study have been taken from the issues and concerns emerged during EMPHASIS (Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV & AIDS Services, Information and Support) Mid Term Review, 2012. It has been collected using a combination of qualitative and quantitative research methods along with field observations. Findings reveal that, the vulnerabilities associated with the Bangladeshi and Nepali migrants are slightly different in occurrence but as a whole, they both are at high risk of acquiring HIV.
The present paper tries to investigate the relevant determinants of rural to urban migration in large agglomerations/cities in India. OLS regression analysis is used in this paper to analyse data pertaining to 51 large cities in India by using data from Census of India and unit level data of National Sample Survey (NSS) on employment and unemployment and consumption expenditure data. The OLS regression results show that city-wise employment and unemployment situation (measured by male self employed, not in labour force male, male casual labourer) have a negative impact on city level rural to urban migration. The level of poverty (measured by poverty head count ratio) and inequality conditions (measured by Gini coefficients) of a city also has a negative impact. However, infrastructure condition (availability of total number of electricity connection) of a city has a positive impact on city-wise rural to urban migration. Economic conditions also matters higher level of rural to urban migration. Finally, it suggests that cities need to equip themselves with better infrastructural facilities along with higher job opportunities to encourage urbanization through rural-urban migration for higher and sustainable economic growth in India.
By using unit level data on migration from nationally representative National Sample Survey Organisation (NSSO) for two points of time (1993 and 2007-08), this paper looks at the change in the level of employment related inter-state out migration in India. This paper brings out: the change occurred in the rate of inter-state out-migration between 1993 and 2007-08, the proportion of economically engaged women within the category of women who migrated due to marriage out of their state, the volume of employment related inter-state out migration of women, and finally, the propensity of Indian people for employment related inter-state out migration by their social, economic and geographical attributes. This paper finds a two times increase in inter-state out-migration in India during last one and a half decades. The increase is found even higher in many states/union territories and when we confine the analysis only to the working-age population. The gender gap has been glaring. Compared to 35 males per 1000 working age male population out-migrating across the border of their state of domicile for employment there is only 10 per 1000 working age females. Further female migration in India is predominantly occurs within the state. Out of the total women inter-state outmigrants, 4 percent reported to have migrated exclusively for employment, while more than 80 per cent reported marriage as a reason of migration. In India, economic activity of women is under reported. Keeping this in view, we have tried to adjust the reason of migration for women. This study shows that the adjusted employment related reason of migration for inter-state women rises to 18 per cent at the all India level. The logistic regression analysis further shows that these women who reported marriage a reason of migration but actually part of the workforce belong to lower socio-economic households.
This report provides data and analysis of remittances and migration trends for developing countries over the past decade, as well as the potential contributions of remittance families to reaching the SDGs by 2030. Over the past decade, attention has focused primarily on the “sending side,” particularly the aggregate volumes and transaction costs of sending family remittances, essentially from developed to developing countries (North-South). The global dimension of this phenomenon is impressive: over US$450 billion is projected to be sent this year, more than three times official development assistance (ODA). As the size of remittance flows became evident, increased competition and technological advances have helped reduce transaction costs, particularly in high-volume corridors. Several issues still require attention, including lack of basic data for most sub-Saharan countries, excessive costs for sending South-South remittances and counterproductive regulatory barriers to innovation.
Internal mobility is a critical component of economic growth and development as it enables the reallocation of labor to more productive opportunities across sectors and regions. Using detailed district-to-district migration data from the 2001 Census of India, we highlight the role of the state borders as significant impediments to internal mobility. We find that average migration between neighboring districts in the same state is at least 50 percent larger than neighboring districts on different sides of a state border even after accounting for linguistic differences. While the impact of state borders differs by education, age and reason for migration, it is always large and significant. We suggest that inter-state mobility is inhibited by the existence of state level entitlement schemes, ranging from access to subsidized goods through the public distribution system to the bias for states’ own residents in access to tertiary education and public sector employment.
People have been forced to leave from their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently because of a marked environmental disruption (natural disaster, expropriation and deterioration) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affected the quality of their livelihood by which they unable to adopt on their traditional habitats is an old phenomena in India. This country is home to 800 million such poor people, the majority of these people live on ecological fragile land and due to lack of institutional and financial capacity they unable to protect against natural as well as market based climate change. Among them various people belong to “Adibasi” (Tribal) communities across the country. They all have force to tolerate day-to-day burdens such as water shortage, food insecurity, disease, sea level rise and other environmental problems. As a result of people are being displaced internally by temporary or permanently with no hope of a foreseeable return to original inhabitant cause by expropriation such as dam or irrigation projects, mining etc. According to the Lok Sabha reports LARRDIS, 2013 around 50 million people have been displaced to the name of development projects over 50 years in India. It is look at the policy interventions by national, regional, and international actors by targeting to adaptation and disaster risk reduction. At present humanitarian issues on climate change is very concern in worldwide. It is broadly includes the mean to right, needs, demographic and technical change. In this paper, an endeavour has been made to examine theoretical framework pertaining to the nexus between environmental disruption and population displacement, and contemporary legal challenges on the issues. The aim is not only offer to expedient answers to how policy on must to be but to suggest policy alternatives in Indian perspective.
Every human being needs food, shelter and clothing for their livelihood. To earn for the livelihood he seeks the places where Agricultural Labour can earn his daily bread. In a vast country like India, where unequal distribution of resources exist, It is inevitable for the agricultural labour to find a place ideal to him. There is always uncertainty on the farm works and if the off season, it is unable to feed the labour sumptuously hence as an alternative he starts migrating to an ideal place suitable for him. All over the world though migration occurs, there are many specific reasons for Tamil Nadu agricultural laborers to migrate. A study made to achieve this objective revealed that all the laborers prefer to migrate due to poor salary. In a situation of unemployment, when there is not even a single organization to assist temporarily or professionally, as a stop-gap arrangement agricultural laborers shift their place out of necessity. Even absence of social status too makes a person to migrate next in order. In a situation, where a labour has maintained a status for a period, if there is a shift toward, negative level the attitude is very much affected to bow his head before to others. Hence even with a prestige motive, he shifts his work place. Poor job satisfaction long working hours and bad working conditions too chase an agricultural labour from his niche.
Migration in response to climate change should not be seen as a failure to adapt, but as a strategy undertaken to increase household resilience. This will, however, happen when migration is planned and supported and not under distress. This article focuses on people’s movements in the aftermath of cyclone Aila. It looks at factors influencing migration in five coastal villages in Bangladesh, and their migration experience. Growing population pressures, marginal landholdings, increased competition in the labour market, and environmental problems have been pushing people from rural to urban areas in Bangladesh for centuries. Apart from these traditional problems the additional problem of incremental and repetitive climate shocks and stresses not only add to pressures for migration but also make the terms of this migration unfair.
Nepal is one of the highest remittance receiving countries in the world, in percentage of gross domestic product (GDP). Remittances are not only defining household consumption and investment patterns, but are also transforming the structure and dynamics of the country’s overall economy. However, very little is known about its impact on the agriculture sector, which accounts for one-third of the country’s GDP. Using the most recent cross-section national level household data, this paper analyzes the effects of migration and remittances on agriculture yield. It shows two important results: (i) migration negatively affects agriculture yield, and (ii) remittance-receiving agricultural households have not demonstrated improvements in agriculture productivity, despite increased household incomes. It points to two important trends: (i) migration adversely affects agriculture yield by inducing a labor shortage in the sector, and (ii) the remittance-receiving households are not investing such incomes on productivity-enhancing agricultural capital goods and inputs. Therefore, a key development challenge for a highly remittance-dependent agrarian economy like Nepal is to incentivize remittance receiving agriculture households to invest in capital goods and inputs to improve agriculture productivity so that it more than compensates for the yield losses arising from labor migration.
Even though Nepal is predominantly an agrarian country, migration is increasingly becoming an important livelihood strategy for farm households in rural Nepal. Migrants head out to various destinations, which, for the purpose of this study, have been broadly categorised into India and elsewhere. Despite the rise in this phenomenon, little is understood about the impact of migration on farm production. Using primary data generated through a household survey, this paper attempts to contribute towards a better understanding of the impact of migration on the labour and non-labour inputs used and production outputs in rural farm families in Syangja and Baitadi districts in the hills of Nepal. While the impact of migration on farm production differed between the two regions, the findings suggest that most farm households tend to neglect subsistence farming altogether when there are alternative sources of income. Additionally, when the household income is insufficient farmers show more interest in livestock farming than in crop farming. The results of the study also indicate the increasing feminisation of the agricultural sector in the hills of Nepal
This report is a study of the reasons why bonded labour, a contemporary form of slavery, persists in India, Nepal and Pakistan. In particular, it examines the effectiveness of state interventions against bonded labour. This report reflects the main findings of research carried out by CEC, GEFONT and PILER between January 2004 and December 2006 into some of the obstacles to the eradication of bonded labour, the reasons why bonded labour persists, and into the interventions that have been made since anti-bonded legislation came into force in South Asia.2 It also draws on other existing literature on the subject. The report includes a number of recommendations which if fully implemented would lead to the eradication of bonded labour in South Asia.
This study has been conceptualized on the premise that civil society interventions are required to ameliorate the existing status of bonded workers in district Umerkot. In the absence of institutional mechanisms, there is a need for civil society actors to come forward to address the issues of bonded sharecroppers. Despite the extent of impoverishment, there are few NGOs that have been working in the district and almost none concerning the vital issues of bonded tenants. The basic purpose is to prepare a ‘situational analysis’ of the existing status of bonded sharecroppers in the district. The findings of this report are anticipated to assist the Rural Support Programmes Network (RSPN) and Thardeep Rural Development Program (TRDP) in developing a work plan to initiate development interventions in the selected villages.
The bonded labour is the most widespread form of slavery today and one of the contemporary issues in India. It exists all over India even after 5 decades implementation of international laws and 3 decades implementation of bonded labour abolition act in India. The term bonded labour referred as any labour or service provided under any forced labour conditions. Bonded labour denies its victim to enjoy their fundamental rights and incapacitates them from experience the basic human rights. The victims of bonded labour are denied freedom of movement, freedom of occupation, freedom of speech, expression, association and freedom from discrimination. Hence this paper aims to present on bonded labour system, prevalence and how to tackle this issue in India.
This thesis explores the Indian situation regarding bonded labour. This form of forced labour, which corresponds to a "practice similar to slavery" according to UNO, corresponds schematically to the setting in constraint of a person because of the contraction of a debt. Because of this borrowing of money, the person mortgages one’s freedom and must work relentlessly for the person she or he will often call "Master". All this happens in a climate of great psychological and physical violence. This form of setting in constraint exists in many countries, but finds in India reasons enabling its “blooming”, since millions of people are concerned by this.
Researchers of bonded labor in India seek to understand its long-standing practices through an examination of contemporary forms of labor coercion, their origins and relationships to poverty and inequality, and implications for policy-making. Child labor, agricultural debt bondage, and bonded migrant labor are persistent forms of modern slavery that fall under the Indian constitutional definition of forced labor. While child labor and bonded labor in India are typically addressed separately in the literature, many researchers focus on the causes and consequences of pervasive child labor in the world’s largest democracy.
This paper’s objective is to contribute to filling the gap on social aspects of development by addressing the specific issue of political participation and the political organizing of, and by, migrant workers to seek equal treatment for all workers regardless of citizenship or legal status. The crucial right to do so is the right to join or organize trade unions or form other organizations. This right is firmly established by article 26 of the ICRM which applies to all migrant workers without distinction (covering undocumented workers also).
This paper reports on the findings of a survey conducted by the Sussex Centre for Migration Research on migration and poverty in three regions of Eastern Europe and Central Asia in 2006. The research included a review of available literature, and field-level discussions with policy-makers in four countries/territories (Moldova, Tajikistan, Kosovo and Georgia). For each of the three regions (Western Balkans, the ‘European Neighbourhood’ and Central Asia), the paper explores the context of poverty and development and general migration trends, before focusing on policies orientated towards migration management, and the broader impact of migration on poverty. It concludes with a number of policy recommendations. Four further working papers complement this paper, each on one of the case study countries mentioned above.
This paper addresses some key themes of migration research: labour migration; border controls and border economies; sex workers, domestic workers, and the feminisation of migration; skill depletion as a result of out-migration; ethnic tensions in receiving countries; legal and illegal migration; The development of a ‘migration industry’, largely in private and sometimes illegal hands, is also covered in a number of the papers.
The paper provide estimates of workers residing in rural (urban) India and commuting to urban (rural) areas for work. The estimates are based on National Sample Survey Organisation’s survey of Employment and Unemployment (2009-10). In 2009-10, a total number of 8.05 million workers not engaged in agriculture commuted from rural to urban areas for work while 4.37 million workers not engaged in agriculture commuted from urban to rural areas for work. It is argued that the size of the rural and urban labour force should be adjusted to account for the workers who commute to a location different from their usual place of residence.
The paper focuses on case studies across Central America, Eastern Europe, West Africa and South Asia. The paper has three sections on migration in South Asia, which reinforce the need to disaggregate flows, whilst also emphasising the variety of forms of inequality that are influenced by migration. Thus, ethnographic evidence on long-distance migration from Bangladesh and Kerala provides detailed evidence of impacts on social as well as economic inequality; in-depth studies of internal migration in West Bengal and Western India suggest highly contrasting findings on the emancipatory effect of migration on workers; whilst evidence from Bangladesh and Sri Lanka considers the extent to which migration flows dominated by women have an impact on gender inequality.
This paper has attempted to identify some loopholes in the official data. It has further reviewed the existing literature and case studies to identify informal indebtedness as a prime motivation for temporary migration. On the whole, the paper seeks to explore the arenas and potential for future research on the theme of temporary rural-urban labour migration in the context of India.
The paper discusses with backed by studies carried on the ground how Migration plays out on the ground. Migration is the barometer of changing socio-economic and political conditions at the national and international levels. It is also a sign of wide disparities in economic and social conditions between the origin and destination. Even as analysts debate whether migration is recommended for growth or not, one thing is fundamental to migration-It is a natural outcome of inequality in the distribution of resources.
This paper is part of a larger research project that investigates the reorganization of care, and its implications for migration, gender equality, social development, and global governance. Focusing in particular care migration in Asia-Pacific context, this paper examines social, political and cultural factors that have shaped, and are reshaping, ideas and norms of care.
Every year, a large number of women migrate as brides from developing countries to developed countries in East Asia. This phenomenon virtually did not exist in the early 1990s, but foreign brides currently comprise 4 to 35 percent of newlyweds in these developed Asian countries. This paper argues that two factors account for this rapid increase in “bride importation”: the rapid growth of women's educational attainment and a cultural norm that leads to low net surplus of marriage for educated women.
This report covers existing NGO and trade union activities revolving around migrant workers in Singapore. It relies upon a wide variety of reports and materials originating from nongovernmental organizations (local and international NGOs as well as trade unions), academic papers, international organizations (ILO) as well as interviews with key informants/senior staff at NGOs and trade unions.
This working paper draws together the conceptual discussions of an interdisciplinary group of scholars, who met at the Graduate Institute in Geneva in February 2014 to explore the feasibility, merits and drawbacks and potential scope of identifying research agendas around the question of refugees, internal displacement and forced migration in Asia.
The paper examines the trends and issues in Asian labour migration and challenges faced by countries and the trade union movement in protection of migrant workers. Its main objective is to contribute to an informed debate on how best to manage labour migration, taking into account the shared concerns of countries of origin and employment for generating full and productive employment of their nationals, while at the same time respecting the basic rights of individual migrant workers and members of their families.
The economic rise of China and India provides a unique opportunity to compare the role of internal labour flows in the development of two nations with agricultural populations of unprecedented scale. This paper puts forward a comparison of the formal institutional arrangements of China‟s huji institution and the arrangements that shape labour migration and segmentation in India.
This report aims at providing detailed information on the question of urban-rural linkages in the case of India, except regarding the topic of food systems. It does follow the structure indicated in the terms of reference, i.e., evidence-based key messages for which references are provided.
The paper aims to analyze the pattern of migration of Indians over time and its impact on India. Beside the paper discusses the economic, social and political impact and how it influenced reform in education, societal & political, it also argue that the flow have distinct character in each wave based on the destination, factor behind migration, skill set of migrant. The patterns of the flow of people between countries are widely influenced by international economic, political and cultural interrelations those have positive impact on Indian economy, society and culture.
This paper explores the role migration has played in development studies, and in debates on economic growth and poverty. It argues that, despite a recent surge of interest in international migration and remittances, research on human mobility particularly for labour within poor countries does not have the place it deserves, and that it used to have in the classical development literature.
This paper provides some of the first evidence that rural development policies can have fundamental effects on the reallocation of labor between rural and urban areas. It studies the spillover effects of the world's largest rural workfare program, India's rural employment guarantee. The paper finds that the workfare program has substantial consequences: it reduces short-term (or seasonal) migration to urban areas by 9% and increases wages for manual, short-term work in urban areas by 6%. The implied elasticity of unskilled wages with respect to short-term migration is high (-0.7).
The paper uses NSS surveys from 1983 to 2007/08 to investigate the socio-economic correlates of economic migration by women in India. It decompose migration streams by distance as well as sectoral composition and link these results to the wider debate on the low workforce participation rates of Indian women. The results indicate that low female economic migration rates are not a statistical aberration due to incorrectly designed survey methodology and that a lack of supply of “good” jobs reinforces demand-side barriers to female workforce participation
This report presents the findings of a study which sought to examine the impact of Philippine government regulations on the status of Filipino domestic workers. The Migrants Workers and Overseas Filipinos Act of 1995 or RA 8042 and its amendments (RA 9422 in 2006 and RA 10022 in 2010) were aimed at enhancing the protection of migrant women, especially those in domestic work.
A new data from three village panchayats in northwest Tamil Nadu is shown and an investigation of the associations between demographic and socioeconomic factors with temporary labour migration from this setting is done. Individual (n = 1110) and household (n = 278) level logistic regression models were used to demonstrate how factors at each of these levels can influence temporary labour migration trajectories. Young males were most likely to temporarily migrate for work from this region. Additionally, large households from historically disadvantaged castes with marginal land and housing were most likely to have at least one migrant member.
Migration for domestic work has become the subject of intense debate among international human rights organisations and policy makers concerned with the welfare of workers who are predominantly women from poor and historically disadvantaged communities. This paper is a review of the literature on South-South migration for domestic work, undertaken to assess the evidence base that underpins this debate. It shows that there is little discussion of the reasons for such migration and the impact that it has on households at origin. There is an assumption that domestic workers are driven by poverty in to occupations that entrench poverty. The literature is dominated by papers focusing on the shortcomings of legal frameworks for regulating working conditions and recruitment practices, resulting in extremely exploitative conditions of employment. Although a few papers discuss worker agency, these are clearly not influencing policy debates, which continue to treat migrant domestic workers as victims. There is a dearth of research on the impacts of migration on households at origin; a significant gap in the literature given that migration is often a household strategy intended to access more remunerative employment and remit money home.
Indian marriage markets are characterized by an enormous level of female migration, the presence of dowries, and by differing levels of participation in the decision by women. We formulate and estimate a dynamic, equilibrium, two-sided matching model which allows for estimation of separate preferences for men and women. We recover male and female preferences over partner characteristics, dowry, and migration costs in the presence of differing degrees of female independence and unobserved heterogeneity. In counter-factual simulations we focus on how likely changes in sex-ratios, female autonomy, and education affect equilibrium marriage matching and welfare. Our estimates suggest that men prefer less educated and less autonomous women, and so increases in female education and autonomy reduce the welfare of women in the marriage market, even if education and autonomy improve welfare outside of marriage. Declining sex-ratios improve welfare for some, but not all, women largely by increasing the value of marrying later.
MGNREGA rural developmental works undertaken since February 2006 in Sikkim have achieved a sustainable characteristic by adopting an environment friendly approach. A range of works on water, soil and land conservation have been taken up besides others on rural connectivity. However, employment sustainability under MGNREGA remains uncertain due to the nature of the scheme, which guarantees just 100 days of wage employment in a financial year to every rural household whose adult member volunteers for unskilled manual work. The scheme is not structured to provide full employment. Employment under the scheme has declined despite the increase in expenditure, which goes more towards material costs than labour. The scheme strengthens the economic well-being of rural households by supplementing their income with an assured minimum wage, resulting in poverty reduction. In rural Sikkim work participation level has increased mainly because of the marginal workers attracted to the scheme. It is envisaged to make MGNREGA a decent rural wage employment scheme by providing full-time jobs to sustain employment.
There is a growing awareness in international policy circles that climate change may be a driver of increased migration flows. In addition to political refugees and economic migrants, climate change-induced migration and environmental migrants are increasingly recognized as categories in human migration. As climate change-induced migration is a relatively new phenomenon, there is little established policy or legislation on how to deal with the associated pressures and how to address the needs and rights of environmental migrants. International decision-making on climate change and its impacts would need to address these new emerging issues.
There has been increased emphasis on the linkages between international migration and development at international, regional and national levels in the past two decades. This recognition of migration as a developmental tool has generated calls for mainstreaming migration in development with some origin countries making specific attempts at incorporating migration concerns into their development agendas. Yet this approach is being promoted in a context where there is still inadequate understanding of the precise linkages between migration and development. The paper reviews the situation in South Asia with respect to mainstreaming arguments. It first reviews the analytical issues involved in mainstreaming including definitions and mechanisms proposed. Next the main linkages identified between migration and development – remittances, return migration and diasporas – are discussed in relation to country experiences in South Asia. Some contradictions in the mainstreaming discourse are highlighted followed by some conclusions and policy implications.
The proposition that environmental degradation is or should be a security concern is no longer a novelty in the non-traditional security agenda. Put broadly, environmental security falls within two sometimes competing approaches to non-traditional security (other terms include new security, transnational security, comprehensive security, and non-conventional security). The first of these, which is the focus of this paper, looks for non-traditional threats to traditional ‘referent objects’ (that is, states) and worries about the potential for conflict and political violence as a result.2 Other speakers at this conference will explore the impacts of climate change on the region, and the vulnerability of a range of social groups within those countries. The issue examined in this paper is whether the social and economic impacts of climate change could result in or exacerbate conflict in the region, with particular attention to the likelihood of intra-state conflict and unrest in Northeast and Southeast Asia. As the discussion below indicates, these are difficult questions to answer with any certainty.
This report presents the results of new research into the lives and conditions facing migrant women workers in Thailand, Cambodia and Malaysia. In particular, it presents the findings of a series of in-depth interviews with migrant women workers – many of them still teenagers – conducted in each country. The interviews reveal a common tale of precarious lives in the face of state oppression and exploitation at the hands of unscrupulous employers. Many Western companies are also profiting from the abuse of migrant women workers detailed in this report. High street brands such as Adidas, Nike, Reebok and Levi-Strauss sell goods produced in all three countries, while low labour costs have made Cambodia a key source of cheap clothing for stores such as Gap, Zara, Marks & Spencer and H&M. Workers in Malaysia’s booming electronics industry supply market leaders all over the world.
Violence against women and girls is one of the most pervasive and systemic human rights violations in the world. Up to seven in ten women worldwide report having experienced physical and/or sexual violence at some point in their lifetime,2 and up to 50 percent of sexual assaults are committed against girls under 16.3 In several countries across Asia and the Pacific the rates of violence against women and girls are disproportionately high, indicating that the situation requires urgent attention in these two regions. Violence against women is ‘any act of gender-based violence that results in, or is likely to result in, physical, sexual or psychological harm or suffering to women [or girls], including threats of such acts, coercion or arbitrary deprivation.
The studies examined the labour demand in countries of destinations, the present and emerging relationships between national economies, employment characteristics and labour demand and how various migrant labour policies translate into different forms of preference or restriction. The actual characteristics of migrant labour in countries of destinations, the filtering and distorting mechanisms of the recruitment mechanisms and the way the migrant labour preparation and recruitment processes in the countries of origins have responded to the demand were also investigated.
This publication contains the report and supplementary materials of two workshops held in 2016, the first of which was held in New York on the 29 February and 1 March 2016, while the second in Geneva on 11 and 12 October 2016. The workshops, which took place under the overarching theme of the 2016 IDM - “Follow-up and Review of Migration in the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs)”, featured 68 speakers and were attended by more than 600 participants who in all represented a cross section of policymakers, experts, academics, the private sector, officials of international organizations, and migrants. The publication presents thematically a detailed report of the deliberations on the main issues discussed and offers a collection of national experiences, best practices shared and recommendations made towards a transparent and inclusive implementation process of the migration related SDGs. In addition, the publication contains the agenda, background paper and summary of main conclusions, pertaining to each workshop.
This report examines the unique factors or circumstances pertaining to HIV and migration in select countries of South and North East Asia that need to be taken into account while planning a response to the epidemic. It highlights an increasing level of mobility in all the seven countries, both within and across national borders. Although some of this mobility is 'formal', much of it is informal or 'irregular'. Further, the findings reinforce the fact that the type of population mobility and the context and conditions in which it occurs - whether under duress or distress, or in unprepared conditions - affects the vulnerability of migrants and their families to HIV.
It is now well-acknowledged amongst feminist scholars that the andocentric bias inherent in migration studies has contributed to a neglect of the centrality of women in migration processes. In this guide, we will look at some feminist scholarship on issues of migration, trafficking and sites of work. We will primarily refer to case studies and literature from the Global South in order to enrich our understanding of gender, work and migration. Specifically this guide explores how this literature : 1) identifies the roles of women and men in migration processes; 2) discerns how gender and other regimes of power structure migration; and 3) outlines the predominant forms of migration for women today.
For developing and transitional countries we explore trends in rural-urban, intrarural and intraurban inequality of income, poverty risk, health and education. Rural -urban gaps in mean consumption and poverty incidence have narrowed in Asia, but show no global trend.
Internal migration in developing countries often occurs in a rural–urban migration context. In many Asian countries, rural–urban migration has been widely documented; however, it has not been widely documented in the Bhutanese context. Bhutan, a landlocked country in Southeast Asia, is situated between China and India, with China to the north and India to the south. This research documents the rural–urban migration that is occurring in Bhutan using data from the most recent Population and Housing Census of Bhutan, conducted in 2005, and Geographic Information Systems to identify spatial migration patterns, identifying Bhutanese urban areas as having the highest percentage of in-migrants, and the rural areas as having the highest number of out-migrants. This research also uses ancillary information to help explain the patterns from the Population and Housing Census of Bhutan data.
This chapter examines the key developments and challenges of internal (domestic) and external (international) migration in Southeast Asia by looking at their main features and key drivers. Internal migration in the region is almost wholly urbanization. All are in the context of identifying the key challenges and policy implications useful for the countries in the region as well as other countries in similar situations. The region has experienced dynamic socio-economic developments that bring significant changes to the living conditions and labor productivity. The developments, however, have also created economic and other gaps or imbalances that induce people to move among locations. This poses a formidable challenge for policy makers in the region, especially on the governance of migrations within and across countries in the region, as well as from the region to the rest of the world.
The movement of people from one area to another is today an important and characteristic phenomenon of population particularly of that of developing countries. Every country that has undergone modernisation has simultaneously experienced a major redistribution of its population. Such movements exert a pervasive influence on the social, economic, political and demographic structure of both the sending and receiving regions (Khan, 2010: 1). Migration is defined as a permanent or semi permanent change of residence of an individual from one area to another. No restriction is placed upon the distance of the move or upon the voluntary or involuntary nature of the act, and no distinction is made between external and internal migration.
In-migration in the most general sense signifies a large-scale and continuing movement of population, into a different region of the same country or territory(Freedictionary.com; Merriam-Webster online, 2014).Migration is a global phenomenon seen everywhere on the earth among birds, animals and human caused by environmental, sociological and economic factors. According to UNESCO (2009),in-migration is defined as crossing of the boundary of a geographical area of poor potential, for a certain minimum period of time. It includes the movement of landless labours, refugees, displaced persons, uprooted people as well as economic migrants‟. Internal migration refers to the movement from one area (a province, district, municipality or village) to another within the same country. According to classical theories, migration is a rational decision made by an individual to move from a less advantageous situation to a more advantageous one. Human migration is the movement by people from one place to another with the intention of settling in the new location. The movement is typically over long distances and from one country to another or from one place to another within a country. Migration may be by individuals, family units or in large groups. The UN Convention on the Protection of the Rights of all migrant workers and members of their families defines a migrant worker as „a person who is engaged or has been engaged in a remunerated activity in a State of which he or she is not a national‟. It is with the same meaning that the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act, 1979 defines “inter-state migrant workman” as “anyone recruited by or through a contractor in one State under an agreement or other arrangement for employment in an establishment in another State, whether with or without the knowledge of the principal employer in relation to such establishment
The paper discusses how migration is continuing in different parts of India and how it is becoming more and more crucial towards improving livelihood status. In 2004-05, Indian labour force consisted of about 430 million persons, growing annually at about 2% (Economic Survey, 2007). Slightly less than 3/5th of it is employed in agriculture, mostly residing in rural areas and producing a little over 1/5th of the domestic product. Cultivators form about 2/3rd of the rural workforce, the remaining are agriculture workers. Industry (mining, manufacturing, construction and utilities) employs around 18% of the workforce, producing about 27% of the domestic output. Despite NREGS implementation in all districts, Migration of unskilled and skilled labourers has not stopped yet; it is continuing in parts and pieces. Labourers and farmers whose income is not enough that they can have a respected life, they are opting for some other options. They are migrating towards cities to work in factories and construction projects etc. As it has been discussed frequently that major migration is due to failure of Agriculture as mainstream livelihood activity; policy makers should explore ways and means to reestablish the importance of Agriculture in terms of livelihood. One important fact about migration is that it never can be totally stopped as it is under the process of development. Faulty implementation of several welfare legislations and schemes has led towards more and more migration of rural poor. To the extent, it seems necessary for marginalized and vulnerable class of the society to migrate and have some respectable livelihood options.
Mobility serves as an indicator of the relationship between short and long run inequality. Understanding mobility is crucial for deriving policies that affect household’s incomes. Since long run income is more equally distributed than short run income it is important to understand the mechanics of income mobility. In this paper we have used a unique household dataset spanning more than 3 decades from rural India to derive what may be broadly classified as the triggers of income mobility. We believe and wish to show that location and outcome of location place a crucial role in determining the magnitude of income mobility. Given that in low income countries migration is a significant cause for income mobility, we show that its magnitude is influenced by the relationship between income premium (benefits accruing to the household due to location) and migration. There is thus a three way relationship between income premium, migration and income mobility. We find that increases in household income premium will reduce the likely hood of a given household (members of that household migrating). Consequently we are more likely to observe a reduction in overall income mobility. A policy implication of this finding is that if development is not uniform across the economic space. Income mobility will decline in the long run.
Without a doubt, rural-to-urban migration is a symptom of the larger problem of scarce opportunity. Though South Asian countries largely qualify as “rural” and are dominated by agrarian economies, the modern age has made way for limited growth and development in villages. This fact is no more apparent than when one surveys the cityscapes of South Asia and sees the proliferation of expansive slum communities, home to hundreds of thousands of the urban poor – the once-were-villagers
We know that internal migration shapes human settlement patterns but few attempts have been made to measure systematically the extent of population redistribution or make comparisons between countries. Robust comparisons are hampered by limited data access, different space-time frameworks and inadequate summary statistics. We use new analysis software (IMAGE Studio) to assess the effects of differences in the number and configuration of geographic zones and implement new measures to make comparisons between a large sample of countries, representing 80% of global population. We construct a new Index of Net Migration Impact (INMI) to measure system-wide population redistribution and examine the relative contributions of migration intensity and effectiveness to cross-national variations. We compare spatial patterns using the slope of a regression between migration and population density across zones in each country to indicate the direction and pace of population concentration. We report correlations between measures of population redistribution and national development and propose a general theoretical model suggesting how internal migration redistributes population across settlement systems during the development process.
The embankment wall that kept the ocean at bay from their homes and fields in Cox’s Bazaar district in Bangladesh had breached again and seawater was flooding in. Crops could no longer be grown and homes and belongings had all been claimed by the marauding tides, as the sea kept rising due to climate change. Hafiza’s husband, a manager in a betel leaf farm, was out of a job. After days of struggle when they had to sell most of their cattle to survive, her husband decided to leave for Malaysia for work with 20 other men from nearby villages who were to be smuggled by boat via Myanmar. Left with three young children, Hafeza worked as a domestic servant in the one of the richer homes in the morning, and as a labourer in a betel leaf farm in the afternoon. While the older boy helped her, the younger two stayed in the house, unable to attend school. There was never enough food for the four of them. Illness set in, sometimes mild sometimes serious enough to keep Hafiza from work and the daily income they so desperately needed.A report released last month warns of the devastating and increasing impact of climate change on migration in South Asia. Climate Change Knows no Borders, prepared by ActionAid, Climate Action Network South Asia and Bread for the World (Brot Fuer Die Welt) calls on national policymakers to especially monitor impacts of climate-induced migration on women and urgently address the policy gap. “The rights of migrants and their families are being threatened by unsafe migration, which is often driven by desperation and a lack of options caused by climate disasters. The impacts of migration on women, both those migrating and those left behind, is also not yet adequately understood or addressed by national or international policies,” Harjeet Singh, ActionAid’s Global Lead on Climate Change, told indiaclimatedialogue.net. “Environmental migration is a gendered process, but discussions within public, policy, and academia regarding environmental migration are often gender-neutral, few studies making the link between migration, environment and gender,” said the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) in 2014, flagging the gap when the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) in its Fifth Assessment Report said, “Climate change is projected to increase the displacement of people throughout this century.”According to IOM, vulnerabilities, experiences, needs and priorities of environmental migrants vary according to women’s and men’s different roles, as do responsibilities, access to information, resources, education, physical security and employment opportunities. The ActionAid report putting the issue in the current South Asian perspective says, “Young females from neighbouring Nepal and Bangladesh who migrate to India as well as internal migrants from rural areas moving to cities are increasingly vulnerable to abuse and trafficking. As they often use so-called ‘agents’ to help them find work, these can turn out to be traffickers, who once they arrive in the city, force them to work in brothels,” it cautions. The 2016 Global Report on Trafficking in Persons by UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) released in December says women and girls make up 71% of human trafficking victims. Including for the first time a thematic chapter on connections between trafficking, migration and conflict, it underscores that trafficking in persons and migration flows resemble each other, increasing vulnerability of forced migration victims. After repeated extreme or slow onset weather events have reduced a rural family to extreme poverty, the migration of younger women, usually daughters (even minors) increasingly appear as the best option for the entire family, finds an IOM study. Pull factor This is because the demand for labour in highly gendered but low-skilled niche jobs, such as domestic work, child and elderly care, is rising, as more and more educated women in South Asian cities are taking up careers outside home. Bangladeshi migrant women are seen increasingly in such jobs in Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. Together with garment and entertainment industries in India, this demand is acting as a powerful pull factor. Even so, available figures show male migration is more common in the region. Millions of women like Hafiza Khatun, left behind at home, are facing an overwhelming burden. Increasingly, research is documenting that the workload on women left behind is multiplied many- fold because the nature of migrant work being uncertain, remittance from migrant males is often sporadic. Agriculture remains critical for the family remaining at home to survive, finds an International Water Management Institute (IWMI) study. Not only must the women do household work and child and elderly care, but also generate income usually by taking on their husbands’ role in agriculture. This too without access to capital or credit, while negotiating existing agricultural services dominated by men, where the women have to overcome several cultural barriers. Women are thus reporting exhaustion, poverty and illness, and fields are being left uncultivated as they struggle to cope alone. In many areas these single women called drought widows or flood widows by their communities, report increased incidences of assault and violence. When disasters happen, such as the 2015 earthquake in Nepal, the lack of men in the village can put communities in further danger, the ActionAid report says.The struggles of women environmental migrants have been documented but there is no statistical data to formulate effective policies. The crux of the problem is that while disaster-driven forced migration is likely to increase further, there is no systematic data and statistical record of internal and cross-border migration on which governments can base their policies. A 2016 IWMI infograph says as many as 3.23 million migrants from Bangladesh are in India. India’s Minister for State for Home informed Parliament in November that 20 million illegal Bangladeshi immigrants, equivalent to Australia’s population, were in India. This is a volatile political issue; in 2004, Parliament was told the 2001 figure was 12 million. A recent report from The Economist quotes a former head of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) saying 15 million Bangladeshis are living in India. A 2016 IOM study, titled Migrant Smuggling Data and Research: A global review of the emerging evidence base, says 25,000 Bangladeshis are thought to enter India each year. While there is no available age or sex-disaggregated data of irregular migrants to India from neighbouring countries, particularly Bangladesh and Nepal, estimates can be surmised from a UN High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) 2015 study, which found that irregular migrants from Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Nepal into Middle Eastern countries, such as Qatar, Bahrain, Oman, Libya, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates, are predominantly women. They work as housemaids. Report: Kerry warns Trump against nixing climate progress UNODC South Asia Office said in 2012 that no systematic data on irregular migration is maintained in India either at the state or national level. But globally, there is better clarity on the gender dimension of migration. UN Department of Economic and Social Affairs (UNDESA) in 2015 estimated there were almost 244 million migrants in the world, approximately half of whom were women and girls. The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimated in 2013 that out of 150 million international labour migrants 44% were women. IOM’s 2016 Atlas of Environmental Migration, the latest and most exhaustive study on the subject, claims that in 2015, 19 million people were newly displaced due to climate disasters globally. This figure does not even include displacement from drought and slow onset environmental degradation. Overall, one billion out of the planet’s 7 billion people are presently on the move, either within countries or beyond borders. The increasing participation of women of various skill levels in regional migration, whether forced or voluntary, driven in large part by socioeconomic factors underpins the greater gender sensitivity and attention that needs to go into laws, policies, programmes and even climate migration studies. Slow response Aside from lack of concrete data and figure what is also obstructing South Asian governments from according the urgency that climate migration requires is that economic migration, also known as South-South migration, has been happening since long. For a poor Bangladeshi who wants to better his income or escape poverty, irregular migration to India costs only USD 40 to USD 60 including the payment for the migrant smuggler, finds the IOM’s Migrant Smuggling Data and Research study. “Migration has always taken place in South Asia, for long before climate change became an issue. Push factors include conflict, poverty, land access and ethnicity; while there are also many pull factors such as development, livelihoods, seasonal labour, kinship and access to health or services,” ActionAid’s Singh said. “Therefore, South Asian countries are slow to recognise the role of climate change as an additional push factor, and the extent to which it is driving migration. Climate change is thus still largely invisible in the migration discourse in South Asia.” When forced migration triggered by extreme climate adds to the economic migration, clashes over resources and jobs, political seclusion and xenophobia would not be far off, as is seen in the on-going European crises. “There is need for clear definitions of climate migration and displacement which national governments should use, to gather and analyse data on the role of climate change in migration, and develop appropriate policies accordingly,” Singh said. In South Asia as also in most countries now, disaster risk reduction and building resilience to climate-induced hazards is a key policy component to reduce distress migration. With high levels of poverty, low development indicators and large-scale dependence on agriculture in South Asia, building resilience within a timeframe will remain a major challenge. A challenge, which Hafiza Khatun will brave for many more years, for the sake of her three children. As the boat reaches the jetty near Hariakhali village, Hafeza stands jostling with several other hopeful women, scouring the faces of the worn out, weather-beaten men who had been rescued from a Myanmar jail, caught while trying to land on its shores on a fishing boat without legal papers One by one, the men are reunited with wives and joyous children, excited to have their fathers back. After everyone had left, for Hafeza there was just the sound of the waves breaking on the shore.
Migration is an important social and historical reality in South Asia. In the past decade, migration from one country to another and internal migration (i.e. migration within a particular country) have assumed different dimensions for people in the region. Contemporary research on migration is placed in a spectrum that ranges from exponents of economic benefits at one end, to those who see migration as a security threat, at the other. This paper combines the work of three researchers and looks at the different political locations from which the South Asian subject is induced to move. It also discusses the economic and political implications that arise from these migration trajectories. Drawing on their research, the authors emphasise the need for understanding how migration is linked to a complex set of processes that reflect power relations in unequal societies.
There are two explanations for labour migration. The first centres on the rational decision of an individual. An individual makes a decision, based on free will, to migrate to centres where there is a demand for labour. Migration is thus associated with urbanisation and modernisation, as well as with development. However, rational individual choice is not the only factor which affects labour migration in India. The second explanation emphasises the fact that capitalist development has always needed cheap labour. In this sense migration is analysed as a class phenomenon and uneven development is seen as the basic cause of labour migration.
The Tamil Nadu Migration Survey (TMS 2015) was commissioned by the Non Residence Tamils (NRT) Welfare Board under the Commissioner of Rehabilitation, Tamil Nadu, through funding from the Tamil Nadu Planning Commission. Additional resources were provided by the Loyola Institute of Social Science Training and Research, Loyola College (autonomous) Chennai, Centre for Diaspora Studies, M S University, Tirunelveli, Central University of Tamil Nadu, Thiruvarur and Rajiv Gandhi National Institute of Youth Development and Centre for Development Studies, Thiruvananthapuram. We are grateful to B. Anand IAS, Principal Secretary and Commissionerate of Rehabilitation and Welfare of Non Resident Tamils and Vice-Chairperson - Santha Sheela Nair, State Planning Commission, Government of Tamil Nadu and and K. Ramesh of NRT. This is an abridged version of the larger report prepared by the authors for the Tamil Nadu Planning Commission. Larger version can be obtained from the Authors. We are also thankful for the referees for the constructive comments.
The ways in which different nation states, societies and individuals respond to and negotiate questions of sovereignty and citizenship in their engagement with neoliberal exchanges is varied and different. Aihwa Ong argues, “Global capitalism has induced critical changes in the forms that sovereignty can take.” Ong’s argument allows us to see the differential responses of nation-states to global neoliberalism’s effect on their sovereignty. While countries may respond to neo-liberalism’s attack on sovereignty by building borders and creating legal distinctions between citizens against non-citizens, it is not necessary that all nation states respond through such measures. Ong goes on to argue that “the relative positions of the nation states in the global ranking of rich and poor influence the ways globalizing forces penetrate and rework their national spaces and by extension reorganize regional political spaces.
In Bangladesh, studies on migration have focused on reasons for migration, basic characteristics of migrants, employment and income, and household living conditions. Some have focused on the relationship between migration and fertility and family planning, child survival, and household living conditions. These studies have generally used small samples, which have made it difficult to analyze the relationships between key factors comprehensively. No studies were found which examined the relationship between migration, migration-associated indicators and reproductive health care services in Bangladesh. Our study intended to begin to fill this gap.
In spite of the prevalence of migrant labour from Bangladesh, the rights of migrant workers, particularly women migrants, as humans and workers remain unaddressed. In the context of Bangladesh, women’s mobility for the purpose of education, health care and jobs is restricted by structural factors, informed by socioeconomic and cultural conditions and reinforced by discriminatory practices and legal instruments. The issue of female labour migration is stigmatised. This has resulted in decreased women’s participation in the overseas labour market. As a state party to the CEDAW, the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) is responsible for addressing the issue of equality of women in general and female labour migrants in particular, to comply with observation 34 of the CEDAW Committee. It is anticipated that meeting the obligation of CEDAW will help to empower potential female labour migrants in making migration decisions independently, overcoming existing barriers.
Labor migration presents both challenges and opportunities in today’s global world. As the scale, scope, and complexity of the phenomenon have grown, states and other stakeholders have become aware of these challenges and opportunities with the growing realization that economic, social, and cultural benefits can be realized and negative consequences can be minimized. According to the World Bank’s and Remittances Factbook, 2008, the global remittance flow has increased phenomenally over the past three and a half decades. From US$2 billion in 1970, it increased to US$131.5 billion by 2000 and had reached US$317.7 billion in 2007, of which US$239.7 billion went to the developing countries. These figures do not reflect the unrecorded flow through unofficial channels at the global level that may account for an additional 50 percent (World Bank 2008, 17).
The policy challenges faced by internal rural-urban contract construction labour migrants are different to those experienced by international labour construction migrants. In both instances, they experience: wage exploitation; health and safety violations; and poor living (including sanitary) conditions. However, there is more data available on the latter in relation to nationality, scale of migration and their sponsors. Furthermore, nation-states are less able to absolve themselves of their responsibility to their “citizens” abroad. In comparison, the state is largely absent in honouring its responsibility to internal rural-urban construction migrants – a situation exacerbated by their invisibility.
Every year, millions of Asian men, women, and even children, venture to new pastures—from the village to the city and sometimes to another country. They are driven by poverty, social exclusion or civil unrest. Their goal is to survive and earn money for their families. For many—disproportionately women and children—these journeys end tragically, as they fall into the hands of traffickers. Trafficking in women and children is reported to be on the rise in Asia. Although accurate figures are hard to come by and that any estimates have to be treated with cautions, the United States’ State Department, for example, estimates that between 1 to 2 million people are trafficked worldwide, including 150,000 from South Asia and 225,000 from Southeast Asia. In the scale of organized crime, human trafficking ranks third behind drugs and arms smuggling.
South Asia is recognized as one of the most vulnerable regions to climate change because of its geographic location and large-scale poverty. Climate change and weather variability have a predominantly negative effect on crop yields in Bangladesh, India and Pakistan. This is leading to an increase in the number of people migrating from the countryside into cities. The scale of this problem is set to increase as climate change worsens and more farmers are unable to cope with the crop losses that it brings. Pragmatic policies and targeted investments should be put in place to help rural people adapt.
Migration has become a key policy issue for many developing countries, depending on the state of the national economy and the employment situation. Most governments in South Asia view outmigration as helping to curtail unemployment, reduce poverty, and earn foreign exchange through remittances. Remittances sent by migrant workers become a significant source of funds for economic development of the nation. Thus, most governments have promoted out-migration through institutional support of recruitment and policy implementation promoting overseas employment. However, such promotional policy’s do not sufficiently protect the rights and interests of migrant workers and their families. Given the various types of migration and the complexity of migration flows, policy intervention could, perhaps, be directed towards not only harnessing the economic benefits of migration but also reducing the exploitation of migrants.
Recent increases in female labour migration in and from Asia have triggered a surge of interest in how the absence of the mother and wife for extended periods of time affects the left-behind family, particularly children, in labour-sending countries. While migration studies in the region have shown that the extended family, especially female relatives, is often called on for support in childcare during the mother’s absence it is not yet clear how childcare arrangements are made. Drawing on in-depth interviews with non-parent carers of left-behind children in Indonesia and Vietnam, the paper aims to unveil complexities and nuances around care in the context of transnational labour migration. In so doing it draws attention to the enduring influence of social norms on the organisation of family life when women are increasingly drawn into the global labour market. By contrasting a predominantly patrilineal East Asian family structure in Vietnam with what is often understood as a bilateral South-East Asian family structure in Indonesia, the paper seeks to provide interesting comparative insights into the adaptive strategies that the transnational family pursues in order to cope with the reproductive vacuum left behind by the migrant mother.
This paper describes the process of displacement of tribals from the hills to resettlement in the plains. It discusses the issues of social disarticulation and re-articulation of the displaced families of the Sardar Sarovar Project. Based on empirical evidences drawn from earlier studies of the author, the paper explores various types of social disruptions in the socio-cultural life of the displaced population due to the change of habitat from hills to plains.
Through a broad portrayal of character of its development, changing urban patterns, nature of urban economic structure and contents of urban development policies, this paper takes a political economy approach to examine the process of urbanization in India. It narrates as to how since the colonial period labour mobility across space and sectors was caused as well as triggered by marginalization of the peasantry and artisans through agencies of a growing capitalist economy. Instead of taking a systemic view, manifest expression of rural to urban migration in form of overcrowding as well as dense and unhygienic living conditions of the urban poor continued to be viewed as the 'primary' set of urban problems. As a result, efforts to address such problems by the state remained adhoc and piecemeal over the time. This is exemplified by changing approaches and policies of urban development in the country stated and noted in various plan documents and status papers. Veering between aims of 'inclusive growth' and grooming of select urban spaces for responding to global market changes, the concerns and components of urban planning have now been subverted by market forces in an irreversible manner. As a result, the urban development policies have become exclusively 'elitist', with the poor in cities left to fend for themselves in unprotected sectors of the economy and inhuman living conditions in slums, shanties and redeveloped 'informal' settlements.
This Research Paper explores and questions some assumed causal links between terrorism on the one hand and (forced and irregular) migration on the other. The paper delves into the role that state and non-state terrorism might have in causing migration as well as analysing if and how refugees’ camps and the diaspora community might be a target for radicalisation. One of the findings of the paper is how migration control for the control of terrorism is a widely used instrument however, it might hurt bona fide migrants and legal foreign residents more than mala fide terrorists. Finally, this Research Paper offers recommendations that can go some way towards disentangling the issues of (refugee) migration and terrorism.
Displacement of people in India, is largely triggered by factors such as, development projects, political conflict, setting up Protected Area Networks and Conservation areas and natural disasters, amongst others. The International Displacement Monitoring Centre in 2007 reveal that about 50 million people in India had been displaced due to development projects in over 50 years. A study conducted in six states estimated the figure at around 60 million between 1947- 2000 (Fernandes, 2007; Negi &Ganguly, 2011). The latest data in the website of Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDMC) show that at least 616,140 have been internally displaced in India due to various conflicts as of April, 2015. The figure for people displaced due to disasters is at least 3,428,000 and there are about 11,042 political refugees originating from the country as of January, 2014.
The formation of the global IDP Regime is widely understood to be a reaction to the perceived upshot of instability and violence in the Post-Cold War era which saw state collapse, civil war, popular revolt, secession, ethnic cleansing, famine and genocide, force millions of people from their homes to seek refuge either across or within their national borders. The modern regime stems from the proposed reform of the United Nations issued by Kofi Annan in 1997, that sought to adequately address the needs of IDPs through the Emergency Relief Co-ordinator of UN OCHA who was tasked with developing policy and operational mechanisms so that ‘all humanitarian issues, including those which fall in gaps of existing mandates of agencies such as protection and assistance for internally displaced persons, are addressed’. 3 There are five elements to the Global Internal Displacement Regime. First the legal and advocacy dimension is comprised of the United Nations Special Representative to the Secretary General on the Human Rights of Internally Displaced Persons. This post was established at the request of the Commission on Human Rights in 1992 in order to examine the human rights issues related to internally displaced persons and to prepare a relevant comprehensive study by General Assembly Resolution.
The purpose of this paper is to feed into the discussions that will take place during this year’s Dialogue and to help participants re-think displacement in the context of today’s crises. IDMC is developing a more nuanced and complete understanding of the phenomenon of internal displacement with a view to strengthening our monitoring and analysis and, it is hoped, ultimately improving policy and operational responses. Sustainably addressing displacement requires the work of political actors, development experts, human rights advocates, data specialists and many other stakeholders. IDMC will continue to contribute data and analysis to influence policy. Going forward this work will require developing new partnerships across diverse sectors and mandates to enable us to document the multiple causes, patterns and impacts of 2 displacement and find solutions that can be truly sustainable. These partnerships need to be built on a common understanding of what drives displacement risk, how displacement comes about in different situations and which actors need to be mobilised in order to address it.
This special issue presents findings from a major research project investigating child health and migrant parents in South-East Asia (CHAMPSEA). Its aim is to contribute to the debate about a potential ‘crisis of care’ in the region as increasing numbers of parents migrate overseas for work, leaving their children behind (Parreñas, 2003). The project examines outcomes for two age groups of children in four study countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam. Here we focus on primary school-aged children of 9, 10 and 11 years both because this group tends to be neglected in the current literature on parental migration (but see Battistela and Conaco, 1998; ECMI/AOS-Manila et al., 2004) and because these pre-teens may be most at risk of any negative consequences of parental absence if they experience a care deficit. As the articles demonstrate, however, there is no simple distribution of risk and resilience between children living with both parents and the children of migrant parents. Rather there are important differences between countries and significant heterogeneity across multiple dimensions of health and well-being.
The migration of health workers has resulted in a growing apprehension universally because of its impact on health system of the developing countries. Although the choice to migrate is basically a personal one, however, the overall social and economic circumstances have important impact on the decision to migrate. The “push and pull” factors for migration are disparity in working conditions, pay, lack of promotion opportunities, poor living conditions, desire to gain experience, professional development, family background and family wealth. A strategic approach by the government and other agencies is mandatory for regulating the flow of health workers between countries. A range of policies and interventions are needed to deal with the broader health system issue and problems of health workers that influence their recruitment, retention, deployment and progress.
In 2000, the United Nations member states and international organizations agreed to target eight Millennium Development Goals for the year 2015. Increasing human capital (education and health), combating gender inequality and eradicating extreme poverty are among the high priorities. Another objective of the Millennium declaration is to set-up a global partnership for development that addresses the special needs of vulnerable groups, including the least developed countries, landlocked developing countries and developing small island states. This requires industrialized countries to conduct more development-friendly trade, debt relief and development assistance policies.
Research on migration and development has recently changed, in two ways. First, it has grown sharply in volume, emerging as a proper subfield. Second, while it once embraced principally rural-urban migration and international remittances, migration and development research has broadened to consider a range of international development processes. These include human capital investment, global diaspora networks, circular or temporary migration, and the transfer of technology and cultural norms. For this special issue of World Development, we present a selection of frontier migrant-and-development research that instantiates these trends.
This special issue on migration and health derives from an interdisciplinary research workshop held on May 13-14, 2010 under the auspices of the Center of Expertise on Migration and Health (COEMH), a component of the University of California’s Global Health Institute (UCGHI).1 The COEMH Research Training Workshop brought together 20 advanced graduate students and recent postdoctoral fellows from throughout the University of California system to present their recently completed or ongoing, fieldwork-based research and receive feedback from faculty experts in the field of migration and health. A broad array of disciplines was represented, including public health, anthropology, sociology, and political Science.
This primer focuses on the return and reintegration of migrants and refused asylum-seekers.It discusses different groups of return migrants, examines the complexities, challenges and potentials surrounding return and reintegration, and sheds light on the various actors and motivations involved. Rather than analyzing international or supranational approaches such as the European Union’s Global Approach to Migration and Mobility and its policies, the primer concentrates on nation states – countries of origin and destination – and possible areas where they might intervene. The primer rests on the assumption that conditions for sustainable return hinge on individual factors (for example whether return is voluntary or not) as well as structural ones (such as access to the labor market). Home and host countries face different situations and therefore use different intervention measures. Given the challenges migrants face during their process of return and reintegration, and the need to acknowledge the often untapped potentials of return migration, this primer seeks to identify good practices and recommendations for better return policies by addressing nation states as responsible and generally capable actors for policy improvement. Finally, this policy primer defines guidelines for sustainable and development-oriented return, and reintegration policies and instruments.
The chapter on Migration specifically focusses on the pattern of flows of people found in this study are broadly consistent with popular conception - less affluent states see more people migrating out while the most affluent states are the largest recipients of migrants. The cost of moving for people is about twice as much as it is for goods – another confirmation of priors (Helliwell, 1997). The numbers show that internal migration has been rising over time, nearly doubling in the 2000s relative to the 1990s. One plausible hypothesis for this acceleration is that the rewards (in the form of prospective income and employment opportunities) have become greater than the costs and risks that migration entails. Higher growth and a multitude of economic opportunities could therefore have been the catalyst for such an acceleration of migration.
Pregnancy, generally in our country, is accepted after marriage. And marriage is almost universal in Bangladesh and in many other countries. The early the marriage, the early the pregnancy might be. The early pregnancy which is simply called adolescent marriage makes trouble maternal life. Even this pregnancy makes unnecessarily maternal death as well as child death. According to WHO, (world health organization)every day, approximately 800 women die from preventable causes related to pregnancy and childbirth (2012). 99% of all maternal deaths occur in developing countries like Bangladesh as it’s argued. In Bangladesh, the maternal morbidity as well as maternal death is slightly higher than that of other areas of the world due high rate of early marriage as well as early pregnancy. Maternal morbidity is especially increasing in Bangladesh as maternal morbidity includes any kinds of illness or injuries caused or aggregated by, or associated with pregnancy (WHO). However as health practitioner tells that adolescent girls are not enough mature to bear a child. It might be very high the girl is illiterate.
Child migration for paid work which results in exploitation is an emerging issue in Vietnam, particularly for child migrants from the central provinces of Vietnam. This research aimed to explore the background and causes leading to child labour migration, the experiences that children have of working as migrants and the process by which they return to their village. It focused on children who migrated from the central province of Hue to Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City) in the south of Vietnam.
Many aspects of the mobility and migration of Aboriginal populations differ significantly from those of mainstream populations. Population movement between reserves, rural communities, and urban areas can play an important role in shaping the demand for a wide range of goods and services. This paper explores various aspects of Aboriginal population movement, including reserve and rural-urban migration, the role of migration in the growth of urban Aboriginal populations, residential mobility and population turnover, and related policy implications. Discussions will address and clarify some of the misinterpretations surrounding migration phenomena, including the impression that the demographic explosion of urban Aboriginal populations observed in the recent censuses of countries is the result of an exodus from Aboriginal communities
In this article, the relationship between migration and inequality in India is analyzed on the basis of an understanding of the role of migration in creating inequalities in the economy and society of the state of Kerala. The Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvanathapuram, Kerala, conducts periodic Kerala Migration Surveys (KMSs) to monitor the current status of emigration from and return emigration to the state of Kerala. This data set is used to discover the dynamics of migration–inequality relationship in the state. The results of the study suggest that migration causes inequalities in mobility between migrant and non-migrant households and between different types of migrant households.
This paper examines the impact of development, including the impact of government and donor programmes, on ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples in Southeast Asia. Through an examination of government policy, it considers arguments that mainstream development strategies tend to generate conflicts between states and ethnic minorities and that such strategies are, at times, ethnocidal in their destructive effects on the latter. In looking at more recent government policy in the region, it considers the concept of ethnodevelopment (ie development policies that are sensitive to the needs of ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples and where possible controlled by them), and assesses the extent to which such a pattern of development is emerging in the region. Since the late 1980s, it argues, governments across the region have made greater efforts to acknowledge the distinct identities of both ethnic minorities and indigenous peoples, while donors have begun to fund projects to address their needs. In many cases, these initiatives have brought tangible benefits to the groups concerned. Yet in other respects progress to date has been modest and ethnodevelopment, the paper argues, remains confined to a limited number of initiatives in the context of a broader pattern of disadvantage and domination.
People of a particular area tend to move from one place to another with a scope of earning and better standard of living. This particular drift is primarily driven by the socio-cultural, political and environmental factors. India is growing rapidly with a huge investment plans and policy implications. Some initiatives have been taken forward by the government to channelize growth potentials of different states of India. Odisha situated in the east coast of India, is predominantly known for investment destination both for India and south Asia. However despite having growth potentials and the implementation of major schemes like Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), it suffers from large scale distress migration especially from KBK regions. As per the planning commission of India, these KBK districts are the most backward regions of Odisha. Though these areas are said to be mineral rich regions but unfortunately people struggle to fulfil the basic necessities of life. They suffer from varied socio-economic problems like, poverty, malnutrition and starvation. In the present article, a focus has been made to analyse the trend and issues of distress migration from KBK regions of Odisha. A specific emphasis has been made on a reverse trend of migration to wipe out the problems of unemployment and poor economic growth. A modest attempt has been made to study over a socio-economic aspects of KBK regions. Finally, some of the measures have been suggested for the development of these regions through reverse drift of distress migrants.
The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child guarantees every child the right to a standard of living adequate for their physical, mental, spiritual, moral and social development and the right to the highest attainable standard of health. It also prescribes children’s right to access information and for their views to be heard. The impacts of climate change are already and will continue to affect how well those rights are fulfilled and thus the future strength of the society in which they live.
India is one of the fastest-growing economies in the world, but this high growth in recent years has widened the gap between the rich and poor members of the population. The rural population, dependent mainly on agriculture and related activities, is trapped in poverty and deprivation. As agricultural work is seasonal, rural labourers, especially those who are unskilled, find themselves frequently unemployed or underemployed. Rural development is key to stimulating inclusive and sustainable growth in India, and the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) aims to address this issue. The national government provides at least 100 days of guaranteed wage employment per financial year to every household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work under the MGNREGA programme.
This regional study commissioned by The Asia Foundation entitled “Labour Migration: Trends and Patterns” examines the patterns and process of labour migration by Nepali and Bangladeshi migrant workers using formal and informal channels for migration primarily to Gulf countries. The study provides insights into the dimensions of both regular and irregular labour migration and reviews the links, if any, with labour exploitation and human trafficking; and examines factors promoting undocumented migration that leads to increased vulnerability. The study examines the challenges posed to safe labour migration along the regional migration corridor of Bangladesh, India, and Nepal. It also highlights some salient features that threaten safe mobility of people between and through these three countries.
This report provides a comprehensive situational overview of low-skilled labour migration and labour migration governance within South-East Asia, alongside a review of the legal, social, and cultural factors affecting the right to health for migrant workers in the region. An overview of the international standards for the right to health, including their specific application to migrant workers, is included as context for this situational overview.
Labour migration flows and trends are influenced by gender dynamics in the countries of origin and destination. While migration can provide new opportunities to improve women’s lives and change oppressive gender relations, it can also perpetuate and entrench traditional roles and inequalities and expose women to new vulnerabilities as the result of precarious legal status, exclusion and isolation.10 Vulnerabilities are severe and acute among women migrants in unsupervised and unregulated sectors— such as domestic work—and include violence, exploitation, abuse and labour rights violations.
Migration in all forms, like economic, social, refuge; is a prevalent phenomenon in the SouthAsian region. Both Migrants and refugees need attention to resolve their problem. Borders havegradually been diminishing their relevance due to a ruthless rise in the intensity of this problem.Despite, security along the borders, infiltration is soaring high, which indicates that the problemmay have its solution by creating an appropriate space to these migrants. Besides, refugees havetheir genuine demand to settle them in their maternal land. Both migrants and refugees areneither worthy nor safe to their destination countries like India. Economic migrants needlivelihood opportunities, preferably in their neighbourhood, whereas refugees need solution totheir settlement and identity. On the contrary, the destination states are vulnerable to securitythreats, which are commonly operated by these foreign bodies. Migration and refuge areemerging as a non traditional security threats to almost all member states. Humanity is an aspectto be honoured but it is not to be protected at the cost of security. Undoubtedly, all refugees or migrants are not culprits but the offenders belong to these groups and hence a permanent solution through mutual agreements and cooperation should necessarily be made to restore regional peace & prosperity and ensure regional and individual security. All the member states of the SAARC must intend to find a way out to this present scenario with genuineconsiderations. Therefore the problems of migration and refuge are to be addressed in context ofboth humanity and security.
The following document contains a review for a research project on migration and chronic or non-communicable diseases (NCDs). It begins with an overview of the geographical scope; the review focuses specifically on migrants that originate in small South Asian countries of Afghanistan, Bhutan, Maldives, Nepal and Sri Lanka. Next, it outlines the ‘healthy migrant effect’, a phenomenon where migrants experience better health outcomes than the local or sending populations initially, but worse outcomes over the longer-term. It then turns to NCDs and risk factors in turn. For each NCD or risk factor, an overview of data on incidence in sending countries is given, followed by a discussion of any relevant literature relating to the health of migrants from the sending countries of interest.
Migration from North Eastern Region (NER) to the rest of India (ROI) in general and to Bangalore in particular has increased. The rate of migration from NER to Karnataka has declined steadily; however, to Bangalore it has slightly increased. Urban people from NER show a higher tendency to migrate to Bangalore which is not the case for migrants from NER to ROI. Migration level from NER in Karnataka as well as in Bangalore is relatively insignificant. Migrants from NER are not choosing Karnataka as migration destination as before. Migrants from NER in Bangalore and Karnataka were dominated by males. Conversely, females dominated migration from NER in ROI. Males, unlike females, continue to prefer and choose Bangalore as one of their favourite migration destinations. NE people, particularly males, migrated to Karnataka and specifically to Bangalore mainly for education and employment. Females migrated mostly due to family migration. Migration from NER to Bangalore for employment and education has increased while migration along with their family has declined recently.
This review considers the evidence from child labor research that is relevant to understanding independent child migration for work. Child labour research is relevant to the study of independent child migration for work in three ways. First, migration for work is one of the many possible alternatives for child time allocation. The methodological and analytical tools used in the study of child labor are thus applicable to the study of independent child migration for work. Second, independent child migration for work will be reduced by factors that improve alternatives to migration. Child labor at home is one possible alternative to migrating. Thus, influences on child labor will affect independent child migration for work by altering the pressures that push children into migration. Third, the issues that arise in understanding why employers use children are also relevant to understanding what factors pull children into migration.
The recent population projections by United Nations indicate that by 2030 each major region in the developing world will house more urban than rural dwellers. Furthermore, by 2050 nearly two-third of population in developing countries will live in urban areas (Montgomery, 2008). The total urban population in developing world was estimated around 1.97 billion in 2000, which is likely to increase up to 3.90 billion in 2030 and finally reach a figure of 5.26 billion by 2050 as per United Nations population projection. Under the process of rapid urbanization and modernization, one of the key challenges of recent times relates to the provision of basic infrastructural facilities to urban dwellers and improving their well-being and quality of life (Sclar et al, 2005). It was for the first time in the history of human population that more than 50 percent of population now lives in cities. According to the recent United Nations estimates, the world urban population is growing annually at the rate of 1.8 percent and is likely to outpace the overall world population growth rate of 1 percent (United Nations, 2005).
In the last two decades, in Asia, women have increasingly been involved in migration, both internally and internationally. Such a phenomenon is distinctive in its historical trend (Hugo 2006: 155). There are several important migratory flows where women are dominant. Firstly, Asian women have traditionally been the major labor supply of domestic workers in Asia and beyond (Hugo 2000: 157).1 Secondly, women from Asian nations have married across borders to spouses both in Asia and in the rest of the world (Constable 2005; Cahill 1990; Penny & Khoo 1996).
The contemporary discourse on migration and development is starting to consider the agency role of both diaspora communities and highly skilled returnees on equal terms, and we can observe how several countries of origin have been introducing special measures both to engage with their diaspora and to attract their highly skilled personnel back home. However, at an academic level very few approaches have focussed their attention on the role that highly skilled returnees and diaspora communities play in home country development in one single study. Our research into Indian skilled migration and return aims to fill this gap by offering an empirical investigation of these two components. While India is seen as a country that has benefitted from reverse flows of investments and the world’s highest remittances and expertise partly acquired abroad, it lacks a comprehensive understanding of the various hindrances and drivers that influence the process of transferring the accumulated knowledge and resources of skilled Indians in destination countries and skilled migrants who return to the home country.
Migration and health share a complex relationship and interactions. The increasing urbanization and rural to urban migration provides a scope to analyze the health and nutrition status of migrants living in urban India. The present study tries to understand disparities in child immunization and nutritional status among children by migration status in urban India using the most recent available data of National Family Health Survey (2005-06). Descriptive statistics and binary logistic regression models were used to study the levels and factors associated with child nutrition and immunization by migration status. Results suggest that malnutrition and no immunization are very high among children of rural to urban migrants and full immunization is lower than urban non-migrants and urban-urban migrants. More than half of the children from of marginalised households suffer from the problem of undernutrition among rural-urban migrants. Multivariate results show economic status economic status, age of the mother, education, caste and media exposure are negatively associated with malnutrition and positively associated with immunization. Children from south, north-east and east have lesser chance of being malnourished than north region of India.
India has been witnessing rapid urbanisation in the last decade, particularly in its large and medium-size cities. As more and more people move towards cities and towns, it is imperative to build an understanding of how cities are geared in terms of growth and inclusion. In what ways do India's marginalised communities get excluded from the country's growing urban spaces? This paper studies how individuals and groups are included in3or excluded from urban transitions. It is based on an empirical examination of inclusion in three Indian cities, part of a project of ORF with the Peace Research Institute Oslo (PRIO) in Norway, and also describes the processes of exclusion that have become embedded in India's urban spaces.
Safety issues of migration have come to the fore in the public and academic discourse in recent years. People seek irregular means of passage in their effort to migrate overseas. As a result, their lives are at put at risk. Female migrants are more vulnerable than their male counterparts in unsafe migration conditions. This paper tries to understand the perception of migrants about their own migration experiences. About 94 female migrants were selected based on snow ball and convenient sampling from two destinations: Thailand and Malaysia. The study shows that most of the respondents underwent (pre-migration, enroute, post-migration) extremely dangerous and unsafe experiences. Gross human rights violation by travel agencies, brokers and employers as well were revealed. Safe migration entails a series of policies, programs, and initiatives which focus on all aspects of migration- from education of potential migrants in the home countries to policies which protect migrants while in transit, to the protection of human rights in holding centers, and proper border control and policing. Safe migration requires the participation of all countries involved in the migration process in creating more opportunities for safe migration by empowering and educating people on migration options and by creating policies that protect human rights.
To study the process of migration is very important in order to understand it and for overcoming the problems attached with the process of migration. This paper is an attempt to understand the phenomenon of labour migration as migration has become a universal and dynamic process. Recent development has undergone a number of socio-economic changes.
Labor migration from and within Asia is a key and growing component of international migration flows, and the joint roundtable by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the International Labour Organization (ILO), and the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) on labor migration in Asia bears witness to this. In recent years, Asia has provided a large part of the more skilled migration inflows to OECD countries, even as the global competition to attract skilled and talented workers has intensified. Most of the flows, however, are intra-Asian, and consist mainly of lesser skilled labor.
This study investigates the consequences of poor implementation in public workfare programs, focusing on the Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) in India. Using nationally representative data, we test empirically for a discouraged worker effect arising from either of two mechanisms: administrative rationing of jobs among those who seek work and delays in wage payments. We find strong evidence at the household and district levels that administrative rationing discourages subsequent demand for work. Delayed wage payments seem to matter significantly during rainfall shocks. We find further that rationing is strongly associated with indicators of implementation ability such as staff capacity. Politics appears to play only a limited role. The findings suggest that assessments of the relevance of public programs over their lifecycle need to factor in implementation quality.
This study attempts to advance the migration-development debate by emphasizing the role of migration in social development at the family level. More specifically, drawing on longitudinal data, this research documents the relationships between migration and development by showing how migration and resultant remittances create a condition that promotes human capital development, quality of life, social positioning, gender and intergenerational relations, and, last but not least, female empowerment. The paper attempts to push migration-development debates beyond the realm of economic development by a close consideration of family dynamics. Migration outcomes affect, first and foremost, families in third world countries (Pflegerl et al. 2003).
This publication, Meeting the Challenges of Migration: Progress Since the ICPD was made possible with the generous financial support of UNFPA. It also is the result of experience gathered by IMP staff over the years in its work with governments, international organizations, regional bodies, civil society and others dedicated to migration issues. This publication is the fruit of collaboration with a number of migration researchers and practitioners, who generously contributed their time, effort and expertise towards making this publication a reality.
Illegal migration into Assam from Bangladesh has been posing a serious security threat to the identity of Assamese people. It adversely affects the social, economic and political environment of Assam, creating law and order problems where immigrants are present in large number. The flow of immigrants started during the rule of British and continued tills today due to the pull and push factors. The deportation of illegal migrants become difficult due to the lack of strong law and political will, as illegal migrants are used as a vote bank by different political parties. The data provided in the study indicates that if necessary steps are not taken immediately, Assam, the elder sister of North-East India would lose its identity from the map of India very soon. The illegal migration is one of the major reasons for social and ethnic violence in Assam. Therefore it is high time that India takes stringent measures against the illegal migrants who have become a real threat to the security of the country. To meet the problem, a few suggestions are forwarded in this paper.
The migration of labor from rural to urban areas is an important part of the urbanization process in developing countries. Even though it has been the focus of abundant research over the past five decades, some key policy questions have not found clear answers yet. To what extent is internal migration a desirable phenomenon and under what circumstances? Should governments intervene and if so with what types of interventions? What should be their policy objectives? To shed light on these important issues, we survey the existing theoretical models and their conflicting policy implications, and discuss the policies that may be justified based on recent relevant empirical studies. A key limitation is that much of the empirical literature does not provide structural tests of the theoretical models, but only provides partial findings that can support or invalidate intuitions and in that sense support or invalidate the policy implications of the models. Our broad assessment of the literature is that migration can be beneficial or at least be turned into a beneficial phenomenon, so that in general migration restrictions are not desirable. We also identify some data issues and research topics which merit further investigation.
Climate change is generally understood as the potential cause of mass migration, especially from areas where low-income and resource-dependent communities live in environments that are already at risk. Links between environment, climate change and migration are gaining importance, especially in climate vulnerable countries like Bangladesh. Predictions suggest alarming numbers of people in Bangladesh are likely to migrate as a consequence of climate change, but few empirical studies investigate the causes and consequences of human displacement and migration in any detail. The sitespecific drivers of displacement and migration, including a grounded understanding of relevant local economic, social and environmental issues, are yet to be understood.
The paper examines migration at the family level with a focus on the variable effects of internal and cross-border migration for rural older-age parents who remain in the areas of origin. The analysis is based on quantitative and qualitative data from a study conducted in June and July 2010 in two communes of Battambang Province. One commune is located relatively near the Thai border while the other is off a national highway that connects the province to the capital Phnom Penh. The quantitative data comes from a survey of 265 respondents aged 60 to 70 with information they provided about themselves and their 1,268 children. The findings from the survey are richly supplemented by qualitative data from 30 open-ended follow-up interviews conducted with a sub-sample of the elderly respondents. The research findings include analysis about exchanges of material support, contact between migrants and parents, and associations of internal and cross-border migration with the material and psychological well-being of parents. The modest contrasts associated with internal and international migrations for families found in our study sites underscore that such findings are very much conditioned by specific settings thus making unqualified generalizations difficult.
The institutions and structures developed by—and between—countries of origin and destination are diverse. There is much that countries can learn from each other. The lessons learned and diversity of experiences were discussed at the Fifth Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia, titled “Building Eff ective Institutions and Structures for Migration Governance in Asia.” The event was held in Shanghai, the People’s Republic of China in January 2015 and hosted by the Asia-Pacifi c Finance and Development Institute. It brought together experts on migration with government offi cials working directly on migration policies and programs. The discussion was interesting, in-depth, and fruitful.
Arabia and the Persian Gulf have been part of the social and cultural imaginary of Malabar and vice-versa for centuries. As key regions in the westernmost circuit of the Asian maritime trade linking the Mediterranean in the west with as far as China in the east, they have had a shared history of urbanisation as much as of Islam and its tradition of the hajj since the 8th century. Cities such as Jeddah, Aden, Muscat, Quilon and Calicut rose and fell over the centuries that followed as trade routes and the mercantile networks defining them adapted and changed contours in the face of historical and political exigencies. Many of these mercantile and urban connections, however, began to suffer a setback by the 18th century, almost dying out completely from the historical consciousness of scholars and others alike. The paper investigating the trajectories of 21st century urbanisation in Dubai in the Persian Gulf, and Malabar, or more broadly Kerala in southwestern India, shows how the two regions on either side of the Arabian Sea continue to be implicated in many of the historic connections that shaped their societies as part of the Asian maritime trade network. It argues for urbanisation as a complementary and contiguous process across the two geographies and explains why it is impossible to think of Dubai as a global megalopolis without due consideration of how Malabar feeds into and draws from it. Gold, like pepper in ancient and medieval times, is the epic commodity that lies at the heart of this urbanisation and the social and cultural connective that defines its spatial imagination.
We live in the state and in society; we belong to a social circle which jostles against its members and is jostled by them; we feel the social pressure from all sides and we react against it with all our might; we experience a restraint to our free activities and we struggle to remove it; we require the services of other people which we cannot do without; we pursue our own interests and struggle for the interests of other social groups, which are also our interests. In short, we move in a world which we do not control, but which controls us, which is not directed toward us and adapted to us, but toward which we must direct and adapt ourselves. (Gumplowicz.L, 1963). Internal migration in India accounts for a large population currently estimated at approximately 400 million, or nearly 30 percent of the total population. The constraints faced by seasonal migrants in particular (estimated at 100 million) (UNESCO, 2013)are many – lack of formal residency rights; lack of identity proof; lack of political representation; inadequate housing; low paid, insecure or hazardous work; extreme vulnerability of women and children to trafficking and sexual exploitation; exclusion from state-provided services and entitlements such as health and education; inability to access banking facilities; and discrimination based on ethnicity, religion, class or gender. Inspite of certain initiatives taken by government of India, ngo‘s and international agencies, the social inclusion of the internal migrants have been restricted and limited.
Bihar has a rich history of out-migration from the state, which goes back to as early as the nineteenth century. However, during the last few decades, migration for work has increased manifold. The sheer scale of out-migration in contemporary Bihar is astounding. At any given point of time, as many as nearly one-half of the total number of working men are absent from the state, as they are working elsewhere in urban and rural centres in the country and abroad. Migration from the state is almost exclusively that of the male population and is embedded in the lives and life choices of the people. It is not just a livelihood strategy but a way of life in rural Bihar. While there is considerable research on various aspects of migration including the nature and pattern of migration from Bihar, the profile of migrant workers, migration destinations and other such correlates of a migrant's life outside the village, there is sparse literature on the impact of this migration on people, especially on the women who are left behind in the village. Many research questions remain unanswered. How are institutions such as patriarchy in the village affected by male migration? How does male migration influence women's well-being and agency? Does migration have an effect on women's mobility? Does it empower or disempower the women who are left behind? What role does technology such as mobile phones play in enabling those left behind to communicate with their migrant family members? What impact does this have on the women left behind in the villages?
The literature on urbanization in India identifies an emerging trend of more and more people staying outside the cities and commuting to the cities everyday for work. The trend is likely to accelerate over time due to the limited employment opportunities in the rural areas. Commuting for work or any other kind of circulatory movement creates a group of “rurban” population who are completely overlooked in the local level planning process. This group of workers comes everyday to work in the city and thus contributes to its development. They are, however, not part of the city planning though their circulatory movement is essential for the existence of the city. The issue of their citizenship and rights to the city is also raised in this context. On the other hand, their involvement in the local planning and governance of the villages where they reside is also limited due to time constraints. The present study is a modest attempt to understand the patterns of commuting for work to the city of Kochi from other parts of the state of Kerala. The city of Kochi is characterised by almost zero population growth making it more and more dependent on workers from outside. The nature and patterns of commuting differ in different employment sectors, between male and female workers and for unskilled/ low skill workers compared to skilled or white collar workers. Improving the commuting experience needs a comprehensive plan encompassing the needs of urban facilities, transport needs, gender dimensions and environmental issues. It may not be possible always for the local governments to address various issues related to area planning, building norms, parking infrastructure or on the components of transport planning. Many such issues come under the purview of the state and central governments. A comprehensive planning is also constrained by the absence of required data and information for such an exercise. There is no estimate of the number of workers commuting to Kochi city and their nature of work. The pressure exerted by the commuting population on urban services and facilities is not considered in urban planning. An understanding of the social and economic dimensions of the work related commuting is important in urban planning.
China’s central government has rightfully recognized that successful urbanization will be decisive for the nation’s future development. However, most city regions in China are not yet enjoying the net benefits that agglomerations in metropolitan regions can initiate. In this regard, following the latest discussions around the necessity of inclusive urban growth in China, the paper calls for a housing strategy that accommodates the surging waves of rural to urban migration, one of the main drivers of urbanization, and that provides migrants with greater urban socio-economic opportunities, improves migrants’ urban prospects in order to facilitate a growing urban middle class as well as directing urban growth. Therefore, migrants’ characteristics and their exposure to the immediate urban socio-economic environment are elaborated upon in order to understand migrants’ housing priorities along their rural to urban transition. These housing priorities are the result of coping strategies in the face of distinctive urban opportunities and threats. In the context of migration, they form the underlying forces of housing demand development along the rural to urban transition. Eventually, when identified, these forces can be triggered in a way that enables urban growth to contribute to agglomeration benefits. This paper adds to the previous IPE working paper: “Urbanization in China and how urban housing demand can be met”, by specifying the underlying forces of evolving migrant housing demands.
Worldwide, far more people migrate within than across borders, and although internal migrants do not risk a loss of citizenship, they frequently confront significant social, financial and health consequences, as well as a loss of rights. The recent global financial crisis has exacerbated the vulnerability internal migrants face in realizing their rights to health care generally and to antiretroviral therapy in particular. For example, in countries such as China and Russia, internal migrants who lack official residence status are often ineligible to receive public health services and may be increasingly unable to afford private care. In India, internal migrants face substantial logistical, cultural and linguistic barriers to HIV prevention and care, and have difficulty accessing treatment when returning to poorly served rural areas. Resulting interruptions in HIV services may lead to a wide range of negative consequences, including: individual vulnerability to infection and risk of death; an undermining of state efforts to curb the HIV epidemic and provide universal access to treatment; and the emergence of drug-resistant disease strains. International human rights law guarantees individuals lawfully within a territory the right to free movement within the borders of that state. This guarantee, combined with the right to the highest attainable standard of health set out in international human rights treaties, and the fundamental principle of non-discrimination, creates a duty on states to provide a core minimum of health care services to internal migrants on a non-discriminatory basis. Targeted HIV prevention programs and the elimination of restrictive residence-based eligibility criteria for access to health services are necessary to ensure that internal migrants are able to realize their equal rights to HIV prevention and treatment.
This paper examines the recent history of rural-urban labour migration in China in the process of its rapid socioeconomic transformation. It looks at the trends and patterns of this internal migration and its consequences on the rights and welfare of rural migrant workers and their families. The paper argues that rural-urban migration has been crucial to China’s rapid economic growth and that the provision of decent work to rural migrant workers is needed to narrow inequalities and achieve more balanced growth in the country.
This article explores the impacts of migration and remittances on rural household income in China using cross-section data on rural household in the year 2007. The Heckman selection model is used to eliminate the selection bias and estimate the counterfactual income of migrant-sending household if there were no migration. The paper then goes on to compare the counterfactual income with the observed one and estimate the impact of migration on rural poverty and inequality. Results show that migration and remittances have a positive impact on the average rural household per capita net income. However, those who benefit the most from migration are the middle and upper classes rather than the poorest families, and the Gini coefficient even slightly increases. Besides, we find heterogeneity effects among provinces and the impacts also slightly change when different control groups are taken into consideration. In order to improve the rural household income and decrease poverty and inequality, more attention needs to be paid to the lowest income group and help them take part in internal migration.
Migration is a form of geographical mobility or spatial mobility between geographical unit and another, generally involving a change in residence from the place of origin or place of departure to the place of destination or place of arrival. Such migration is called permanent migration and should be distinguished from other forms of movements, which do not involve a permanent change of residence. Migration is a very selective process. Migration is not for a pleasure. Migration is not merely the physical movements of individuals and groups involve a lot of strain in their social, economic, cultural and other aspect of life. It is a subject of keen interest not only to the demographers but also to sociologist, anthropologist, economist and political scientist movements of people, specially rural people from the land to the cities, from one country to another and from one continent to another is an international phenomenon and not a phenomenon of modern times. It concerns not only developing countries but also those which are highly industrialized and affects not only the more or capitalized countries but also the socialist change of the move or open the voluntary and involuntary nature of the act and destination. Is made between external and internal migration.
Migration of people from one place to another is a usual phenomenon since the beginning of human civilization. The migration in the beginning was for the sake of food and exploring new places for security purpose. But gradually the migration took the shape in diverse form and now has become a very essential and common in each and every corner of the world. International labour migration is one of the integral components while talking about international migration. Millions of people from around the world (especially from the developing world) are leaving their usual place of residence for seeking better employment opportunities and supply food for their dependents. Globalisation and integration of regional economics have added impetus to the growing mobility of workers across borders (ILO, 2003). Poverty and the inability to earn enough or produce enough to support oneself or a family are major reasons behind the movement of work seekers from one place to another. These are not only characteristics of migration from poor to rich states; poverty also fuels movement from one developing country to others where work prospects seem-at a distance, at least-to be better.
This paper reviews a growing literature on migration and globalization, focusing on its relevance for developing and emerging economies. It documents the role of diaspora networks in enhancing cross-border flows of goods, capital, and knowledge, eventually contributing to efficient specialization, investment, and productivity growth in the migrants’ home-countries. Particular attention is paid to the role of skilled migrants, and to information imperfections reduction as the main channel for the documented effects. Overall, the evidence suggests that migrants contribute to the integration of their home-countries into the global economy.
Seasonal Labour migration is too important a topic for policy makers to continue to overlook. The present survey has added to the store of knowledge on seasonal labour migration at the macro level, complementing existing village level studies, but much more needs to be done before concrete new policy measures could be recommended. A fully-resourced study therefore needs to be conducted if the dimensions and dynamics of this important issue are to be properly understood. A first imperative would be to repeat the present study with a larger number of informants. The key informant base should go beyond the public sector and bring in representatives of NGOs and the commercial private sector. It is also imperative to gain a clear picture of the numbers involved in seasonal migration, and this would require working with migrants themselves, using a participatory approach. The micro work already done, together with the findings of the present survey, will be invaluable in guiding this future work.
This report proposes how we could think about a workable approach to labour market reform, different from the polarised debates we have seen so far. It recommends that such an approach could be started by making small tweaks to social security administration, increasing federal freedom and competition, and engaging meaningfully with trade unions. One of the primary messages is to move the reform narrative to the informal sector. Analysts and policymakers have long been pushing the cause of flexible labour markets in India. On the other hand, such proposals have been met with staunch resistance from those whose interests are vested in an inflexible labour market, including employees, trade unions, and the labour ministry. After almost six decades of impasse on this issue, it is time to find a workable approach that could be acceptable to both parties – as marginal progress is beCer than a stalemate. This report shows how this is within the realm of the possible.
Women in developing countries are starting to join the workforce in greater numbers, and it has been argued that such exposure can lead to improved outcomes for them. This paper examines whether longer tenure in the formal sector affects female empowerment, marriage and fertility decisions. I exploit plausibly exogenous variation in duration worked from a natural experiment created by a large Indian textile firm0 s decision to replace fixed-term contracts with daily employment contracts. Using administrative data from this firm, I find that the more time women were exposed to a fixed-term contract, the longer they stayed in the formal labor market. Surveying 985 workers about 4.5 years after they first entered the textile industry, I find that the women who worked longer delayed marriage, without any detrimental effect on eventual spousal quality. A longer duration of employment also translates to reductions in desired fertility. Further, there are strong spillover effects within the family, as age of marriage increases for younger sisters and school dropout rates decrease for younger brothers. I find evidence that an increase in female empowerment and autonomy is a plausible channel for these effects. These findings provide new information on the impact of duration of employment outside the parental village for young women in rural areas.
Despite the acknowledged importance and large scale of rural-urban migration in many developing countries, few studies have compared education outcomes of migrants to those for people born in the city. This paper uses recent data from Dhaka, Bangladesh, and Ho Chi Minh City and Hanoi, Vietnam, to examine educational expenditure and children’s grade attainment, with a focus on poor households. It finds that rural-urban migrant households have fewer assets, live in worse housing conditions and in areas less well served by public schools, have fewer social connections in the area where they live, and contain adults with lower educational levels than for urban native households. Even conditional on these household characteristics, educational expenditure and grade attainment were both lower for children from migrant households than urban natives. The findings are consistent with migrant children’s education being impeded by bureaucratic obstacles such as the household registration system in Vietnam. The paper concludes by noting that expansion of urban school systems sometimes fails to keep pace with population movements. While the barriers to education of recent migrants in these two contexts are in many ways similar to those of other poor urban households, they are among the most severely disadvantaged but do not always benefit from existing programmes such as school fee waivers. Specific policies may be needed to address the multiple causes of educational deprivation for this group.
It is theoretically argued that there is a strong linkage between migration and poverty. Migration can be treated as an alternative to improve individuals’ welfare and to minimize the risk of being prone to poverty. Meanwhile, poverty itself at the same time facilitates people to leave the land. In many developing countries, like Indonesia, migration is seen as a coping strategy to step out of poverty. Migration is a common phenomenon for many Indonesian who cannot find jobs in their homes due to lack of employment opportunities and limited sources, tried to search for fortunes in destination. Many studies on migration have found that migrants on the average are better than non-migrants. However little is known to what extent that migration process can improve migrants’ welfare and to step them out of poverty. This study wants to shed lights on this issue.
The central government of India has made notable strides in recognizing and attending to the educational needs of marginalized children. Policymakers have invested significant effort and capital to change legal frameworks and to establish Sarva Shiksha Abhiyan (SSA), the national Ministry of Human Resource Development (MHRD)’s flagship program to achieve Universalization of Elementary Education (UEE). Bihar Education Project Council (BEPC), the state-supported agency designated to implement SSA in Bihar, has taken great pains to target Scheduled Castes (SCs), Scheduled Tribes (STs), Muslim minority communities, and girls. However, these institutions and the current educational system in rural Bihar fail to address the additional dimension of distress migration. Also called seasonal migration, this particular form of migration has historical roots in the largely agricultural economy; generations of poor families leave their home villages to find employment opportunities during the lean season between harvests. Accompanying their parents, migrant children leave their rural communities and move to larger towns within Bihar (intra-state migration) or migrate to other states (inter-state migration) for weeks or months. Migrant children often eventually drop out of school at an early age – before they achieve basic literacy and numeracy – and are forced into low-wage labor in construction, domestic work, and agriculture.
MGNREGA is an ambitious scheme providing employment to rural people of India. The basic aim of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act is to enhance livelihood security of household in rural area. By this scheme Govt. gives assurance of employment to unskilled rural laborer for 100 days. With better implementation such type of scheme may be an effective weapon to fight against poverty. It also aims at transforming the rural areas by improving the socio-economic conditions of people. Rural economy is the back-bone of Indian economic development. Providing employment to rural households will certainly boost the economy. It increases demand for goods and services. In this article an effort has been made to analyses the socio-economic impact of MGNREGA scheme on the life of beneficiaries of Dungarpur district. The findings of the study revealed that the programme has brought the change in the lives of the beneficiaries. Though it is always a debatable issue that such changes, by MGNREGA are sustainable or temporary.
This research aims to highlight how the specific educational needs of migrant children, a group singled out by the SSA as a vulnerable population, can be met under the new guidelines. Beginning in 2009, the Prayas Centre for Labour Research and Action and Prayas Chittor began to bring to the attention of the SSA departments of Gujarat and Rajasthan the high number of out-of-school seasonal migrant children living at the brick kiln worksites in the districts around Gandhinagar, Gujarat and Bhilwara, Rajasthan. In response, the local SSA department piloted educational outreach initiatives at the brick kilns in the districts of Gandhinagar, Patan, Ahmedabad, and Mehsana; Gujarat and Bhilwara, Rajasthan. This report will analyze and evaluate the programs piloted in Gandhinagar and Bhilwara. The objective was to indicate specific difficulties encountered in implementing the newly provisioned special training programs at brick kiln worksites and evaluate the effectiveness of these programs when used to meet the educational needs of migrant children.
There have been many evaluation studies on the impact of NREGS but there are hardly any systematic studies relating to impact of the scheme on children. This paper tries to fill this gap. There is a huge literature on awareness, implementation problems, impact on the livelihoods, women, migration, agricultural wages, marginalised sections, etc. This paper makes use of some of the in-depth studies on various states of India. We have also undertaken limited focus group discussions in Rajasthan on the implementation and impact of the scheme on women and children. Specifically, the paper addresses the following issues: (a) the pathways in which NREGS affect households, particularly those leading to better outcomes for children; (b) impact on children in terms of changes in child labour patterns – by reducing child labour as a coping strategy of poor households or by – inadvertently – encouraging child labour; (c) changes in expenditure patterns of families based on additional income earned, leading towards greater expenditures on girl and boy children, especially on education, health and nutrition; (d) impact on women’s well-being, empowerment and intra-household decisions; and (e) availability of child care facilities at worksites, and coverage of 0-6 age group by these crèche facilities. The paper presents the evidence based on empirical studies in the literature relating to the impact of NREGS on households, empowerment and well being of women, child labour, health, education, nutrition of children and child care facilities at work sites.
The origin of current migration from Bihar can be traced back to the days of ushering in green revolution in the north-west India, which created unprecedented demand for labour in agriculture. During the early 1970s it started with a small trickle to the rural areas of Punjab which soon took the form of a flood during the next one decade. Soon the influx of migrant labour to rural areas of Punjab started spilling over to the neighbouring state of Haryana where the green revolution was making a headway. However, the rising trend of migration to rural Punjab stabilised after early 1990s for various reasons: prolonged period of terrorism and attacks on migrant labourers during this period, changing cropping pattern to suit the market demand that allowed extensive mechanisation of agriculture, resulting into the displacement of rural labour, and also relatively slow rise in wage rates. These together dampened the flow of migrants from rural Bihar to rural Punjab (Singh 1995). Partly the flow was diverted to new areas such as Haryana and even to the parts of Jammu but, on the whole, the number of migrants to Punjab and Haryana either stabilised or started declining.
The migration process is considered as an opportunity if it is migration by choice. But the distress or forced migration often leads to further vulnerabilities. There is no much distinction between trafficking in person and forced/distress migration as migration is distinguished from human trafficking by a very thin-line. Initially the migrant workers were given the impression that they are migrating to other places to enhance their earning though decent job, but remain no choice when they are given in the custody of some other contractor/agent, whom they have been meeting for the first time. Recruitment of workers and their transportation for the purpose of exploitation leads to human (including children) trafficking, which is certainly an organised crime.
The study examines the effects of sociological and psychological factors on migrant and non-migrant children in Kosi basin. The data obtained by random sampling was based on two sub-groups of Religion (Hindu-Muslim), Gender (Female-Male) and Socio - Economic Status (High-Low). A 2x2x2x2 factorial design was used to study the effect of above mentioned factors on migration of children. General Health Questionnaire (GHQ)-12 was applied to study the mental health of migrant and non-migrant children sample. For Analysis of the obtained data, calculation of percentages was applied. The findings indicate that percentage values of mental health scores of Hindu-Muslim low socio-economic status male-female migrant children sample were much lower than their counterparts. It proves that socio-economic status factors have strong impact on mental health of migrant children.
The present research on quality of life of seasonal migrants has brought out bitter facts. The quality of life of sugarcane cutter migrants deteriorates sharply at destination from the nominal quality of life at their source. Moreover their basic human rights stand violated at the destination. Seasonal migrants were found worse off on the parameters of quality of life on food intake, housing profile, medical and educational facilities. As far as the housing profile is concerned of the total 22 attributes of housing profile (which include quality/nature of house, electricity, fuel used for cooking and source of drinking water) on 18 attributes the destination was worse when compared with source. The study further demystifies the fact that seasonal migrants make money. It was found that on an average the migrant household's monthly savings at destination was just Rs. 262 and for the entire season the savings were just Rs. 1546. Rather the study attest that seasonal migration for majority of migrants is predominantly a survival strategy i.e. coping mechanism, for few it is a source of additional income and some remain bonded due to debt. These are the findings of a collaborative research study undertaken by the Gokhale Institute of Politics and Economics, Pune and Janarth, Aurangabad a leading voluntary organization involved in marginalized communities including seasonal migrants.
Migrant children are born and raised without legal affiliation to a nation-state. Children who lack legal documentation are often described as stateless. Children of Indonesian migrant workers are a diverse population whose lack of documentation may be the result of various parental decisions, family transitions, and wider cultural, political and economic conditions. Statelessness can lead to a range of trajectories and outcomes. Some reasons that Indonesian children are stateless are: (1) they crossed borders illegally with their parents and do not have legal documents in the receiving country; (2) their births are not registered in their home communities; (3) they may have migrated independently without documentation. This report focuses on migrant parents’ decision-making regarding birth registration for their child.
A study of decision making about birth registration in Indonesian families involved in transnational migration showed strong links between high migration and low birth registration for children of migrants, with negative implications for child statelessness and access to critical social services. The study included 42 individual interviews and seven focus group discussions involving 56 rural youth, parents, and grandparents in the high-migration district of East Lombok, Nusa Tenggara Barat province. Findings highlight the many ways that labour migration affects decisions about birth registration, citizenship, and family belonging for children. These insights expand our understanding of birth registration beyond the usual perspectives of governments, migrant advocates, and service agencies to include the cultural, social and familial experiences and decisions around the birth registration process.
Findings of a study of transnational migrant families in Indonesia shed light on factors influencing family decision-making about whether to seek birth registration for children who would otherwise be effectively stateless. The study found links among an entrenched pattern of unauthorized transnational labour migration, low birth registration, and difficult access to registration services. The findings demonstrate the value of listening to families’ perceptions of multiple barriers to birth registration. Families need policies to recognize accessibility issues for mobile populations, and to offer effective support with childrearing as a means to counteract the potential long-term debilitating effects of statelessness in transnational migrant families. Families also need access to alternative income development initiatives to reduce dependency on migration for future generations.
Migration is one of the most important phenomena in today’s globalised world. In the light of on-going structural changes and consequent changing contours of the rural economy, the nature and pattern of migration has also been changing over time. During the last two decades, the phenomenon of out-migration from rural areas has increased manifold. People from rural areas are migrating in large numbers in search of better employment opportunities outside the agricultural sector. By the end of 1990s, the highest concentration of migrants is in metropolitan cities and areas adjacent to it, such as Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, which form part of the National Capital Region of Delhi. There has been a general change in the destination of migration from rural-rural to rural-urban. However, the intensity of migration is generally reported to be low in India due to the conventional approach of defining migration.
The concept of ‘Labour welfare’ is flexible and elastic and differs widely with times, regions, industry, country, social values and customs, the degree of industrialization, the general social economic development of people and political ideologies prevailing at particular moments. However, the Committee on Labour Welfare (1969) defined the phrase to mean, “Such facilities and amenities as adequate canteens, rest and recreation facilities, sanitary and medical facilities arrangements for travel to and from and for accommodation of workers employed at a distance from their homes, and such other services, amenities and facilities including social security measures as contribute to conditions under which workers are employed.”
The occupation of waste picker has taken on new importance as a livelihood, especially since the last global economic downturn. Increasingly, waste pickers are being recognized for their valuable contributions to urban sustainability and development. Drawing from scholarship on waste pickers, and findings from a recent study conducted in five cities across three continents, this paper discusses the environmental and economic contributions of informal waste pickers to cities. This paper argues for the re-conceptualization of solid waste management systems that integrate waste pickers as partners, as key to building just, inclusive and livable cities for all. It also presents a specific model in which informal waste workers are integrated as key stakeholders as one example of best practice in this area, thus contributing to current discussions on integrated and inclusive solid waste models.
This paper reviews the literature on female labour migrations flows within the Asia region from a gender perspective in order to gain a better understanding of their patterns, causes and consequences as well as their implications for current concerns with social protection and citizenship. The rationale for a gender perspective stems for evidence that women migrate for different reasons than men, they migrate along different routes and the consequences of their migration are also often different. Female migration therefore poses a particular kind of challenge for social protection and for the citizenship status of migrants. In addition, from a more analytical perspective, the study of gender differentiated movements of the population are important for the mirror they hold up to the different ways in which gender inequalities in the division of labour are incorporated into the broader and spatially uneven processes of development in an era of globalization.
This paper examines the macroeconomic interaction between informality and gender inequality in the labor market. A dynamic stochastic general equilibrium model is built to study the impact of gender-targeted policies on female labor force participation, female formal employment, gender wage gap, as well as on aggregate economic outcomes. The model is estimated using Bayesian techniques and Indian data. Although these policies are found to increase female labor force participation and output, lack of sufficient formal job creation due to labor market rigidities leads to an increase in unemployment and informality, and further widens gender gaps in formal employment and wages. Simultaneously implementing such policies with formal job creating policies helps remove these adverse impacts while also leading to significantly larger gains in output.
That there is a relationship between population migration and development is axiomatic. Just what that relationship might be and how migration affects development, and development migration, is not, however, at all clear. Neither must it be assumed that migration and development are independent variables. This writer has maintained that migration is an integral part of development and the one cannot be truly separated from the other (Skeldon, 1997). Migration, or the more inclusive "mobility", can be conceptualized as the dynamic, spatial dimension of any society or economy. The mobility patterns of a country with a high Gross National Product (GDP) per capita, an economy dominated by service industries and the population distribution concentrated in urban areas, are clearly different from those of a country where the gross national product (GDP) per capita is low, the economy is based on agriculture and the population is dispersed throughout the rural sector. Equally, the mobility patterns of wealthier groups within any country are very different from those of poorer groups. Nevertheless, levels of development are not neatly correlated with particular volumes or types of migration. For example, within the developed world itself, the mobility rates of populations vary greatly.
This paper examines changes in India’s rural labour market after 1991, but mainly in the 2000s, using evidence from the Census and the National Sample Survey (NSS). The Census data show a large decline in the size of main cultivators and an increase in the size of marginal agricultural labourers in the two decades after 1991. These changes were more marked in the eastern, northern, and central- eastern States, than in the western and southern States of the country. The combined size of cultivators and agricultural labourers increased between 2001 and 2011, according to the Census. On the other hand, the NSS registered a decline in the size of the agricultural work force and an increase in rural construction jobs after the mid-2000s. The discrepancies between these two data sources are particularly striking in some States, including Bihar, Odisha, Madhya Pradesh, and Rajasthan. The findings of this paper suggest that a structural transformation of the work force away from agriculture is yet to begin in many parts of rural India, and that the optimism generated by the NSS data on this count is perhaps unwarranted. At the same time, the paper highlights some of the problems with India’s employment statistics, especially with regard to measuring the short-term migration of workers.
Forced migration research, policy and practice have deployed problematic ways of looking at displaced populations. Refugees have been viewed as ‘problems’ for host countries and interventions have focused on ‘durable solutions’, i.e. voluntary repatriation back to their home country, resettlement in another country or integration into the host society (see Harrell-Bond 1987). Oustees are often perceived as the unfortunate victims of development projects that are necessary for a country’s prosperity or for the greater common good. IDPs are often referred to as invisible victims of internal social and political upheavals, voiceless and problematic. These traditional approaches treat the uprooted, at best, as recipients of charity and welfare, or at worst, as victims or problems. While there have been some pro-rights policies and programmes in recent years, traditionally the approaches that have tried to accord agency to refugees and oustees, as they make the most of their adverse conditions and mobilize around their rights, have been few and far between. Largely, the policy and conceptual frameworks that have focused on their problems have been very top-down, resulting in social engineering.
The nexus of environment, climate change and migration is becoming an increasingly important policy issue for Bangladesh, as in the wider South Asian region and globally. The intention of 'Assessing the Evidence: Environment, Climate Change and Migration' is to provide an informed starting point for discussions on this issue amongst all key stakeholders - including government, civil society, research institutions and development partners – in shaping the country's policy agenda on environmental migration going forward. The document brings together evidence on environment, climate change and migration in Bangladesh from a survey of existing literature and interviews with key experts -presented in Section One - with the findings of an IOM policy dialogue on this topic held on 23 May 2010 and presented in Section Two.
The World Commission on Dams provided an analytical overview of the cumulative effects of years of dam development. A lack of commitment or capacity to cope with displacement or to consider the civil rights of, or risks to, displaced people led to the impoverishment and suffering of tens of millions and growing opposition to dams by affected communities worldwide. However, after the WCD, little has changed for the better in terms of resettlement policies. In fact, the standards of key agencies, like the Asian Development Bank, have been lowered and diluted compared to prior policies. Dam-induced development and displacement are stifled by a 'managerialist' approach to planning, in which solutions are sought internally and subordinated to the economics that underpins the existence of the project. The aim of successful resettlement is to prevent impoverishment and to enable displaced people to share in the project’s benefits. Within the field of dam-induced resettlement, this is a lofty goal rarely achieved. However, in other fields of resettlement, such as refugee studies and adaptation to environmental change, such a goal is regarded as a minimum standard. In this paper we seek to broaden the research agenda on dam-induced resettlement and to raise the standards of development projects that entail resettlement. We do this by importing some of the considerations and concerns from practice and research from the fields of refugee studies and adaptation to environmental change.
One of the major fallouts of the new development paradigm in India is the huge displacement of human population. In the wake of this, the government has come up with the National Rehabilitation and Resettlement Policy. But the policy has failed to address most of the crucial issues of resettlement and rehabilitation, especially concerning gender. One important but often ignored reason behind this is the inadequate attention given to various local institutions that play a very crucial role in the everyday survival and coping of the displaced population, particularly women. Based on an ethnographic study of the women displaced by Ganga erosion in Malda district of West Bengal, the present paper examines the role of such local institutions in the everyday lives of these women. The main finding is that the degree of vulnerability of displaced women depends upon their institutional affiliations and hence any rehabilitation and resettlement policy should take into consideration the vitality of these institutions in its policy formulation.
MGNREGS, the premier centrally-sponsored national rural livelihood scheme, is one of the most elaborately designed and implemented public workfare programmes in India. While a large number of studies have analysed the progress of employment creation under the scheme, very few have looked into the equally important issue of rural asset creation under the scheme. The scheme is centrally sponsored and the broad guidelines are centrally designed, yet the interpretation and implementation of the scheme is subject to wide regional variation owing to variations in local level governance capacity, governance structure and regional political economy
This brief outlines a particular iteration of a compact approach that incorporates critical components—such as shared outcomes for refugees, host country ownership and focus on longer-term transition, best practices for program design and management, and commitment to policy reforms—into a systematic model with clear requirements and accountability. While each compact would be tailored to reflect the context of the crisis, greater consideration of these components will ensure greater shared responsibility to support refugees.
This Issue in Brief explores empirical evidence on the mental health and nutritional impacts of international labour migration on the left-behind children of migrant workers in Asia. Current evidence from Asian countries (Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam) shows both negative and positive influences from parental migration on the mental health and nutritional status of such children. Results from a nationally representative study from Sri Lanka, however, suggest that socio-emotional maladjustment and behavioural problems occur among children in the absence of a migrant worker parent, with two in every five shown to have mental disorders. In addition, left-behind children were shown to have higher levels of nutritional deficits compared to non-migrant children.
The impact of migration on children of migrated families is a serious policy concern for the authorities involved in child welfare and development. The study of such children is important because of their perpetual neglect and vulnerability. Their vulnerability might increase in future because of economic crisis, political instability and global environment problems. 8 There are few studies which, focus on issues related to education, health and nutrition status of migrant children. Such issues require immediate concern and more attention of researchers and policy planners. A research study by CMS9 on the immunization status of the children of migrant families conducted in five states of India shows that the percentage of migrant children in the age group of 3-6 years going to Anganwadi Centres (AWCs) is insignificant. Only one out of every three children of the migrant families is enrolled in schools at the destination. The report of the National Commission for Enterprises in the Unorganized Sector estimates that out of four million domestic workers in the unorganized sector, women, girls and children constitute 92 percent and 20 per cent of them are under 14 years of age.
Migration in India has existed historically, but in the context of globalization and opening up of the world economy it has assumed special significance for the country. As a consequence of both historical and economic factors, there are serious income disparities, agrarian distress, inadequate employment generation, vast growth of informal economy and the resultant migration from rural areas to urban, urban to urban and backward to comparatively advanced regions in the most appalling conditions.
There has been a steady flow of people from Nepal and Bangladesh to India in recent decades in search of better work and livelihood opportunities. As they move to and fro, many face harassment, discrimination and violence. Many face these challenges during their journeys – particularly when they cross borders – at their destinations, and when they go home. Their experiences are affected by gender, country of origin and the process of recruitment to migration.
The construction sector providing largest number the employment opportunities after agriculture. NOIDA city is known for its industrial and constructed city and commercial area follows the development of Residential, Industrial and Institutional properties. In the matter of employment, the construction sector also plays a significant role for skilled, semi-skilled and unskilled workers. Constructed commercial building has attracted a large number of workers to NOIDA from different states. Rural to urban migration exist in this sector, mostly urban construction rural migrant an over third of rural migrants work in construction sector. Those who were working on the NOIDA construction sites, they are in engaged in different types labour economic activities. And duration of migration of workers in the NOIDA city was based on short time of period, approximate 70 percent workers (male and female) based on years (less than 1, up to 1 and 2 to 3). The present study has been focused on the migrant construction workers those who were mainly working in commercial construction sector in NOIDA city.
The city intensifies the complexity of ‘social’ with that of the ‘material’. The 'urban' experience is a sum of various complexities, differences and strangeness yet how all these multiplicities get accommodated in one unitary frame through this 'global city' dream. Through the twin ideas of ‘disjunctive inclusions’ and ‘exclusive connections’, the cosmopolis of Delhi opens up spaces to young female immigrants from Manipuri and Nagaland in forms of upscale retail ventures; a part of a larger network of global trade. These ‘manufactured’ spaces serve primarily two objectives; provides an opportunity for generation of an income for these ‘marginalised’ community which is the bedrock for the ‘inclusion’ into the city life, and on the other hand, by the ‘exclusive’ nature of their services, the highly ‘sexualised’, ‘orientalised’ roles they are made to play which packages their ‘ethnicity’ as an ‘exotica’. These spaces realise the aspirations of these women for money yet the ‘urban’ experience fragments the idea of a ‘national identity’ through discrimination on lines of ‘ethnicity’. The relations of production and cognitive framing of people and things gives rise to a space where ‘ethnicity’ is intertwined in the articulations of its form, peculiarities and contours. Through a rationalised view of the instrumentality of the ‘ethnic’ body and its labour in the market via logic of ‘productive sacrifice’, these bodies are represented as ‘exotically saleable’. It is a complex mix of co-dependency premised on a kind of ‘duality’ where ‘ethnicity’ becomes the constitutive dimension of the city’s modernity becoming a weapon of assertion and resistance yet a divisive wall between its inhabitants. This division manifested itself in urban designs, planning, zoning, appropriations of utility, distribution of wealth and power. This ethnographic work studies the lived realities of these women through their ‘voice’ and the ways in which they negotiate with their differences in urban spaces to integrate into the urban whole.
A lot of things happen, but we cannot talk about it. These are the words of a young North Indian migrant worker in the southern Indian city of Bangalore, one of many working in the city’s flourishing garment industry. The industry manufactures apparel for some of the world’s leading clothing brands. Yet the conditions under which these young migrant women work are appalling, sometimes even amounting to modern day slavery. Wages in the industry largely meet the official minimum wage standard, but are too low to add up to a decent living wage. Migrant women are often housed in hostels run by their companies and guarded by male security personnel at night. Their movement is severely restricted and they are herded to the factory and back to the hostel as a daily routine. Most workers are allowed to leave the hostel for only two hours a week. Returning late invites rebuke and sometimes punishment in the form of being made to wait outside the gate for hours till the warden allows them in. Young workers hint at abuse but refuse to speak directly about it for fear of repercussions. The young women have been made to believe that these hostels, the restrictions on their freedom of movement and the presence of male security guards are necessary for their own security in an alien city where they are isolated from the local people.
The analysis of labour migration with the intersectionality methodology opens up the view to the multiplicity of discriminatory mechanisms and complex identities of female labour migrants in Asia. Acknowledging the intersectionality of the migrants’ multiple identities, which might include characteristics such as non-citizens, female, low-income, bonded and undocumented enables policymakers to devise comprehensive responses to challenges faced by female migrants.
Almost half of the total number of migrant workers in the world today are women. While women have always migrated as accompanying spouses and family members, contemporary migration dynamics have shown a considerable increase in the number of women migrating independently to pursue opportunities of their own. On a global scale, a significant number of women migrant workers are employed in low skilled occupations but they are also present in skilled welfare and social professions such as health, education and social services (traditionally female-dominated domains). Among these, most women migrant workers are found in the nursing sector.
Women have long been migrating for a variety of reasons, either independently or as dependents. But, migrant women’s contribution was largely unseen as they were mostly perceived as dependents of migrant male family members. Despite their contribution to the economic and social development of countries of origin and destination, as well as to families and communities back home, women migrant workers undergo a lot of discrimination and human rights violations during the migration process.
The paper studies the effects of mothers’ migration from rural to urban areas on children’s nutritional status under 5 years old based on the data of Chinese Food and Nutrition Surveillance System. To control the possible endogeneity, propensity score matching (PSM) method is employed. It is shown that nutritional status of children with mothers migrating to urban areas is lower than these with mother employed in hometown significantly because of mother’s caring defect. On the other hand, there is no significant difference in nutrition status between children with mother employed in agricultural sector and non-agricultural sector in hometown, though their incomes are different significantly. The result implies that marginal effect of income on children’s nutritional status is decreasing; however, it becomes more important of mother’s caring for children’s nutritional status.
The phenomenon of ‘feminization of migration’, is defined and understood in various ways by different people. It requires a comprehensive analysis of the complexity of contemporary patterns of international migration. Recent studies have pointed to the increasing diversification both within and across nationality groups and polarization of skilled versus lesser skilled workers in the various migration streams. Given these recent trends, 'migration' has evolved into, a highly stratified phenomenon. ‘Stratification’ emphasizes the combined effects of gender, ethnicity, legal status, skill level and mode of entry or exit; therefore, women's migration is highly ‘stratified’.
In recent decades gender and development has become a distinctive field of development policy and research. Different strategies and policies concerning gender issues within mainstream development discourses can be identified. Whereas the aim of the Women in Development approach (WID) in the 1970s was to integrate women in development processes, the Gender and Development approach (GAD) came over a decade later, focussing on gender relations as an essential dimension of development processes. Strategies such as women’s empowerment or gender mainstreaming were taken up by national as well as international development actors and became institutionalized.
There has been a shift in the economic policy in India since the mid 1980s, though the intensity and spread of economic reforms across different sectors of the economy increased since 1990‐91. As part of the economic reforms, certain sectors such as the leather industry were selected for promoting growth of output and exports. Following this, and favourable international conditions, the leather industry in India has experienced an unprecedented growth in total employment, informal employment and exports in the post reform period. This paper is a study of workers in the leather accessories manufacture in Dharavi, Mumbai. The focus is on certain features of employment such as migration and labour mobility. The core data for the paper are from field surveys conducted in the industry in Dharavi in 2000‐01, roughly 10 years after the economic reforms of the 1990s were initiated.
This paper portrays lives and livelihoods scenario of female associated with rural urban migration in Bangladesh. The techniques deplored are the interview and Focus Group Discussion (FGD) methods in collecting data. Internal migration of female has been increased with complexity. This micro level study finds that possible female migrants are enticed, in many cases, with promises of a better life and dream in cities due to lack of information. They are deprived from rights and entitlements; whatever engaged in formal or informal employment. But evidence pointing that voice of female workers is comparatively loud where protection framework exists. This paper urges to take collaborative initiative by stakeholders for developing and disseminating standardized information. Information will help female migrants to be informed and decision making. In concluding this paper, it is recommended that the Government of Bangladesh (GoB) should develop a comprehensive national policy immediately on rural-urban migration; and gradually include informal employment under protection framework.
The paper begins with a discussion of Indian labour law and the increasing use of ‘contract labour’ in Indian formal manufacturing. We question the widespread perception that employment of contract labour provides flexibility to employers in terms of adjustment in response to demand and technology shocks, by bringing in the concept of ‘incomplete contracts’. Apart from the ASI data, we use the responses from a specially commissioned survey in Haryana: a state having a well-established industrial base with a large pool of skilled labour force, in order to gain empirical insights on the links between law, skills and the extensive use of ‘contract’ labour. The paper then goes on to discuss some theoretical literature emphasising the importance of relationship specific investments for skills and proceeds to emphasize the role of the labour law in this context. It is strongly hoped that these findings will be used to comment on the costs and benefits of the ‘contract’ labour system and its variants across South Asia, particularly in view of moves to reform labour law in South Asia.
Migration of population has been a recurrent phenomenon since the dawn of human history. Though its form has changed but it remains a dominant event in the global social system. In modern days also people migrate from underdeveloped areas to the developed ones in search of better opportunities. Several theories have been propounded to explain the occurrence of migration. A number of social, cultural, economic, spatial, climatic, demographic factors induce migration. Among them, the economic factors are considered as the primary reasons for inducing migration. Migration of male labour force from Bihar has increased during last two decades which prompted us to analyze the pattern of migration and its impact on the empowerment of women left behind at place of origin. The incidence of migration is comparatively high in rainfed ecosystem due to undeveloped agriculture. In Bihar, labour migration crossed the boundary of caste and class since migrants belonging to all castes and class are found migrating however short term migration seems to be the domain of lower caste and class whereas forward caste migrants prefer to migrate for long period.
Migration is a complex issue which has been a subject of keen interest for many years to sociologists, anthropologists, demographers, economists and political scientists. The migrants who work out of their locations face lot of oppression and subjugation with respect to work allocation, socio-economic and political aspects. And if the migrants are women their problems are manifold, diverse and sometimes beyond to address. The indigenous women who are left in the dark, forced to endure extreme poverty. They live in politically unstable and geographically remote regions where there is a lack of adequate education, infrastructure, and healthcare. Migration tends to be seen as the only way out. But, when it comes to women it is very hard to accept and cope-up.
Labour migration which is defined here as a movement of human beings away from home, undertaken with the intention of finding employment. The other fields of voluntary migration (education and marriage) as well as distress migration are considered only in those cases where they are not clearly separated from labour migration. The focus is on the economic and social repercussions of labour migration on the families and communities staying behind. Moreover, the extent, nature, characteristics and pattern of migration have been evolving over time. Seasonal or short duration migration is certainly not a new phenomenon in India. The magnitude of rural labour circulation of recent origin, and a direct consequence of structural changes in the economy. Seasonal or circular migration could be largely distress driven and stimulated by the partial or complete collapse of rural employment generation, economic difficulties of cultivation and absence of alternative employment opportunities in underdeveloped regions of the country. The present study focuses on examining the nature and characteristics of seasonal migrant households and based on a primary level survey conducted in three mandals of Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh in 2012. It reveals that migration from the village is essentially seasonal and cyclical in nature, and differs for both rural and urban migrants.
The MGNREGA is the flagship welfare programme of the UPA Government and the largest of its Kind in India. MGNREGA will have significant positive impact on seasonal Rural – Urban Migration by providing rural workers with employment during the lean season MGNREGA income provides a significant value addition to meet the higher order needs critical for their survival or growth and development of their family. Thus public work offering relatively Predictable employment Opportunities are particularly effective in slowing Rural – Urban migration.
The study conducted in the state of Haryana has investigated the impact of implementation of MGNREGA in two districts — one agriculturally-advanced (Karnal) and the other agriculturally-backward (Mewat). Besides demographic characteristics, the paper has investigated the difference in the employment status, income, landholding size, herd size and other assets of the sample farm households in these two districts by taking 120 farm families, 60 from each district. The impact of MGNREGA within a district has also been studied in terms of income and employment security, migration, debt repayment, extent of participation in MGNREGA works, socio-economic status, etc. by seeking information from 30 participating and 30 nonparticipating households in MGNREGA works in each district. A significant difference has been found in the extent of employment under MGNREGA works in agriculturally-advanced Karnal (13.7%) and agriculturally-backward Mewat (24.6%) districts. The study has observed that despite being a source of employment, MGNREGA has not been able to check the migration from the developed region because of higher market wage rates at destinations. The study has concluded that farmers owning large size of landholdings and more number of animals are not much interested in participating in MGNREGA works.
This paper is based on a case study of female migrants working in construction-the second largest industry in India and one which employs almost 30 million people, approximately 30 percent of which are women, many of them migrants. In this paper, we extend beyond an empirical description of female migrant workers in the field of construction, considering the subjective and nuanced realities linked to women's lived experiences as migrants. The study is based on interviews of 110 female construction workers who have migrated from various regions of India to the city of Delhi. An in-depth, qualitative exploration of these women's lives and perceptions captures some of the more latent risks and rewards associated with both migration and work in the informal sector. Specifically, the results shed light on how strong societal norms may actually prevent women from acknowledging or articulating the true reasons for their migrations.
This paper studies the effects of remittances on informal employment in the migrants’ countries of origin, looking both at the remittance-receiving and non-migrant households. Using data from the Social Exclusion Survey, conducted in six transition economies in 2009, I find that receiving remittances increases the likelihood of working informally. At the regional level, high prevalence of remittances is associated with a higher likelihood of informal work among non-migrant households. Migration and remittances may thus be contributing to informal employment in migration-sending countries.
Migration is as eternal as human beings themselves. It occurs at a variety of scales, from millions of people to an individual or a household, depending on the cause. The study of the phenomenon is, of necessity, interdisciplinary, as migration is typically caused by a range of factors, including economy, race, religion, gender, language, and culture, which typically combine to make each migration or displacement case a complex whole. Migration may be inter-continental, intra-continental, or simply internal – indeed sometimes over short distances. It does, however, always exact a cost, not just in monetary terms, but also social and emotional. This is particularly true when migration is involuntary, or, as it is more commonly called, forced. This paper looks at a specific form of migration – that of non-Muslim Pakistanis, which has occurred as a result of religious persecution. This migration could be domestic (from one city or town to another inside the country) or international (where a migrant has left the country to escape threats). Unlike migration which occurs due to state persecution, migrants are, in this case, not escaping from state violence per se, but from the effects of state apathy and incompetence, or, in the case of some groups, a policy of ignoring or even covertly encouraging offences against them.
Migration typically leads to higher income, but its association with life satisfaction remains unclear. Is migration accompanied by an increase in life satisfaction? If it is, is the increase in income responsible or are other life domains driving the satisfaction changes? These two questions are addressed using longitudinal data from a Swedish Young Adult Panel Study for 1999 and 2009. Comparing migrants to non-migrants, it is found that internal migration is accompanied by an increase in life satisfaction. This increase is observed for both, migrants who move due to work and those who move due to non-work reasons. This finding holds regardless of other life transitions that may accompany migration, such as marriage and joining the labor market. However, different factors account for the increase in life satisfaction for work and nonwork migrants. For non-work migrants, it is greater housing satisfaction that leads to an improvements in life satisfaction. Moreover, no increase in income relative to non-migrants is found for this group. For work migrants, although their income increases compared with nonmigrants, this increase does not seem to explain the differential improvement in life satisfaction because of a lack of improvement in their economic satisfaction (compared to non-migrants). Rather, it is the higher relative status arising from occupational advancement that seems to contribute to the higher life satisfaction for work migrants.
According to China’s 2010 population census, 38.81 million children migrated from rural to urban areas in Mainland China, a phenomenon that has attracted much scholarly attention. Due to the lack of quantitative synthesis of migrant children’s developmental outcomes, we undertook a meta-analysis to compare their developmental outcomes with those of their urban counterparts. Migrant children are disadvantaged by the sociocultural circumstances in urban areas. Government should target them and provide appropriate support in order to improve their developmental status, which will have a positive impact on the stability and development of society.
Palamur is a small village of a little over thousand people in the Atmakur taluk of Mehbubnagar district in the Telangana region of Andhra Pradesh. Mehbubnagar is characterised by little agricultural development and almost no industrial development. The Government describes it as one of the most backward districts of Telangana. Not more than 2,000 workers are employed in the few registered factories in this district. This district also has the lowest rainfall in the state. Palamur and the other villages of Atmakur taluk are as a result severely drought ridden areas.
Shenzhen’s rapid growth and urbanisation has attracted a large, mobile, migrant working population. This article explores health protection through the means of social health insurance between migrants and registrants and their point of access to healthcare.A cross-sectional questionnaire survey was conducted in Shenzhen, with a random sample of 793 registered and 750 non-registered residents. Chi-square test and multivariate logistic regression were applied to analyse the association between health insurance coverage with Hukou registration status and healthcare utilisation.
In developing countries it has for long been the trend that only single migrants participate in the extensive rural-urban migration. This exact phenomenon will be elaborated and enlightened in this thesis. In India, as well as in other countries, migrants play an integral role in the urban workforce. They offer a cheap, reliable (in the sense that they are many) and easy accessible service. This thesis put emphasis on how low-skilled labourers cope with life in an urban setting. Furthermore, it will be elaborated several reasons why these migrants choose to make the move, and why they in most cases do not bring their families along. It will also be discussed how low-skilled migrants contribute to the economic development witnessed in contemporary India. Does the low wage received by urban migrants help poverty alleviation or is it purely an exploitation of the migrants by the employers? The thesis builds on qualitative collected data as well as in-depth interviews and on site observations, complemented by an extensive survey (n=72) undertaken by the author. The author has interviewed low-skilled labourers on the streets of Gurgaon and sub-urb Delhi. From this it became clear that there is a general agreement that the low-skilled labourers do not earn enough to make a living for a whole family in an urban situation. Then again, they earn more in the city than they do on the countryside (if they earn anything at all). It was many a time pointed to the lack of sufficient work opportunities in the countryside where most families practice within subsistence farming. In respect to the aspect of development the labour migrants was found to offer a significant contribution to the development occurring in contemporary Gurgaon. Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee (MGNREGA) is a national government scheme put together to help employ villagers in non-agricultural sectors. The effects of this will to some extent also be elaborated in this thesis.
On 9th March 2016, the media reported an accident at a construction site of All India Institute of Medical Sciences (AIIMS), Delhi in which two workers were killed and three were injured. In less than 35 days, on 13th April 2016, another accident took place at the same construction site in which one worker died and two were severely injured. It is no ordinary site and happens to be the new Mother and Child Ward in premier Medical Research and Hospital, AIIMS. As per the media reports FIRs were registered against the construction Company, enquiry committees were set up and compensations were announced. Over five months having lapsed since the first accident and four months since the second, the fate of compensations announced and the criminal investigation process, still hangs in the balance. Contrary to the ‘fast track’ response of the Delhi government as well as the AIIMS authorities in announcing compensation and registering criminal cases, PUDR factfinding reveals the reality about dangerous working conditions, lack of accountability and criminal liability, and discrepancies in the process of granting compensation.
This paper highlights the interrelatedness of gender and household organization in a central aspect of developmental change: rural-urban migration. It demonstrates the significance of intra-household dynamics for understanding the gender selectivity of population movement and shows in turn how this contributes to household diversity among low-income groups in both rural and urban areas. It also shows that although most women have little choice in determining decisions over their own or others’ migration (or household arrangements), the “feminization” of household headship which so often results from demographic mobility is not necessarily negative for women. The paper concludes that governments and agencies could do more for gender equality by acknowledging the potentially transformative role of interventions aimed not only at, but inside, households, and by adopting more flexible positions towards household diversity.
Indian labour force consisted of about 430 million persons, growing annually at about 2% (Economic Survey, 2007). Slightly less than 3/5th of it is employed in agriculture, mostly residing in rural areas and producing a little over 1/5th of the domestic product. Cultivators form about 2/3rd of the rural workforce, the remaining are agriculture workers. Industry (mining, manufacturing, construction and utilities) employs around 18% of the workforce, producing about 27% of the domestic output. The construction industry is important for Indians rural to urban migrants. Over 90% of urban construction workers are rural migrants, and over a third of all rural migrants work in construction. The construction industry is not only particularly important, but is also different from other industries in its pay and labor recruitment practices. In common with other rural workers, construction workers have long suffered from various problems, including delayed payment of salaries and exclusion from urban social security schemes. State policies designed to deal with these problems have in general had mixed success. Partly as a result of the peculiarities of the construction industry, state policy has been particularly unsuccessful in dealing with the problems faced by construction workers. Our project considers both the risks rural workers in the construction industry face because of the work they do and the risks they face and because of their being rural workers. It shows that social protection needs to take into account both the work related risks and status related risks. The authors first review the literature concerning work related risks, and then build up a framework to analyses the risks embedded in their work and status.
The growth of domestic work as a service sector is being continually fuelled by supply and demand factors. Demographic changes such as aging populations, decline in welfare provision, increasing labour force participation of women, and the challenges of balancing working life and family life in urban areas and developed countries contribute to greater demand for domestic workers. On the supply side rural poverty, gender discrimination in the labour market as well as limited employment opportunities in general in rural communities and countries of origin ensure a continuous supply of workers into the sector. Domestic work is a predominately female-dominated sector that is poorly regulated and often unprotected by labour law. It is also often embedded within sociocultural structures, which may make it difficult for employers to see themselves as such. Moreover, issues of gender, class, ethnicity and caste also come into play heightening the weak bargaining power of domestic workers.
Since India’s independence Northeastern region of India has been witnessing episodes of secessionist and insurgency related violence and conflict. The problem has become more complex, as the region is inhabited by people belonging to different racial stock, speak different languages and have varied socio-cultural tradition. These people are now fighting for the same geographical space to protect and preserve their identity and culture. Illegal immigration from neighbouring countries, especially from Bangladesh has aggravated the problem as it has reduced the number of indigenous people to minority in some parts of the region. Though the Sixth Schedule of the Constitution of India has become an important tool to provide special protection to indigenous people in Northeastern states, the problem lies in the fact that many of these ethnic groups do not live in distinct areas and their demand for ethnic homeland often overlap with other groups. As a result their demand for ethnic homelands has led to conflict and in turn internal displacement.
The empirical evidence shows that people in developing countries are likely to respond to climatic change by migrating internally. There is less evidence on the relationship between climate change and international migration. The effect of climate change on migration depends crucially on socio-economic, political, and institutional conditions. These conditions affect both vulnerability to climate change and how important climate change is in determining migration decisions.
Based on the understanding that migration is a significant, growing, but also complex phenomenon, this approach seeks to address the sensitivity of existing migration drivers in specific contexts to climate change. In contrast to existing approaches which have sought to generate global level estimates of the numbers of ‘climate migrants’, this integrated assessment approach seeks instead to understand how and why existing flows from and to specific locations may change in the future, and provide a practical tool for climate adaptation planning.
In an overarching concern to protect its territorial integrity and social harmony, illegal cross-border migration is regarded as a vital issue for India’s national security. The inter-state relations are marked by a kind of turbulence on account of several illegal transnational activities and ethno-cultural conflicts. These could be attributed to a great extent to Bangladeshi migration to India. The linkages between the internal politico-security landscape and the external environment have made the issue of illegal migration critical for the national security strategy.Migration on a permanent or temporary basis has been one of the most important survival strategies adopted by people for centuries in the face of natural or human caused disasters.
Anthropogenic climate change will have significant impacts on both human migration and population health, including infectious disease. It will amplify and alter migration pathways, and will contribute to the changing ecology and transmission dynamics of infectious disease. However there has been limited consideration of the intersections between migration and health in the context of a changing climate. This article argues that climate-change related migration - in conjunction with other drivers of migration – will contribute to changing profiles of infectious disease. It considers infectious disease risks for different climate-related migration pathways, including: forced displacement, slow-onset migration particularly to urban-poor areas, planned resettlement, and labor migration associated with climate change adaptation initiatives. Migration can reduce vulnerability to climate change, but it is critical to better understand and respond to health impacts – including infectious diseases - for migrant populations and host communities.
There are currently at least 85 million rural-urban migrants in the mainland China. These migrants face great health risks, yet are not recognised or covered by any medical care scheme. This paper demonstrates that the key issue for migrants’ health is not their social characteristics such as low income or the lack of health awareness, as most literature has emphasised, but lies in the institutional arrangements regarding health security and service provision. Unlike in other countries, rural-urban dualism and a unique household registration system in China render migrants unable to access public services in either cities or villages.
We analyze the socio-economic determinants of young people’s decisions to internally migrate in Senegal. Far from a rural-to-urban story, youth undertake mostly rural-to-rural and urban-tourban migrations. In our sample of 2,676 individuals, aged 21 to 35 years, 35% are internal migrants, and over half can be defined as temporary migrants. Using multinomial logit models, we estimate the role of early childhood household and community characteristics in young people’s decision to migrate. We find that determinants of youth migration are heterogeneous by gender and destination. The higher the fathers’ education the more (less) likely are their daughters to move to urban (rural) areas. Young men and women, who spend their childhood in better off households, are more likely to move to urban areas. Also, the presence of younger siblings increases the propensity of moving to rural areas. Access to primary schools during childhood decreases the likelihood of migrating to urban areas for both men and women.
An important objective of Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (MGNREGP) is to curb rural out-migration. This paper on the basis of a micro-level field investigation wants to investigate the effectiveness of this programme to reduce the intensity of migration of the rural poor households to urban areas. The survey area is a mono-cropping area but job in the private non-farm employment in the locality is available moderately. Besides that, the geographical distance between the surveyed villages and the nearby urban or semi-urban areas is small which indicates very low cost of migration of the daily migrant. Incidentally, all the migrants in our sample villages are daily migrants. The local farm, average private non-farm wage and the average wage rate in the nearby urban informal sector is more than MGNREGP piece-rate. Hence seeking employment here through MGNREGP is not exogenous but endogenous in nature. In this background, it is proved that ‘motivation’ is a factor which influences the local MGNREGP job card holders to secure more person-days of employment through MGNREGP and the households who could secure more person-days of employment through MGNREGP are less prone to migrate from their native village.
Filling a gap left by previous literature, this paper finds that many macroeconomic “puzzles” exhibited by the Chinese economy can be explained (at least partially) by the evolution of China’s internal-migration policies. Such policies not only have a profound impact on China’s labor market conditions, but also explain many China specific phenomena such as its rising saving rate, persistent and increasing wage gap, and seemingly constant rate of urbanization that are contrary to the implications of traditional macroeconomic models. In this paper, we introduce a theoretical framework capturing how human-migration policies are formed by the authorities while retaining the main features and assumptions of traditional models. We show that by incorporating the government’s decision in the theoretical framework, the model generates sensible implications consistent with Chinese data, hence adds to our understanding of the existing ”puzzles.”
This article discusses the family characteristics of internal migrants to urban areas in China and the influence of family considerations as direct and indirect causes of movement. A particular concern is the association between migration and life-cycle events which mark the transition points in individual and family experience. The article is based on a survey of migration in China, conducted by the Chinese Academy of the Social Sciences (CASS) in 1986. The survey covered 0.2 per cent of households in 74 cities and towns in China and collected information on 100,267 persons. The data refer to the volume of movement to cities and towns, characteristics of movers, reasons for movement and its consequences (Ma Xia, forthcoming); the survey did not collect information on intra-urban migration of movement to rural destinations, and the definition of "temporary migration" excluded persons who had been in an urban area without official registration for more than a year.
The migration landscape has witnessed tremendous changes in the last decade, with migrant stock growing in magnitude and migration flows becoming diversified. From a policy perspective what requires immediate attention is the wide range of insecurities confronted by migrants (International Labour Organization [ILO], 2010a)—a phenomenon that has been difficult to reverse despite increasing population mobility. Factors operating at multiple levels are responsible for this situation. Firstly, due to economic transition and demographic changes witnessed in several countries, labour migration cannot be approached from a narrow perspective, as a flow directed solely from developing to developed countries. A significant share of migrants move between developing countries and also from developed to developing countries (International Organization for Migration [IOM], 2011).
This paper explores the impact of institutional barriers imposed on internal migrants in China through the hukou system on their subjective well-being at destination by linking reported happiness to family living arrangements. Using the 2011 Dynamic Monitoring Survey of Migrant Population in Urban China, we find that constrained family living arrangements lower migrants’ happiness. In particular, migrant parents separated from their child are more likely to be unhappy. If institutional barriers were to be removed, we predict that the proportion of happier migrants would be increased by 13%, and the effect is greater for women than for men. We also find that rural migrants are more likely to be impacted by family living arrangements than urban migrants and that the effect is the highest for the middle-age group of migrants.
In this paper, the combined implications of these developments are considered based partly on existing migration studies and partly on data taken from the Poverty and Illness (POVILL) study (Lucas et al, 2008). The aim of this study was to understand the potentially complex impacts of major ill-health on household livelihoods for a reasonably large number of affected households in selected study areas in three countries, Cambodia, China and Laos. At an early stage in the design it was agreed that these households should be selected using a strict probability sampling approach such that it was possible to make valid statistical inferences to the overall study area populations. In China, the household survey was undertaken in two purposively selected counties in each of two provinces. In each area, a multistage cluster sampling procedure was adopted to select village communities, each consisting of around 100 households.
Remittances are increasingly becoming an important source of external financing for the developing countries. For some of the developing countries, it forms almost 40-50% of their GDP. Though there is a growing literature on the impact of remittances on development, very few studies have empirically estimated the impact of remittances on poverty in the developing countries. This study undertakes impact analysis of remittances on poverty in developing countries at two levels. Firstly, it estimates the impact of remittances on poverty in 77 developing countries; Secondly, separate analyses are undertaken for 29 developing countries and 21 Asian developing counties, which have 5% or more share of remittances in GDP. The results of the study consistently show that remittances significantly reduce poverty in recipient countries but the results are more reliable for countries with remittances greater than 5% of GDP.
China is widely recognized for its achievements in reducing absolute poverty since the launch of reforms in the late 1970s. Fast economic growth together with a well funded national poverty reduction programme have led to a tremendous reduction in rural poverty during the past quarter of a century. Official estimates indicate that between 1978 and 2005 the rural population living in poverty decreased from roughly 250 million to 23.7 million, respectively, and the poverty incidence fell from 30.7 per cent to 2.6 per cent during that same period.
Labor migration is a large and growing phenomenon in Asia as workers in origin countries seek better paying jobs and employers in destination countries endeavor to fill employment gaps. Domestic policies and bilateral agreements are necessary to support efficient job matching, eliminate abuses in the recruitment process, and protect the rights of workers abroad.
Using both quantitative and qualitative data collected in a migrant-sending county from 2012–2013, this research examined how parental migration affects the educational outcome of adolescents in rural China. The results indicate an overall negative effect of parental migration on educational outcome. On one hand, parental migration increases children’s educational wellbeing by affording parents an opportunity to stress the importance of education to their children. On the other, parental migration also decreases children’s educational wellbeing by increasing the odds of parental divorce. When only the mother or both parents migrate, there is a higher likelihood of a parental divorce, which significantly increases risks of discontinuing schooling and transitioning to vocational high school relative to attending academic high school. In contrast to the conventional explanations of economic resources, psychological health, caregiver involvement, this paper emphasizes the significant role of marital instability in the link between parental migration and children’s educational wellbeing.
This study is based on census data and it is important to know how far India’s population is correctly enumerated. India has a long history of conducting population censuses since the late 19th century, and the 2011 Census was the fifteenth census conducted since then. Although the quality of data on population size was affected by socio-political conditions during British rule such as the civil disobedience movement there was no precise evaluation of the quality of data by the British Indian censuses.
Rural-urban migration continues to attract much interest, but also growing concern. Migrants are often blamed for increasing urban poverty, but not all migrants are poor. In many cities, however, migrants form a large proportion of the urban poor with whom they share income and non-income disadvantages, including difficulties in finding adequate housing and in accessing services. Like the majority of the urban poor, they work long hours in low-paid, insecure and unsafe jobs and are exposed to a wide range of environmental hazards because most low-income and informal settlements lack basic infrastructure. In many cases when urban governments try to reduce or control rural–urban migration, this also affects low-income residents and not just migrants.
In refugee studies and the general literature on forced migration, the refugee condition or the condition of forced migration is considered exceptional. Yet, one can enquire in colonial and post-colonial context, if the theory of exception does not ignore concrete post-colonial conditions, which are both exceptional as well as part of the general history of democracy and human rights, and if does not assume the liberal-democratic condition as universal to which refugeehood would be the supposed exception. This paper seeks to conduct this enquiry by reviewing and examining the context in which ideas and concepts of refugeehood and forced migration have emerged in a post-colonial country like India, and the ways in which post-colonial political sense has combined rights, ethics, and law in generating the specific ideas related to forced migration.
Even in this age of globalization when people, ideas and goods readily move across national borders on an unprecedented scale, political rhetoric in support of prevailing notions of the static boundaries of citizenship remain pervasive. In particular, the increasing frequency, intensity and scale of transnational migrations—combined with innovations in transportation and communications technologies—have generated new challenges to the concept of citizenship. In the twenty-first century, it is crucial to understand the transnational and increasingly fluid definitions of collective consciousness and individual identity that cannot be understood in the context of exiting conceptions of race and territorially bounded political community. Political communities across nations and historical epochs have included or excluded groups according to different and often shifting criteria. Treating citizenship and a sense of belonging as unfixed and subjected to changes over time, this special issue examines the politics of citizenship in selected East and Southeast Asian countries in the ages of transnational gendered migration.
These findings call attention to a fluid process of relationships between migrants and their home country as well as to policy opportunities and challenges. Filipino migrants were found to be more engaged with their relatives than other groups by virtue of their frequency of sending and level of contact. The findings also suggest some policy issues worth highlighting or paying attention. To that effect the report offers practical recommendations for short term initiatives. This report was based on surveys conducted in sending and receiving populations in Japan, Singapore, Hong Kong, Malaysia, Indonesia and Philippines totaling a sample of 2500 senders and recipients. In addition to the surveys, a team of eleven experts conducted field work and interviews to more than twenty policy makers, analysts, industry officials, and NGO personnel among others. We also created a pricing dataset for the for Japan, Singapore and Hong Kong that captured the transaction cost of the most active money transfer companies.
Crises are a part and parcel of the global economic system. In the crisis-affected developed countries, migrants were challenged in their new homes as jobs began to disappear. Also there was a rapid growth in anti-immigrant sentiment and rhetoric: where they formerly were often left alone, they now faced discrimination and intimidation and perhaps jail and deportation. In fact, it became easier to scapegoat immigrants during crises. Although the latest crisis originated in the United States and around financial systems in high-income countries, it has had an important and in some places catastrophic impact on developing nations and migrants. Like political or environmental catastrophes, the global financial crisis contributed to an environment of human insecurity, and migration was one strategic response. To avoid the crisis and to survive its impacts, those who could afford to cross borders became international movers; others moved to domestic destinations; while many simply stayed put and turned to remittances to help weather the storm. In such situations, remittances are critical to the overall survival of the sending nation that struggles with ecological disasters disrupting lives, economic collapse, job market declines, and rising inflation rates.
This paper brings together the important but sensitive issues of climate change and its impacts on population within the context of a developing country such as Bangladesh. It considers the nexus between people and their natural environment through the lens of current and future climatic changes. In doing so, the paper draws together arguments that highlight several direct and indirect impacts of deteriorating environmental conditions on daily subsistence and livelihood of diverse groups and communities. The paper focuses on migration as a phenomenon that binds together both population and environmental changes in a complex cause and effect relationship (see Figure 1 below). Migration not only contributes to varied changes in environmental resource availability but may also be argued as an important adaptive strategy for large sections of the society in coping with climate-induced environmental degradation.
As early as 1990 the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted that the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migration—with millions of people displaced by shoreline erosion, coastal flooding and agricultural disruption.2 Since then, successive reports have argued that environmental degradation, and in particular climate change, is poised to become a major driver of population displacement—a crisis in the making. In the mid 1990s it was widely reported that up to 25 million people had been forced from their homes and off their land by a range of serious environmental pressures including pollution, land degradation, droughts and natural disasters. At the time it was declared that these ‘environmental refugees’, as they were called (see box 1), exceeded all documented refugees from war and political persecution put together.3 The 2001 World Disasters Report of the Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies repeated the estimate of 25 million current ‘environmental refugees’. And in October 2005 the UN University’s Institute for Environment and Human Security warned that the international community should prepare for 50 million environmental refugees by 2010.
In spite of the fact that migrant workers' remittances have emerged as a major source of external financing for many developing countries, there is general dearth of literature on their developmental impact on the receiving country. There is a general feeling and limited evidence that such flows are less procyclical and more stable than private capital flows. In India, immigrant remittances have emerged as a major strength to the balance of payments, though the composition of such flows has undergone changes over time. The GATS has not as yet yielded desired liberalisation with respect to cross-border movement of workers. In fact, there is certain hardening of stance by industrialised countries in this respect. Recent market-oriented policy measures in India are likely to have boosted remittance inflows. Measures aimed at reducing the transactions costs involved in cross-border flow of remittance would provide additional inducement to workers’ remittance flows towards developing countries.
How do labor markets function when a large part of the able-bodied male workforce is absent due to out-migration? This question holds great significance as it affects regions covering over 200 million people in India and many other parts of the world. In this paper, we analyze individual and district level data on internal and international migration, remittances, sex ratios and labor market variables in India from the perspective of the migrant’s source region and find that the ‘missing men’ phenomenon is associated with (a) Feminization of the agricultural workforce (b) Higher levels of male employment in the construction and rural non-farm services sector and (c) Higher rural wages for males due to tighter labor markets. We argue that these associations are likely to be causal in nature through an instrumental variable strategy that employs historic migration networks that evolved in the late nineteenth century as instruments for current migration.
Gross flows of people across states are about 10 times larger than net flows, yet have declined by around 50 percent over the past 20 years. We argue that the fall in migration is due to a decline in the geographic specificity of returns to occupations, together with an increase in workers’ ability to learn about other locations before moving there, through information technology and inexpensive travel. Micro data on the distribution of earnings and occupations across space provide evidence for the decrease in the geographic specificity of occupations. Other explanations, including compositional changes, regional changes, and the rise in real incomes, do not fit the data. We develop a model to formalize the geographic-specificity and information mechanisms and show that a calibrated version is consistent with cross-sectional and time-series patterns of migration, occupations, and incomes. Our mechanisms can explain at least one-half of the decline in gross migration since 1991.
This paper is an attempt to understand the emerging migration patterns in India and issues underlying it. With globalisation, urbanisation and accompanying changes in socio-economic conditions, migrants are attracted to urban areas in recent times. The emerging migration pattern depicts confinement of migrants in lower socioeconomic class in Urban India in response to the macro-economic reforms. The migration among males to urban area shows migration of people from lower socio-economic class. A steady increase of urban migrants in lower economic class indicating migration is dominated by poorer sections. Higher migration of lower social groups takes place to urban area compared to earlier period. All these rural-urban migration pattern are attributed to rural-urban disparities in socio-economic development and increasing urbanization. But this has its negative effect on the agricultural productivity as the migrants are mainly the agricultural labourers who do not own any land of their own and their socio-economic position in the village is quite bad. This paper tries to identify the as one for this rural-urban migration and tries to list down the reasons with garett ranking method and also identifies how this migration is changing the cropping pattern in the villages for convenience.
Climate refugees are basically poor, helpless people forced to migrate from their homes because of climatic changes. Even as migration stands to be the most time-tested coping mechanism of the people, the migrants—more precisely, the “displaced”—are yet to be officially recognized. The issue needs urgent attention as climate induced displacement is increasing by the day. Ranjan K Panda assesses “climate change and displacement” from a larger perspective and takes a look at the current and upcoming impacts of the growing refugee crisis in a regional context.
Flight or displacement is a time-tested coping strategy for escaping the effects of conflict. When people do not feel safe in their communities and when other coping strategies (such as hiding or negotiating with warring groups) do not work, they flee.10 There are three basic ways in which conflicts displace people. First, civilians may be ‘caught in the crossfire’ of disputes between insurgent groups and government forces (or sometimes conflicts between insurgent groups.) They may flee their communities once the bombs start to fall or armed groups attack their village. Or they may flee in anticipation of such conflicts. Thus in May 2009, 2 million Pakistanis fled the NWFP area of Pakistan where the government carried out a major counter-insurgency campaign against the Taliban. Some of them left in anticipation of the attack, some were told to leave, and some did not leave until the attacks began.
ASEAN assumed different roles in responding to humanitarian crises in Cambodia (in the 1970s) and Myanmar (Cyclone Nargis in 2008). For the Cambodia situation, ASEAN was playing the role of ‘antagonist’ against the regime in Kampuchea/Cambodia at the time, keeping the issue on the UN agenda and, as highlighted by Benny Widyono, using the humanitarian situation as an instrument to politicise the issue. In responding to the humanitarian crisis in Myanmar post-Cyclone Nargis, ASEAN took on a new role: that of facilitator, enabler and convenor (of different interest groups) around a shared objective. A relevant observation here is the impact of disasters as the ‘push factor’ to accomplish difficult goals or to get governments moving. With the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami and 2008 Nargis, ASEAN managed to complete the drafting and adoption of the ASEAN Agreement on Disaster Management (AADMER) after the tsunami, and to get the document ratified by the remaining signatories in 20091 after the Nargis disaster. ASEAN’s role in resolving the Cambodian conflict was more of a political nature. Still, ASEAN’s convening role in bringing different parties into a dialogue led to the creation of the ASEAN Regional Forum in 1994.
The report examines the lack of protection and adequate living conditions of Afghans, Chins and Tibetan refugees and asylum seekers in Delhi. Although UNHCR is currently registering and recognizing refugees in Delhi, these refugees wait long times due to processing delays. Resettlement is unduly slow and opportunities are limited. Even though, UNHCR supports several programes to provide for and improve the welfare of these refugees,many of these programes are limited, inadequate and ineffective to meet the needs of the community.The Tibetans on the other hand are being governed by the ‘Tibetan Government in exile’ which has though made a number of facilities provided to the community members, it still requires continuded assistance from the Indian Government as they do not fall under the UNHCR’s mandate. Therefore they are not the beneficiaries of the UNHCR ‘s progranes , which leads to furthering their plight.This paper thus aims to find solutions to make the living conditions of the refugees worth living so that they not only get the basic requirements well, but also manage to remove the tag of ‘refugees’ from their lives forever to lead a dignified and peaceful life.
Injustice is prominent theme in the news, but there is far less attention to how to be affective in opposing it. How does one respond to the dilemma of dealing with people who have been displaced under extraordinary circumstances and yet reconcile this with perceptions of national security? The dilemma between moral and emotional attitudes toward refugees in the Indian culture –in India he is a guest, in the west he is in need of charity .In India there are two broad systems of values and principles and legalities that have governed refugee management rooted in our culture, value system, caring and hospitality. The second the legal system inherited by our colonial masters. The purpose of the paper is to critically analyse the problems of the refugees and study of the refugee law of different countries so as to reveal the shortcomings of Indian legislation regarding refugees and appropriate suggestions for the same.
India has seen large influx of refugee population throughout history but does not have specific domestic law governing the treatment of refugees and asylum-seekers. Despite being a non-signatory to refugee convention, India has an obligation under international law to protect asylum-seekers which it has traditionally honored. Though India does not have a national framework in refugee law, yet in 2006 the Supreme Court ruled that the right to life and personal liberty as enshrined in Indian constitution protects refugees from forced repatriation. So the present article aims to inform the world India's endeavor to foster respect and improve their situation in India with a mission to assist asylum seekers in basic human rights and accessing justice system.
Remittances appear on the current account of the balance of payment which reflects transactions of goods, services and income. In the economic data remittances are captured in the Gross National Product (GNP). GNP is the sum of the values of produced goods and rendered services and transferred capital by Indians, both in India and abroad. Remittances are not captured in the GDP, because the GDP encloses the sum of the values of produced goods, rendered services and transferred capital within the country, both by Indians and foreigners.
Currently married men and women were recruited from HIV testing and treatment centers across seven selected districts with high rates of male out-migration in eastern and northern India in 2010 using a case-control study design. Case subjects (men: 595, women: 609) were people who tested HIV seropositive and control subjects (men: 611, women: 600) were those tested HIV seronegative. For each gender, we obtained adjusted odds ratios (AORs) and population attributable risks (PARs) for migration, and behavioral factors.
Aug 19, 2016, marks World Humanitarian Day, a global campaign to celebrate humanitarianism and mobilise people to advocate for a more humane world. It is a time to take stock of the needs of vulnerable populations living in challenging environments worldwide and international collaboration towards meeting those needs. It is therefore an opportunity to reflect on the global response to one of the greatest health and humanitarian crises of our time, that of refugees and migrants.
Migration is an equilibrium process which reduces regional disparities at different stages of development and a process which is as old as human civilization. Migration including refugee flows, asylum seekers, internal displacement and development induced displacement has increased considerably in volume and political significance since the end of the cold war. It has become an integral part of North – South relationships and is closely linked to current processes of global social transformation. This makes it as important for sociologists to develop empirical research and analysis on migration as it is to include it in their theoretical understandings of contemporary socity. The study of migration is linked to research on economic migration but has its own specific research topics, methodological problem and conceptual issues. Migration needs to be analysed as a social process in which human agency and social network play a major part. It gives rise to loss of state control, especiclly in the context of recent concerns about migration and securits. In this context, it is essential to question entire sociological approaches, which have been based on the principle of relatively autonomous national societies.
Two thirds of all Indian women have migrated for marriage, around 300 million women, but little is known about this vast migration. This paper provides a detailed accounting of the puzzlingly large migration of Indian women and evaluates its causes. Contrary to conventional wisdom, marriage migration does not contribute to risk sharing. Nor is it driven by sex ratio imbalances. Instead, I introduce a simple model in which parents must search for a spouse for their daughter geographically. By adding geographical search frictions, the model helps rationalize the large regional differences.
This research analyzes differences in values and beliefs between individuals in European and post Soviet states who intend to emigrate and those who do not. In particular, we investigate which political, economic and social values and beliefs are significant determinants of the intention to emigrate, after controlling for relevant socio-economic and demographic confounding factors. The results indicate that self-selection patterns exist in some dimensions, such as evaluation of home country governance and institutions, political participation and trust in other people, while they are absent in other dimensions, such as economic liberalism, views on democracy and free markets. Results also indicate that migrant self-selection patterns are heterogeneous across regions. This analysis aims to improve our understanding of the determinants of emigration, as well as of its possible consequences on the dynamics of governance and institutions.
The industrial and infrastructural development is the key word to the success of any country. However, when this lead to the internal displacement of millions of people the same become a boomerang for the country with the rise of problems like insurgency, poverty, illiteracy etc. The present paper tried to highlight the shift in the policy of the Government of India from only developmental to humanitarian developmental programme.
The main objective of this paper is to study the spatial pattern and levels of inter-state migration and to understand how regional disparities in development influences inter-state migration pattern in India. This study is based on 1991 and 2001 census migration data. In this analysis, two rates namely in-migration and outmigration rates have been computed separately for both males and females. Statistical method of correlation and regression has been used to find the linkage between regional disparities in development and migration. It shows that people mainly moved to the states which have witnessed higher growth rates of urbanization and achieved higher economic development compared to the states where employment opportunities are less. However, there are also some states which are showing significant in-migration as well as out-migration. The decadal growth rate of migration has increased during the period 1991 to 2001. Another important finding is that the overall sex ratio of migrants has reversed favouring males during the last decade. While there is a negative relationship between rate of in-migration and poverty, the volume of in migration is positively correlated with development.
This paper reviews the empirical literature on the relationship between remittances and various dimensions of social development in the developing world within a broader conceptual framework of migration and development theory. Migration and remittances are generally part of risk-spreading and co-insurance livelihood strategies pursued by households and families. Migration and remittances also have the potential to improve well-being, stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty directly and indirectly, while their effects on inequality are much more ambiguous. The significant empirical and theoretical advances that have been made over the past several decades highlight the fundamentally heterogeneous nature of migration remittance-development interactions, as well as their contingency on spatial and temporal scales of analysis, which should forestall any blanket assertions on this issue. Notwithstanding their often considerable blessings for individuals, households and communities, migration and remittances are no panacea for solving more structural development problems.
This essay is a case study of internally displaced persons in camps in the district of Vavunyia in northern Sri Lanka. The main question was; Why do some internally displaced persons remain in camps when many displaced people already have settled elsewhere? The aim of this study was to examine why some people stay in camps even after a ceasefire agreement has been signed and though many people already have settled. The literature on solutions of conflict-induced displacement is not conceptually rich or theoretically exact. Therefore this study also tried to make a model for analysing why some individuals remain in camps. The model is based on the political scientist Robert Dahl theories on “political resources”. The concept used in this essay is “personal resources”. The personal resources examined were social situations and land and property ownerships and political and legal rights. The study assumes from the hypothesis that the remaining people in camps lack these personal resources which are of importance for their ability and motivation to settle outside the camps. The personal resources have been divided into structural and agential factors.
Pakistan has one of South Asia’s highest rates of urbanisation and is one of the world’s largest host countries for refugees, including an estimated 2.7 million Afghans. In recent years it has also seen increasing numbers of internally displaced people (IDPs) due to conflict and disasters, including 774,594 registered IDPs in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) province and the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA) (UNHCR, 2012c). The population of Peshawar, the capital of KP province, has roughly doubled since 1998 to about 3.3m people,1 and it has become one of the largest recipient cities for refugees and IDPs in South Asia. It is also one of the poorest: an estimated 29% of KP’s population lives in poverty (UNDP, 2012). The government agencies charged with urban development have unclear mandates, inadequate resources and limited capacity to effectively manage Peshawar’s ongoing expansion. As the city has sprawled out beyond its originally intended limits, the state has not extended basic services and infrastructure accordingly.
Education for internally displaced persons is essential, both as a human right enshrined in international law and as a component of the peace-building process. In emergency situations where the State fails to provide education for IDPs, the international community, though not legally obligated, maintains an ethical responsibility to ensure that IDP education is included as an integral component within the humanitarian assistance framework. The social and psychological benefits that education provides to IDPs give additional support to this argument. Furthermore, displacement is a crucial time of transition and vulnerability not just for children, but for youth and adults as well; failure to incorporate youth and adult education as a standard component during displacement is a detrimental omission in the quest to secure sustainable peace and initiate long-term development.
Internal displacement is not a new phenomenon. This dissertation proposes that the protracted displacement of internally displaced persons (IDPs) poses a significant risk to human development. The causes and effects of protracted displacement on capability (as an indicator of human development) will be examined amongst the internally displaced in Eastern Myanmar. The current level of achieved functionings amongst the internally displaced will be analysed as an indicator of capability. This paper explores the extent to which duty-holders are fulfilling their obligations to IDPs and the implications of external assistance for capability expansion. Nevertheless, IDPs are able to exercise agency albeit constrained. This paper concludes that both the Guiding Principles framework and external assistance are insufficient. Internal displacement continues to contribute capability deprivation which is an affront to human rights. This paper proposes that states be made more accountable to both domestic and international bodies through ‘sovereignty as responsibility’ and through the establishment of formal duty-holders.
India is one of the countries, which is characterised by high internal migration rather than the international migration. When one talking about the theory level, policy level there is a relation between the migration and economic development and growth of the particular region. Literatures explain about the backward, un-educated and lower class people are more migrant. Some of the literatures also explain forward class people; higher educated and higher caste people are more migrant. By looking in to all these facts, this particular paper tries to focus on what kind of migration in India witnessing and what are the basic characteristics of Indian migration by using NSS data on migration. By analysing two rounds of NSS data, one can conclude that comparatively higher caste and forward class people are more migrant than the poor and backward and also high monthly percapita income people moving for searching better prospects while low MPCE are not moving which contradictions to the literatures that explain the rich are more migrant. Another significant finding in this paper is that, Indian society is characterised or dominating by high female marriage based short run rural to rural migration than the males employed based, long run migration.
India has seen an upsurge in economic growth since 1991. The 2001 census shows that internal migration has picked up rapidly during the 1990s. Compared to intra-state (short distance) movement, inter-state (long distance) migration has grown faster. The states with higher per capita income and larger dominance of non-agricultural sector show not only high in-migration but also high out-migration rates. Poverty ratio is not found related with outmigration rates at the state level. On the contrary, migration rates are higher in households with higher monthly per capita expenditure. Also, the socially disadvantaged groups like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes do not show higher mobility compared to other population categories. Thus the increased mobility of India’s population in recent times is more confined to better off sections.
From the initial idea and path breaking work on Refugee and Internally Displaced People’s rights by the Norwegian Diplomat and Humanitarian Fridtjof Nansen at the turn of last century to the evolution of refugee rights legal framework at the turn of 21st century, the principles and corpus of law related to it has been widely studied and put in action. But the recent influx of the Syrian IDP’s as refugees in EU especially Hungary and Greece as transit points and Germany, France and UK as the final destination has led to a compassion fatigue. On the other hand in the near neighborhood of South Asia though not even a single nation has signed and ratified the 1951 Convention on Refugee Rights and its 1967 Protocol it has done commendable work in hosting and providing legal and physical protection to Refugees and Internally Displaced persons by enacting Principles and National Laws as the case in the point are SAARCLAW and Model National Law.
The ethnic conflict between Santhals and Boro Tribe that erupted during 1996 and 1998 displaced about 5.17 lakh persons and took life of about 400 people. At the end of 2003 1.28 lakh of them were still taking shelter in the makeshift relief camps. The humanitarian assistance provided was extremely paltry(inhumane) and there is hardly any income generating avenues around. Most of the internally displaced persons(IDPs) live in animal like condition with meager per-capita income of Rupees 367 (approximately 7$US) per month. Many of them survive by collecting firewood, whereas most of the womenfolk sale country liquor or do odd jobs to generate additional income for the household. Multi-variate analysis shows that social networking helps IDPs to have slightly better economic condition. Due to extreme economic hardship and lack of basic infrastructure - denied of fundamental human rights, they are quite vulnerable to various types of exploitation, health hazard, hunger etc.
Using qualitative data collected from interviews and focus group discussions with rural-to-urban women migrants in Ha Noi, Vietnam, and this thesis explores the connections between internal migration, social networks and gender roles. Specifically, I will examine how these three elements are interconnected in a complex web of cause and effect, leading rural women to migrate to the capital city and engage in domestic work. Their stories will also be placed in the broader context of Vietnam, a post-socialist country undergoing rapid socio-economic transformations, so that a link between individual agency and structural elements can be drawn. Some questions that will be addressed are: To what extent is migration a personal choice or an outcome of desperate situations? Does migration empower women? And how do migrants and their families deal with the changes brought about by migration in terms of gender relations and care arrangements?
Migration caused by human action or natural hazards, or cyclical environmental factors, results in temporary or permanent dislocations of people. These displacements are caused by sudden events like flooding, earthquakes, volcanoes, hurricanes, cyclones, forest/bush fires, Tsunamis, industrial accidents or chemical leakages. These hazards affect both the livelihood and ecosystem of the area. An environmental hazard or adverse climatic change that results in immediate displacement or migration of people immediately after its occurrence is known as environmental emergency migration, as in the case of Tsunami, hurricane, flood, etc. Environmental migration is viewed as an adaptation strategy of households to either diversify or improve livelihood under constant threat of environmental change (UNDP 2009). From 2007, the IOM (2007) defines ‘environmental migration.
Migration from one place to other place is common in India. Migration generally take place from developing state to developed state for education or in the search of employment but it also take place from the developed state to the developing state. Most of the meritorious students that go for education somehow manage to settle in the migrated place through hard labour and competition and only those students that are less meritorious return back to their native place. From the present study it is concluded that the people of developed states treat the migrant students with great respect and are of supportive nature that have attracted students from the different corner of the country that have contributed in the development of the respective states.
This paper explores trends in urban employment in India, with a focus on urban informal employment (defined as informal wage employment and self-employment in informal enterprises, as well as informal wage employment in formal enterprises and households). It provides an analysis of the overall and growing significance of four groups of urban informal workers at the bottom of the economic pyramid in India: domestic workers, home-based workers, street vendors, and waste pickers. Together, these groups represent close to one quarter of the total urban workforce and one-third of the urban informal workforce in India today. The data presented are from three rounds of recent large nationwide sample surveys in 1999-00, 2004-05, and 2011-12 after adjusting for census population projections. The data point to significant volatility, with an upswing in self-employment between 2000 and 2005, followed by a reduction in self-employment in the next five years. However, between 2004-05 and 2011-12, the combined share of employment for the four informal groups grew by 12 per cent to represent 41 per cent of urban informal employment, increasing by 20 percentage points among male urban workers but decreasing by 18 percentage points among female urban workers. The data also show that within the urban informal workforce, there are important differences between women and men workers by industrial branch, employment unit, employment status, and specific groups.
This paper studies the impact of internal migration and remittance flows on wealth accumulation and distribution in 51 rural villages in Nang Rong, Thailand. Using data from 5,449 households, the study constructs indices of household productive and consumer assets with principal component analysis. The changes in these indices from 1994 to 2000 are modeled as a function of households’ prior migration and remittance behavior with ordinary least squares, matching, and instrumental variable methods. The findings show that rich households lose productive assets with migration, potentially due to a reduction in the labor force available to maintain local economic activities, while poor households gain productive assets due to a reduction in the consumption burden and an influx of remittances. Regardless of wealth status, households do not gain or lose consumer assets with migration or remittances. These results suggest an equalizing effect of migration and remittances on wealth distribution in rural Thailand.
Women who want to work often face many more hurdles than men. This is true in Tajikistan where there is a large gender gap in labour force participation. We highlight the role of two factors – international migration and education – on the labour force participation decision and its gender gap. Using probit and decomposition analysis, our investigation shows that education and migration have a significant association with the gender gap in labour force participation in Tajikistan. International emigration from Tajikistan, in which approximately 93.5% of the participants are men, reduces labour force participation by men domestically; increased female education, especially at the university and vocational level, increases female participation. Both women acquiring greater access to education and men increasing their migration abroad contribute to reducing the gender gap.
Longitudinal study conducted in rural Bihar points to increasing outmigration for work, and its importance in livelihood strategies of households in rural Bihar. Remittances have thus become increasingly important and are a crucial link between source and destination areas. Based on primary data collected in 12 representative villages in seven districts, sources of livelihoods and local income (agriculture, livestock, non-agriculture) are examined vis-à-vis remittances in rural Bihar. Changes in the distribution of income sources over time are studied, disaggregated by household variables such as caste, class and landownership, and individual variables such as gender and education, across income quintiles, giving insights into the role of migration (and remittances) in agrarian change, livelihood diversification and social transformation in rural Bihar.
Labour migration can be an effective strategy for livelihood adaptation. It generates financial and human capital that can contribute to the sustainable alleviation of poverty in mountain areas, but it can also have less welcome effects on communities. For the mountain poor, remittances are increasingly the most direct, immediate, and significant contribution to their livelihoods. However, mountain communities face particular challenges in benefiting from migration that are linked to the specific situation of mountain life.
Representing the second largest source of external funding for developing countries, remittances – money transfers by migrants to their relatives or other persons in countries of origin – are recognized by governments and international organizations as important tools for reducing household poverty and enhancing local development.1 However, it is often implicitly assumed in research, policy and programmes on the issue that patterns of sending and using remittances are genderneutral. In reality though, gender not only influences who migrates, when, where, why and how, it also affects the amount and frequency of remittances which migrants send home, as well as how the money is used.
The proposed work tries to link gender, poverty and migration through an analysis of a large-scale sample survey data of the National Sample Survey Organisation for the states of India. The aim is to compare the changes in the pattern of migration for the late 1990s with the early 1990s to see the impact of the reforms on the migration of women. To throw light on the gender aspects it is intended to copmare two states one, with high per capita income growth and FDI investment to the one with the low per capita income growth and less FDI investment.
Mobility is determined by cultural, social, economic and political factors. Human capital, existing networks, labour demand, wage differentials, land ownership, access to information, and more, are all elements that will impact on the decision to leave, and on the resulting migration experience. All these elements have gender specificities not only within the Asian context, but worldwide. In terms of motivations and constraints leading to migration, the gender characteristics will influence the decision or the obligation to move.
This chapter argues that the effacement of gender in macro-analyses of internal migration in India is based on the collective inability to delineate the contours of female labour migration from the official databases. While critiquing the monocausal approach to migration which overwhelmingly privileges social over economic reasons in female migration, the chapter essays a gendered macro-view of labour migration in India, for which new methods of approaching the data of the most recent macro-survey on migration in India (2007–08) are applied. The authors argue that the migration pattern is enhancing structural gender inequalities in the labour market. While the domination of services and industry in male migrant employment has contributed to a degree of diversification in the structure of the male workforce away from agriculture, the same is not the case for the female workforce.
A gender perspective on migration attempts to overcome the limited attention paid to the presence of women in the migration stock and their contribution. While many women accompany or join family members, of late, more and more women are migrating on their own. Though research studies on migration claim that they are gender-neutral , in fact they are not. Often they end up utilizing models of migration based on the experience of men. Women even if considered are treated as dependents and their contributions are ignored. (U.N.2005). In many poor migrant households women are the principal wage earners. In such a context a gender perspective on migration examines the gender specific causes of migration.the vulnerability as well as the potential for empowerment of migrant women and the consequences of internal/international migration.
Drawing on data from the 2006 China General Social Survey, propensity score matching was used to investigate the impact of rural-to-urban migration on family and gender values in China at distinct stages of the migratory process. Little evidence of ideational difference is found between rural natives who intend to migrate to urban areas and those who intend to stay in rural China. However, rural-to-urban migration has significant, diverse and gendered impacts on various domains of family and gender values at distinct migratory stages. The results also cast light on the important roles played by hukou status and various forms of socioeconomic and cultural status, such as education and occupation, in mediating the impact of rural-to-urban migration on family and gender values. The ideational impact of migration is shown to be shaped by China’s distinctive institutional features.
Scholarly research on migration has also changed considerably in the past decade, with women-centred research shifting more toward the analysis of gender. This change in focus reflects two important developments: 1. scholars have succeeded in bringing female migration out of the shadows in many disciplines; 2. migration is now viewed as a gendered phenomenon that requires more sophisticated theoretical and analytical tools than sex as a dichotomous variable. Theoretical formulations of gender as relational, and as spatially and temporally contextual have begun to inform gendered analyses of migration.
In this paper we study the remittance behavior of immigrants and how it relates to temporary versus permanent migration plans. We use a unique data source that provides unusual detail on remittances and return plans, and follows the same household over time. Our data allows us also to distinguish between different purposes of remittances. We analyze the association between individual and household characteristics and the geographic location of the family as well as return plans, and remittances. The panel nature of our data allows us to condition on household fixed effects. To address measurement error and reverse causality, we use an instrumental variable estimator. Our results show that changes in return plans are related to large changes in remittance flows.
The flow of workers’ remittances to Pakistan has more than quadrupled in the last eight years and it shows no sign of slowing down, despite the economic downturn in the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and other important host countries for Pakistani workers. This paper analyses the forces that have driven remittance flows to Pakistan in recent years. The main conclusions are: (i) the growth in the inflow of workers’ remittances to Pakistan is in large part due to an increase in worker migration; (ii) higher skill levels of migrating workers have helped to boost remittances; (iii) other imporant determinants of remittances to Pakistan are agriculture output and the relative yield on investments in the host and home countries.
In this paper on Decent work, youth employment and migration in Asia, Dr. Piyasiri Wickramsekara discusses migration trends and issues concerning young people in a region hosting more than 60 per cent of world’s youth population and one third of the global number of young migrants. He first outlines some methodological issues in understanding the nexus between decent work, internal and international migration, and causes of youth migration pressures. Subject to data constraints, he highlights the profile of young Asian migrant workers, their working conditions and protection issues in major destination countries. The paper points out that there are few programmes or policies in origin or destination countries that directly address the specific issues faced by youth migrants. It provides some suggestions on designing or improving effective policies and strategies to meet the youth employment and migration challenges in the Asia-Pacific region.
The impact of climate change induced migration (CCM) on sustainable development and achieving of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) is still an emerging and relatively unexplored issue. In the recent years, migration increase due to natural disasters has received a lot of attention both from the media and the political world. In the short-term, the main challenge related to displacement caused by natural disasters is humanitarian; in the longterm, policy makers have to guarantee a sustainable future to the populations affected (Banerjee, S, 2014). At the same time, millions of people are displaced by slow-onset environmental degradation.
This paper explores the role of social networks in the migration process in Bangladesh. Migration can be costly and can also involve considerable risks around finding adequate housing and employment. Jahan (2012), Farhana et al (2012) and Haque and Islam (2012) found that many migrants moving to large cities in Bangladesh, such as Dhaka, were not able to afford secure housing. Many ended up living in slums, or squatting on footpaths, railways and other insecure places. Furthermore Jahan found that this led to migrants becoming involved in dangerous occupations of prostitution, drug trafficking and begging. Many researchers argue that social networks play a key role in mitigating the risks of migration (Islam and Begum, 1983; Rahman and Lee, 2005). Stark and Bloom (1985) argued that migration decisions typically make use of network and kinship capital, with Kuhn (2003) suggesting that networks at destination act as forms of social insurance. Afsar (2000) and Rakib and Islam (2009) find that these networks reduce the uncertainty of finding work, enable migrants to secure work and accommodation prior to moving.
In Bangladesh, people in rural communities often move within the country to diversify their incomes. Such internal migration allows them to manage added stresses from environmental change. Drawing from scoping research, this briefing examines how internal migration can be understood as an adaptive strategy and how key stakeholders can help move this process forward. Policymakers must integrate climate change adaptation into all levels of governance. By addressing the root causes of climate vulnerability, the government and its development partners can become more aware of the complex ways that climate change affects the lives of the poor. In so doing, they can support managed internal migration as a valid adaptive strategy.
Bangladesh is one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change impacts such as extreme weather events, due to its low-lying topography, high population density and widespread poverty. In this paper, we report on the development and results of an agent-based model of the migration dynamics that may arise in Bangladesh as a result of climate change. The main modules are each calibrated with data on relevant indicators, such as the incidences of extreme poverty, socioeconomic vulnerability, demography, and historical drought, cyclone and flood patterns. The results suggest likely changes in population densities across Bangladesh due to migration from the drought-prone western districts and areas vulnerable to cyclones and floods in the south, towards northern and eastern districts. The model predicts between 3 and 10 million internal migrants over the next 40 years, depending on the severity of the hazards. Some associated policy considerations are also discussed.
The main objective of this paper was to examine the factors which determine the internal migration to Dhaka city, Bangladesh and to find out their impact on migrant’s livelihood aspect. The sample comprised 448 individuals from the rural and urban areas towards Dhaka city. In this study I enhanced to analyze and interpret the determinants of socio-economic, economic and environmental factors associated with the internal migration in Bangladesh. The study showed the factors that affected the internal migration were mainly occupational, educational and climatic. These factors were analyzed and discussed through the migration theories- neo classical theory, new economics of migration theory and network theory. The ordinary least square technique was applied on three regression models which indicated that there were differences due to internal migration regarding to these economic, demographic and environmental factors in Bangladesh.
Many previous studies had discussed the issue of rural to urban migration in China and others in Arab countries, but this study came with new way of researching by introducing the both regions –China & Arab countrieswithin same research paper. In addition, the aim of this researching paper has been to analyze in depth one strategy of action that is taken by many young men in rural poor areas and villages to deal with the difficult life and limited jobs opportunities that they face in their villages, under what we called rural to urban migration phenomenon. The paper also will also discuss the governments’ policies in aim to control/guide the huge inflows of rural population into the cities and how do these mechanisms and policies success in some cases and failin others.
As a part of traditional planned economy, population migration and labor mobility in China were strictly controlled by the authorities before the 1980s. To be more precise, cross-regional migration was controlled by public security departments and it was almost impossible to make any rural-urban migration without authoritative plans or official agreement; Industrial transfer of labor force was controlled by departments of labor and personnel management, and there was no free labor market at all. But the most strictly controlled were the transfer from rural to urban areas, and from farmers to non-agricultural workers. This control has functioned through the Household Registration System (Hukou System), a typical Chinese registration system of permanent residence that segregates rural and urban areas strictly.
Civilian displacement is a common phenomenon in developing countries facing internal conflict. While displacement directly affects forced migrants, it also contributes to deteriorating labor conditions of vulnerable groups of receiving communities. For the displaced population the income losses are substantial, and as they migrate to cities they will most likely join the informal labor force. Qualitative evidence reveals displaced women are better suited to compete in urban labor markets as their labor experience is more relevant for some urban low skilled occupations. Our study uses this exogenous change in female labor force participation to test how this affects female bargaining power within the household. Our results show female displaced women work longer hours, earn similar wages and contribute in larger proportions to household earnings in contrast to rural women that stayed in rural areas. However, larger contributions to households’ earnings are not strengthening bargaining power, measured with several indicators, but severe forms of domestic violence is increasing among displaced women. The anger and frustration of displaced women increases violent punishment of children. Because children of displaced families have been direct victims of conflict and domestic violence, the intra-generational transmission of violence is highly likely.
This document reviews the evidence on remittances in the context of forced displacement. The evidence suggests that remittances are often affected, and affected more strongly, by factors in the displacement context that are different from factors in other contexts, such as economic migration. These factors include the possibility of continuing or new conflicts in the region or country of origin, the possibility of sudden mass repatriations, the relationship of diaspora groups with the region or country of origin and opposition groups, the higher risk of sudden closure of remittances channels, and the complex movement trajectories of the displaced, among others. Much is still unknown about remittances sent to and from the displaced, and the existing literature is limited. The evidence is largely based on qualitative research focused on refugees and concentrates on a few cases. Taking these issues into consideration, future research efforts should particularly focus on providing more insights into internally displaced persons in underresearched cases and should consider the inclusion of a strong quantitative component.
When refugees from the Central African Republic (CAR) cross the border into Chad, those most in need receive immediate medical assistance and food. People are issued temporary identity bracelets and then transferred to camps. There are three main UNHCR-run camps near the town of Gore; Amboko, Gondje and Dosseye. Belgian national Alexia Nisen worked as an UNHCR Assistant Protection Field Officer and was tasked with ensuring that border guards were aware of the law and that displaced people were not exploited or turned back. Nisen worked closely with the local police, ensuring they were familiar with the relevant procedures. She also helped monitor conditions in the Chadian prisons outside the camp. It is essential that human rights are respected for all, both victims of crimes and those identified as perpetrators.
Conflict induced internal displacement is a relatively new phenomenon in the Nepalese, that drew serious attention only after the internal armed conflict in 1996. Very few studies that have been carried out in the past have been able to truly estimate the size of the displaced population and portray their overall situation. Some of these studies describe IDPS considering three main characteristics: 'development project induced IDPs, Kamaiyas, who were formerly bonded labours in landlords's house, and the conflict induced internally displaced persons' (Shreshta & Adhikari, 2005 p. 237). The development projects, like dams for hydropower and construction activities, are minimal in number, as compared to the other two categories. The farmers were compensated by cash or substitution of land but the Kamaiyas are landless so far despite the Government’s commitment to distribute lands.
The migration of labor from rural to urban areas is an important part of the urbanization process in developing countries. Even though it has been the focus of abundant research over the past five decades, some key policy questions have not found clear answers yet. To what extent is internal migration a desirable phenomenon and under what circumstances? Should governments intervene and if so with what types of interventions? What should be their policy objectives? To shed light on these important issues, we survey the existing theoretical models and their conflicting policy implications, and discuss the policies that may be justified based on recent relevant empirical studies. A key limitation is that much of the empirical literature does not provide structural tests of the theoretical models, but only provides partial findings that can support or invalidate intuitions and in that sense support or invalidate the policy implications of the models. Our broad assessment of the literature is that migration can be beneficial or at least be turned into a beneficial phenomenon, so that in general migration restrictions are not desirable. We also identify some data issues and research topics which merit further investigation.
We analyse the behavior of internal migration in Indonesia and estimate factors influenced the migrants’s decision to return. We adopt the international migration model to estimate the duration periods of the Indonesian internal migration. The characteristic variables are developed from the Indonesian Family Life Survey (IFLS) data within period of 1993-2007, while the control variables are using various regional data fron the National Statistical Bureau of Statistics. The main conclusion indicates that the return decision was mainly influenced by the opportunity to increase migrant welfares. Hence, migrants’s characteristic and education level proved to affect the duration. The migrants’s engagement to their family and community was remain strong, and even stronger if the status of the home region was rural area. The duration also tends to be longer after the implementation of regional autonomy.
Maternal and reproductive health remains a significant public health issue in Myanmar. Little data exists on women’s health issues, including social and demographic influences. While past studies have demonstrated rural/urban health disparities, an increasingly important population resulting from urban growth in Myanmar is the internal migrant population, individuals moving within the country for better job or educational opportunities. Past studies suggest that women make up more than half of internal migrants, yet there is a dearth of information on this new wave of migration, particularly on women’s reproductive health issues. The objective of this study is to assess the influence of women’s migration in Myanmar on reproductive health outcomes, including delivering in a facility, using a skilled birth attendant, and using a modern method of family planning.
This study examines the impact of parental internal migration on health (physical and psychological) and well-being of children left behind, as well as its impact on the well-being of caretakers and on household socio-economic status. It was conducted in rural areas of two provinces where internal migration is most prevalent. Included in the survey are 1,456 children aged 8-15, caretakers, and responsible adults in three types of households: bothparent migrant, one-parent migrant, and non-migrant parents. It is noted that the one-parent migrant households in our study mostly refer to father-only migrant households. This study finds that the majority of children experience being apart from parents for a lengthy period, often since they were born, due to parents’ work in other provinces. The main reasons for migration of parents are economically oriented. In most cases, the mother is the primary caretaker in one-parent migrant and non-migrant households, while the maternal grandparent is usually the caretaker when both parents are absent. Almost all migrant households remain in close contact with the migrant parents.
In the process of development in developing countries, there is a shift of labour and capital from rural to urban sectors leading to rapid pace of urbanization. But the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is complex and varies some what among countries. The demographic feature of urbanization process, viz. natural increment of population and rural to urban migration has resulted in a substantial increase in urban labour force. The surplus urban labour including most of the rural pushed migrants unable to get absorbed in the formal sector has been forced to find its own source of employment and livelihood in a variety of productive activities in urban centre‟s which constitute what is called informal sector. Against this backdrop, the present study is an attempt to examine migration of workers from rural to urban areas with reference to slum dwellers of Bhubaneswar. The objective of the present paper is to analyse the causes and motives of migration of slum dwellers ,and their mobility within informal sector and from informal sector to formal sector.
Migration is a global phenomenon. Uneven economic development, inter-regional disparity and differences in living standards between socio-economic groups are some of the important reasons responsible for migration. Avenues of better employment and higher wages serve as pull factors, where as non-availability of employment opportunities in backward regions, draught and scarcity conditions are push factors. Migration is the third component of population change, the other two being mortality and fertility which work in a biological framework whereas migration is influenced by the wishes of the persons involved. Usually each migratory movement is deliberately made, though in exceptional cases this may not hold true. Thus migration is a response of human organisms to economic, social, political and demographic forces in the environment and an important symptom of social change in society.
There are over 100 million individuals in China who have migrated from rural villages to urban areas for jobs or better lives without permanent urban residency (e.g., “rural-to-urban migrants”). Our preliminary data from ongoing research among rural-to-urban migrants in China suggest that the migrant population is strongly stigmatized. Moreover, it appears that substantial numbers of these migrants experience mental health symptoms (e.g., depression, anxiety, hostility, social isolation). While the population potentially affected is substantial (more than 9% of the entire population or about one-quarter of the rural labor in mainland China) and our data seem to indicate that the issue is pervasive in this population, there is limited literature on the topic in China or elsewhere. Therefore, in the current article, we utilize secondary data from public resources (e.g., scientific literature, governmental publication, public media) and our own qualitative data to explore the issues of stigmatization and mental health, to propose a conceptual model for studying the association between the stigmatization and mental health among this population, and to identify some future needs of research in this area.
This paper is centred on the process of identity and belonging negotiation of rural women in their migration to urban employment in contemporary China. Employing a unique mobile method, the author follows rural women’s migration by gathering data from both sending and receiving areas, and captures the dynamic and situated, fluid nature of rural migrant women’s identity deconstruction and reconstruction processes. The study reveals that rural migrant women readily depart from peasant identity, rejecting the identity of ‘dagongmei’, and at the same time draw up boundaries against other rural migrants in different contexts. The boundaries they draw, however, are not static, but are fluid and ever changing in different circumstances and contexts. Paradoxically, such boundaries serve to reinforce the differentiation among rural migrant women and undermine their solidarity.
In the past few decades, China has undergone enormous political, economic, and demographic changes that have transformed the realities of migration to and from the country. In addition to large flows of emigrants leaving in search of opportunities elsewhere and the persisting, more traditional streams of internal migrants for which China is known, a new trend of immigration to the fast-developing country is emerging. The driving force behind the recent trend of immigration to China — the world's most populous nation — has been the country’s rapid economic growth, compounded by its passage through a demographic transition. The growth of the Chinese labor force is slowing drastically at a time of mounting demand for labor, and this fact has increased pressure on wages and the country’s aging population.
Drug abuse is the Universal Problem and Nepal is not the exception. Different study and report have reported high prevalence of HIV/AIDS among the IDUs in Nepal. According to the estimated data, there are eighty thousands drug addicts in Nepal and 50 % of them inject drugs through syringe. In Morang district, there are 1316 reported IDUs and 5000 to 7000 estimated IDUs. To assess the risk talking behavior among IDUs with respect to needle syringe exchange and unprotected sex.Cross sectional study design was applied to study the risk talking behavior among IDUs users in eastern region of Nepal. A non-probability, snowballing sampling technique was adopted. SPSS and Epi-Info was used to analyze the data of the study. Majority of injecting drug users in eastern region were from the age group 21-30 years (62.7 %), unmarried (64.9 %) and living in nuclear family (80 %). Despite of the fact that most of the IDUs were unmarried most of them were sexually active (72.7 %). The study revealed that condom use during sexual intercourse was high (87.5 %) the consistent and regular use was low (57.5%). Sharing of syringe and reuse of needle was high among the IDUs i.e. 40 % of the respondent. In general the study had revealed that the harm reduction approaches among IDUs were low.The findings suggest that the majority of injecting drug users in eastern region were from the age group 21-30 years, unmarried and living in nuclear family. The study had further highlight that unsafe sex, sharing of syringe and needle and improper cleaning of needle and syringes before sharing is indication of unsafe behavior practices by IDUs. Finally, the study highlighted statistically significant relationship between HIV/AIDS knowledge and uses of condom during sexual intercourse and high rate of syringe sharing among married respondents.
Migration of Labour in search of employment and improved livelihood is a common issue today. Labour Migration is both Internal and International. Internal Migration in search of employment, has an impact on the economic, social and political conditions of the region both at the sending and receiving ends. About two out of Ten Indians are internal migrants. The labour migration is mostly male dominated, and there is a signiåcant increase in the female migrants with the spurring hypermarkets, showrooms and factories. The migration can be permanent, semi permanent, seasonal or circular. The challenges faced by the migrant labour includes their inability to cope up with the diversity of culture, language, access to identity documentation, social entitlements, social and political exclusion, housing and exploitation. Migrant Labourers are covered by laws and policies but some preclude the temporary migrants and unorganized sector. This paper is an attempt to study the challenges faced by the internal migrant Labourers in India and the Policies that have been formulated to deal with the problems associated with Migrant Labourers. The study is conåned to internal Migrant Labourers and their issues.
Bihar presents a picture of the exemplary region, characterized by a pretty long history of distress as well as voluntary outmigration in India. The colonial forced migration had its own specific place in the demographic history of India during the nineteenth century. There had been a heavy exodus of Bihari labourers even during the post-colonial period of the second half of twentieth century. Punjab was the western El Dorado. It had the capacity to absorb the rural Bihari out migrants. It was not only because of enhanced seasonal requirements of labour but also due to continuous out migration from Punjab itself towards other attractive destinations. The cumulative effect of these favourable situations had been witnessed in the form of improved bargaining position of the migrant labourers in Punjab in the seventies and eighties in twentieth century. Such a bargaining advantage did not exist at all in the semi-feudal backward agrarian region of Bihar. The steady flow of Bihari out migrants to the destinations in rural Punjab indicated therefore the operations of not only considerable differentials in money wages but also in real wage earnings of rural labourers during seventies between the two regions. The pretty high labour earnings had been inducing the rural Bihari out migrants to be ready to work at destination even in such odd jobs like crushing sugarcane, loading and unloading, and that too at a lower wage rate relative to that acceptable by the local workers in Punjab. In the light of the Rural Labour Enquiries data on wages, employment and unemployment, it was an established fact that nearly negligible differentials in the mandays of employment availability in the two states existed during seventies and eighties of twentieth century. The claim of the decennial Census Migration Tables of 1981 with regard to the employment being significant reason for outmigration was thus essentially ill-founded, misleading and erroneous. The earnings aspect had probably got subsumed in the Census category of employment. It was a fault to be rectified in the light of findings of both the Rural Labour Enquiries and microlevel researches.
Whether migration is a cause or a consequence of development has been widely debated in academic circles. Himachal Pradesh observes a huge group of migrants coming to the state every year. According to a study, every year in May, more than 70,000 migrant laborers travel from the plains of central India to the higher altitudes of the Himalayas to work with the Border Roads Organization. They live alongside the roads in small (about 40-200 persons) temporary settlements made of plastic sheets and flattened tin barrels and move as the roads they build advances into new territories. 1 These migrants are contributing to the overall development of the state in terms of construction, facilitating tourism, as well as contributing to the economy of the state. But their living status and condition gets largely overlooked by the government as well as by the local residents. These workers and their families face problems in securing shelter, education and health care. The dichotomy regarding the child laborers, for instance, is clearly reflected in report of National Commission for the Protection of Child Rights (NCPCR) to Planning Commission, India “Abolition of Child Labor in India.
River bank erosion is one of the critical public concerns in the world at least in some countries. River bank erosion has a long-term consequence on human life. The victims are compelled to displace as they become destitute. On the other hand, the altered flow of rivers (natural or man-made) due to bank erosion also effects river ecology. In this review paper some cases of river bank erosion and their impacts are discussed. The Indian scenario is reviewed in detail to understand the gravity of the problem. It is observed that after forced human migration due to bank erosion, displaced people face economic insecurity due to loss of agricultural land and become unemployed. The victims also suffer from social insecurity due to deprivation of civic rights, health insecurity due to lack of basic infrastructure, etc. All these insecurities caused by forced displacement lead to deprivation, destitute, fragility and increased vulnerability of the families.
Since the radical economic reforms initiated in the late 1970s, China, has been transformed from a stagnating socialist country into one of the world’s biggest economies. However, the ―invisible hand‖ of capitalism may not have succeeded in its magic without the 200 million workers who migrated from rural areas to the urbanized east coast. What are the implications of rural-to-urban migration on the agricultural sector, especially on recent sharp increases in food prices? On the basis of a survey of 150 individuals in 25 households in two villages of central China conducted in late March 2011, this paper explores the connection between the massive rural-to-urban migration movement and recent agricultural commodity inflation in China.
There is a need for incorporation of new causes or determinants of migration into the theoretical perspectives of Migration like Climate Change, as the changing climate is also seen to be one of the causes that are directly or indirectly leading to migration of people from the above mentioned deltas. Thus reference can be made to a framework suggested by International Organization of Migration (IOM, 2008) which combines the Sustainable Livelihood Approach (SLA) model and New Economics of Labour Migration (NELM) model.
The increasing flows of internal migrants resulted from urbanization in developing countries is of great interest to policy makers. This study examines the individual-level and household-level social surveys the Nang Rong Project in 1994-1995 and 2000-2001. Individual characteristics such as gender, age, and years of schooling, and household characteristic such as family size are, significantly and consistently with the human capital model and previous empirical studies, shown to be determinants of a migration decisions. Moreover, migration selectivity differs significantly by migrant destinations. These findings indicate that policy makers should also consider different destination choice of migration, as well as the migrants’ characteristics, when they try to influence migration patterns and flows.
Migration is the direct manifestation of the process and pattern of socioeconomic development and the resultant demand and supply of labour and their remuneration including social pay-offs, at different locations. Understandably, any interventions by state and para-statal organizations to influence the dynamics of growth and distribution of economic activities in space would impact on spatial distribution of population. Identifying the policies and programmes of development having an impact of migration in any comprehensive manner would, therefore, be difficult as any sectoral intervention would have its implications for labour mobility. One has to be selective in approach and focus only on those interventions that have a direct and substantive impact on labour mobility. It would be important to analyse the spatial impact of the polices and programmes geared to different development goals like growth, poverty alleviation, reduction of regional disparity, social transformation, capacity development in backward regions etc. in order to identify the key issues for migration research in developing countries. The present paper begins by providing a short overview of the policy perspectives of the state interventions, having significant impact on population mobility in the developing countries. The major thrust of the paper is at stocktaking on the impact of current development policies and programmes on population mobility, in order to develop a research agenda on the subject, building upon and synthesizing different geographical and disciplinary perspectives. It concludes by reflecting on how research can contribute to effective policy making for balanced regional development.
This briefing shows how migration exacerbates the difficulties that many people already face in accessing formal social protection, such as additional income or food. However, it also shows how migration itself can facilitate access to an informal form of social protection for poorer households, even if this is risky and does not always lead to positive outcomes. It also argues that rather than focusing on improving migrants access to formal social protection, which in any case is often inaccessible to the poorest households, more could be done to ensure that the effects of migration on informal social protection are secured and enhanced. This include supporting those left behind, so that they can really benefit from the social protection effects of migration and improving living conditions for migrants while they are away.
According to a UNESCO report entitled Social Inclusion of Internal Migrants in India (2013), three out of ten Indians are internal migrants. The population of internal migrants in India went up from 309 million in 2001 to 400 million in 2011. Migrants today face crucial problems regarding their identity , child education , health issues , problems faced by female migrants, legal aid, and other disputes. To over come these problems and to enhance the betterment and progress of migrant workers in India , some serious measures should be taken by the government and civil societies including NGOs. This paper tries to focus on some problems and its measures can be adopted for the betterment of internal migrants in india thus we can move together to a social progress.
Migration plays an important role in urbanization of a state. In general more the migration higher the urbanization rate though it many not necessarily true in all the situations but in general it is witnessed that migration have a fairly large share in urbanization. A district level analysis for Rajasthan state is attempted to comprehend Urbanization due to migration their interlinkages and association.
This paper examines the process of migration within India, with special focus on the patterns of migration and the impact of the same on the place of destination and place of origin. The paper uses the theoretical framework derived from the work done by Ravenstein and Lee to understand this process. Data from the Census of India and NSSO, 2007-2008 is used to illustrate the process of migration as it operates in India with reference to the streams of migration and trends in the same. Also examined is the impact of migration on the place of destination with special reference to some of the myths associated with in migration which have been examined in the light of this data. It takes up certain recent incidents which have targeted in migrants across India to illustrate how the myths influence adjustment and practices associated with social exclusion. This paper also focuses on the process of adjustment and the question of social exclusion and some inclusionary practices with reference to the in migrants from some of the States in India which have experimented with some innovative practices.
Ethnic violence, which has become endemic to the states of postcolonial Northeast India, has often targetted populations of migrant origin as foreigners or illegal immigrants to be sent back to their lands of origin. The Nepalis from the neighbouring kingdom of Nepal, who have been migrating to Northeast India since the colonial times have long integrated into the multi-ethnic and multi-cultural society of the region. Settled in almost all the states of the region they have, in recent times, been frequently identified as foreigners as their growing numbers have caused worry in a backward region of India, as well as the seemingly deliberate attempts of the ethnic movements to loosely define the term 'foreigner'. They have suffered large-scale evictions and internal displacement. This paper looks at the conflict-induced displacement of the Nepalis in Northeast India. It argues that the internal displacement of the Nepalis in Northeast India has not received much attention or concern, partly because their inherent mobility and proclivity to migrate tends to draw attention away from this new phenomenon and partly because they have social networks, which allow them to resettle with ease in the new areas to which they migrated. The paper also looks at the government attitude towards rehabilitating and providing relief to these victims of internal displacement.
The study presents a concurrent scenario of migration that is ongoing in India. Post independent India witnessed several transformations in various sectors. Due to unequal development and the indifferent attitude of development agencies and the Government,a considerable proportion of the rural population has immigrated to the urban places in search of better opportunities resulting in many problems such as unidentifiable population groups and slum formation. Migration from rural to urban has changed the nature and proportion of population and its supportive systems.The paper is based on Indian Census data from 1901-2001. It has been found that there is a strong association between industrialization and in-migration. Haryana state has emerged as a new and popular choice for the immigration, and Maharashtra state is the second most favourite destination by the out- migrants. By looking at the trend of the population growth it can be projected that the future population of Mumbai will be about 20 million in year 2011, while Delhi will have approximately more than 15 million inhabitants in the same year. Apart from these, many other newly emergencies, because of industries and other comparatively better human sustainable facilities are witnessing rapid population growth.
In India, of the rural-urban migrants, a small segment of people migrated from tribal areas (hilly forest areas) and they possess more vulnerability due to their multiple disadvantage. Objective: To report immunization uptake of children of tribal migrants living in an urban city of Eastern India. Methods: Data were collected from 126 tribal households who migrated to the city during last 12 years. Data pertaining to the awareness of vaccines and reception of various vaccines were collected from mothers through interviewer administered questionnaire. Results: About 95% of mothers were aware of the vaccines. However, immunization uptake was low among this migrant tribal community. About 40% of children who attained 1 year age did not receive even a single vaccine, and none of the child received all doses of required vaccines. The uptake is too low among girl children. Conclusions: Migration favours low uptake of vaccination. Hence, migrant-sensitive approaches are to be placed along with the regular primary healthcare services existing in urban areas.
Migration plays an important role in the process of economic development and social transformation. This paper analyzes the push factors of rural to urban labour migration. The empirical results shows that increasing per capita Net State Domestic Product decreases the number of out-migrants from the rural areas of that state whereas increasing the proportion of population living below poverty line, the proportion of Scheduled Castes and illiteracy rate in the rural area of the state decreases the out-going rural to urban labour migrants from that state. The proportion of Scheduled tribes in the rural area is found not to affect the number of rural to urban outgoing labour migrants. Male and female rural to urban labour migrants differ in their responses to the above mentioned push factors.
The informal sector is characterized by excessive seasonality of employment especially in farm sector, preponderance of casual and contractual employment, absence of social security measures and welfare legislations, negation of social standards and worker rights, denial of minimum wages and so on. Poor human capital base in terms of education, skill and training as well as lower mobilization status of the work force further add to vulnerability and weaken the bargaining strength of workers in the informal sector.The alarming expansion of informal sector in recent times has adversely affected employment and income security of larger majority of workforce, along with reduction in the scale of social welfare /security programmes. The central government introduced the various social security programmes. However, these legislatives programmes have not been able to protect the rights of these workers. The percentage of all workers covered under any security provision decreased from 32.6 percent in 1999-2000 to 28.6 percent and 26.4 percent in 2009-10.It has decreased due to increasing informalisation of worker force in India.
This brief concept paper identifies the main issues concerning the rights of displaced women and girls. It aims to sharpen awareness of the gender dimensions to internal displacement and to provide initial guidance to UNICEF and other agencies on the appropriate gender response to the urgent and growing needs of internally displaced women. The subject clearly deserves in-depth analysis and further research, which this concept paper seeks to stimulate. This analysis employs a gender perspective to examine several key questions: What are the major issues of concern to internally displaced women? What steps should agencies take to address and ensure the rights of displaced women? A gender perspectiveó the appreciation of fundamental differences between men and womenís roles in societiesóis not difficult to apply if one approaches the issue from the basic principles of human rights determined by a personís gender. The consequences of not applying a gender perspective resonate in overlooked human rights abuses against women and girls.
Labour migration from rural to urban areas is a persistent feature of developing countries like India. Mumbai like many big and thriving cities has been attracting a large number of migrants from all over the country. A substantial chunk of the migrants belonging to working poor classes are unable to enter into the legal housing property relations in the city. They are forced to live either on the public spaces such as pavements, by the roadside, etc., or at workplaces, or in slums in shelters of all kinds which do not qualify to be called a home. They conform to the definition developed by the United Nations for the International Year of Shelter for the Homeless in 1987, considering a homeless person is not only someone who lives on the street or in a shelter, but can equally be someone whose shelter or housing fails to meet the basic criteria considered essential for health and human and social development. These criteria include security of tenure, protection against bad weather and personal security, as well as access to sanitary facilities and potable water, education, work, and health services (Speak and Tipple 2006). The condition of homeless is created when people migrating to cities may be in such precarious financial condition that they cannot afford to buy or rent in a house even in a poor locality, or due to the experience of single and multiple evictions without resettlement.
The paper is divided into four sections. The first and the last section deal with broad issues of refugee rehabilitation and the condition of the city of Calcutta. In the first section, I will make an appraisal of the rehabilitation schemes of the government focusing on the way the refugees were categorised according to their background and previous occupation and what was the consequence of such a practice; the second and third section will focus on two particular groups of population— the Muslim population of the state and the women of the refugee families. The tension between the Hindu refugees and the Muslim residents of the state give us a glimpse of a complex situation and questions our understanding of violence and social justice. The third section will specifically focus on the women and the various training and job they took up to sustain themselves and their family. I will try to see if there were any changes in the location of women within the patriarchal society. In the final section, I will focus on the situation of Calcutta and how the city changed due to the massive influx of population in the initial years of independence.
The conference “Environmental Change and Migration: From Vulnerabilities to Capabilities” was the first of a new conference series on “Environmental Degradation, Conflict and Forced Migration”. It was organised by the European Science Foundation, the Bielefeld University and its Center for Interdisciplinary Research. The Center on Migration, Citizenship and Development (COMCAD), the Universities’ unit responsible for scientific content and quality of the conference, has launched a COMCAD Working Paper Series on “Environmental Degradation and Migration”. The new series intends to give conference participants the opportunity to share their research with an even broader audience.
The human and environmental' consequences of major dam construction projects, such as the Sardar Sarovar Project ("SSP") in India, generate great attention.The large-scale forcible displacement of citizens within the borders of a country is especially controversial. The Indian government contends that large dam projects, like the SSP, will provide drought-prone areas with irrigation and drinking water. Critics, on the other hand, argue that by submerging vast amounts of land, the SSP displaces hundreds of thousands of indigenous people and creates environmental refugees, also known as internally displaced persons.
The nature and dynamics of events leading to internal displacement has been varying from state to state depending upon the composition of the population and the related context of conflict. For instance, Gujarat and Kashmir have seen waves of religious intolerance in the post independence period. The manifestations have included HinduMuslim violence, retaliation attack by Muslims, Hindu Nationalist groups’ attack on Christian communities and so on.
This paper examines the conflict- affected internal displacement in India. Insurgency and retaliatory operations by security forces are a major factor of displacement. In Kashmir, the Northeast and in several states of central India civilians have fled fighting zones and have sometimes been directly targeted by militant groups. Majorities of the internally displaced people (IDPs) have not been able to return for several years, either due to protracted conflicts or unresolved issues related to land and property. The national response to people fleeing conflict is often ad-hoc and largely insufficient. A first important step to improve assistance to internally displaced would be to conduct surveys in conflict-affected areas in order to document the magnitude of the problem as well as the needs of the displaced.
This paper aims to explore the Indian government’s responses to the protection needs of Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) in two Indian regions: Jammu and Kashmir and the Northeast. While refugees have attracted international attention and receive a formalised, institutionalised system for protection, IDPs fall into a largely unaddressed category where responsibility is arguably with the state in which they are displaced. In India, though the government’s response mechanisms have been unsuccessful in addressing IDP needs, it has often rejected the aid of international organisations and attempted to address its IDP situation domestically at the state level.
Outmigration of rural youth from the hill districts of Uttarakhand has happened since time immemorial. However, within the past decade it has appeared as a frontline issue. This is evidenced by the massive increase in government and NGO rural livelihood development schemes directly and indirectly targeting outmigration throughout the state. This study investigates migration from the mostly rural districts of Uttarakhand to the urban centers of the plains, namely Dehradun and Delhi. It focuses on the prospective livelihood of young adults. Questions addressed in the study; What are the different factors which influence migration of youths? What are the different perspectives on migration, and what are the consequences of these different perspectives for rural development?How are youths changing the traditional agricultural system? Why are the dreams and aspirations of many youths only possible in cities? Three different samples are used in this study; migrants residing in Dehradun and Delhi, NGO and government associated officials, and village communities in hill districts of Uttarakhand. Observation, interviews, questionnaires, and focus group discussions are the primary means of data collection. Research themes discussed include issues of rural livelihood, young adults, migration, modernity, globalization, socialization and rural development.
This paper addresses the agricultural transformations occurring in India in relation to the migration of children from rural to urban centers. With a shifting system of landholding, climatic changes, increasing mechanization and industrialization of agriculture, and new development projects, the agrarian system in rural India is rapidly changing. Based on fieldwork conducted in India, interviews with local experts and urban/rural informants, this paper draws connections between the transformations occuring in the agricultural sector with the increase in the number of children running away to major cities.
Can migrant remittances be a viable and sustainable livelihood solution for households in semi-arid areas? The present study attempts to examine the impact and potential of remittances from rural migrants in providing a viable livelihood diversification and investment option in rural areas. Focusing on the migration pattern in selected villages of semi-arid and drought prone districts of Andhra Pradesh, India, the paper argues that remittances do provide a scope for accumulation of wealth and asset creation for households in addition to providing basic consumption needs. If this wealth is to become a viable sustainable private investment option in rural areas there is a need to address some policy, institutional factors and other dynamics whereby the remittances become more a productive instrument; instead of just a means for reducing household poverty.
This article considers issues pertaining to the linkages between rural populations, migration from and to rural areas, and the environment—focusing on developing countries in the latter part of the 20th century. The article concentrates on internal migration, although it does briefly discuss the state of knowledge on the interplay between international migration and the environment. It addresses questions such as: What are the recent—and projected—patterns of rural population growth? How much internal migration in developing nations is towards rural environments? What kinds of rural environments are people moving into, in what countries, and what are the environmental consequences? Are there relationships in the other direction as well—that is, does environmental deterioration play an important role in out-migration from rural areas? And does out-migration from rural areas have environmental effects on the places of migratory origin? The article concludes with policy recommendations.
In countries like India that are currently undergoing the fertility transition, the ways of fertility control may bear new meaning with migration and increased income aiding the diffusion of contraception. The pioneering work of Davis and Blake (1956) and Bongaarts (1978) has demonstrated the mechanisms by which proximate determinants influence fertility. The most notable is that of contraceptive use within the realm of marital fertility (Bongaarts 1978b; Davis and Blake 1956). However, distal determinants, or those that influence fertility only through direct interactions with proximate determinants of fertility, have received much less attention in the literature. The role of distal determinants such as socioeconomic and cultural factors is apparent only once the specific mediating mechanisms between distal and proximate determinants are closely studied.
We estimate a household consumption function using two rounds of the nationally representative panel of living standard measurement survey (LSMS) of Nepal and simulate the impacts of remittance on poverty and inequality. We study how these impacts vary with the regional ‘incidence’ and maturity of the migration process and with the country-source of remittance. We find that remittance has conditional impacts on both poverty and inequality, which largely depends on the ‘incidence’ and maturity of the migration process and, more importantly, on how lower quintiles of the society participate in this process. The national-level simulations indicate that remittance decreases the head count poverty by 2.3% and 3.3% in the first round of the survey, and between 4.6% and 7.6% in the second round. It reduces even further the depth (at least 3.4% and at most 10.5%) and severity (at least 4.3% and at most 12.5%) of poverty. Although overall remittance increases inequality, this is less so in the second round of the survey. Furthermore, remittance payment from India, which is on average much lower than from other countries, decreases inequality and has the largest impact on poverty reduction. This is due to the larger participation of the poor in the Nepal-India migration process. The region-wise simulations show that remittance has larger impacts on poverty reduction in the regions that have higher levels of migration.
The study confirms the pervasiveness of domestic migration and remittances, and the exclusion of the poorer tribal migrants from the banking system. Most migrants interviewed were in paid employment, largely in the construction and service sectors. Although such work is usually regarded as menial and low paid, there was some evidence of occupational mobility and advancement. Great importance is attached to sending money home, mainly by migrants taking money themselves or using fellow migrants to do this for them, and the remittances are used for a wide variety of both production and consumption needs in their home villages.
It has been argued that the brain drain’s negative impact may be offset by the higher remittance levels skilled migrants send home. This paper examines whether remittances actually increase with migrants’ education level. The determinants of remittances it considers include migration levels or rates, migrants’ education level, and source countries’ income, financial sector development and expected growth rate. The estimation takes potential endogeneity into account, an issue not considered in the few studies on this topic. Our main finding is that remittances decrease with the share of migrants with tertiary education. This provides an additional reason for which source countries would prefer unskilled to skilled labor migration. Moreover, as predicted by our model, remittances increase with source countries’ level and rate of migration, financial sector development and population, and decrease with these countries’ income and expected growth rate.
There is a need to challenge these perceptions with new evidence on the specificities of migration through contextualised and intersectional analyses. With this objective in mind, this commentary discusses emerging evidence about the experience of migrant construction workers. Such migration is of huge current significance all over the world and also in India. Construction work and brick kiln work together employ millions of adults worldwide and, according to WIEGO (2016) at least 30 million in India. The significance of this work derives from the fact that it is abundantly available in larger towns and cities and barriers to entry are low; formal education is not needed.
This paper concentrates on the participation of women of Asia in the short term labour market. It highlights the diverse experiences of migration of women from various countries,Asian and tries to link this diversity to migration policies of their countries of origin and gender determined demands for labour in the destination countries. The paper is divided into five sections. Section one highlights the global scenario of female migration while section two presents the Asian trends. Section three presents government policies on female migration of a few selected countries. Section four discusses the work conditions of female workers. Section five highlights the gender implications of migration experiences of women. The concluding section draws some major conclusions.
Migration is the oldest action against poverty. Thus, temporary labour migration from rural to urban areas is a common phenomenon in the developing world. Since 1977, with more open economic policies, there has been a huge trend of young people migrating from rural to urban for industrial employment in Sri Lanka. Export Processing Zones (EPZ) are the main attraction for this temporary labour migration. The sample survey was conducted in Sri Lanka from February to April 2011, covering 377 respondents who have temporarily migrated from rural farm households in 20 urban factories. The paper employs Probit, Tobit analysis in an effort to examine the determinants of remittances and usage of remittances in sending communities. Results demonstrated the remittance accounts for one fifth of household income in the place of origin. The decision to remit regularly depends positively on the monthly income, number of students of the household, and negatively depends on the amount of farmland owned by the household.
Bangladesh has sent more than 6.7 million workers to over 140 countries during a period of more than three decades since the mid-1970s. Most of these workers temporarily migrate to work in Middle East and Southeast Asia. This mass movement of temporary migrant workers has, to some extent, eased unemployment pressures on the over-burdened labor market in this highly populated country. More importantly, the remittance transfers received from these migrant workers have reached a phenomenal level of over 10 billion US dollar in 2009, approximately 12 percent of GDP in Bangladesh. This paper analyzes the trends and various other aspects of workers’ migration and remittances in Bangladesh. It further discusses the micro and macroeconomic impacts of remittances. While most remittance transfers have been used by migrant-sending households for consumption, there is evidence to show that these transfers have helped reduce poverty in Bangladesh. The analysis presented in this paper further indicates that these remittances may have significant effects on other macroeconomic variables as well.
This paper reviews the empirical literature on the relationship between remittances and various dimensions of social development in the developing world within a broader conceptual framework of migration and development theory. Migration and remittances are generally part of risk-spreading and co-insurance livelihood strategies pursued by households and families. Migration and remittances also have the potential to improve well-being, stimulate economic growth and reduce poverty directly and indirectly, while their effects on inequality are much more ambiguous.
This literature review examines the patterns of migration and remittances in rural Southeast Asia, and highlights some of the consequences for the management and use of forests and land. Migration in this region, as in much of the world today, is more complex than national censuses and overviews suggest (Tacoli and Mabala 2010). While national statistics can capture permanent migration, they often fail to capture temporary or circular movements that fall in the interval between censuses, and lack standardized data collection approaches (Deshingkar 2006). Tacoli (2011, 5) suggests that migration should be defined as: “an adaptive response to socioeconomic, cultural, political and environmental transformations, in most instances closely linked to the need to diversify income sources”, as an attempt to capture the complexities. This changing demography is an important piece of the puzzle in the changing rural structure of a fast developing and urbanizing Southeast Asia, and could have farreaching consequences for how rural development and forest management are considered within policy in the future.
The majority of migrant population move in order to find work and to provide for their families. Many of these people are successful; in 2009 alone, migrants sent an estimated $414 billion back to families in their home countries. However, labor protections for migrant workers are notoriously weak, and millions of migrant workers face abysmal working conditions and become victims of trafficking—a modern-day slave trade.
Women in our society have so far had only a secondary status. It is well known that the economic dependence of women upon men is one of the primary reasons which has pushed them into the background and resulted in their having only a secondary status both within and outside the family (Wadhera,1976). In spite of the fact that the fair sex has proved their mettle in every walk of life, their contribution is not given due credit in most cases. In India women constitute nearly half of the total population and they play a vital role in domestic sphere, in the rural field and also in urban economy. Yet, their economic status is still low as reflected by the census data itself that present a distorted picture of women particularly of those who are engaged in the informal sector of urban economy
Along with these high-risk groups, each country in the Asia Pacific now classifies migrant populations, both international and internal, as groups vulnerable to HIV infection. Being a migrant is not a risk factor itself but causes for poor health and HIV vulnerability among migrants include: discrimination, gender inequality, sexual violence and exploitation, dangerous working environments, poor living conditions and lack of access to education, social services and, maybe most important, lack of access to healthcare. Migrants often lack access to mainstream healthcare, education and social services.Many migrants do not have legalstatus within their destination countries and live in isolation, making it difficult to protect themselves against the people who might exploit them or sexually abuse them. Social isolation and other factorsmay lead migrants to participate in high-risk behavior, including use of drugs and alcohol. Male migrants away from home may alsopartake in the services of female sex workers, while the female migrants might look to sex work when they need money and have no social network to support them. All of these situations and activities increase the vulnerability of migrants to HIV infection.
Migrant workers are an increasingly important part of the global garment industry workforce. These workers are particularly vulnerable to exploitation: they often do the same job as local workers but for lower wages and in more precarious conditions, and face specific barriers to articulating and demanding their rights as workers. Abuse of migrant workers in textile and garment supply chains is a growing problem. This fact sheet addresses these abuses and offers companies that buy garments for retail a set of recommendations to address exploitation of migrant workers in their supply chain. This publication is part of a series of fact sheets that SOMO is developing for the Well Made programme.
This report synthesises a national study on domestic migration and remittance flows, four migration corridor studies, and an analysis of the Indian payment system with respect to small money transfers. Their findings add knowledge about the needs of migrants and their relatives back home as well as about the advantages and disadvantages of different money transfer methods. This synthesis report offers conclusions and recommendations for improving and expanding the existing formal remittance channels, for designing innovative financial linkages, and for developing new delivery models offering remittances services in rural and remote areas to low-income clients.
Migration from one area to another in search of improved livelihoods is a key feature of human history. Migration in India is not new and historical accounts show that people have moved in search of work, in response to environmental shocks and stresses, as well as conflicts over natural resources, to escape religious persecution and political conflict. However improved communications, transport networks, and new economic opportunities have created unprecedented levels of mobility. Studies show that the process of migration is influenced by social, cultural and economic factors and outcomes can be vastly different for men and women, for different groups and different locations. There is considerable difficulty in defining a migrant since migration occurs willfully and is also circumstantial. Migration may occur when people shift to urban areas, to explore new opportunities, and in search of better living conditions. This migration could, and often results when source areas lack suitable options for employment/livelihood.
Migration is one of the most important phenomena in today’s globalised world. In the light of on-going structural changes and consequent changing contours of the rural economy, the nature and pattern of migration has also been changing over time. During the last two decades, the phenomenon of out-migration from rural areas has increased manifold. People from rural areas are migrating in large numbers in search of better employment opportunities outside the agricultural sector. By the end of 1990s, the highest concentration of migrants is in metropolitan cities and areas adjacent to it, such as Gurgaon, Faridabad and Ghaziabad, which form part of the National Capital Region of Delhi. There has been a general change in the destination of migration from rural-rural to rural-urban. However, the intensity of migration is generally reported to be low in India due to the conventional approach of defining migration. Two major sources of data on migration in India, the Census and the National Sample Survey (NSS) cover only permanent or semi-permanent migration with seasonal migration partly overlapping with the category of short duration migration. Even the definitions of permanent or semi-permanent migration adopted in the Census and the NSS do not consider long term migrants without changing the place of residence as ‘migrant’.
Women workers in the informal economy consist of the most vulnerable working segments in society. They came from a marginalized population whose legal, economic and political status limit their ability to demand their rights. These women include domestic workers whose social and economic contributions to society are invisible to the public, the law and policies of the country. They face challenges because their work is not considered rural work so that their rights to minimum standards of decent work are continually violated. The unique feature of their work place, which is the home of their employer, makes them vulnerable to abuses and exploitation. This is because the state would always be reluctant to consider a home a workplace that they can regulate. The lack of capacity, support and unity as that in organized sector make the challenges they face doubly difficult. As a result, this paper attempts to look at these challenges through studies into the profile of domestic workers, their burdens and vulnerabilities in work, existing labour and other legislations that are applicable to them, efforts of the government to address the issues and efforts of domestic workers and partner organizations to organize them. This paper also covers issues related to minimum standards of decent work, including definitions, terms and conditions of domestic work, live in and live out arrangements, wages, leaves and social security.
The most important feature of Indian labour market scenario is increased migration rate from rural and backward areas in job search. This has increased the concerns like economic, social and political migration of migrant workers particularly the unskilled ones from insufficient and lowered regions to find employment and living. Hence, migration is apprehended to be stimulated by the extent of social groups’ susceptibility thereby resulting in the susceptibility increase at the destination point. Migration has become a global phenomenon today. Movement for job is livelihood strategy in India. An unorganized sector plays a crucial role in providing job opportunities to the migrants. In the present complex and competitive environment, stress level is increased among migrant workers in unorganized sectors due to various reasons. Stress is physical, mental and chemical reasons to circumstances that frighten confuse and irritate. Stress is the general term applied to the pressures, people feel in life. The presence of stress at work is almost unavoidable in many works. The present study deals with the level of stress among migrated workers of unorganized sectors in Erode and Tirupur districts.
This paper uses data collected in 2008 and 2009 for a project on Child Health and Migrant Parents in South-East Asia (CHAMPSEA) to address a largely neglected research area by investigating the mental health of those who stay behind in Indonesia, Philippines and Vietnam to care for the children of overseas migrants. A mixed-methods research design is employed to answer two questions. First, whether carers in transnational (migrant) households are more likely to suffer mental health problems than those in non-migrant households; and secondly, whether transnational family practices and characteristics of migration are associated with mental health outcomes for stay-behind carers.
Nepal has been in an internal armed conflict since 1996 between the Communist Party of Nepal (Maoist) and the government of Nepal. The internal armed conflict started in the remote hill district, Rolpa and has rapidly reached nearly all of Nepal’s 75 districts. The Informal Sector Service Centre (INSEC) reports that 10,985 people have lost their lives till date.1 This figure includes agricultural workers, teachers, political workers, police personnel, students, civil servants, social workers, business persons, health workers, army personnel, journalists, law professionals, prisoners and other civilians. In addition, the conflict has heightened human rights abuses, economic dislocation and displacement of thousands of people caught between the Maoists and the security forces.
They are homeless at ‘home’. Yet, they cannot cross borders and seek ‘outside’ help: rather they are forced to remain as the ‘other’ within the boundaries of their ‘own’ national states. The number of such homeless/displaced people, which, for more than two decades, are known as ‘Internally Displaced Persons’ (IDPs) – constitutes twice the number of refugees since 1990s. IDPs and refugees are very closely related since basically both are displaced persons. Like refugees, the IDPs “breaks up the immediate family . . . cuts off important social and community ties; terminates stable employment relationships; precludes or forecloses formal educational opportunities; deprives infants, expectant mothers, and the sick of access to food, adequate shelter, or vital health services; and makes the displaced population especially vulnerable to acts of violence, such as attacks on camps, disappearances, or rape.
Orissa has a large number of migrant female labourers who leave their villages in search of livelihood. The underdeveloped agricultural economy of the state which makes its population unemployed in lean season creates a deficit household economy, which gets further accentuated due to persistent natural disasters such as droughts and reduction of forest resources in tribal areas. Along with this, globalization has resulted in reduced market facilities and lack of employment opportunities for people. So more and more women are forced to migrate periodically to urban areas or to other states in search of work. They migrate with family members, relatives and friends. Earlier only the male members used to migrate but now a days the whole family migrates in search of employment.
The present paper intends to examine the push and pull factors which motivate workers to migrate to Punjab from other states. The paper is based on primary data collected from migrant textiles and brick-kiln workers. Factor analysis was carried out to find out different motivational aspects. Better Employment Opportunities, Fulfillment of Self Aspirations, Better Living Conditions are the pull factors and Lack of Development, Social Tensions and Unviable Land Holdings are the push factors found by the study. The study recommends that labour department of the State of Punjab should take steps to rationalise the collection, compilation, maintenance and dissemination of labour statistics. Further, there is a need to improve the educational level of the migrant workers and they should be provided proper housing and sanitation facilities.
There are numerous aspects pertaining to refugees which are of major importance both to India, as a country and to the refugees, particularly in the context of law enforcement. Given the security scenario prevailing in the country, particularly arising out of the role of some of the neighbours in this regard, an utterly humanitarian matter like the ‘refugees’ has come to be influenced by considerations of national security. It is a reality that we can ill-afford to overlook this aspect of the matter in any dispassionate deliberation of the subject under review in this article. While law and order is a State subject under the Indian Constitution, international relations and international borders are under the exclusive purview of the Union government. This has resulted in a variety of agencies, both of the Central as well as the State governments, having to deal with refugee matters connected with law enforcement. Also, all policies governing refugees are laid down by the Union government though the impact of the refugee problem as such has to be borne by the State administration to a greater degree if not wholly.
South Asia region consisting of Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka has been one of the major theatres of global refugee movement. These refugee movements are caused by a variety of both short lived and protracted conflicts. Most of the South Asian refugees are absorbed within the region. These conflicts have undergone large scale transformation over the years as they have become more fierce and recurrent. There are several reasons that could be attributed to conflict in the region. They vary from strident assertion of group identities as manifested in their demand for political independence to change in demographic equations triggered by both intra-country and external migration. It also ranges from the practice of internal colonialism as manifested by constant regional disparity and economic alienation to brutal and massive human rights violation. There are consistent efforts by the extra regional powers to create political constituency for themselves for meeting their strategic goals. There are equally complex and diverse factors that have sustained the conflicts in the region.
It has now been some fifteen years since the issue of internal displacement indelibly was placed on the international agenda and recognized as a legitimate matter of international concern. Since that time, awareness of the global crisis of internal displacement and of the plight of affected populations has grown. A normative framework for addressing the problem has been developed and its use is being widely promoted at the national, regional and international levels. International humanitarian, human rights and development agencies have become increasingly engaged with the internally displaced, both at the policy level and in the field, and a UN office has been established to coordinate their efforts and ensure an effective international response. In a sign of the wide recognition it has attained, the issue of internal displacement now features regularly in international discourse, and not only in human rights and humanitarian circles but also in the debates of the UN Security Council.
According to Encarta Encyclopaedia (2009), “child labour as a designation was formerly applied to the practice of employing young children in factories” 1 . In the contemporary societies, this designation is used to denote the employment of minors generally, especially in work that may interfere with their education or endanger their health, or harm them physically, mentally, and morally. However, those who are interested in research of this kind should bear in mind that there is no universally accepted definition of "child labour". Child labour includes both paid and unpaid work. It exists in many forms, such as: domestic, agricultural, industrial work, slavery and forced labour, recruitment for armed conflict, prostitution and use for other illicit activities such as drug trafficking, etc.
Remittances that flow from low-skilled labor migration are critical to many developing countries, yet these economic benefits can come at a high price. Roughly half of all migrant workers are women, many of whom are mothers who migrate without their families to perform domestic work abroad. This Article examines the impact of the large-scale migration of women from the Global South on the rights and well-being of the “children left behind.” Sri Lanka is used as a case study because it is numerically significant in its own right (one million Sri Lankan children are directly affected by this migration phenomenon) and provides insights into the challenges posed by these labor migration streams.
The ‘independent child migration’ research agenda that thus emerged may be summarised as: demonstrating young migrants’ as actors in migration; highlighting that staying is often not a desirable option’; deconstructing the trafficking discourse; and reconstruction the phenomenon of mobile children as a migration issue with exploitation instead of children’s mobility as the target for intervention. Although this research agenda generated some important insights and has affected interventions, I argue that after a decade this research agenda is in need of reflection.
There are differing views on whether independent child migration increases children’s vulnerability to exploitation or is an expression of their proactive agency. As little attention has yet been given to the motivations, comparative benefits, outcomes and rights of voluntary child migrants, this paper gives voice to independent child migrants in Thailand. Using child-focused research methodology, it draws from the experiences of 76 youth who all independently migrated when they were children. The research reassesses the common assumptions and adult constructs around children’s agency and migration. Labeling all child migrants who experience some degree of exploitation as victims of trafficking is found to be counterproductive. A better understanding of the notion of childhood and children’s capacities within the Southeast Asian context illustrates the conflicting concepts of child agency and vulnerability. As such, by listening more seriously to the positive views of independent child migrants we can become more focused on legal and regulatory policies and practices around labor migration and less blind to the realities of children’s full rights and true agency.
When planning the workshop we wanted it to be an occasion for exploring the multiplicities of situations migrant children live in, in terms of both their rights as citizens and also the discourses, claims and realizations connected to such rights. As we wrote in the invitation abstract, our research experience is that, Children take part in transnational migration in many different ways. They follow parents in transnational marriages, are refugees, young single asylum seekers, or work migrants. Often children migrate with parents or other care-takers through kinship care arrangements. A growing number of migrants are undocumented, including children who are born by parents without residence visas. We therefore wanted papers and discussions on how political, juridical and bureaucratic practices define children as both migrants and citizens. Below I give a short summary of the different papers, the discussions we engaged in and the debate about the age dilemma immigration authorities are faced with today.
Several million children currently live in transnational families, yet little is known about impacts on their health. We investigated the psychological well-being of left-behind children in four Southeast Asian countries. Data were drawn from the CHAMPSEA study. Caregiver reports from the Strengths and Difficulties Questionnaire (SDQ) were used to examine differences among children under age 12 by the migration status of their household (N = 3,876). We found no general pattern across the four study countries: Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand, and Vietnam. Multivariate models showed that children of migrant fathers in Indonesia and Thailand are more likely to have poor psychological well-being, compared to children in nonmigrant households. This finding was not replicated for the Philippines or Vietnam. The paper concludes by arguing for more contextualized understandings.
This review considers the evidence from child labor research that is relevant to understanding independent child migration for work. Child labour research is relevant to the study of independent child migration for work in three ways. First, migration for work is one of the many possible alternatives for child time allocation. The methodological and analytical tools used in the study of child labor are thus applicable to the study of independent child migration for work. Second, independent child migration for work will be reduced by factors that improve alternatives to migration. Child labor at home is one possible alternative to migrating. Thus, influences on child labor will affect independent child migration for work by altering the pressures that push children into migration. Third, the issues that arise in understanding why employers use children are also relevant to understanding what factors pull children into migration.
This chapter intends to turn the conventional analysis around by grounding the evaluation of actual and likely impacts of targeted ‘remittances, migration and development policies’ into a broader review of the empirical literature on the relationships between migration and remittances, on the one hand, and various dimensions of social, economic and cultural changes in the global South, on the other.On the basis of this broader understanding and theoretical framing, this chapter will subsequently assess the impacts of specific policies to increase remittances and improve the impact of migration and remittances on development in origin countries and communities. This chapter places particular emphasis o impact of remittances on development in receiving countries. It also attempts to develop thoughts on the specific features of South-South migration and what the likely impacts for social development as well as policy implications.
This chapter surveys and synthesizes existing research on urbanization and housing in developing countries. The goal is to provide a unified overview of the principal urban issues that arise in developing countries, painting a coherent picture that can provide a starting point for policy analysis. The chapter covers empirical work on rural-urban migration, theoretical research on migration and city-size determination, theoretical and empirical work on tenure security and squatting, and the issue of housing affordability.
Labour migration is a pervasive feature of economic development. People mobility for temporary or permanent labour purposes is a routine part of agricultural activity. There are very significant migration flows in some developing areas, with considerable impacts on individuals, households and regions at origin. Despite the growing debate about motivations and impacts of recent migration flows, costs and returns of this global phenomenon are still unclear and remain far outside the public policy realm. This is true especially with respect to migration of people from rural areas of developing countries. The purpose of this paper is to review key issues relating to rural labour migration and its links to economic development at origin. What is the impact of migration, both internal and international, on rural and agricultural development in sending regions? This paper examines the empirical research that, despite the paucity of data, offers a basis to glean some insights into the migration-development nexus.
The migration of skilled people from developing to developed countries can have significant implications for the development trajectory of sending countries. For many years analysis of the phenomenon focused on the so-called ‘brain drain’ effect that was seen to rob developing countries of skills. Later approaches have focused on the role of migration in spreading knowledge, boosting incomes and incentivising the acquisition of skills. This paper proposes that the precise impact of skilled migration from a particular country can only be understood by placing it in the specific context of that country’s development, particularly patterns of internal migration and unskilled migration. It argues that skilled migration can boost development if properly managed, and that developed countries can mitigate the potential harmful effects of skilled migration by investing in skills development in sending countries and assisting developing countries in matching their educational systems to domestic and international labour markets. Finally, it proposes that the existing lack of data in this field, the different definitions and measurements used by individual countries, and the confusing network of bilateral migration relationships argue for a more multilateral approach to migration management than exists today.
This essay extends the standard Ramsey-type growth model to include a capital market failure and households’ endogenous residency decisions in a regional, multi-sectoral environment. In this environment, households decide to migrate, or not, from rural to urban region depending not only on the income differences across regions, but also on the cost-of-living differentials per unit of expenditure per household in each region. Income differentials arise due to the segmentation in labor and capital markets across regions, allowing for different rates of return on these factors of production, and cost-of-living differentials stem from the existence of non-tradeable goods in each region. We find that segmentation in rural and urban capital markets may help explain the uneven growth across regions and the rapid rates of migration in developing countries.
Rural-urban migration occurs at varying rates in every country. This paper focuses on the process of rural-urban migration and its influence on urbanization in developing countries. It presents arguments in support of the proposition that rural-urban migration is an inevitable component of the development process, and does not necessarily have to result in adverse impacts. With the right mix of policies, this process can occur at a socially acceptable level. However, given the distortion of opportunities in favor of cities in most developing countries, the costs associated with rural-urban migration often outweigh the benefits, leading to excessive urbanization.
A cross-sectional study was conducted in 50 households in Padma Nagar and Shanti Nagar, the slums in Mumbai in March 2011. Purposive sampling was used to select the households. Pre-tested questionnaire was dispensed in a personal interview to the household head (19-49 years) regardless of gender, who were staying in the community for more than two years. The findings reveals that families with low income (less than INR 4000 per month) preferred to go to Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) hospitals where as families with more than INR 4000 income per month preferred to go to general practitioners. Respondents who had education up to secondary level preferred to go to the general practitioner where as those with education level higher than secondary preferred to go to BMC or private hospitals. From the issues that emerged from the study and recognizing the paramount importance of health in the well-being of the people, it is crucial that policy action be taken to improve health services for migrant populations who live in the unauthorized slums.
Pakistan is a low-middle-income country of 188 million people that ranks low in human development, with rural-urban disparities in poverty, income and development infrastructure. Rural poverty is widespread but more pronounced in arid and semi-arid zones. The country’s urban economy contributes 78% to the national gross domestic product (GDP) although it is home to one third of the total population (World Bank (WB), 2014; Hussain, 2014). With an urbanisation rate of 3% per annum (Kugelman, 2014), many Pakistani cities have informally grown into large agglomerations with about 35% to 50% of urban population reportedly living in informal settlements (WB, 2014; Kugelman, 2014). Government projections suggest that by 2030 more than half of Pakistan’s population will be residing in urban areas (GoP, 2014). Such estimates do not take into account the effects of climate change – on urbanisation, rural-urban migration, and population growth.
This article assesses the dual stresses that climate change and climate-induced migration are imposing on megacities in developing and emerging market countries. While cities in these countries are experiencing unprecedented urbanization, impacts of climate change such as desertification, flooding, and sea level rise will likely further increase urbanization and put additional pressure on physical and social infrastructure. Cities are not impervious to the impacts of climate change and as populations grow, these stresses will become more pronounced, especially if infrastructure and regulations remain underdeveloped. This article draws on two cases, Bangladesh and India, to illustrate the forces that are causing involuntary mobility from rural to urban areas and the consequent stresses that megacities like Mumbai will experience. It concludes with recommendations to develop comprehensive climate adaptation policies in order to limit the impacts of short- and long-term climate change on cities and the economic cost of such investments in the future, and to seek a normative shift on the issue of climate-induced migration to ensure that those victimized by anthropogenic and natural climate change are met with a compassionate, coordinated global regime.
Environmental crisis and the increasing impacts of climate change in Bangladesh have become important causes of cross-border migration to the Indian Sunderbans Region (ISR) where loss of lands and habitats are the two major issues due to sealevel rise in recent years. The coastal populations are constantly migrating from one island to another in search of food and shelter. There is a steady influx of Bangladeshi migrants into this region who could be termed ‘crisis migrants’, entering into ISR illegally in anticipation of threats in their own country and eventually becoming trapped by humanitarian crisis.
This briefing paper proposes six elements to be considered to the Protocol; they are; a) addressing causes of displacement and migration (both sudden and slow onset events) with a clear guideline in 'Global Adaptation Goal' and National Adaptation Plan with the provision of certain percentage of resources directly to the climate vulnerable communities, b) clear indication and guideline on State activities for undertaking long-term relocation strategy within the country through social empowerment and economic capacity building, c) State protection mechanism (social safety nets) and support services for the people trapped in the risky hotspots and urban slums, d) human rights based protection for the climate induced internal and cross-border migrants, and trapped population e) provision for 'ex situ' adaptation (adaptation beyond boundaries) with of full fundamental rights as per constitution of the host country and f) provision for 'entire community' migration, especially for the sinking island nations who are under threat of forced eviction by the impacts of climate change such as sea level rise.
This guide offers policy-makers and administrators a guide to evaluate labour migration policies work in practice, based on documented experiences in ASEAN and other parts of the world. It starts with the labour market tests used to determine whether the migrant workers requested by employers are really needed. The second section discusses the recruitment process, and the effectiveness of policies to match workers with jobs and minimize the cost of recruitment. The third section focuses on protection and outlines methods to assess policies that set the wages and working conditions of migrant workers and deal with complaints filed by workers with government agencies. The fourth section reviews evidence on the impacts of migration on destination and origin countries, including on incomes, productivity, and non-economic factors such as crime and congestion. The fifth section highlights the conceptual and practical difficulties involved in evaluating the effects of labour migration and lays out practical steps that national authorities can take to improve labour market testing, recruitment, labour market monitoring, and assessment of the overall impact. A final section reviews the experience of Malaysia in managing the admission and employment of foreign workers, and summarizes the research on migration’s impacts on the Malaysian labour market and economy
In India close to 100 million people are seasonal migrants who are basically poor and disadvantaged unorganised labourers. They belong to and often migrate to cities and urban areas for seasonal employment. Children constitute 15-20% of the total seasonal migrant population who accompany their parents and live in various informal sectors such as brick kilns, construction sites, and stone crusher units. These migrant children are invisible and undocumented and spend half of their lives in unhealthy, polluted, congested, dusty and unfriendly environment and get excluded from accessing basic services and entitlements. Childhood on the move is a story about these children who suffer in silence and live a life of invisibility. It is an effort to highlight the plight of seasonal migrant children and engage and advocate for inclusive policies and programmes for the protection and welfare of internal migrant children.
Based on primary survey in the slums of Kolkata, the present study reveals that poor migrants are mainly drawn from economically depressed areas of West Bengal and Bihar. The migrants primarily belong to lower strata of the society and are dominantly illiterate or informally educated. Although, these people find work for major part of the year, a large number of them are self-employed. Wherever, they are into regular salaried jobs, the migrants are engaged in petty manufacturing, factory workers, retail trade, hotels and restaurants, transport sector and as domestic maids, all of which promise scant upward mobility. Additionally, working hours are too long – ranging from 8 to 16-17 hours in a day. The workers suffer from various labour market issues like insecurity of jobs, late and non-payment of wages, intermittent availability of work, absence of job contract and social securities. Additionally, payment in piece-rate basis adds greater flexibility to the employers. Equally miserable is their housing conditions where the migrants reside and work.
Women workers are found in certain activities traditionally falling within the male domain. This is particularly the case for landless women who largely belong to the hardcore poor group. It indicates growing economic pressure and erosion of familial support and traditional beliefs and norms regarding women's outside work. With the Bangladesh economy’s heavy dependence on imports Chittagong has traditionally played a very important role in the trading sectors and industrial centre of the country and also commercial capital of Bangladesh which is going through a massive phase of construction of new structures. The study employed triangulation method as a research strategy. The objective of the study is to know the reasons of internal migrations and conditions of female construction workers of Chittagong city. A good number of rural women are involved at urban construction work in Chittagong city where they faces different harmful condition like as long working hour, less salary, lack of women rights, sexual harassment, food expenditure, low health condition, hard working etc. From this rational discussion this papers examine internal migration and the condition of migrant female construction works in Chittagong city.
Migration is considered to be one of the important strategies for the progress and development of rural poor. People migrate from one place to another for the development of their overall living standard and to enhance their social position. This study tries to determine the factors of internal migration and assesses its impact on socioeconomic status of migrants. Descriptive research design has been followed in this study. Social survey technique and Focused Group Discussion (FGD) have been applied to collect pertinent data. To analyze the collected data Economic Status Index (ESI), Social Status Index (SSI), Head Count Ratio (HCR) and Poverty Gap Ratio (PGR) were calculated. Area under Sylhet City Corporation, Bangladesh, where people have been migrating from different district of Bangladesh, has been considered as the area of this study. The study reveals that, people were pushed in Sylhet city because of their poor socio-economic conditions, mainly poverty condition. Besides, many pull factors also attract them to migrate in this city. It is found from the study that, internal migration is positively contributed to the development of poor people. There social and economic condition as household income, saving, land possession, expenditure, non-productive assets, housing status, water & sanitation facilities, treatment aptitudes, social participation etc. especially their poverty condition is improved in comparison to the same factors before migration. In a word, internal migration (rural to urban) contributes to the improvement of the socioeconomic status of the migrants.
The process of migration has diverse economic, social and environmental implications for the places of origin and destination. In the context of balanced regional growth and sustainable regional development it is important to study how internal migration affects the patterns of population distribution within a country. The spatial distribution of population is influenced by the characteristics of the sending and receiving areas in terms of push and pull factors resulting in rural-urban, urban-urban, rural-rural and urban-rural migration flows.
The aim of this paper is to document the magnitude of internal migration in Pakistan and draw attention to some of its salient characteristics. A second objective is to provide a nuanced account of the migration-poverty reduction linkage by attempting a more careful analysis of labour migration. Beyond the assumption of smoothly functioning labour markets, we will also explore the possibility of frictions in the operation of these markets. The second section provides a brief literature review. Available sources of data on migration are presented in the third section. The fourth section describes quantitative data and provides an econometric treatment of the determinants of migration. The fifth section looks at institutional challenges to internal migration. The conclusions follow in the sixth section.
In this paper, an attempt is made to study the phenomenon of seasonal migration in India and its determinants by using the recent (2007-08) National Sample Survey (NSS) data. The theoretical model used to study the determinants of seasonal migration is based on the utility maximisation principle developed by Stark and Fan (2007). It was found that presently there is a shift in the migration pattern from permanent migration to temporary and short duration migration, which is guided by employment related factors. The empirical result supports the theoretical argument that higher wages and the cost of separation shape seasonal migration to a significant degree in India. In light of these findings, it is suggested that seasonal migration be controlled for those who are physically, socially and economically vulnerable. With this objective in mind, the government should ascertain the reasons for the failure of MGNREGS in controlling distress migration in India and ensure its successful implementation.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA), which guarantees employment of every rural household for 100 days, has different progressive provisions which incentivise higher participation of women in the programme. Official data suggest that 47% of all MGNREGA workers are women. This paper uses the National Sample Survey for the 68th employment-unemployment round (2011-12) to examine the performance of states in terms of participation and rationing of women in the programme relative to that of men. In addition, it documents these indicators from various sub-populations of women, including widows, mothers of young children, etc. who typically face serious constraints in the context of labour market participation.The study finds substantial variations both across states and sub populations implying the need for a differentiated policy focus across states to support women's access to and participation in the MGNREGA.
The paper discusses the problems with current terminology and examines some popular myths about migrant workers. He points out that receiving countries reap considerable benefits from migration, which are usually overlooked. He traces main trends and features in Asian labour migration in the recent past, and identifies the most vulnerable groups of migrant workers who need priority attention. The paper also highlights the current dilemma faced by labour sending countries in ‘protection’ of national workers abroad and promotion of overseas employment. In the final section, the author discusses the specific role of trade unions and broader policy options open to countries for protecting migrant workers in the light of ILO and other international instruments.
In some regions of India, three out of four households include a migrant. The effects of migration on individuals, households and regions add up to a significant impact on the national economy and society. Migration can result in the permanent relocation of an individual or household, which we may term permanent migration. But if individuals migrate leaving their families and land and property in the area of origin, they may do so with the intention of reverting back to the area of origin. Despite the numbers, not much is written on migration within or from India and its considerable costs and returns remain outside of the public policy dominion. This paper reviews key issues relating to internal and external labour migration in India. It analyses the patterns, trends and nature of labour migration, along with the reasons behind inter-state migration and also from gender perspectives. At present, Census results for migration are available only till 2001, whereas NSS results are available till 2007–2008; hence much of our comparison is based on NSS results. All the studies are carried out based on census data 1981 onwards.
Migration is an important demographic event and needs to be studied by Public Health Experts. As migration is a facet of population growth & development assessing patterns helps understand the dynamics of society.In this study, the pattern of interstate & international migration in different zones is compared and various socioeconomic factors influencing migration are assessed along with their reasons for migration.
India has a traditional society with relatively less mobile population. The existing literatures also support the fact that migration rate in India is one of the lowest in world. Till 1991 census, the migration rate in India showed declining trends but 2001 census, for the first time, marked a reversal. The internal migration rate was increased by 3 percent between 1991 and 2001. Scholars have linked it with the structural changes in economy adopted by India in 1991 due to severe economic crisis. Although, till 2001, it was too early to say that reversal in migration trends is because of process of economic reforms. But the recent 64th round of National Sample Survey (2007-08) which deals with migration in India also shows increasing trends and supports the idea that the economic reforms has further deepened the inter-regional inequalities and the gaps in the income levels of rich and poor is sharply widening. The whole process supports the neo-classical model of growth according to which increase in the inter-regional inequality promotes population mobility. In the light of the above the present paper endeavours to analyse the salient emerging features of the Internal migration in India specially during post reform era with the analysis of recent three rounds (49th, 55th and 64th ) of National Sample Survey on migration till 2007.
The paper next takes up a comparative review of different aspects of emigration and immigration policies in South Asian countries as reflected in their respective legislative and policy frameworks and practices. It is a matter for concern that migration is being viewed as a national security issue by some countries in South Asia with adverse consequences for the immigrant populations. The paper points out the important role of international instruments and good practices for improving current migration policies. The conclusions identify the crucial role of India as the major emigration-immigration- transit country in the subregion for setting a good practice example in developing comprehensive and transparent migration policies based on international norms. The author also highlights the scope for a subregional approach to migration policy in South Asia through the SAARC framework although progress up to now has been quite limited.
This paper proposes frameworks to analyze the gender dimensions of climate change-induced migration. The experiences, needs and priorities of climate migrants will vary by gender and these differences need to be accounted for if policies are to be inclusive. Among the vulnerable groups, women are likely to be disproportionately affected due to climate change because on average women tend to be poorer, less educated, have a lower health status and have limited direct access to or ownership of natural resources. Both the process (actual movement) and the outcomes (rural–rural or rural–urban migration, out-migration mainly of men) of climate change-induced migration are also likely to be highly gendered.
There is as yet no agreement on the status of people displaced by climate change and the term “climate refugees” has no place in international law. While refugees are supposed to be people who cross national borders, climate change is seen to induce people to move within their countries. And even if climate refugees are recognised, who is going to be responsible for their protection and rehabilitation?
This technical paper provides evidence-based estimates of the likelihood of disaster-induced displacement in Brunei, Cambodia, China, Indonesia, Lao PDR, Malaysia, Myanmar, the Philippines, Singapore, Thailand and Vietnam. It attempts to better quantify human displacement risk. It brings together data from several sources – notably the Global Assessment Reports (GARs) and the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), national disaster loss inventory databases (DesInventar) and the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre’s (IDMC) Global Estimates – in order to better quantify human displacement risk. Applying a probabilistic risk model, it is one of the first attempts to assess how many people are at risk of being displaced by natural hazard-related disasters. It is the first attempt to do so for South-East Asia.
Do rural areas benefit when their residents migrate to cities? A new national ID card and a program to facilitate legal temporary residence in the cities have made migration easier for rural residents in China. Research on the effects of rural to urban migration in China shows a positive relationship between consumption and income of households in migrant home communities, but no significant relationship between migration and investments in non-agricultural productive assets. The ability to migrate is also associated with a drop in secondary school enrollment.
Based on the 2010 census, official figures suggest that for the first time more people in China live in cities than in the rural areas. According to estimates from the United Nations Population Division, China's urban population increased from only 64 million in 1950 to almost 636 million in 2010. China's urbanization is driven by its economic modernization which has created millions of jobs in urban industry and service sectors. It was made possible through a relaxation in the enforcement of "hukou' rules, which had largely prevented rural to urban migration in the Mao-period. This essay explores the trends and patterns of internal migration, the directions of the internal migration in china, and the main challenges face the rural-urban migrants on the household level. And in the last part we came out with some resolution policies implemented by the Chinese policy’ makers.
In most South Asian countries, remittances represent a significant proportion of their gross domestic product (GDP) as well as foreign exchange earnings. In 2007, remittances amounted to 15.5 percent of Nepal’s GDP, 9.5 percent of Bangladesh’s, 8.1 percent of Sri Lanka’s, 4.2 percent of Pakistan’s and 3.1 percent of India’s. Against this backdrop, this paper explores the trends, nature and role of migration and remittances in South Asian economies.
South Asia is a remittance economy. South Asian countries send out a significant number of migrant workers annually and remittances sent by migrant workers become a significant source of funds for economic development of the countries. Most governments in South Asia view worker migration as helping to curtail unemployment, reduce poverty, and earn foreign exchange through remittances, and make worker migration as one of the key economic policy priorities.
Migrant workers claims for greater protection in a globalized world are typically expressed either in the idiom of international human rights or citizenship. Instead of contrasting these two normative frames, the paper explores the extent to which human rights and citizenship discourses intersect when it comes to claims by migrant workers. An analysis of the international human and labour rights instruments that are specifically designed for migrant workers reveals how neither discourse questions the assumption of territorial state sovereignty. Drawing upon sociological and political approaches to human rights claims, Arendtian-inspired critique of international human rights are investigated, which is that they ignore the very basis “right to have rights.” In doing so, I discuss the different dimensions of citizenship, and conclude that international rights can be used by migrant workers to assert right claims that reinforce a conception of citizenship that, although different from national citizenship, has the potential to address their distinctive social location.
This paper talks about causes and problems of migration arguing for protection of migrants. Some of the questions discussed in the paper are why do people migrate? Different forms of migration and effects of migration. Paper also talks about advantages and disadvantages of immigration and emigration. It discusses different available protection against migration. Paper discusses about forced labour and various indicators of forced labour. It also discusses about modern day’s slavery and finally it paper concludes.
The current perspective on the flow of people is almost exclusively focused on permanent migration from poorer to richer countries and on immigration policies in industrial countries. But international mobility of people should no longer be seen as a one-time event or one-way flow from South to North. The economic crisis has accentuated the longer-term shift in location incentives for people in industrial countries. As consumers, they could obtain better and cheaper access to key services—such as care for the elderly, health, and education—whose costs at home are projected to increase in the future, threatening standards of living. As workers, they could benefit from new opportunities created by the shift in economic dynamism from This paper is a product of the Trade and International Integration Team, Development Research Group. It is part of a larger effort by the World Bank to provide open access to its research and make a contribution to development policy discussions around the world. industrial to emerging countries. But subtle incentives to stay at home, such as lack of portability of health insurance and non-recognition of qualifications obtained abroad, inhibit North-South mobility and need to be addressed. Furthermore, if beneficiaries of movement abroad exert countervailing power against those who support immigration barriers at home, then that could lead to greater inflows of people, boosting innovation and growth in the North. Eventually, growing two-way flows of people could create the possibility of a grand bargain to reduce impediments to the movement of people at every stage in all countries and help realize the full benefits of globalization.
Using bilateral migration flow data from the 2010 population census of Nepal, this paper provides evidence on the importance of public infrastructure and services in determining migration flows. The empirical specification, based on a generalized nested logit model, corrects for the non-random selection of migrants. The results show that migrants prefer areas that are nearer to paved roads and have better access to electricity. Apart from electricity's impact on income and through income on migration, the econometric results indicate that migrants attach substantial amenity value to access to electricity. These findings have important implications for the placement of basic infrastructure projects and the way benefits from these projects are evaluated.
This working paper seeks to better understand the different forms of exclusion and deprivation experienced by migrants in Indore, the economic centre and largest city of Madhya Pradesh. Four different groups of migrants were targeted: two groups of recent migrants (those less than one year in the city and those over one but less than two); seasonal migrants temporarily in the city; and older migrants settled in the city. These reflect different stages and forms of the migration process and the associated exclusions and challenges that migrants and their families face in terms of access to housing, basic services, social benefits and entitlements, and government identification.The study collected quantitative and qualitative data using questionnaires, focus group discussions and key informant interviews. Since migrants commonly live in informal settlements (bastis) throughout the city, members of women’s slum groups were trained by the Urban Health Resource Centre (UHRC) to help locate and purposively sample appropriate respondents for the survey. In total, 640 respondents were surveyed across the four migrant groups.
This paper suggests that it is in a study of social stratification and mobility, that some answers to the differential nature of the relationship between the state and the people in India and China can be found, and thence in the differential nature of the challenges of governance in the two nations. More specifically, it is in the existence of caste in India and in the absence of caste as a system of social stratification in China , that a crucial element of any explanation of the divergent realities of the two countries lies. Yet, this divergence is never articulated in the journalistic discourse in either country. A lacuna that is all the more egregious given that journalists and pundits of every stripe on both sides of the border and elsewhere in the world, are constantly exhorting the neighbouring nations to look to each other, alternatively as models of success or warnings of disaster.
Migration, and the consequent remittance flows, have wide-ranging implications for Bangladesh, particularly in terms of employment generation, foreign exchange reserves and balance of payments, household expenditure, savings and investment, and in general, for the overall development of the country’s economy. However, issues of financial inclusion and social protection of Bangladesh’s migrant workers have continued to remain relatively unaddressed over the past years. This paper examines cross-country experiences covering three areas: (a) reduction of cost of sending remittances; (b) deployment of financial instruments to harness savings of migrant workers; and (c) social protection schemes to secure and safeguard the interests of migrant workers. The paper undertakes a review of the regulatory mechanisms, measures and schemes in place in Bangladesh in the aforesaid three areas; and by drawing on global best practices and experiences, comes up with a number of recommendations to address the relevant challenges. The paper recommends how modern technology could help reduce transaction costs and innovative financial instruments could be deployed to harness savings of migrant workers. The paper also proposes a number of measures towards better social protection of migrant workers in both host countries and in Bangladesh.
The lack of data presents a fundamental challenge in measuring internal or international migration. Focusing on the case of India, this research note tackles the following aspects in the measurement of internal migration in India: a survey of migration-related questions included in various censuses, an assessment of the different criteria to determine migration status, and a comparison of migration data derived from census data and the National Sample Survey. Due to recent developments, there is a need to review these approaches to ensure that they capture new realities.
The Government of India has stated that over 336 million people are affected by the conditions of severe drought. This leads us to a staggering figure of over 164 million children, who have been severely affected by the drought this year. For the first time in 100 years, this year being the fourth successive drought year. Within the catastrophic implications of a natural calamity of this gravity, the most enduring implications are being confronted by our children in the form of trafficking, forced and bonded labour, child mortality, ill-effects on their health, child marriage and discontinuation of education.
The paper observes that governments’ migration policies need to be balanced with their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Conventions on the Minimum Age for Employment, No’s 138 (1973) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour, No. 182 (1999), to ensure that the rights of children, including migrant children, are protected, including the right to be free from child labour. A range of policy considerations are offered, including in the world of work. The paper recommends amongst others that part of the governance of internal migration be focused on ensuring safe migration for decent work for children above the minimum working age, rather than stopping it. It also recommends measures to improve protection in the workplace, including through expanding youth migrant worker’s ability to form self-help groups and access, join or associate with trade unions. The paper concludes that despite the growing body of evidence with regard to the effects of migration on children, there remain significant knowledge gaps and the correlation between migration and child labour needs further analysis.
Seasonal labour migration has not declined in spite of MGNREGA in Jharkhand. Nearly 30% villagers do migrate for 4-6 months to brick kiln along with their families. Article reviews the reason for migration based on a qualitative study conducted through FGD and PLA in 12 villages of Bero and Itki blocks of Ranchi district. Study analyses the type, pattern, cause and effect of migration to brick kiln and impact of such migration on children. It was reported children’s vulnerability increased due to migration much to the ignorance of the parents and due to their fatalistic life style. Article throws light on plausible way forward from this vicious cycle.
This paper seeks to clarify the nature of changes and trends in rural-urban migration, the relevance of local labour markets and remittances and their place within the livelihoods strategies of the rural poor and to indicate the ways in which donor policies should be adapted to address these changes and trends. Combining rural and urban livelihoods provides a dual advantage to the poor; agricultural labouring and marginal farming are important safety nets when urban employment is mainly in the informal sector which is high risk Commuting is the most preferred mobility option because it allows people to keep rural social and economic links alive and cuts down the considerable costs of food and housing in urban locations. It also allows households to retain access to government services that are based on resident criteria such as subsidised food, healthcare and education
Occupational structure reveals stagnancy: many of the activities pursue dare of residual type, and many individuals are non-workers. Also there is limited information on occupational mobility. However, it is observed that even in a stagnant region with limited opportunities income mobility is occurring, to a limited extent though. Agrarian contract forces households to look for better avenues. With improvement in educational levels individuals are shifting to services and other non-agricultural activities. Livelihood diversification is seen as a risk management strategy of the rural poor. Paucity of earnings compels many to access multiple sources of livelihood at a time. Such a phenomenon, however, implies a greater intensity of work to be pursued to earn the same subsistence level of income.
Drawing on data contained in the International Organization for Migration’s Counter Trafficking Module, the experiences of Indonesian victims of human trafficking who were exploited as domestic workers in Malaysia are examined, as well as the risk factors that may have contributed to their exploitation. Understanding the nature of human trafficking and the risk factors for exploitation is crucial for developing domestic and regional responses that can effectively contribute to anti-human trafficking strategies in the southeast Asia region.
Women migrate for various reasons including better economic opportunity. Women and girls moving from rural to urban areas cite limited and unpredictable job opportunities back home as well as the lure of urban life (Population Council, 2013). Typical unskilled work available to these women in the destination sites includes domestic or household help, factory work, agricultural labor, and “entertainer” (which often means, in reality, sex work). Often migrant workers— especially women—are vulnerable to exploitation, physical and sexual abuse, restrictions of reproductive rights and mobility, and stress (IOM 2010).
Migration flows exhibit both long-term shifts and short-term fluctuations in terms of volume and pattern. The root causes of these shifts and fluctuations can most generally be linked to the term ‘development’. For example, the expansion of education increases aspirations among people that cannot always be met locally. The increasing access to income-earning opportunities provides the capital that allows people to move. Most importantly, the demand for labour at certain points in the global system draws migrants towards particular destinations. Also, shifts in the demographic structure of populations, which are associated with development, reinforce patterns of unequal economic growth. Such shifts have taken place in Europe and increasingly in the economies of East Asia. These areas have changed from being areas of net emigration to areas of net immigration as their populations have aged, resulting in very low rates of labour-force growth. Thus, a complex migration-development nexus of change exists that provides the context for shorter-term fluctuations in local, regional and global economies.
This paper represents a holistic study of the multifaceted notion of stranded migrants, which gained renewed attention by international actors in the past decade, and especially in relation to the 2011 uprising and consequent conflict in Libya and the current crisis in Syria. However, the call for new action concerning the protection of this group of migrants appears to be constrained by a lack of analysis of the phenomenon. This paper therefore studies the notion from a historical perspective, interrelated with a survey of the situation on the ground, and a review of previous and current international understanding of the notion. After deriving concrete characteristic of the group of stranded migrants and concluding, that stranded migrants can be found anywhere, unrelated to geography and previous legal status, the paper focuses on vulnerabilities of migrants and stranded migrants.
Migration places young women in a different environment and makes them especially vulnerable. The concept of vulnerability is usually a multidimensional measure of the exposure of individuals to various sources of external stress, ranging from economic downturns to environmental changes and political unrest. More precisely, social vulnerability may be expressed as risk of livelihood stress or of welfare loss. Gender inequality, compounded by widespread poverty, means that women in developing countries are far more at risk, and this is well-reflected in the existing literature. Young migrating women are a case in point and have often been identified as an especially vulnerable group.
Overall, there is a general lack of reliable and comparable data on internal migration which does not allow to fully comprehend the internal migration patterns of youth, neither its determinants nor outcomes. Much of the available evidence is at country level and comes from case studies. For instance, the World Bank (2007) finds that more than half of the 4 million internal migrants moving across provinces in Vietnam over the period 1994-1999 were young people, with a highest migration rate within the 20-24 years old category. According to the World Bank, in Burkina Faso, Ghana, Nigeria and Senegal, internal migrants are in average younger than migrants moving towards other African and OECD countries. For Burkina Faso, the World Bank 2009 survey (2011a, p. 27), finds that nearly all internal migrants were farmers in their original place of residence.
The first large survey to assess the nature and magnitude of bonded labour was undertaken in 1978. Subsequently, the Supreme Court of India has pronounced a number of judgements to clarify the meaning of the term ‘bonded labour’. It has also appointed Commissioners to the Court and has given a number of directives to Central and State governments to indicate the incidence of bonded and forced labour and to vigorously implement the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act, 1976. Since 1997, the National Human Rights Commission (NHRC) has been given a pivotal role in monitoring the implementation of the Bonded Labour System (Abolition) Act and in ensuring that the directives of the Supreme Court are followed by the Central and State governments. This paper draws on the contemporary evidence on bonded labour, using reports and surveys since the mid-90s, in order to identify changes that may have occurred in the incidence and pattern of bonded labour. The National Commission on Rural Labour (NCRL) Report of 1991 (Ministry of Labour 1991a and 1991b) will be an important benchmark in this study, both in interpreting the contemporary situation and situating changes that have occurred in the last few years.
For decades, migration economics has stressed the effects of migration restrictions on income distribution in the host country. Recently the literature has taken a new direction by estimating the costs of migration restrictions to global economic efficiency. In contrast, a new strand of research posits that migration restrictions could be not only desirably redistributive, but in fact globally efficient. This is the new economic case for migration restrictions. The case rests on the possibility that without tight restrictions on migration, migrants from poor countries could transmit low productivity (Total Factor Productivity) to rich countries—offsetting efficiency gains from the spatial reallocation of labor from low to high-productivity places.
The present boat‐migration crisis in the Mediterranean Sea constitutes the greatest test to Western values and humanitarianism in the region since World War II, an important challenge to the authority of nation‐states and their role in an age of globalization. This working paper examines how the boat migrant phenomenon relates to Europe's national and recent inner developments and the significance of these events for immigrants, the possible outsiders in the formation of a new supranational Europe. The topic is investigated beyond the commonly encountered explanations of criminal human smuggling and developmental failure, placing the problem within a context of evolving nation‐states, border control practices and a dominant, ruthless global economy. It is found that the phenomenon should not be understood merely as the response to unfavourable economic and political circumstances but also as being closely linked to powerful socio‐cultural elements.
This article uses weather shocks to interstate population movements in India between 1982 and 2000 to recover the causal effects of migration on rioting. We find evidence of a substantively and statistically significant effect of migration on riots. We also investigate the mechanisms by which migration causes riots. India was the generating case for the seminal theory of internal migration and violence—Myron Weiner’s sons of the soil theory, which holds that migration is destabilizing when there is high unemployment among natives.8 But we do not find that the effect of migration is greater in places with higher unemployment among natives.
The paper focuses on poor people who take a decision to leave their home and move through regular channels within their country of origin, or across international borders, in an attempt to improve their economic situation. It recognises that movement within national borders and defined regions is by far the most significant form of migration for poor people, and can help reduce poverty. DFID will therefore incorporate efforts to address migration into development policies and programmes.The paper identifies the main policy approaches that can help reduce poverty, bring about the development benefits of migration and reduce the risks.Although aimed primarily at development professionals, the paper recognises the important role of migration partners at national, regional and international level. It ends by setting out DFID’s plans for future work on migration and development.
We examine implications of industrial deregulations, trade liberalisation and labour regulations on workers’ bargaining power and firms’ markup in Indian manufacturing industries, using statewise three-digit industry-level panel data for the period 1980-2007. Results of our econometric analysis suggest that both industrial deregulations and trade liberalisation led to significant declines in workers’ bargaining power, which was already less than 6.7% on an average during pre-reform era. However, none of these reforms appears to have any significant effect on firms’ markup. Our results also suggest that amendments to labour regulation by State governments, which aim to simplify procedures and reduce costs of industrial dispute resolutions, have a significant positive effect on workers’ bargaining power. Surprisingly, amendments to Employment Protection Legislations do not appear to have any significant effect on workers’ bargaining power. We also document considerable variation in firms’ markup and workers’ bargaining power across industry-groups and States.
The migrant groups are very well integrated into the host economy but not into the host culture or society. This, the report says, means that they are often deliberately kept at bay, in order to ensure not only their social insularity but also to disempowering them from asserting their rights—as citizens and laborers. This systematic exclusion works to the advantage of the host society in various ways; to keep the wage levels low, rent levels high, services cheap, and to maintain a labor force that is at their beck and call, one that can be absorbed and driven out at will.
The prime focus of the paper is to bring out the prevailing dynamics of seasonal labour migration from ‘drought prone’ Mahabubnagar district of Telangana State. This is essentially important when examined the process of seasonal labour migration within the district perspective than looking between the regions that differ either geologically or socioeconomically. Seasonal migration is altering eventually hence this study aims at capturing the intra-dynamics of seasonal migration. The study reveals that the surveyed villages are currently increasingly becoming unemployable and therefore witnessed surplus workforce. Squeezed economic opportunities, non-viable agriculture, high indebtedness, survival and people’s increased monetary aspirations seems to be not just pervasive but mounting ever since the era of economic reforms commenced. On the other hand, seasonal migration is failed to contribute to migrants overall economic well being but brought solace to the migrants during adverse and distress times.
The present paper examines the project reports and the migration literature seeking to identify the links between permanent international migration and children’s rights in left-behind households. It focuses on the role of migration and remittances on improving the livelihoods of children in migrant households, and on broadening their capacities for full participation in society.
The system of employment of migrant labour is not only a complex one but also an exploitative mostly prevalent in Orissa, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar etc. The practice of recruitment of migrant labour from different parts of various states is pathetic one, that is, they are recruited through contractors or agents, called Thekedar or Sardar. Such workmen are mostly engaged in large construction works. This system lends it to various abuses. Though the Sardars at the time of recruitment promise that wages calculated at piece -rate would be settled every month, the promise is seldom kept.
This note focuses on one facet of this complex issue, the economic aspects of the surge in asylum seekers in the European Union (EU), where asylum applications in 2015 have surpassed those in any of the last thirty years. This surge has exposed flaws in the common asylum policy and is raising questions about the EU’s ability to quickly integrate the newcomers into the economy and society. Security, political, and social concerns compound these challenges. A better understanding of the economic aspects could help inform the political debate.
The death of Aylan, a 3-year-old boy on a Turkish beach, prompted European leaders and public opinions to acknowledge that Europe is the deadliest migration destination in the world. In spite of this disturbing truth, there is little agreement on an EU solution to the Syrian refugee crisis. In September 2015, the EU Interior Ministers struggled to agree over the relocation of 120,000 refugees through a common compulsory mechanism, as Eastern European countries oppose the idea of “sharing the burden.” Progress regarding other solutions such as a European rescue at-sea-mission, the delivery of humanitarian visas or the opening of legal means of migration have also met strong member state resistance. If Europe is not up to the task, can international organisations (IOs), often critical of European states for their inaction, impulse change? What influence do IOs have on EU and Mediterranean migration and refugee policies? This paper investigates how IOs have been trying to frame an alternative debate and the challenges they meet in promoting transregional governance.
A primary objective of this paper is to examine if the informal sector in India performs the role postulated in probabilistic migration models through a testing of the empirical validity of the assumptions on which these models are founded. The paper also tests the hypotheses of the segmented labour market model that human capital is rewarded differently in the formal and informal sectors, and that barriers that are not based on human capital restrict mobility between the two sectors. Section II describes the data base, and discusses the methodology to be used in the analysis of the data. Section III contains the empirical results, and Section IV the conclusions.
This Development Viewpoint reports on research on labour conditions in the organised medium- and large-scale segments of the construction sector in the greater Delhi area. The ESRC-DFID Research Project on “Labour Conditions and the Working Poor in China and India” conducted this research based on direct surveys of construction workers and in-depth interviews and focus-group discussions with key informants in the sector.
Internal migration is an important factor which effects social and economic development especially in developing countries. The study of different trends of migration in different parts of the country helps in understanding the dynamics of the society. Based on the data from census 2001, this paper presents different trends of internal migration in India – Within states and also between different states. From the data it is observed that the majority of internal migration in India tales place from rural to urban areas. The main reason for migration among males is lack of proper employment in rural areas which makes people to migrate to urban areas for better employment. While in case of females the reason for majority of them is marriage. Migration has both positive as well as negative effects on the areas to which people migrate and from where people migrate. The consequences or effects of migration are given in social, economic, environmental and demographic terms.
This paper attempts to give an overview of the forced migration in India. The broad aim of this paper is to examine the association between forced migration and different socioeconomic groups in India. This paper also draws attention to the probable vulnerability of forced migration in the context of environmental, political and developmental rationales.
This paper provides a factsheet of domestic and international remittances at the State level and across household characteristics and discusses the extent of remittance dependency, it’s growth since the 1990’s , the different uses of remittances across States, the possible impact on source region inequality and its importance in enhancing ‘financial inclusion.’ Data from the 49th and 64th round migration related National Sample Surveys, the Reserve Bank of India and the 2001 Census are used for the analysis.
Migration has always been a ‘Problématique’ in the context of India policies for mainstreaming the disadvantaged viz ‘marginalized’. Though, somewhat it has been viewed as a pathway of economic growth and reducing chronic poverty, but in most cases it has been tracked as a dreadful social issue which posses severe social problems and marginalization of a particular group of people. This paper demonstrates the key findings from the national surveys on the magnitude of ‘distress seasonal migration’ (basically focused upon the short term interstate and short term rural to urban migration within India). Seasonal migration (mainly from rural to urban in a particular season) leads to rapid population increase in urban areas which affects the accessibility of basic lifestyle related amenities. Hypothesized this as a negative social phenomenon, the paper also trails Seasonal Migrants and their denial of basic rights.These migrants are being deprived from the basic social amenities provided by the host states (here Migrated areas), like Public Distribution system, Health care, housing, social security, cultural and sociological challenges and also ‘region based ethnic violence’ with the new neighborhood etc. Seasonal migration attribute with bad experiences for the poor people throughout the migratory ‘life cycle’, in areas of origin, journey and destination. There are several government schemes and innovative programmes, i.e. MGNERGA, PURA which were targeted to provide justice and prosperity and somehow meant for vulnerable population (here distress seasonal migrants) are not achieving its goal. Is it necessary to rethink or in what context proactive stances can be taken.
Bihar is one of India’s most impoverished States (over 40% of its population lives below the national poverty line). People in the State usually find employment as agricultural labourers, although some among them might own tiny parcels of agricultural land. A number of studies have suggested that people from the rural areas of the State migrate to rural areas of prosperous States in Punjab and Haryana. Migration from the State has typically followed a ‘rural-rural’ trajectory, challenging the prediction that India will inexorably ‘urbanise’.
Migration to urban areas not only affects the health of adults, but also the health of children in an adverse manner. This fact is evident from the relation between migration and child mortality, and this has been shown in a study which has used data from the National Family Health Survey-3. Undernutrition and low immunization coverage is also responsible for child mortality.
Recent studies of male migrants in India indicate that those who are infected with HIV are spreading the epidemic from high risk populations in high prevalence areas to populations in low prevalence areas. In this context, migrant men are believed to initiate and have risky sexual behaviors in places of destination and not in places of origin. The paucity of information on men's risky sexual behaviors in places of origin limits the decision to initiate HIV prevention interventions among populations in high out-migration areas in India.
Two thirds of all Indian women have migrated for marriage, around 300 million women, but not much is known about this vast migration. This paper provides a detailed accounting of this large migration and evaluates some of its potential causes. Marriage migration varies substantially across India, and appears to have changed little over the previous 40 years. Contrary to conventional wisdom, marriage migration does not contribute to risk sharing or consumption smoothing. Nor is it driven by sex ratio imbalances. Instead, this paper introduces a simple model in which parents must search for a spouse for their daughter geographically. The model helps rationalize the correlations between migration, age of marriage, and literacy across districts in India. It suggests that marriage migration is part of the larger puzzle of low workforce participation, education, and bargaining power of women in India, rather than an independent phenomenon.
How do labor markets function when a large part of the able-bodied male workforce is absent due to out-migration? This question holds great significance as it affects regions covering over 200 million people in India and many other parts of the world. In this paper, we analyze individual and district level data on internal and international migration, remittances, sex ratios and labor market variables in India from the perspective of the migrant’s source region and find that the ‘missing men’ phenomenon is associated with (a) Feminization of the agricultural workforce (b) Higher levels of male employment in the construction and rural non-farm services sector and (c) Higher rural wages for males due to tighter labor markets. We argue that these associations are likely to be causal in nature through an instrumental variable strategy that employs historic migration networks that evolved in the late nineteenth century as instruments for current migration.
This study estimates the internal migration in India in the Census 2011 with help of Life Table Survival Ratio (LTSR) method, when the direct information related to the migrants is not available. Abridge Life Tables of Indian States and age specific population in two successive Census 2001 and 2011 are taken help for the estimation. Indian interstate migration is highly associated with economic growth trajectory of the States. The study reveals that the conventional pattern of migration from high-income states to low-income states during 1980s and 1990s is widely disturbed during 2000s with the emergence of new pool centres as well as destinations. The share of interstate migration in 2011 has declined to the level of the 1981 Census, which is an indication of increasing nativity of the population. During 2000s, India has produced more emigrants than immigrants, which are just opposite of the 1990s.
In India, urban population always remain concentrated in certain growth centers , among which Mumbai, Delhi and Kolkata are the most important ones. These possess the top three ranks in terms of urban population size. The present paper examines the role of in-migration to the above mentioned megacities. A comparative analysis has been made among these megacities keeping in mind the reasons and source regions of migration. For a proper understanding necessary graphs have been produced, based on census data. From the study it is found that, Kolkata is lagging behind in comparison to Mumbai and Delhi, regarding urbanisation and urban migration related issues. Apart from that, these megacities are creating a polarization effect in terms of population size and infrastructural development compared to their source regions of in-migration.
While a wide range of factors influence rural-rural and rural-urban migration in developing countries, there is significant interest in analyzing the role of agricultural distress and growing inter-regional differences in fuelling such movement. Given climate sensitivity of agriculture, there is also interest in exploring three-way linkage between agriculture, migration and weather anomalies. This strand of research acquires importance in the context of climate change adaptation. In the Indian context this analysis gets further complicated due to significant presence of short-term migration. Acknowledging the specific features of migration in India and with evidence from multiple data sources, this paper, (a) analyses the role of weather variability in inducing short-term migration using NSS (2007-08) data; and (b) estimates elasticity of long-term migration with respect to weather variability using Census data over the period 1981- 2001. The results suggest that weather variability has an important role to play in both long-term and short-term migration in India.
Chennai city is the fourth largest metropolis. It has a population of 46.81 lakh by 2011 census, it is expected to grow more by 50.08 lakh in 2012. Considerable proportion of migrated population particularly in large and metropolitan cities lives in marginal settlements, slums and squatter areas with limited infrastructure services threatening health, environmental degradation of urban areas, traffic and other problems of urban areas. The study describes the factors contributing towards rural to urban migration. In rural areas, less employment opportunities, low wages, drought, lack of basic amenities, landlessness, social factors act as push factors and more employment opportunities, higher income, better wages, better facilities activities as pull factors towards the rural to urban migration
This thesis project looks at the issue of low electoral participation among Indian middle class urban youth through an uncommon, overlooked spectacle of internal migration which affects more eligible citizens in number than emigration. After a detailed analysis of existing formal knowledge on youth political participation and exclusion resulting from internal migration in India, the thesis throws light on the importance of including youth in decision-making due to the country’s ongoing demographic dividend.
Domestic migration is increasing throughout the developing world, in conjunction with a trend toward decentralization. Central governments may need to use fiscal transfers to address externalities from migration such as infrastructure shortfalls. Despite extensive theorizing on fiscal federalism, little empirical work asks whether central governments use transfers to reduce interjurisdictional externalities. We examine the extent to which migration prompts the redirection of central fiscal resources in India. Following the literature on distributive politics, we argue that mitigation of externalities in decentralized systems is influenced by partisan politics. Using monsoon shocks to migration, we show that increases in migration are met with greater central transfers but that these flows are at least 50% greater if the state-level executive is in the Prime Minister’s political party. This political bottleneck may explain why states maintain barriers to internal migration despite their economic inefficiency.
In recent decades, the global south has witnessed an explosive increase in the number of people relocating from rural to urban areas. Yet many migrants struggle to integrate into destination cities, facing severe hurdles to accessing adequate housing, as well as essential public goods and services such as healthcare and education. We posit that a key explanation for these difficulties lies in unequal political representation. We conduct two audit experiments to test whether urban politicians discriminate against internal migrants vis-`a-vis long-term residents (“natives”) in providing essential constituency services. We find that fictitious migrants are 23% less likely to receive a callback from a councilor in response to a mailed letter request for assistance compared to an otherwise similar native. What mechanisms explain this effect?
Remittances have emerged as an important source of external development finance for developing countries in recent years. This paper examines the causes and implications of remittance flows. It first highlights the severe limitations in remittance data, in sharp contrast to other sources of external finance. It then examines the key trends in remittance flows, and their importance relative to other sources of external finance. The paper subsequently analyses the many complex economic and political effects of remittances. It highlights the fact that remittances are the most stable source of external finance and play a critical social insurance role in many countries afflicted by economic and political crises. While remittances are generally pro-poor, their effects are greatest on transient poverty. However, the long-term effects on structural poverty are less clear, principally because the consequences of remittances on longterm economic development are not well understood. The paper then concludes with some policy options. It suggests a role for an international organization to intermediate these flows to lower transaction costs and increase transparency, which would both enhance these flows and maximize their benefits.
Heightened police repression is an important feature of urban life for poor migrants in the developing world. Yet little is known about how police repression shapes patterns of cooperation and conflict within these proliferating urban communities. I address this question by combining 5 months of ethnographic fieldwork with an original large-scale survey experiment conducted among poor migrants (N=2400) in urban India. Far from fracturing poor migrant communities, I find repression increases rates of political and economic cooperation within them. These solidarity effects stem from both empathy and self-interest, and are rooted in shared experiences of repression. Strikingly, they can even extend across inter-migrant economic and ethnic rivalries. My findings reveal repression to be a novel and neglected pathway of migrant identity formation in the developing world. More broadly, this study extends research on how repression shapes mass protest to consider how it impacts everyday relations between frequently repressed citizens.
Despite rapid internal migration to cities across the developing world, little is known about identity formation within poor urban migrant communities. When will ethnic differences socially and politically divide poor migrants in the city? And when will ascriptive differences be obscured by shared class identities? I study these crucial questions through six months of ethnographic fieldwork and a large-scale vignette-experiment (N=3018) conducted among internal migrants in urban India. Intra-class ethnic divisions prove highly salient in interactions exclusively between poor migrants, but irrelevant in interactions that also include urban elites. I introduce a new mechanism to explain this variation: a solidarity effect produced by city elites who perceive and treat migrants of different ethnicities in shared class terms. Elite behavior stems from the concentration of poor migrants into ethnically heterogeneous, economically homogeneous urban worksites and settlements. Such concentration reverses the visibility advantage ethnicity enjoys over class in villages structured along ethnic lines.
Within-country migration, particularly from rural to urban areas, is increasing throughout the developing world. Although migration promotes growth and reduces poverty, it can also lead to localized resource shortages, strains on urban infrastructure, and labor market displacement. Development experts and theorists of political economy, especially in the fiscal federalism literature, argue that central governments should adjust spending to counter negative spillovers in migrant-receiving areas. We examine the extent to which this redirection of fiscal resources occurs in the world’s largest democracy, India. We use weather-related shocks to migration to identify the causal effect of population flows on central government transfers to states. We find that increases in migration are met with greater central transfers—total transfers, development grants, and funds for executive ministry schemes—but that these flows are at least 50% greater if the state-level executive is in the prime minister’s political party. Thus, partisan politics dictates the extent to which the central government addresses the negative externalities of population inflows in migrant-receiving areas. This political bottleneck may explain why Indian states maintain formal and informal barriers to internal migration despite high costs to economic efficiency and human development.
India is a developing country and largest democracy. Migration of people from village and semi urban areas to cities is a common phenomenon in this country. Democracy is based upon vote of people but due to the migration and flow of population, many people do not vote here or we can say that did not get their right to vote. This paper presents the points that describe about the problem of getting the right to vote equally.
The article argues that at the centre of the imbroglio of irregular migration in India are indigent migrants whose reality cannot be adequately captured with terms like ‘undocumented’ or ‘irregular’, commonly used to refer to clandestine or ‘illegal’ migration. Rather, they give new and somewhat disturbing meaning to the term ‘transnational migrants’ by belonging, in a de facto sense, to both countries and paradoxically, increasingly unwanted by them.
Migration is an extremely emerging phenomenon especially in the developing countries. It has a number of pros and cons. The present paper is an effort to observe the internal migration in India. We will also try to focus on growing migration patterns and issues of migration in India. When migration happens it leads to several complications. An attempt has been made to cover migration in India in relation to its social and economic impacts on both source and destination areas. The paper also collects some information on migration trends from 1991 onwards, The source of information for the present paper is Census of India and NSSO.
Despite high rates of internal migration, India is urbanizing relatively slowly. This paper uses new data from rural north India to study short-term migration to urban areas and its role in rural livelihoods. First, we demonstrate the importance of data collection techniques tailored to understanding short-term migration. Second, we consider how traditional theories of migration apply in this context, where the fixed costs of migration are low, the opportunity costs vary by season, and where migration is negatively selective for education and economic status. We conclude by considering the implications of this migration for theories of development and development policies.
The Centre’s work has included the compilation of data on migration flows, with an emphasis on those least-well represented in existing datasets; conceptual analysis of the links between migration, globalisation and poverty; major thematic and regional reviews of emerging migration issues and policies; as well as targeted empirical field research in a number of countries in West Africa, South Asia, the Middle East and South-East Europe. This work has resulted in the compilation of a number of robust databases and user-friendly web resources; the production of more than 40 working papers and 50 refereed journal articles or book chapters; and new conceptual approaches in areas that include, but are not limited to, the migration of children and youth; the mobility of highly skilled professionals; and social protection by and for work migrants.
This background paper to the 2015 World Migration Report, commissioned by the International Organization for Migration (IOM) from the Research Unit of the Expert Council of German Foundations on Integration and Migration, seeks to determine the impact of migration and mobility on the health of migrants and host populations in urban settings. In addition, it aims at identifying the main policy related issues of health and urban migration, as well as providing key policy recommendations for local governments.
This paper examines recent patterns of urbanization and urban growth in the Asia–Pacific. In doing this, it relies upon demographic data from national censuses and that compiled by UN DESA (2014b). Accordingly, at the outset, some important warnings need to be noted about differentiating between urban and rural areas with the criteria used varying widely between countries. An analysis is then made of changing levels of urbanization across the region and a simple attempt to relate it to the level of development. A common misconception regarding urbanization in the region is that it involves a simple redistribution of people from living in rural to living in urban areas. It is demonstrated here that the process is a much more complex one involving a mix of migration and mobility strategies as well as elements such as in situ urbanization and natural population increase. The challenges and opportunities which this presents for the region are considered.
The criteria of urban generally comprise one or more indicators like civic status, size, density, percentage of non-agricultural workforce, urban characteristics like presence of paved roads, electricity, piped water, sewers, and availability of education and health services. India follows a definition that consists of a combination of municipal status and demographic criteria. There is a variety of municipal status in India, such as Municipal Corporation, Municipality, Municipal Council, Nagar Panchayat, Notified Area Committee and Cantonment Board. If a settlement has a municipal status, it is defined as urban. For rest of the settlements, criteria such as a population of at least 5,000, a density of 400 persons per sq. km and 75 per cent male work force in the non-agricultural sector are applied. A settlement not covered by municipal status must satisfy all three criteria to be declared as an urban centre. These prerequisites with some minor changes have been followed since 1961.
In the new National AccountsStatistics, household (unorganised or informal) sector output for 2011-12 has shrunk by 22% in absolute size, or, by 11 percentage points of GDP, compared to the older series with 2004-05 as the base year. In per capita terms, household sector output as a proportion of GDP in the organised sector has come down from 11% to 7%. A change in the methodology of estimation has been the cause. This article investigates the merits of the new methodology.
The world is presently experiencing a wave of migration of a size unseen since World War II. Western European governments are facing a surge in asylum seekers and refugees unparalleled since the collapse of the Soviet Union and the war in the former Yugoslavia.[i] The International Organization on Migration reports that 350,000 migrants have reached Europe in 2015 as of September 1, and many more have likely entered undetected.[iv] This figure represents 40% more migrants[ii] than those to have reached Europe in all of 2014.[iii] More than 264,000 people have sought asylum in 28 European countries in 2015, with Germany, France, Sweden, and Italy receiving the majority of applications.[v] The crisis is far from over, as migrants and refugees continue to enter Europe, primarily from Greece and Italy, and to transit through countries including Macedonia, Serbia, Austria and Hungary in search of protection. For example, UNHCR has projected that Macedonia alone can expect that 3,000 new migrants will arrive each day over the coming months.
Europe is experiencing what many consider to be its worst migration and refugee crisis since World War II, as people flee conflict and poverty in neighboring regions. Many are from the Middle East and Africa; others come from Ukraine,as well as Kosovo and elsewhere in the Western Balkans. Experts have characterized the influxes as mixed migration, defined as flows of different groups of people—such as economic migrants, refugees, asylum-seekers, stateless persons, trafficked persons, and unaccompanied children—who travel the same routes and use the same modes of transportation. Sometimes termed irregular migrants, these individuals do not have the required documentation, such as passports and visas, and may use smugglers and unauthorized border crossings.
The ongoing surge of refugees into Europe from Syria, Afghanistan, Iraq and other war-ravaged countries presents a striking demographic contrast: hundreds of thousands of predominantly young people trying to get into a region where the population is older than in almost any other place on earth.Europe has been graying for decades, primarily because of longer life expectancies and low birthrates (and, in some countries, high levels of emigration by young people of child-bearing age). In 1950, according to our analysis of data from the U.N.’s Population Division, 8% of the continent’s population was 65 or older; by 1990 that share had risen to 12.7%, and this year it’s estimated to be 17.6%.
The number of people reaching Greece by sea had reached 158,000 by mid-August, according to the UN, overtaking the 90,000 who arrived in Italy by sea. In the past two weeks alone, over 23,000 people have entered Serbia, taking the total so far this year to some 90,000. These statistics cannot fail to shock us – as behind each one is a real human being facing unprecedented risks and suffering.The International Office for Migration (IOM) report that last year, from late August through the end of December, over 1,200 migrants died at sea. It is possible that by winter, additional deaths at sea could well surpass 2,000.
For twenty years now, Europeans have been encouraged to view migration as the epitome of globalisation, the triumph of global economic drive over territorial order. So it’s significant that migration is now becoming an object of geopolitical competition. Across the world, countries are not only trying to reassert control of their borders but to use people flows and differences of population size for geostrategic gain. Is this a sign that geography now trumps economics? It suggests rather that US-led globalisation, as an organising principle of world politics, is losing its hold. This has triggered competition to promote alternative units and modes of power. Migration, as a culturally and ideologically-loaded form of cross-border interaction, has become a particularly strong vector in this reshuffle. This paper charts the challenges facing the EU in the field of migration, and suggests how Brussels might promote its own form of order.
This report describes the human rights violations driving dangerous migration to the EU. According to the UN refugee agency, UNHCR, 60 percent of the people who took the dangerous sea journey in the first five months of 2015 came from Syria, Somalia, and Afghanistan, countries torn apart by war and generalized violence, or from 1 IOM, Fatal Journeys: Tracking Lives Lost During Migration, 2014, Eritrea, which is ruled by one of the most repressive governments in Africa. Many of those coming from other major sending countries — Nigeria, The Gambia, Senegal, Mali — are seeking to improve their economic opportunities or to live in more open and safe societies. But some people in these countries also experience human rights violations or forced displacement arising from conflict and may have valid refugee claims. Some migrants who have resided in Libya since before the current hostilities broke out in May 2014, are fleeing insecurity and violence in Libya.
This paper begins with an overview of recent economic indicators for the Asia Pacific region, drawing attention to the employment effects of the sharp drop in exports of manufactured goods and garments to key markets in the European Union and the US. The employment implications for migrant workers, in particular for women migrant workers, are illustrated by the case of Malaysia, with brief commentary on the situation in Cambodia and Thailand. The paper then turns to the legal framework for migrant workers’ rights, including in the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women, which recently issued a General Recommendation on Migrant Women. The paper concludes with some suggestions for governments.
While the distinction between smuggling and trafficking is often difficult to state clearly, the smuggling of migrants usually refers to the facilitation of illegal border crossings by a third party, who is paid for the service. The two major works to date on the Chinese have both employed “smuggle” rather than “traffic” as the principal descriptor in their titles (Smith, 1997; Chin, 1999). Trafficking, on the other hand, can also involve the facilitation of illegal border crossings, but is not restricted to illegal border crossings. In trafficking, “legal means may in fact be used to bring migrants into a country, in order to exploit them for their labour. In short, the main purpose of trafficking is not merely to move a migrant irregularly from one country to the next, but to exploit the labour of the migrant under conditions that often violate his or her human rights” (Juhász, 2000: 170). Smuggling, then, is a process unto itself, but can also be a part of trafficking. This is not to say that smuggling cannot result in human rights abuses for migrants: migrants who are only be transported across a border, or smuggled, often suffer human rights abuses such as rape, beatings and deprivation of food and water. In the most extreme cases, their smugglers place them in boats which are unsafe and the smuggled journey results in death.
This paper examines the experiences of the government, private sector, and civil society in managing international emigration from Bangladesh. The paper outlines complex processes of labour migration. It identifies where policy interventions may act to make international migration an important livelihood strategy for poor people while ensuring that migrant workers receive maximum protection both at home and abroad. It describes the extent, nature and types of both short and long-term international migration.
This paper concentrates on ‘livelihoods’ studies that may explicitly specify a sustainable livelihoods approach, a broader livelihoods approach to labour migration, or may simply be a consideration of household well-being that extends beyond income. The review includes more studies found in academic journals, which employ a broader notion of livelihoods, and generally (though by no means systematically or, sometimes, not at all) refers to the methodology and methods used in generating the information. Much of the literature starts from an open-minded view of migration, for the large part moving away from normative ideas around migration as a ‘social evil’, although certain studies do conceptualise migration in this way. The fact that the majority of the studies Livelihood Outcomes of Migration included are located in Africa and Asia reflects the geographic bias in the literature (and funding/donor interest), but also the interest of the Development Research Centre on Migration, Globalisation and Poverty. Literatures around nomadic peoples, pastoralists, etc. are not included in this review although clearly they have a fully mobile livelihood. The paper documents evidence in the following areas: inequality (Section 2), vulnerability (Section 3), remittances and savings (Section 4), social identity and networks (Section 5), and issues of health and education (Section 6). Across these different areas, there is a diversity of findings, and evidence is mixed and largely inconclusive about the livelihood outcomes of migration for poor people. However, there are areas and issues about which little is known, which represent fruitful areas for further research.
The paper comprises four substantive sections. The first offers the briefest of descriptions of the current economic crisis. It is followed by a discussion of migration and crises in the nineteenth century. This is an attractive period to study because it not only saw massive flows of people, but these were largely unencumbered by government policies, and so they offer us a reasonable chance of inferring the real economic and social incentives to migration. In fact, one better say that the nineteenth century illustrates migration and economic cycles than migration and economic crises, for the sort of fluctuations we have just experienced were fairly common then, and were more or less accepted as a law of nature.
This paper uses part of the data collected in the MiNS catalogue to investigate how the theme of child migration is treated in some of the existing household surveys and censuses and how these data have been or could be used to study child migration. The paper highlights some of the strengths and limitations of the survey questionnaires, and of the subsequent data, in terms of measuring and analysing child migration. It also assesses how the data from household surveys have been used in official reports and other relevant publications. In doing so, the paper describes the objectives, the structure and the content of the MiNS catalogue. However, it should be emphasised that this paper does not delve into issues of sampling methodology and how this might affect the quality of data on child migrants.Furthermore, although the catalogue currently provides access to data from CLS and IS surveys, this part of the database is still under construction. As a result, the paper primarily focuses on how LSMS surveys, DHS surveys and censuses are relevant to questions of child migration.
Human resource mobility is an essential feature of today’s globalised world where integrated world markets, networks and technologies are all contributing to the increasing movement of labour, students, professionals and families. The migrants of today are the Diaspora of tomorrow - and those of yesteryears, that of today. The Indo-European Diaspora represents a significant population in its size, spread and depth. Yet it is argued that their engagement – economic, social and cultural– with India is currently short of its potential relative to their counterparts in North America. This paper examines that relationship and suggests how both India and the EU must draw upon the Indian strategy to widen and strengthen the bridge that the Indian Diaspora represents. The paper focuses on a five select countries in the EU for this analysis, i.e. Belgium, France, Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, being countries that not only have the largest presence of Overseas Indians in mainland Europe but are also strategically important for India. The paper examines the link between Diaspora and development and concludes that it’s a relationship that needs to be nurtured for mutual benefit. It argues that the Indo-European Diaspora has contributed to the economies of the host countries and now is in a position to play a part in India’s developmental efforts. For this a conducive framework needs to be in place. The Indian Government’s policies and programmes are steps in this direction and the time is opportune for the Diaspora to evolve mutually beneficial strategies with both host and home countries to carry forward the relationship.
In Part 1 of this volume, James Carrier argues that anthropology finds itself in the midst of two crises. The first is internal, emerging from concerns over the future of our field and the role anthropology can play beyond the academy. The second is external, emerging from the economic crisis that began in 2008 (and which, though officially over, continues to challenge populations around the world). Although they have very different origins, Carrier says that both are reflections of neoliberal ideology and policy. The discipline external crisis was brought about by the failure of neoliberal economic policy; the internal crisis reflects the influence in the discipline of a world view that echoes the neoliberal approach to people defined as independent actors who should be free of social constraints that can limit their ability to act as they wish. In this chapter, we examine the rise of neoliberal ideology and the growth of neoliberal reforms as they relate to the study and practice of migration. We argue that migration neither can nor should be reduced to the decision of an individual mover or migrant.
This Working Paper gives the results of the 2007 round of the Migration Monitoring Studies (MMS) being conducted periodically by the Centre for Development Studies. It covers three areas: migration, remittances and employment. Their short-term trends and long-term development implications are the main concern of the paper. Contrary to expectation, the international migration situation in Kerala has remained absolutely stationary during 2003-07. The number of emigrants, return emigrants, non-resident Keralites and the proportion of Kerala households with a non-resident Keralite each in 2007 were the same as they had been in 2003. Mobility in Kerala has become, so to say, immobile. The era of large-scale emigration from the state seems to be largely over.
In India, migration from rural areas is an important issue that is gaining more significance year after year. Moreover, the extent, nature, characteristics and pattern of migration have been evolving over time. In fact, the growing part of the migration taking place is seasonal and cyclical in nature. Seasonal or short duration migration is certainly not a new phenomenon in India. However, the magnitude of rural labour circulation is of recent origin, and a direct consequence of structural changes in the economy. Seasonal or circular migration could be largely distress driven and stimulated by the partial or complete collapse of rural employment generation, economic difficulties of cultivation and absence of alternative employment opportunities in underdeveloped regions of the country. In reality, it has become an integral part of livelihood strategies pursued by a large number of poor people living in agriculturally underdeveloped areas. In this context, the present paper focuses on examining the nature and characteristics of seasonal migrant households. It also aims on to evaluate the form of migration, and finally analyses the migrants’ wages, work conditions and the expenditure pattern of earnings from migration. The study analysis is based on a primary level survey conducted in mid 2006 in Mahabubnagar district of Andhra Pradesh, India. The study reveals that migration from the village is essentially seasonal and cyclical in nature, and differs for both rural and urban migrants. Indeed, it is taking place mainly for survival and repayment of debts.
The research has shown how migrant women workers are excluded from a range of citizenship rights, as migrant workers, as migrant women and as migrating citizens. Apart from engaging with the legal rights regime and particularly the shift from universal rights to so called targeting of those officially declared as living below the poverty line, the project raises several questions and dilemmas for policy. These include the complex gendered experiences of labour processes and recruitment of migrant women wage workers in units of families or male female pairs that do not fit easily into 5 the individual based labour law regime. Corporate led high growth in services and industry has not generated commensurate employment growth, and agriculture remains the majority employer. Lineages of bondage linked to a ubiquitous contractor based recruitment and management pattern that can be traced to colonial times appear in modified form in migration to even the modern industrial segment of the contemporary economy.
This study documents migrant women’s experiences of living in the city and working in the informal sector. Carried out over one year in slum settlements in Delhi, the objective was to understand, through women’s eyes, the processes of migration to the city, finding work, setting up a home and building a new life. We have interviewed women working in different sites of work including factory workers, domestic workers, self-employed women, home based workers and construction workers. The largest number of migrants in our sample were from West Bengal, Bihar and Uttar Pradesh. The sample also included some from Bangladesh though they did not always report themselves as such. All the women in the sample were first generation migrants and mostly in the age group of 25-60. In terms of demographic characteristics we found very poor indicators. A majority of them were illiterate or barely literate but with no formal schooling. They were all employed within the informal sector with a monthly household income of Rs. 3000 or less.
The high fertility in countries with a predominantly Muslim population has often been considered the outcome of religious influence, emanating from Islam's emphasis on early and universal marriage of girls and on procreation. Thus, Weeks (1988) in his study The Demography of Islamic Nations, although observing noticeable "regional and temporal" diversity in fertility among Muslim countries contends that as a group they are still in early stages of demographic transition and "the single most remarkable demographic aspect of Islamic societies is the nearly universal high level of fertility." Obermeyer (1992), on the other hand, questions the validity of this argument and maintains that "one of the problems with the Islamic explanation [of high fertility] is that it treats as monolithic, a trait that is shared by close to a billion people world-wide, and that has adapted to, and been affected by, diverse regional contexts.... the diversity in the doctrine and the cultural context of Islam calls into question the recourse to Islam as an explanation of demographic trends."
Based on a study of female domestic workers in Delhi, this paper highlights the primary role of women in migration and the survival of family. Women domestics are found assuming vital functions and roles in migration, the settling-down process and in the search for job. Women are seen as central in accessing and mobilising social networks, which not only direct the course of migration, but also the survival of the migrant family in the urban milieu. Women, are thus part of the migration systems and subsystems and take up numerous functions. This calls for a re-examination of the validity of some of the widely accepted male-centric analysis in the literature on migration.
This paper investigates the impact of land tenure insecurity on farmers’ labor migration decisions in rural China. Crucial for our identification is that the heterogeneity of patrilineal clans within a village is associated with the cost of reallocating land. We show that the probability of a village-wide reallocation is a function of exogenously determined election timing interacted with the share of households in a village belonging to the largest lineage group in the first year of a panel survey. This interaction is used to identify the effect of land tenure insecurity on migration decisions. We find that in response to a higher probability of village-wide land reallocation, farmers reduce their migration probability by 2.1%, which accounts for 14% of the annual migration rate during this period. This finding attests to the importance of secure property rights in facilitating labor market integration and urbanization in general.
The twelfth five-year plan (2011-2015) is testimony to central government’s wish to narrow the city-countryside gap. This political choice is in line with my analysis and the field research I carried out in the rural township of Danian (Guangxi province) in 2010. This article intends to analyze the link between migration and socio-economic changes in rural China. I first discuss my theoretical framework. Second, focusing my analysis on individual action and on my exploratory field research, I highlight the fact that rural migration to the cities has a real impact on rural socio-economic living conditions. Third, moving from micro to macro I show that, since 2000, the Chinese government has changed the direction of its national development policy by multiplying measures to improve rural life and to narrow the gap between living conditions in cities and rural areas. I conclude that the inhabitants of Danian have been able and continue to make the most of government measures, recently to their advantage, to implement migratory strategies that allow them to achieve their goals and contribute to the development of rural China.
This paper is an attempt to understand the emerging migration patterns in India and issues underlying it. With globalisation, urbanisation and accompanying changes in socio-economic conditions, migrants are attracted to urban areas in recent times. The emerging migration pattern depicts confinement of migrants in lower socio-economic class in Urban India in response to the macro economic reforms. The latest NSS data (2007/08) on migration reveals a gloomy and divergent picture of recent migrants who have migrated prior to five year. Inter-state migration among males to urban area shows precedence growth reflecting migration of people from lower socio-economic class. The negative inter relationship between per capita income and interstate migration rate further confirms it. A steady increase of urban migrants in lower economic class indicating migration is dominated by poorer sections. This finding is completely different from the last NSS round where a direct relation between economic status of the individual and inclination to migration has been noticed. The reason for such divergent pattern of migration within a period of 10 years really needs to be investigated. Higher migration of lower social groups takes place to urban area compared to earlier period. All these variations in migration pattern are attributed to rural-urban disparities in socio-economic development and increasing urbanization. Given the current development and growth of urbanization, increasing regional disparities, it is likely that migration to urban area will accentuate more in future due to the changing nature of the economy. Hence, an enquiry into the changing pattern of migration is critical to explore the emerging issues, identify the challenges and main precedence required at policy level for urban development. At policy level the major challenge is to formulate migration policies which must be linked with employment and social services, to enhance the well-being of the migrant living in urban area.
Migration is a widely used adaptation response to climate and weather variability. In this paper, we investigate how variability in weather affects migration through the agricultural channel. We estimate an instrumental variables regression model that allows us to isolate the impacts of weather from other drivers of migration and analyze the impact of weather-driven changes in the crop revenue per hectare on the in-migration rate. We use panel data for 50 districts of Pakistan and four time periods, 1971–76, 1976–81, 1988–93, and 1993–98, and estimate a two-way error components model, controlling for unobserved district-specific and time-specific effects. Results show that temperature has a nonlinear effect, i.e., as temperature increases, the crop revenue per hectare initially increases and then declines. Furthermore, a 1 ˚C increase in the variability (standard deviation) of temperature reduces expected crop revenue per hectare by around 7.5 percent. The instrumental variables regression results show that a 1 percent weather-driven decrease in the crop revenue per hectare induces, on average, a 2 to 3 percent decrease in the in-migration rate into a district. Predicted increases in temperature and its variability during 2016–2035 (relative to 1971–1998) are likely to decrease crop revenues in relatively warm districts and increase them in cooler districts. These effects would decrease the in-migration rate in 18– 32 districts (36–64 percent) and increase the rate in the remaining 18–32 districts. Thus, the extent and scope of the impacts of weather variability on migration in Pakistan depend on a district’s geographic location and the variability of temperature in the future.
This paper focuses on international migrants, namely the women migrant domestic workers who cross borders in search of decent work and sustainable livelihoods. Women represent half of the world’s migrants, and 83 percent of the 52-100 million domestic workers worldwide.For these women, migration is both a personal and family survival strategy. Feminization is more than just numbers in official migration statistics. It refers to the features that define women’s migration, such as the concentration of women in temporary labour migration; their likelihood to migrate via undocumented channels, at risk of trafficking and smuggling; their predominance in the low-wage and low-status job of domestic work – considered “women’s work” – that remains largely hidden in a shadow or informal economy; and the intersecting forms of discrimination(s), harassment and abuse they face throughout the migration cycle (pre-departure, in transit, on-site in destination countries, and on return to origin countries). Additionally, the households and communities, especially children and family members who are left behind by these women, suffer some of the costs of migration, and face a growing “care crisis” at home.
This publication contains the background documents prepared for the Conference, and a summary of the statements made during the Conference deliberations. Together, they offer a wealth of information and advice, issues to consider and means to address them, based on the experiences of those who came together in Lanzhou. I hope that this collection will contribute both to a broader understanding of internal migration and development challenges in Asia, and to practical measures to enable the countries in the region to maximize the benefits of internal migration. We need to learn from successful models, and to build the capacity of policy makers to manage internal migration in ways that contribute to development and poverty reduction.
This publication brings together six country case studies dealing with different facets of migration and using different methodologies. If the publication focuses on understanding migration and its impacts from a gender angle, it highlights many other factors that interact and influence gender relations such as education, kin relations, land ownership, native place, networks, marriage, societal values or professional occupation. The studies show that no generalization is possible on the impact of migration on gender roles and that many other factors will influence the role played by migration in gender social divisions. The gender focus this publication provides original insights on specific migration issues in the Asian countries and their international (Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, Philippines, Thailand) and internal dimensions (Viet Nam and China).
In this paper, some issues have been highlighted those aroused due to migration i.e. homelessness and their socio-demographic & health concerns. Findings of the study will be helpful for the programmes and policy makers, researchers, academician and social workers who are working in the field of migration and homelessness
India’s total population, as recorded in the recently concluded Census 2011, stands at 1.21 billion. Internal migrants in India constitute a large population 309 million internal migrants or 30 per cent of the population (Census of India, 2001), and by more recent estimates 326 million or 28.5 per cent of the population (NSSO 2007–08). Migrants faces crucial problems regarding identity, children’s education, health issues, legal aid and disputes, problems of female migrants etc. Some critical problems come along with the problem of migration. To overcome with these problems and for a better inclusion of these migrants in all manners, some serious steps should be taken by the government and by some social services groups, NGOs. The present paper focuses on some innovative practices implemented for the better social inclusion of internal migrants in India.
Mobility has been an inherent part of human existence since the days of civilization. Migration in today’s world is shaped by a number of factors related to economic, political, religious, life risk, and various ethnic and sociocultural issues. In this paper, an attempt has been made to investigate firstly, the impact of a variety of economic and noneconomic factors on net in migration and secondly, the impact of net migration on the level of economic development in fifteen major states of India. Using pooled cross section data for fifteen major states, it has been found that net migration is positively influenced by level of Per Capita Income and level of road infrastructure, and negatively influenced by unemployment rate and cost of living. The other variable, crime rate, has been found insignificant as a determinant of migration, indicating that people migrating from one state to other do not concern about risk of life, they are rather concerned about basic needs of life. Further, migration development relationship tested in the present study indicates that level of development is positively associated with net migration. This finding defends the controversial belief that migration is beneficial for development and there is no reason to raise voice against human mobility in the context of Indian economy.
This paper examines the impact of husbands’ migration on the lives of women left behind. Using data from the India Human Development Survey 2005, we focus on two dimensions of women’s lives: women’s autonomy and control over their lives; and women’s labour force participation. Results suggest that household structure forms the key mediating factor through which husbands’ absence affects women. Women not residing in extended families are faced with both higher levels of responsibilities and greater autonomy, while women who live in extended households do not experience these demands or benefits.
Gender as a social construction that organizes relations between males and females can greatly differentiate the causes, processes and impacts of migration between the two sexes. Knowing how these differences play out at the interface of migration and poverty can be important for achieving the third Millenium Development Goal – to promote gender equality and empower women, as a way of enhancing economic growth and reducing poverty. MDG No. 1, which addresses poverty reduction, is not just about reducing the proportion of people in low and middle-income developing countries living on less than US$2 a day, but also about empowerment, opportunity, capacity and security of poor people, which are also important causes and effects of migration.
Recent trends show an unprecedented feminisation of migration in China, triggered by the increasing demand for cheap labour in big cities and the availability of women in the labour market. These trends corroborate the evidence that non-agricultural work and remittance from urban labour migrants have become the major sources of rural household income.This paper investigates the extent of gender inequalities in job participation and wage earning among internal labour migrants in China. We hypothesize that female migrants in cities are economically more disadvantaged than male migrants in the job market.
This paper focuses on independent migrant children, defined as below 18 years old, who choose to move from home and live at destinations without a parent or adult guardian. It summarises quantitative and qualitative research, and uses this to reflect on research agendas and global debates towards linking migration and development. The paper surveys historical evidence on linkages between children’s migration and societal development in earlier periods of modernisation, and identifies parallels to contemporary developing countries. The contemporary situation in developing countries is described in terms of: (1) numerical scale; (2) individual and family characteristics of the children involved; (3) decision-makers and decision-making processes in children’s movements; (4) why it happens, including from children’s viewpoints; (5) modes of movements; and (6) situations of children at destinations. The paper considers the extent to which children may demand migration opportunities, and how this demand may be met partly with forms of movement specific to children. Research strategies are discussed to provide a bridge to development issues, including conceptualization of children’s independent movements, children’s labour migration, migration statistics and selection of who migrates. A final section draws on the review to reflect on global debates in child development and societal development
India’s present urban population is around 350 million which is expected to grow up to 800 million by 2050. India will be increasingly living in cities and more than two-thirds of India’s economic output will be from urban areas. These numbers indicate that migration is here to stay and is going to increase exponentially in coming years with continued development. This will have huge impact on India’s society, culture, politics and natural and built environment. If we wish to continue on our path of developing into a strong, vibrant, sustainable democracy we should make our urban planning migrant friendly and inclusive.
A study of migration is of key importance in social science, particularly in population studies. The importance emerges not only from the movement of people between places but also from its influence on the lives of individuals and urban growth. Broadly migration is a relocation of residence of various duration and various nature. But, generally, rural-urban dominates the domain of research and planning as its role in changing the lives of migrant families both at the place of origin and destination.
Migration is a natural process where normally surplus manpower released from the rural sector is needed for urban industrial growth. This study aims at throwing light on central characteristics of migrants, determining factors and consequences of rural-urban migration in the context of Chittagong city, Bangladesh based on a survey of 100 randomly selected migrants and their families. From the dataset, it is found that poverty, job search, landlessness, homelessness, various natural disaster are the main push factors for rural out migration, while easy access to informal sectors and slum area, higher income probability, better service facilities are the main pull factors behind migration. The ordinary least square technique is applied on three regression models which indicate the determinants of income of migrants before and after their migration, change of income after migration. Reducing disparities between rural and urban areas should receive in urgent attention to stabilize the rural out-migration.
The paper examines the rural-urban migration patterns of children who move to Dhaka city, Bangladesh, either on their own or with their parents. It explores the consequences that the migration process driven by economic and social reasons has on children’s education. The paper is based on a critical review of the available literature on child labour in Bangladesh and of academic studies on child labour migration. The findings of this work show that the inter-links between migration and education are more complex than the simple assumption that children’s migration undermines their education and the literature suggests an ambivalent picture. However, poverty as well as the poor standards of education in the country, are strong arguments in explaining these linkages.
This paper therefore explores the nature, causes and dynamics of domestic migration, and specifically the role played by three distinct factors – livelihoods and economy, the quality of public services and the presence of challenging environmental conditions. It presents key findings, conclusions and offers a series of policy recommendations. However, an equally important aim is to generally inform and stimulate debate on migration and the associated policy questions. The supporting analyses employ a set of quantitative methods, and we aim to supplement the largely qualitative literature that has emerged in recent years. Yet at the outset, we underline that the rather weak data resources tend to limit what can be definitively concluded. It is also important to make clear that our purposes of the paper are fairly prosaic – at core we simply seek to map the pattern of movements and to test the three commonly assumed alternative drivers of migration (economy, environment and public service quality). The paper has three principle sections. The first provides the context - the national background and the body of theory which underpins the research undertaken. The second outlines the methods and analysis employed, and sets out the key findings. Third and finally, we provide conclusions and a series of policy recommendations.
The notion of a migration system is often invoked but it is rarely clearly defined or conceptualized. De Haas has recently provided a powerful critique of the current literature highlighting some important flaws that recur through it. In particular, migration systems tend to be identified as fully formed entities, and there is no theorization as to how they come into being. Moreover, there is no explanation of how they change in time, in particular how they come to decline. The inner workings – the mechanics – which drive such changes are not examined. Such critiques of migration systems relate to wider critiques of the concept of systems in the broader social science literature, where they are often presented as black boxes in which human agency is largely excluded. The challenge is how to theorize the mechanics by which the actions of people at one time contribute to the emergence of systemic linkages at a later time. This paper focuses on the genesis of migration systems and the notion of pioneer migration. It draws attention both to the role of particular individuals, the pioneers, and also the more general activity of pioneering which is undertaken by many migrants. By disentangling different aspects of agency, it is possible to develop hypotheses about how the emergence of migrations systems is related to the nature of the agency exercised by different pioneers or pioneering activities in different contexts.
Do information flows matter for remittance behavior? We design and implement a randomized control trial to quantitatively assess the role of communication between migrants and their contacts abroad on the extent and value of remittance flows. In the experiment, a random sample of 1,500 migrants residing in Ireland was offered the possibility of contacting their networks outside the host country for free over a varying number of months. We find a sizable, positive impact of our intervention on the value of migrant remittances sent. Our results exclude that the remittance effect we identify is a simple substitution effect. Instead, our analysis points to this effect being a likely result of improved information via factors such as better migrant control over remittance use, enhanced trust in remittance channels due to experience sharing, or increased remittance recipients’ social pressure on migrants.
Child labor continues to be a great concern in many parts of the world. In 2008, some 60% of the 215 million boys and girls were estimated to be child laborers worldwide. Major engagement was in agriculture sector, followed by fisheries, aquaculture, livestock and forestry. In addition to work that interferes with schooling and is harmful to personal development, many of these children work in hazardous occupations or activities that are harmful.Incidentally, 96% of the child workers are in the developing countries of Africa, Asia and South America. With respect to the child workers between the ages of 5 and 14, Asia makes up 61% of child workers in developing countries, while Africa has 32% and Latin America 7%. Further, while Asia has the highest number of child workers, Africa has the highest prevalence of child labor (40%).
Migration is often termed as a movement from one place to another but the movement basically influenced by lots of socio-economic factors which vary country wise or region wise. Normally it is assumed that people are moving for economic reasons but this may not be the only reason which affects the migration decision. The paper tries to highlights on the probable cause of migration and its overall impact on both sending areas as well as receiving areas.
Based on the recent census data this paper analyses the district level rural to urban migration rates (both intra-state and the inter-state) among males and females separately. Both the states are closely associated irrespective of whether the migrants originate from the rural areas within the state or outside the state. This would suggest that women as accompanists of the males. Though many of the relatively poor and backward states actually show large population mobility, which is primarily in search of a livelihood, the mobility of male population is also seen to be prominent in the relatively advanced states actually show large population mobility, which is primarily in search of a livelihood, the mobility of male population is also seen to be prominent in the relatively advanced states like Maharashtra and Gujarat. Rapid migration of rural families within the boundaries of the states is, however, evident across most of the regions.
The recent migration data from 64th round NSSO (2007-08) and census 2011 shows rapid increase in internal migration in India. The migration rate (proportion of migrants in the population) in the urban areas (35 percent) was far higher than the migration rate in the rural areas (26 percent). Among the migrants in the rural areas, nearly 91 percent have migrated from the rural areas and 8 percent from the urban areas: where as among the migrants in the urban areas, 59 percent migrated from the rural areas and 40 percent from urban areas. Hence rural- urban migration plays a very significant role, so far as migration stream is concerned.
This paper addresses the effects of migration on families left behind and offers new evidence on the impact of migration on elderly parents. After discussing the identification issues involved in estimation, I review the literature on the effects of migration on the education and health of non-migrant children as well as the labor supply of non-migrant spouses. Finally, I address the impact of adult child migration on contributions toward non-migrant parents as well as the effects on parental health. Results show that elderly parents receive lower time contributions from all of their children when one child migrates.
In the research and reports on international migration, relatively little sustained academic scholarship addresses the impacts and implications of migration for youth and children whose families migrate or who themselves migrate to other developing countries. In the international debate on migration, scant attention has been given to children, and few statistics on migration provide data disaggregated by age. Policy makers and researchers have focused their attention on migration flowing from developing to industrialized countries (also known as South-North migration), giving almost no attention to flows between developing countries, or the so-called South-South migration. Looking at South-South child migration (the migration of children and youth among developing countries) presents two main difficulties: first, we know little about the mobility of children in general, and secondly, we have very little information on South-South migration.
Migration is feared to be associated with abandonment and depression in older parents “left behind” in rural areas of low- and middle-income countries.To test for prospective associations between (1) out-migration of all children and subsequent depression in parents and (2) having a child move back and an improvement in parents' depression.A population-based study nested in a demographic surveillance site of 100 villages in rural Thailand. Most out-migration is to the capital city.
Recent increases in the volume of labour migration from South-east Asia – and in particular the feminisation of these movements – suggest that millions of children are growing up in transnational families, separated from their migrant parents. Drawing on both quantitative and qualitative data collected in Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Vietnam, the study seeks to elucidate care arrangements for left-behind children and to understand the ways in which children respond to shifts in intimate family relations brought about by (re) configurations of their care. Our findings emphasise that children, through strategies of resistance, resilience and reworking, are conscious social actors and agents of their own development, albeit within constrained situations resulting from their parents’ migration.
This paper examines the characteristics of migration in southeast Asia, the ways in which people trafficking occurs within this process and the implications for Australia’s antitrafficking response nationally and regionally. It is based on a literature review, along with information from interviews conducted with prosecutors, law enforcement officers, policy officers and representatives of non-government and international organisations in Thailand, Indonesia, Singapore and Malaysia.
The factors that generate child labour in south Asia include parental poverty and illiteracy; social and economic circumstances; lack of awareness; lack of access to basic and meaningful quality education and skills, and high rates of adult unemployment and under-employment. Attitudes towards child labour also play an important role. In south Asia, children are perceived as 'adults' at an early stage. Children are expected to perform physical work equivalent to an adult as early as 10 years old in some countries. In south Asia, child domestic labour (CDL) is culturally accepted and commonly practised. CDL refers to situations where children are engaged to perform domestic tasks in the home of a third party or employer. Where child domestic labour is exploitative and includes trafficking, slavery, or practices similar to slavery, or work which, by its nature or the circumstances in which it is carried out, is hazardous and likely to harm the health, safety, or morals of the child, it constitutes a worst form of child labour as defined in the International Labour Organization (ILO) Worst Forms of Child Labour Convention (No. 182), 1999.
This paper investigates how private transfers from internal migration in China affect the expenditure behaviour of families left behind in rural areas. Using data from the Rural-Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) survey, we assess the impact of remittances sent to rural households on consumption-type and investment-type expenditures. We apply propensity score matching to account for the selection of households into receiving remittances, and estimate average treatment effects on the treated. We find that remittances supplement income in rural China and lead to increased consumption rather than increased investment. Moreover, we find evidence of a strong negative impact on education expenditures, which could be detrimental to sustaining investment in human capital in poor rural areas in China.
Internal migration in India is a widespread phenomenon involving very large numbers of people, the majority being women, who move for familial and economic reasons. Official data, made available by the Government of India on the internal movement of people, provide a reasonable estimate of those who change their place of residence. However, the design of the data collected is such that it gives an incomplete picture of the motivations behind women moving and changing residence, resulting in an underestimation of the full scale of economic and, particularly, temporary migration. This policy brief is based on the results of a large-scale survey conducted across India among migrants, in which two questionnaires were served in tandem, to gather individual as well as household details. It highlights how the lack of attention to women’s migration results in an incomplete understanding and lack of acknowledgement of their specific needs and vulnerabilities along with a general lack of access to essential civil rights. It suggests specific policy recommendations to ameliorate the problem.
The paper studies how internal migration impacts consumption in migrants’ origin households in the short-run. We analyze the case of Indonesia, using the longitudinal dataset Indonesia Family Life Survey (IFLS). In particular, we use IFLS1997 and IFLS2000 and estimate how origin households’ consumption growth in the period 1997-2000 is affected by these households having internal migrants in the same period. We tackle the endogeneity of migration via a difference-in-differences approach, coupled with the use of instrumental variables. While taking into account the endogeneity of internal migration, we also distinguish the effects of having a current or a return migrant. Our instrumental variable estimates indicate that having an internal return migrant significantly reduces origin households’ consumption growth in the short-run. This holds independently of the consumption measure used as dependent variable. Differently, the effect of current migration depends on the consumption measure used. The negative impact of return migration is likely to be related to a lower income potential of migrants upon return.
There are an estimated 274 million rural migrant workers in China, making up more than one third of the entire working population. Migrant workers have been the engine of China’s spectacular economic growth over the last three decades but they remain marginalized and subject to institutionalized discrimination. Their children have limited access to education and healthcare and can be separated from their parents for years on end.
In order to understand children’s choice and decision-making in their migration for work it is necessary to understand the context in which choices and decisions are made. It has been argued that social and economic life are structured by the principles of generation (Alanen, 2003) and gender (Mayall, 2003), and this is certainly the case in Bangladesh (Aziz and Maloney, 1985). In Bangladesh, as in much of the ‘majority’ world (that is, ‘developing’ countries where the vast majority of the world’s population resides), work is central to children’s roles and responsibilities as members of households (Boyden et al., 1998; Punch, 2001; Schildkrout, 1978). Although most children work locally – boys are more likely to find paid work, but they also do unpaid work at home, and most girls engage in unpaid domestic work for their own homes – some girls and boys do, however, migrate for work to cities, peri-urban areas or to other villages for paid work or to ease the economic burden on their household.
Many poor rural households see migration to urban or other rural areas, or abroad, as a strategy to escape poverty or improve the quality of their lives. Migration patterns vary by continent and even countries within continents, and change over time. One of the most significant changes in the last half century is the increasing proportion of women migrating: today, they constitute half of the international migrant population, often migrating independently as the main economic providers for their families.1 Driven by economic, social and political forces as well as new challenges (such as environmental degradation, natural disasters or climate change impacts), migration can bring, both benefits and costs to the migrants themselves, their families, and their communities of origin and destination, depending on the migrants’ profile and gender, and on labour market specificities.
This study investigates the incentives for labor migration of youth in rural China using panel data from the Gansu Survey of Children and Families, a longitudinal study of youth in rural Gansu Province of China. We investigate the individual and altruistic economic motivations featured prominently in demographic and economic research on migration. However, we propose that the non-economic goal of personal development, a motivation suggested in numerous qualitative studies of women migrants in China and elsewhere, is also important, especially for young migrants. Analyzes indicate that, while young men and young women hold different motivations for migration, the desire for personal development is a common motivator for young migrants. Results suggest that non-economic incentives may play an important role in youth migration in rural China and that positioning in family structures shapes the susceptibility of individuals to migrate due to altruistic economic motivations.
Child migration for paid work which results in exploitation is an emerging issue in Vietnam, particularly for child migrants from the central provinces of Vietnam. This research aimed to explore the background and causes leading to child labour migration, the experiences that children have of working as migrants and the process by which they return to their village. It focused on children who migrated from the central province of Hue to Saigon (or Ho Chi Minh City) in the south of Vietnam. The research was conducted between 1 to 5 January 2011 inclusive in Hai Tien village and Vinh Hung Commune, Phu Loc district, Thua Thien Hue Province (Hue Province), Vietnam (see Maps 1- 3) using ethical procedures approved by the Monash University Human Research and Ethics Committee.
The paper focuses on migration by the poorest, on internal migration, international South-South migration and child migrants. Studying migration with insights from poverty-research broadens the current research and policy focus, both in terms of the types of migration, and types of migrants studied. Much of the migration of the poorest is not seriously recognised, and nor are major categories of the poorest migrants. It is often asserted that the poorest do not want to or cannot migrate, or migrate only in exceptional circumstances and crises. Empirical research has tended to apply limited definitions of migration (such as into high-income countries), or be based on sources of information that tend to describe better-off or skilled migration more than others, thus omitting the many other types of migration that the poorest do undertake.2Moreover, migration tends to be defined as an adult activity, thus underplaying how migration affects – and is undertaken by – children.
While many studies have found that migration can benefit home communities and family members left behind by increasing household income, thus easing liquidity constraints on investment; less is known about how “internal” migration and remittances affect the educational performance of the children who are left behind in the source communities.My aim in this paper is to examine the effects of migration on the educational attainment of left-behind rural children in northwest China. To gain a better understanding of whether the educational performance of these children improves or suffers when adult family members migrate, I attempt to disentangle the effects of remittances from the effects of migration.
China’s internal migration has left 61 million children living apart from their parent(s) in rural areas. The present study aimed to examine whether the relative contributions of macronutrients (protein, fat and carbohydrate) to total energy intake differ between children left behind by the father or mother, compared with children from intact families. Design: Drawing on a longitudinal study, the China Health and Nutrition Survey (1997–2009), multilevel modelling analyses (level 1: occasions; level 2: children; level 3: village) were performed.
The Mahatma Gandhi National Rural Employment Guarantee Act (MGNREGA) was notified on 7 September 2005. The mandate of the Act is to provide 100 days of guaranteed wage employment in a financial year (FY) to every rural household whose adult members volunteer to do unskilled manual work.The Act was notified in 200 rural districts in its first phase of implementation (with effect from 2 February 2006). In FY 2007–08, it was extended to an additional 130 rural districts. The remaining districts were notified under MGNREGA with effect from 1 April 2008. Since 2008, MGNREGA has covered the entire country with the exception of districts that have 100 per cent urban population
The EMPHASIS project (Enhancing Mobile Populations’ Access to HIV and AIDS Services, Information and Support) has provided a diverse range of services to crossborder migrants in India, Nepal and Bangladesh over the past five years. From August 2009 to September 2014, the project, the only one of its kind in South Asia, adopted a comprehensive model to reach migrants across the mobility continuum (at source, during transit and at destination). The project, supported by The BIG Lottery Fund, UK, was designed to address vulnerabilities of crossborder migrants. The project was implemented through respective CARE country offices working with implementing partners in India, Nepal and Bangladesh.
In most countries international migration has received more attention than internal agriculture labour migration. Even though internal agriculture labour migration has become an important livelihood strategy for many poor groups across the world, these migrants are often neglected or excluded from the various welfare programmes of their respective countries, such as mainstream programmes in education, health, adequate living conditions, minimum wages and freedom from exploitation and harassment. This increases the vulnerabilities of the agriculture labour migrants and leads to their poor health status, which has significant public health implications. This paper concludes that a multitude of factors affect the health of agriculture labour migrants, including inadequate nutrition, poor housing conditions, hazardous occupational conditions, lack of access to health care services and a low level of awareness. Hence a population health approach is necessary that will align strategies, policy options and interventions for improving health outcomes among agriculture labour migrants. Possible strategies to improve the health of agriculture labour migrants can be: promoting migrant-sensitive health policies, assessment of the health of migrants and identifying and filling the gaps in service delivery to meet their health needs, sensitizing and training relevant policymakers and health stakeholders and initiating migrant friendly public health services for those with special needs. There is also a need for convergence of the existing programmes at source and destination levels, so that the needs of marginalized agriculture labour migrants are accommodated in the programmes such as food security, education for migrant children, and Integrated Child Development Services (ICDS).
In developing countries, seasonal labour migration from rural to urban or from backward to developed region is a household livelihood strategy to cope with poverty. In this process, the children of those migrants are the worst affected whether they accompany their parents or are left behind in the villages. The present paper explores the impact of temporary labour migration of parent(s) on school attendance of the children between 6–14 years and their dropping out from the school through an analysis of the cases from both the ends of migration stream in India. Data was collected from thirteen construction sites of Varanasi Uttar Pradesh and nine villages of Bihar by applying both qualitative and quantitative techniques. It is evident from the study that the migrants through remittances improve school accessibility for the left behind children and bridge gender gap in primary school education. However, among the accompanying migrant children of construction workers, many remain out of school and many are forced to drop out and some of them become vulnerable to work as child labour due to seasonal mobility of their parents. Thus, mainstreaming these children in development process is a big challenge in attaining the goal of universal primary education and inclusive growth in the country like India.
In this paper, we report on a study of the psychosocial effects of child domestic work (CDW) in six countries and the relevance of our findings to international legislation. Our results suggest that CDW is highly heterogeneous. While some young child domestic workers work long hours, suffer physical punishment and are at risk of psychosocial harm, others are able to attend school and benefit from good relationships with their employers and networks of support. Child domestic workers in India and Togo were most at risk of psychosocial harm. We conclude that classification of this employment as hazardous would not be appropriate and could be counterproductive and instead propose that legislation focuses on protective factors such as a social and community support.
Children living and working away from home are some of the most vulnerable in society. Parents, family, friends, and home communities provide protections that reduce a child’s susceptibility to abuse, exploitation, and the consequences of bad or poorly informed decisions. This chapter reviews the nascent literature on the prevalence, causes, and consequences of independent child labor migration. Measurement challenges have constrained progress on understanding this phenomenon. There is considerable scope for future research to transform how we think about issues related to the millions of children living and working away from their parents.
Using data from the 2010 wave of the China Family Panel Studies (CFPS), we study the effects of internal migration in China on the emotional well-being of children age 10-15. The 2010 CFPS, a national probability sample survey of the Chinese population, includes 3,464 children within this age range. We compare five groups: rural children with local registration living with both parents; urban children with local registration living with both parents; children accompanying their migrant parent(s); children left behind with one parent when the other parent goes out to work; and children left behind or sent to live with others when both parents go out to work. We expected the last three groups to be at risk of increased emotional difficulties compared to children living with both parents. We tested these expectations using both conventional regression models and community fixed-effects models. The evidence supporting our expectations is very weak and inconsistent, leading us to conclude that in the Chinese context family arrangements have little impact on the emotional well-being of children. We finish by offering some conjectures as to why this is so.
Few papers in the literature provide quantitative analysis of the difficult circumstances faced by children of short-term labour migrants. This paper uses new survey data from rural northwest India to study both children who migrate and those left behind. It finds that, unlike in other contexts, children who migrate rarely work when they accompany adult migrants. Additionally, this paper reports a robust, previously unquantified negative relationship between children’s migration and educational outcomes and investments. It calls for further research about externalities of migration for children and suggests that expansion of a large public employment program might help these children.
Youth move within and between countries for various reasons: escaping violence, searching for work or an education, societal pressures, or reuniting with family. Children on the move risk being tracked in the migration process and becoming involved in child labor upon arrival at their destination, especially when they migrate alone and internationally. Here we explore the factors that make children migrants vulnerable, and argue that international and state actor responses need to recognize that children have a right to move. "There is no basis in international law by which to restrict the migration of children of legal working age. It is therefore important not to stop migration, but to increase the protection of migrant children as well as enable them to better protect themselves.
This report examines the relationship between migration and development from a multi-faceted perspective. It draws on original field research and an extensive review of scholarly and policy studies to examine how migration affects a society’s economic, social, political and cultural characteristics. This results in an analysis that encompasses the multi-layered impact of migration, i.e., its effect on the individual, the family and the sending community. Among the key arguments for adopting this approach is that conventional analyses that focus on economic factors such as remittances to the virtual exclusion of others greatly over-estimate the gains resulting from emigration and under-value the costs emigration imposes on the overall wellbeing of families left behind, and on sending communities in general. The report highlights how migration affects the lives of the families that migrants leave behind, which often changes how they are organized and function. International migration can lead to the absence of traditional cultural figures that frequently results in the breakdown of essential social norms and customs. It can also impose changes in the role of women and cause severe emotional problems for them and their children. Children may suffer discrimination resulting from the perception that they are better off than their peers because the remittances they receive give them improved access to goods and services. To better account for these phenomena, the report reviews current literature on how migration of one or both parents affects children left behind in developing countries.
Left behind children around the world have also been the object of study by different non-governmental organizations(NGOs) including the Department for International Development (DFID), United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), United Nations Economic and Social Commission for Asia and the Pacific (ESCAP) and Save the Children. Overall, These groups appear to echo one another in publishing generally bleak findings on the impact of migration on children, particularly when the mothers are away. Left-behind children were reported to suffer from psychological and emotional stress, are more susceptible to deviant behavior and criminal offences whilst expressing feelings of abandonment or resentment at being left behind.
This paper examines the vulnerability context of migrant workers’ in the informal sector in three Indian cities (Kochi, Surat, and Mumbai), specifically in terms of how their livelihoods interface with climate change and health inequities. A key assumption is that the progression of vulnerability to climate change and infectious diseases is closely embedded within the wider political economy of migrant workers’ day-to-day livelihood struggles. Using a mixed methodology, data from 50 migrants in each of the three cities were collected using a semi-structured interview schedule. The research demonstrates that urban vulnerability is a condition that shapes and reshapes itself continuously and fiercely, accompanied by the processes and structures of unplanned rapid urbanisation, environmental change and social exclusion. Lack of access to livelihood resources, decision-making structures and power forces the poor to migrate to the cities. If factors such as caste and ethnic-based discrimination also act as a push factor to migrate, the findings show that exclusion continues in the cities, making migrant workers more vulnerable to climate change and infectious diseases. The research also shows that a rise in income is not a sole indicator of reduced vulnerability. Lack of access to other essential livelihood assets, including reliable and affordable health care, reduces the adaptive capacities of migrant workers to deal with extreme climatic events. The paper concludes that migrant workers have very limited opportunities to reduce their vulnerabilities and participate actively in risk reduction and development planning.
Migration from rural areas of India contributes to urbanisation and lifestyle change, and dietary changes may increase the risk of obesity and chronic diseases. We tested the hypothesis that rural-to-urban migrants have different macronutrient and food group intake to rural non-migrants, and that migrants have a diet more similar to urban nonmigrants.Rural to urban migration appears to be associated with both positive (higher fruit and vegetables intake) and negative (higher energy and fat intake) dietary changes. These changes may be of relevance to cardiovascular health and warrant public health interventions.The objective of this analysis was therefore to measure the dietary differences associated with rural-urban migration to help explain increases in obesity and diabetes in urban India. Specifically, comparisons in macronutrient and food group intake between rural-urban migrants and both their rural and urban counterparts were made.
This report is based on the 64th round survey on Employment & Unemployment and Migration Particulars (Schedule 10.2) conducted during July, 2007 to June, 2008. The survey covered a sample of 1,25,578 households (79,091 in rural areas and 46,487 in urban areas) and a sample 5,72,254 persons (3,74,294 in rural areas and 1,97,960 in urban areas).
The publication Internal Migration: A Manual for Community Radio Stations is the training tool proposed by UNESCO and Ideosync to support community radio stations in their capacity and potential to broadcast migrant-sensitive programming.It will highlight the main challenges faced by internal migrants across the country, stress their rights and entitlements and showcase existing audio programming that is friendly to migrants.
The survey on returnee professionals was carried out by the Research Unit on International Migration at Centre for Development Studies (CDS), Thiruvananthapuram for the Ministry of Overseas Indian Affairs (MOIA), Govt. of India. The study explored the reasons for the return and their post-return settlement. We interviewed 1106 highly skilled professionals (both in educational as well as occupational terms) who had returned spontaneously and voluntarily to reside in India during the period 2006-2011. We took samples from Thiruvananthapuram (Kerala), Cochin (Kerala), Hyderabad (Andhra Pradesh), Chennai (Tamil Nadu), Mumbai (Maharashtra), Ahmadabad (Gujarat), Pune (Maharashtra), Delhi and Bangalore (Karnataka). We followed Snowball Sampling to find out about the return and their resettlement issues faced by the returnee migrants.
The study is divided into four parts. The first part describes the historical development of the trafficking debate and gives an analysis of the various approaches to trafficking. Part Two focuses on trafficking patterns and responses in the South-East Asian region. It briefly describes the trafficking situation in South-East Asia and then lists the various trafficking responses that have been developed at the regional, sub-regional and bilateral levels. Some attention is paid to policy responses in receiving countries outside the region. Part Three forms the main part of the study and describes the responses that have been developed within the South-East Asian countries. Attention is paid to the different actors, including governments, NGOs, international organizations and international networks, and their policies in relation to counter-trafficking measures. The counter-trafficking measures are, where possible, broadly divided into four categories: juridical, prevention, protection and return. Part Four reviews some of the problems most often mentioned in the fight against trafficking and discusses priority areas for the development and strengthening of counter-trafficking programmes and initiatives
Internal migration is a important element of population redistribution and equilibrium. Human mobility within the national boundary is receiving considerable attention in recent decades. The main objective of the study is to explain the changing pattern of internal migration in India over the period 1971 to 2001. Further, an attempt has been made to find out the various determinants causing the changing pattern of migration. The rate of migration among major states of India in last two decades is also worked out through transition probabilities using a stochastic model. In all the four censuses, rural-rural migration was found the dominant migration stream in India. Employment for male and marriage for female were found to be the main reasons for migration respectively. Maharashtra and Madhya Pradesh lead among all in-migrating states, while the states Utter Pradesh and Bihar occupied top place among out-migrating states.
The paper contrasts and compares the evidence on internal migration in Asia to gain a better understanding of the links between migration, poverty reduction and development. Recent field studies across Asia show that internal migration is growing and, if managed properly, can play an important role in poverty reduction and the redistribution of the benefits of location-specific growth to underdeveloped regions.As always, there are differences in the specific drivers of migration, the conditions under which people migrate, wages of migrant workers, the costs and risks of migration and the impact of remittances on the household and the wider economy, depending on the respective locations. Current development policies need accompanying measures to make migration less risky and expensive for both those leaving and those staying behind.Fresh evidence from a range of sources, including official statistics, village studies by academics, NGOs and donor agencies indicates that the main new pull factors attracting people from the overpopulated and fragile rural hinterlands is the spread in urban services, manufacturing and construction.
Theoretical formulations, model building, and macro- and micro-level empirical studies on migration [in India] have neglected the gender dimension of migratory processes, patterns, trends and consequences. The past two decades have begun to witness interest in this area. This introductory paper to this special issue on `Women and Migration' has attempted to provide an overview of selected material in this area.
Developing countries are experiencing unprecedented levels of urbanization. Although most of these movements are motivated by economic reasons, they could affect the human capital accumulation of the children who follow their parents to the cities. This paper estimates the causal effect of permanently migrating as a child from a rural area to an urban area on human capital outcomes. To our knowledge, this paper is one of only several papers, especially in the context of a developing country, which is able to estimate the causal effect of migration. We utilize a recent survey of urban-rural migrants in Indonesia and merge it with a nationally representative survey to create a dataset that contains migrants in urban areas and non-migrants in rural areas who were born in the same rural districts. We then employ a measure of district-level propensity to migrate, calculated from the Indonesian intercensal survey, as an instrument. We find that childhood migration to urban areas increase education attainment by about 4.5 years by the time these individuals are adults. In addition, the childhood migrants face a lower probability to be underweight by about 15 percentage points as adults. However, we find no statistically significant effect on height, which is a measure of long-term nutritional intake, and we only find a weak effect on the probability to be obese. Therefore, our results suggest a permanent, positive, and large effect of childhood migration on education attainment and some health measures. In addition, our results can rule out any negative effect on health.
Inequalities in access to education pose a significant barrier to development. It has been argued that this reflects, in part, borrowing constraints that inhibit private investment in human capital by the poor. One promise of the recent proposals to open international labor markets to allow for the temporary economic migration of low skilled workers from developing to developed countries is its potential impact on human capital accumulation by the poor. The large remittance flows from migrants to their communities of origin underscores this aspect of migration. However, migration can also transform expectations of future employment and induce changes in household structure that can exert an independent effect on the private returns to investment in human capital. The paper explores the relationship between temporary economic migration and investment in child schooling. A key challenge for the paper is to deal appropriately with selection into migration. We find that the potential positive effects of temporary economic migration on human capital accumulation are large. Moreover, the gains are much greater for girls, yielding a very substantial reduction in gender inequalities in access to education. Significantly, though, the gains appear to arise almost entirely from the greater resource flows to migrant households. We cannot detect any effect of future migration prospects on schooling decisions. More significantly, we do not find any protective effect of migration induced female headship on schooling outcomes for girls. Rather, female headship appears to protect boys at the cost of girls
Hundreds of millions of rural migrants have moved into Chinese cities since the early 1990s contributing greatly to economic growth, yet, they are often blamed for reducing urban ‘native’ workers’ employment opportunities, suppressing their wages and increasing pressure on infrastructure and other public facilities. This paper examines the causal relationship between rural-urban migration and urban native workers’ labour market outcomes in Chinese cities. After controlling for the endogeneity problem our results show that rural migrants in urban China have modest positive or zero effects on the average employment and insignificant impact on earnings of urban workers. When examine the impact on unskilled labours we once again find it to be positive and insignificant. We conjecture that the reason for the lack of adverse effects is due partially to the labour market segregation between the migrants and urban natives, and partially due to the complementarities between the two groups of workers. Further investigation reveals that the increase in migrant inflow is related to the demand expansion and that if the economic growth continues, elimination of labour market segregation may not necessarily lead to an adverse impact of migration on urban native labour market outcomes.
Internal migration can substantially improve labor market efficiency. Consequently, policy is often targeted towards reducing the barriers workers face in moving to new labor markets. In this paper we explicitly model internal migration as the result of a job search process and demonstrate that assumptions about the timing of job search have fundamental implications for the pattern of internal migration that results. Unlike standard search models, we assume that job seekers do not know the true job offer arrival rate, but instead form subjective beliefs - related to their locus of control - about the impact of their search effort on the probability of receiving a job offer. Those with an internal locus of control are predicted to search more intensively (i.e. across larger geographic areas) because they expect higher returns to their search effort. However, they are predicted to migrate more frequently only if job search occurs before migration. We then test the empirical implications of this model. We find that individuals with an internal locus of control not only express a greater willingness to move, but also undertake internal migration more frequently.
This paper analyses incomes and socioeconomic status of internal migrants over time and in comparison to their new neighbors and investigates whether status consumption is a way for newly arrived city dwellers to signal their social standing. Using a novel dataset from the emerging economy of Kazakhstan we find that internal migrants earn an income and status premium for their move. In a comparison to indigenous city dwellers their earnings and household incomes are not significantly different; however, mobile households report a significantly higher subjective socio-economic status. Exploiting expenditure data, we find that recent migrant households gain status from using visible consumption to impress their new neighbors. This signaling might be used as adaptation to the new economic and social environment or to gain access to social capital.
Internal migration has greater potential for poverty reduction, meeting the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) and contributing to economic growth in developing countries than does international migration. This is because of four things. First, internal migration stems from a broader base where smaller sums of money are evenly distributed to specific areas and poor families through internal remittances (rather than international remittances, which reach fewer people). Second, it is likely that internal migration will continue to increase at a faster rate than international migration.2 Third, internal migration involves poorer people from poorer regions and has a strong role to play in achieving the MDGs. Fourth, it is an important driver of growth in many sectors including agriculture, manufacturing, construction, coastal economies and services.
The climate in Bangladesh is changing, its impacts are palpable. People are adapting to these changes creatively by sending family members to cities and other villages to earn a better living. So says a joint qualitative study by the Sussex Centre for Migration Research (SCMR) at the University of Sussex and the Refugee and Migratory Movements Research Unit (RMMRU) at the University of Dhaka.The study is funded by the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN). The research covers 14 villages across three districts in Bangladesh – Chapai Nawabganj, Satkhira and Munshiganj – affected by drought, flooding and cyclones. It probes what goes on inside people’s minds when they change their livelihoods. It is based on emerging theories of climate adaptation and social psychology that try to make sense of how people make decisions to move out or stay put in the face of changes in their environment and climate.
India is vulnerable to climate change because of global warming and may therefore experience climate change migration, or people migrating because of climate induced phenomena such as natural disasters. Climate migration is not high on India’s policy agenda because it does not resonate with India’s more pressing challenges for sustainability. India is more likely to take up climate migration policies discussed in the context of sustainable development, disaster management, and urbanization.
This working paper notes a strong gender dimension in the patterns and processes surrounding migration. The gendered division of responsibilities within households affects men and women’s propensity to migrate in different ways. We found that households with a high dependency ratio lower women’s likelihood to migrate. Gender also influences migration destinations. Women are more likely to migrate overseas, rather than internally, and are more likely to migrate to a greater range of destinations compared to their male counterparts. This difference is due to a well-established gendered migration regime, which sees women’s international migration aided by a system of debt-finance migration that requires little, if any, upfront payment before migrating.
This working paper reviews evidence from the literature on internal migration for work in construction in developing countries. The literature reviewed was found through a search of academic databases and selected by the authors. The review identifies cases and contexts in which migration for construction work leads to exits from poverty as well as those in which it entrenches poverty. We also focus upon migrant selectivity and discourses within the literature about migration for construction work. The review identifies gaps in the literature and important themes, in particular those issues and phenomena relating to poverty and development. The small and diverse set of literature, identified for the purpose of this paper, focuses mainly on South Asia. Several areas for future research are suggested throughout the paper and in the concluding section.
In this paper, an attempt is made to study the phenomenon of seasonal migration in India and its determinants by using the recent (2007-08) National Sample Survey (NSS) data. The theoretical model used to study the determinants of seasonal migration is based on the utility maximisation principle developed by Stark and Fan (2007). It was found that presently there is a shift in the migration pattern from permanent migration to temporary and short duration migration, which is guided by employment-related factors. The empirical result supports the theoretical argument that higher wages and the cost of separation shape seasonal migration to a significant degree in India. In light of these findings, it is suggested that seasonal migration be controlled for those who are physically, socially and economically vulnerable. With this objective in mind, the government should ascertain the reasons for the failure of MGNREGS in controlling distress migration in India and ensure its successful implementation.
In this overview paper, basic questions related to voluntary internal migration are revisited with a view to adding some of the substantial new field evidence that has emerged in recent years and setting out the policy implications of these findings. The paper addresses internal voluntary migration for paid work. It includes both permanent and temporary migration as well as rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-rural and urban-urban migration. However it does not include forced removal and relocation of people under development and social engineering programmes, trafficking and slavery or displacement by war and civil unrest. It does not discuss nomadic livelihood systems, transhumant graziers or migratory fishing communities although some of the generic arguments will apply to them too.
The impacts of climate change in India are predicted to increase migration from rural villages and hazard-prone regions of the country to its cities. Migrant workers in urban contexts are considered one of the most vulnerable social groups to climate change risks, specifically to livelihood uncertainties such as the loss of livelihood opportunities, resources and assets. Their often low socio-economic status accompanied with their poor adaptive capacity can amplify the health impacts of climate change
This is a stocktaking piece on the social consequences of climate change, with a specific focus on the relationship between environmental hazards and migration. This paper surveys the available literature on disaster migration to offer sound and reasonable projections on future migration patterns in response to the direct and indirect changes due to climate change. Further, it assesses the propensity for increased social conflict as a consequence of intensified migration patterns.
Bangladesh has been identified as one of the most vulnerable countries in the context of climate change (Huq2001, Huq and Ayers 2008). Its exposure to frequent and extreme climatic events such as floods and cyclones (IPCC 2012) is a concern for policymakers and scientists. Over the years, successive governments, civil society organisations and development partners have come up with innovative approaches to help the affected people adapt to climate change (IPCC 2012, Planning Commission 2012). This paper explores to what extent migration can be an effective way of adaptation to climate change and looks at policy options in this regard.
This paper attempts to describe part of the history of Chinese rural migration to Urban industrial areas. Using a case study of a township in Sichuan, the author examines a type of rural development which she defines as a “bottom-up” style strategy of regional development. Different types of social mobility are observed in the case study, and over its long history, migration in the township has offered diverse means of social mobility to the local peasants. The paper concludes by considering the diversity and limits of Chinese social mobility at this stage.
Increased migration has been among the most significant demographic changes in Asia and the Pacific over the last five decades, during which massive changes in the form and scale of mobility, have taken place. Economic factors, in particular, helped drive this change.
Migration in general, and rural-to-urban migration in particular is the process of rebalancing economic resources (human and physical ones) in order to set up a new stage of economic development. Industrialisation always takes place in urban areas, and as soon as it starts, the labour force in urban areas and as soon as it starts, the labour force in urban areas becomes scarce, and it needs to be supplemented by labour from rural areas. Rural-to-urban migration although mainly caused by labour shortages in urban areas, the high population growth and, the inequality between urban and rural areas have in fact have triggered the migration so that the process becomes a problem and gets out of control.
Over the last decade, 350,000 people have moved from Mongolia’s countryside to the suburbs of its capital, Ulaanbaatar, where they live in abject poverty despite the rapid economic development of the country. This article proposes three complementary international legal analyses of this internal migration. First, because this migration is partly and indirectly induced by the adverse impacts of climate change, States have a common but differentiated responsibility to assist the Mongolian government to address climate migration. Second, Mongolia should bear its own responsibilities to take steps to realize the social and economic rights of its population without discrimination. Third,Mongolia’s commercial partners should be warned against any control or influence that would cause harm to Mongolia, in application to public international law on State responsibility and to States’ extraterritorial human rights obligations. While each narrative reveals an important dimension of a complex phenomenon, this article argues that all policy levers must urgently be pulled to guarantee the rights of Mongolia’s internal migrants.
This paper first outlines some key initial facts on climate-induced migration in Asia-Pacific, then goes on to suggest some policy options, including funding mechanisms. It should be noted that this discussion paper should in no way be interpreted as reflecting the official position of ADB on this issue.
An ADB project that is developing policy and financing responses to environmental migration has determined that climate change will increase forced migration due to environmental disruptions in Asia and the Pacific. However,the adoption of timely policies and programs can convert such migration from a threat into an opportunity to promote improved livelihoods and sustainable development. The project emphasizes the importance of boosting the capacity and resilience of vulnerable communities.
In general, the happiness literature has paid little attention to the relationship between physical appearance and well-being. In this paper, we examine the link between weight, height and well-being for three distinct samples in China given that attractiveness effects likely vary greatly across sociocultural contexts. As China has recently undergone rapid economic transformation in the urban areas, this empirical exercise is particularly interesting because it can highlight how changing social norms have affected the relationship between physical appearance and subjective well-being. For the rural and migrant samples, we find that for both men and women, big and tall individuals have higher levels of well-being. This is consistent with the notion that the strong are better off when more labor intensive work is the norm. For the urban sample and for urban males in particular, no well-being penalty is found for being obese, unlike previous results based on Western samples. It is very likely that the unique Chinese cultural practice of network building banquets and feasting is behind this finding.
We use a natural experiment in Indonesia to provide causal evidence on the role of location-specific human capital and skill transferability in shaping the spatial distribution of productivity. From 1979--1988, the Transmigration Program relocated two million migrants from rural Java and Bali to new rural settlements in the Outer Islands. Villages assigned migrants from regions with more similar agroclimatic endowments exhibit higher rice productivity and night time light intensity one to two decades later. We find some evidence of migrants' adaptation to agroclimatic change. Overall, our results suggest that regional productivity differences may overstate the potential gains from migration.
This paper studies how changes in climatic variables such as temperature and rainfall impact migration through agriculture. We use district level data (64 districts) for 3 inter-census periods (1974-1980, 1981-1990 and 1991-2000) to analyse historical migration related outcomes. We find that fluctuations in temperature and rainfall contributed to a decline in agricultural productivity as measured by revenues from agriculture. Fixed Effect and Instrumental Variable estimations show that about one standard deviation decrease in real per capita agricultural revenue increases the net out-migration rate by 1.4 to 2.4 percent, controlling for unobserved effects for districts and years. Using our estimates and available forecasts in the literature, we predict that the net out-migration rate will be about 22 percent higher in 2030 than in 1990, assuming the variability in temperature stays stable and there are no behavioral responses from the farmers.
Migration and more broadly human mobility remains one of the biggest global challenges facing States and the Red Cross Red Crescent Movement today. Without sufficient legal and humanitarian protection, migrants are often “living at the margin of conventional health, social and legal systems”, more likely to face increased vulnerability and subject to abuse and exploitation.
The UNICEF study found clear and alarming links between climate change and the nutritional status and migration patterns, despite only having a few documented studies with which to base analysis. Importantly, the study brings into focus the effects of these dynamics specifically on children, highlighting the low policy-level profile given to children as a population group that is distinctively affected by climate change and suggesting strategies for making both children and the impacts upon them visible in the Indonesia response.
The working paper attempts to describe the correlation between migration and child labour by reviewing secondary data of migrant children with or without their families, and children left-behind by their migrant parents. Within a context of migration of close to a billion people - both internally and across national borders - the paper describes how in particular some forms of seasonal family migration and independent child migration create extreme vulnerabilities to child labour. While the findings are not unanimous, it further points at a range of studies that confirm that remittances have contributed to prolonging education and reducing child labour. The paper observes that governments’ migration policies need to be balanced with their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Conventions on the Minimum Age for Employment, No’s 138 (1973) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour, No. 182 (1999), to ensure that the rights of children, including migrant children, are protected, including the right to be free from child labour. A range of policy considerations are offered, including in the world of work. The paper recommends amongst others that part of the governance of internal migration be focused on ensuring safe migration for decent work for children above the minimum working age, rather than stopping it. It also recommends measures to improve protection in the workplace, including through expanding youth migrant worker’s ability to form self-help groups and access, join or associate with trade unions. The paper concludes that despite the growing body of evidence with regard to the effects of migration on children, there remain significant knowledge gaps and the correlation between migration and child labour needs further analysis.
Since the 1980s, labour migration has been increasingly feminized in East and Southeast (hereafter E/SE) Asia.By the beginning of the twenty-first century, more than two million women were estimated to be working in the region, accounting for one third of its migrant population. Most female migrants are in reproductive occupations such as domestic work and sex services, in private households and informal commercial sectors. Despite the great need to protect their welfare and human rights, governments of their destination countries view migrants as merely a workforce to meet labour shortages, and ignore protective measures and gender-sensitive policies.Under pressure to increase foreign revenues, labour-source countries encourage their women to migrate and remit their earnings from abroad, but in the face of global competition, governments of source countries have shown little interest in their migrant women’s welfare. In the context of the E/SE Asian countries’ bleak records of human rights practices, non-state actors have assumed increasing importance in advocating migrants’ rights, which they have done through local and transnational networks.
This paper aims to provide a strategic overview of issues relating to migration and poverty in Pakistan. According to 1998 census records, some 10 million people, or 8% of the population of Pakistan, consisted of internal or international migrants. Savings remitted by Pakistani migrants abroad constitute the largest single source of foreign exchange earnings for the country. In the early 1980s, this flow was equivalent to 10% of GNP. Currently, remittances are US$2.4 billion, or 4% of the GNP.
Climate change is expected to bring about significant changes in migration patterns throughout the developing world. Increases in the frequency and severity of chronic environmental hazards and sudden onset disasters are projected to alter the typical migration patterns of communities and entire countries.
This assessment of temporary labour migration from a gender perspective, commissioned by UN Women, maps out the situation of women migrant workers in ASEAN . It especially highlights the issues and challenges in enforcing human rights and labour and social protections for women migrant workers.
The paper deals with child labour in developing countries. We address a problem that has recently drawn much attention at the international level, that is, how to invest in women’s rights to advance the rights of both women and children. We study the problem from a new perspective. In our theoretical model we assume that the child’s time is an extension of her/his mother’s time, and that she has to decide how to allocate it. We estimate two empirical specifications, both multinomial logit. The first one, in line with the standard approach in the literature, estimates a model of the probability of the different child’s states, conditional on her/his mother’s states. The second empirical specification, in line with our theoretical model, estimates the mother-child states jointly. Using a unique, rich and representative data survey for all Indian states and for urban and rural India (NFHS-2, 1998/9), we select our sample drawing information from the household data set and the women’s data set. Our results show that the presence of the mother in the family increases children welfare, in terms of educational opportunities and protection from work activities. All our results indicate that the mother tends to stay home and send her children to school the better is the father’s employment position and the wealthier is the family. However, we observe a perverse effect. If the mother works, since female job quality and wage levels are very low, also her children have a higher probability to work.
In practice, Burmese migrants rarely access even basic preventative health services such as vaccination. Very few married women we have met use any form of contraception, even if they do not want to become pregnant. Deliveries are at home, in poor conditions, often under the supervision of a traditional birth attendant.
The focus of this paper is circular labor migration, wherein poor people from low productivity areas migrate for part of the year, often on a seasonal basis, to areas with more job opportunities and wages. The central argument is that this kind of population movement is increasing, and while the outcomes for those who move and those left behind are not uniformly positive, on balance, circular migration is preventing people from sliding further into poverty and helping some to escape poverty. Without the opportunity to migrate, millions of people would be dependent on deteriorating employment in agriculture and forests.
This study chose to focus on internal migration to one of these most popular destinations: India’s capital city Delhi. This study of internal migrants in vulnerable occupations in Delhi was based firstly on detailed interviews with 500 randomly selected migrants in the metropolis conducted over a period of six months in 2009-10. This sample was equally distributed across the five selected vulnerable occupations: waste picking, rickshaw pulling, domestic work,construction labour and other casual labour. 420 interviews were organised in 10 randomly selected slum settlements, which had a good representation of all selected occupations. 30 interviews were conducted in construction camps, and 50 (of other casual labour) were held in homeless night shelters. These other settlements were selected so that the study did not lose sight of the most vulnerable among these workers, who did not live in their own homes, or were homeless. These interviews were supplemented by 10 focus-group discussions in the slum settlements, construction worker camps and night shelters. In addition, the researchers visited two villages in Bihar from where several of the interviewees had migrated: Kusiari, and Nimla Gaon. The researchers spent a total of five days in each village, and organised a total of 10 more focus-group discussions, with members of families of migrants.
The massive population flow from rural to urban areas in post-reform China is the result of both institutional and structural changes caused by economic growth. In the planned economy, China had a household registration system (hukou system) which was designed to control population migration and labor mobility between rural and urban areas as well as across regions. The issuing of Regulations on Household Registration of the People’s Republic of China in 1958 marked the beginning of the formal establishment of the hukou system. Public security bureaus controlled place-to-place migration, and it was almost impossible to move from a rural to an urban area without authorized plans or official agreement. Departments of labor and personnel administration controlled the transfer of labor across economic sectors and there was no free labor market at all.
This report marks the conclusion of an ADB financed technical assistance project launched to generate policy responses to migration stimulated by climate-related factors. It represents the first significant effort to identify policy and other responses to impacts of environment events on human mobility within the Asia and Pacific region
The majority of migrants are young and, increasingly, women. Migrants represent both Vietnam’s greatest advantages and greatest challenges. Their 14-15-hour work days have helped fuel the economic miracle that has rocketed Vietnam from one of the five poorest countries in the world in 1985 to an average per capita income of over $1,000 in 2010. Economic reform, combined with cheap, flexible labor has led to a surge in foreign investment.
Internal migration could contribute significantly to the reduction of poverty in Asia. However, new policies must be implemented to secure the status of the migrant workers and ensure benefits are distributed evenly
The paper examines the trends and issues in Asian labour migration and challenges faced by countries and the trade union movement in protection of migrant workers. It is an updated version of a paper initially prepared for the ILO Asia-Pacific Regional Symposium for Trade Union Organizations on Migrant Workers organized by the ILO Bureau of Workers Activities in Kula Lumpur, Malaysia during 6-8,December 1999.The author first discusses problems with current terminology and examines some popular myths about migrant workers. He points out that receiving countries reap considerable benefits from migration, which are usually overlooked. He traces main trends and features in Asian labour migration in the recent past, and identifies the most vulnerable groups of migrant workers who need priority attention. The paper also highlights the current dilemma faced by labour sending countries in‘protection’ of national workers abroad and promotion of overseas employment. In the final section, the author discusses the specific role of trade unions and broader policy options open to countries for protecting migrant workers in the light of ILO and other international instruments.
This paper evaluates China’s policies pertaining to the education of rural-urban migrants from 2000 to the present time in a broad historical context. It analyzes intended and unintended consequences of this policy evolution for children’s educational opportunities and provides evidence that China has made an enormous progress toward the level aspect of EFA goals with considerable room for improvement to realize the quality aspect of EFA goals. A comparative perspective of China with India offers a unique lens to advance our understanding of why some policies are more effective than others to move the nation’s free, compulsory education forward. Four lessons drawn from the analysis will inform UNESCO’s post-2015 agenda.
Since the reform and opening up in 1978, China has begun a period of rapid industrialization and urbanization. Along with an increasing number of rural people migrating to urban area for jobs, there are a considerable number of elderly parents left behind in the rural area. The impact of migration of the adult children on the health of their left-behind parents is ambiguous. On the one hand, the additional income from the children’s jobs can allow their parents to afford better health care and nutrition; on the other hand, the migration necessarily reduces the amount of time the children have to take care of their parents. This paper uses the Rural Urban Migration in China data to empirically investigate the effect of adult children’s migration on the health of the left-behind parents. Based on a linear probability model with instrumental variable correction, we find that having one additional adult child migrated to an urban area increases the probability of the left-behind elderly parents being in poor health condition by about 8%. Furthermore, parents having only one child, from low-income households, or aged above 60 years are affected more. Our results point out that the parents with only one child is the most vulnerable group and highlight the importance of establishing a formal care system for the rural elderly to complement the traditional family care in rural China.
This paper examines the vulnerability context of migrant workers’ in the informal sector in three Indian cities (Kochi, Surat, and Mumbai), specifically in terms of how their livelihoods interface with climate change and health inequities. A key assumption is that the progression of vulnerability to climate change and infectious diseases is closely embedded within the wider political economy of migrant workers’ day-to-day livelihood struggles. Using a mixed methodology, data from 50 migrants in each of the three cities were collected using a semi-structured interview schedule. The research demonstrates that urban vulnerability is a condition that shapes and reshapes itself continuously and fiercely, accompanied by the processes and structures of unplanned rapid urbanisation, environmental change and social exclusion. Lack of access to livelihood resources, decision-making structures and power forces the poor to migrate to the cities. If factors such as caste and ethnic-based discrimination also act as a push factor to migrate, the findings show that exclusion continues in the cities, making migrant workers more vulnerable to climate change and infectious diseases. The research also shows that a rise in income is not a sole indicator of reduced vulnerability. Lack of access to other essential livelihood assets, including reliable and affordable health care, reduces the adaptive capacities of migrant workers to deal with extreme climatic events. The paper concludes that migrant workers have very limited opportunities to reduce their vulnerabilities and participate actively in risk reduction and development planning.
The policy paper can contribute and illustrate how well-managed migration can be a positive force for development.The UK, together with others, is committed to supporting developing countries’ efforts to make the most of migration, helping them to manage the risks and realise the benefits, so that they can make progress in fighting poverty.
The framework linking migration, migration, urban governance and policy planning is a complex one. For this reason, the present paper, rather than being exhaustive, aims to provide an overview of the main challenges and opportunities-and importance-of linking migration related policies with urban and local governance. It draws on the experience of IOM and the concepts developed in the context of the 2015 World Migration Report, which covers the theme of migrants and cities and will feed into the discussions of the Conference on Migrants and Cities. More specifically, the paper presents IOM’s understanding of migration as a complex issue that affects and is affected by, both positively and negatively, a vast array of policy areas at the local level. Therefore, linking migration with urban policies requires not only the recognition of the complexities inherent to migration, but also coordination between multiple stakeholders, including migrants themselves, and at all levels ranging from the local to international level.
This article focuses on internal labor migration, describing the political, economic, and social barriers to integration that labor migrants face, and detailing the policy environment surrounding their integration challenges.
This paper deals with internal and international migration, both of which are large-scale with impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction in many regions of the country. This paper relies mainly on existing data, but also draws on some new analysis of secondary data. The study benefited from insights gained at a stakeholder workshop involving staff from grassroots programmes of both governmental and non-governmental agencies. Key policy makers were also interviewed in order both to gain an understanding of current government concerns and to validate our findings.
Women who want to work often face many more hurdles than men. This is true in Tajikistan where there is a large gender gap in labour force participation. We highlight the role of two factors international migration and education on the labour force participation decision and its gender gap. Using probit and decomposition analysis, our investigation shows that education and migration have a significant association with the gender gap in labour force participation in Tajikistan. International emigration from Tajikistan, in which approximately 93.5% of the participants are men, reduces labour force participation by men domestically; increased female education, especially at the university and vocational level, increases female participation. Both women acquiring greater access to education and men increasing their migration abroad contribute to reducing the gender gap.
Human trafficking is one of the most widely spread and fastest growing crimes in the world. However, despite the scope of the problem, the important human rights issues at stake and the professed intent of governments around the world to put an end to “modern day slavery”, there is very little that is actually known about the nature of human trafficking and those most at risk as potential victims. This is due in large part to the difficulty in collecting reliable and statistically useful data. In this paper we present the results of a pilot study run in rural Vietnam with the aim of overcoming these data issues. Rather than attempt to identify victims themselves, we rely on the form rural migration often takes in urbanizing developing countries to instead identify households that were sources of trafficking victims. This allows us to construct a viable sampling frame, on which we conduct a survey using novel techniques such as anchoring vignettes, indirect sampling, list randomization and social network analysis to construct a series of empirically valid estimates that can begin to shed light on the problem of human trafficking.
The relationship between environmental disasters and migration is possibly one of the biggest challenges that future generations will face. Why is the relationship between natural disasters and migration so controversial? What are the consequences of migration decisions following environmental disasters? This paper provides an overview of the literature on these two specific points. The effect of environmental disasters on migration is crucial because it has serious implications on economics, demography, and sociology.
The core argument of this article is that the potential benefits of internal migration are not being fully realised because of an inadequate understanding of migration patterns (especially temporary and circular migration), continuing policy barriers to population movement, urban middle-class attitudes, social exclusion on the basis of ethnicity, caste, tribe and gender and poor enforcement of legislation meant to protect the rights of the poor.
The aim of this review is to assess the ways in which Decent Work Country Programmes (DWCPs) address the issue of internal migration, and to evaluate the extent to which this discussion is related to rural-urban linkages and rural livelihood strategies. To a lesser extent, the review also investigates the discussion of other types of migration within DWCPs – including emigration, immigration and regional migration protocols. This working paper begins with introductory sections that provide a short history of the Decent Work Agenda, state the case for mainstreaming internal migration in DWCPs and outline the research methodology used in this review. Subsequent sections provide an overview of the review’s findings with respect to DWCPs’ discussion of migration, migrationrelated areas of work and rural-urban linkages. The paper then turns to an in-depth analysis of the discussion of internal migration in DWCPs, in particular, followed by a case study of the DWCPs completed by Sub-Saharan African countries. It concludes with a set of seven policy recommendations for mainstreaming internal migration
This paper explores the relationship between determinants of migration which are often deeply embedded in the economic, social, political, cultural and environmental context, and more immediate factors. It suggests that it may be useful to distinguish between predisposing, proximate, precipitating and mediating factors. To illustrate this the paper considers two migration corridors involving combinations of drivers – that connecting Afghanistan with Iran and Pakistan and that connecting the Somali regions to southern Africa – to identify in schematic fashion three sets of driver complexes operating at the place of origin, on the journey and in the destination area. The analysis indicates that, like individual drivers, such driver complexes may interact with one another and also shift in significance over time.
Internal migration in China during the last three decades, the largest in human history, offers a rare opportunity to understand inequalities in the making. Using data spanning 10 years from China's largest metropolis, Shanghai, this study assesses how enduring state institutions interplay with the spread of market forces to shape income inequality between migrants and native urban workers.
This paper provides a factsheet of domestic and international remittances at the State level and across household characteristics and discusses the extent of remittance dependency, it’s growth since the 1990’s, the different uses of remittances across States, the possible impact on source region inequality and its importance in enhancing ‘financial inclusion.’ Data from the 49th and 64th round migration related National Sample Surveys, the Reserve Bank of India and the 2001 Census are used for the analysis. Some of the findings are: (a) The domestic remittance market was estimated to be $10 billion in 2007-08, 60% being Inter-State transfers and 80% directed towards rural households (b) Domestic remittances financed over 30% of household consumption expenditure in remittance receiving households that formed nearly 10% of rural India (c) Domestic remittance dependency was high in Bihar, Uttar Pradesh and Rajasthan and has generally grown since the 1990s, most notably in Orissa. (d) The top 25% households received around 50% of domestic remittances suggesting that remittances could be increasing source region inequality (e) 70% of domestic remittances were estimated to be channelled in the informal sector as against 25% in China revealing a huge opportunity for financial institutions to serve migrant workers (f) Kerala, Punjab and Goa accounted for over 40% of international remittance flows and are among the top remittance-dependent economies of the world.
This paper attempts to study the migration behaviour of Indian internal migrants combining both Todaro’s individual utility maximising behaviour and Stark’s household approach. The theoretical model presented here is based on the joint utility maximisation principle in which there are two agents, the migrant and his family members, who maximise their utility in two different situations i.e., first, when the migrant stays out of the home (in migration situation) and second, when the migrant stays in the home (or returns). This model is empirically estimated to study the determinants of both migration and remittance using the National Sample Survey data for 2007-08. The results suggested that individual characteristics like age, marital status and human capital endowments, and household characteristics like the size of the household, caste and land possession have immense influence on both the decision to migrate and sending remittance.
This paper explores the diversity of the experience of migrants to rural, peri– urban, and urban areas using a unique longitudinal data set from the Philippines.
This paper reports the preliminary results from an ongoing effort to improve data on bilateral migration stocks, and set out some working hypotheses on the determinants and socioeconomic implications of South-South migration drawing on a survey of the literature. This paper estimates that 74 million, or nearly half, of the migrants from developing countries reside in other developing countries. In other words, South-South migration is nearly as large as South-North migration. Almost 80 percent of South-South migration is estimated to take place between countries with contiguous borders, and most appears to occur between countries with relatively small differences in income. Estimates of South-South remittances range from 10 to 29 percent of developing countries’ remittance receipts in 2005, depending on the allocation rule chosen to estimate bilateral flows. The impact of South-South migration on the income of migrants and natives is smaller than for SouthNorth migration. However, even small increases in income can have substantial welfare implications for the poor, and cross-migration can improve the match between skills and requirements in the countries involved, thus raising efficiency and welfare. The costs of South-South remittances (where such remittances are permitted) are even higher than those of North-South remittances, because of lack of competition in the remittance market, a lack of financial development in general, and high foreign exchange commissions at both ends of the transaction. These findings suggest that policymakers should pay attention to the complex challenges that developing countries face not only as the countries of origin of migrants, but also as destinations. Designing appropriate policies, however, will require considerable efforts to improve data, and careful analysis of the socioeconomic impact of migration on wages, income distribution, gender, health, and migrants’ rights
Drawing on data from population censuses and recent household surveys for India and Ghana, this paper demonstrates the importance of internal migration in comparison to international migration, showing that internal migrants outnumber international migrants by an order of magnitude in both countries. It examines patterns of internal migration and the underlying reasons for migration, noting that people move from relatively poor areas to richer ones. While it is difficult to establish causality, complementary evidence suggests that these moves may allow poor people to access better opportunities in richer regions. The paper then looks more carefully at the association between migration and poverty at the district and state level and to some degree at the household level, which is followed by an examination of internal remittances and their association with poverty. A key finding of this paper is the importance of internal remittances, which in both countries appear to be greater in magnitude than international remittances. In addition, internal remittances appear to be particularly important in relation to international remittances in the poorest regions of Ghana and in the poorest states of India.
Large numbers of agricultural labour moved from the countryside to cities after the economic reforms in China. Migration and remittances play an important role in transforming the structure of rural household income. This paper examines the impact of rural-to-urban migration on rural poverty and inequality in a mountainous area of Hubei province using the data of a 2002 household survey. Since migration income is a potential substitute for farm income, this paper presents counterfactual scenarios of what rural income, poverty, and inequality would have been in the absence of migration. The results show that, by providing alternatives to households with lower marginal labour productivity in agriculture, migration leads to an increase in rural income. In contrast to many studies that suggest that the increasing share of non-farm income in total income widens inequality, this paper offers support for the hypothesis that migration tends to have egalitarian effects on rural income for three reasons: (1) migration is rational self-selection—farmers with higher expected return in agricultural activities and/or in local non-farm activities choose to remain in the countryside while those with higher expected return in urban non-farm sectors migrate; (2) households facing binding constraints of land supply are more likely to migrate; (3) poorer households benefit disproportionately from migration.
From 1949, the Chinese economy has allowed virtually no labor mobility between rural and urban sectors. Rural-urban segregation has been enforced by a household registration system called "hukou." Individuals born in rural areas receive "agriculture hukou" while those born in cities are designated as "nonagricultural hukou." In the countryside, employment and income were linked to the commune-based production system. Collectively owned communes provided very basic coverage for health, education, and pensions. In cities, state-assigned life-time employment, centrally determined wages, and a cradle-to-grave social welfare system were implemented. In the late 1970s, China's economic reforms began, but the timing and pattern of the changes were quite different across rural and urban labor markets. This paper focuses on employment and wages in the urban labor markets, the interaction between the urban and rural labor markets through migration, and future labor market challenges. Despite the remarkable changes that have occurred, inherited institutional impediments still play an important role in the allocation of labor; the hukou system remains in place, and 72 percent of China's population is still identified as rural hukou holders. China must continue to ease its restrictions on rural- urban migration, and must adopt policies to close the widening rural-urban gap in education, or it risks suffering both a shortage of workers in the growing urban areas and a deepening urban-rural economic divide.
In China hukou (the household registration system) imposes barriers on permanent migration from rural to urban areas. Using large surveys for 2002, this paper finds that permanent migrants number about 100 million persons and constitute approximately 20 percent of all urban residents. Receiving a long education, being a cadre or becoming an officer in the People’s Liberation Army are important career paths towards urbanisation and permanent migrants are much better-off then their counterparts left behind in rural China. The probability of becoming a permanent migrant is positively related to parental education, belonging to the ethnic majority and the parent’s membership in the Communist Party. At the destination, most permanent migrants are economically well-integrated. They have a higher probability to be working than their urban-born counterparts and those who receive a hukou before age 25 typically earn at least as much as their urban-born counterparts. The exceptions for this are those permanent migrants who receive a hukou after age 25 and people who received their hukou through informal routes.
This paper describes the Longitudinal Survey on Rural Urban Migration in China (RUMiC), a unique data source in terms of spatial coverage and panel dimension for research on labor markets in China. The survey is a collaboration project between the Australian National University, Beijing Normal University and the Institute for the Study of Labor (IZA), which makes data publicly available to the scientific community by producing Scientific Use Files. The paper illustrates the structure, sampling frame and tracking method of the survey, and provides an overview of the topics covered by the dataset, and a review of the existing studies based on RUMiC data.
China’s recent meteoric rise in the global economy is closely related to the strength of its manufacturing sector, which is heavily dependent on cheap migrant labor. This paper analyzes China’s recent migration trends, spatial pattern and their relationship with China’s economic strategy. Internal migration in China is special in that it is heavily controlled and regulated by the hukou (household registration) system. The system enables the country to create a massive exploitable migrant labor force that makes China’s industry highly competitive in the global economy. The paper explains how the system works and distils the complex population and migration statistics to present a relatively complete picture of migration over time and space, including the latest changes. Special focus is on analyzing ‘rural migrant labor’, which has constituted the most important human cog powering the China economic engine. Long-distance, interprovincial migration is also studied in the context of the changes in the regional economy in supporting China’s ascendancy to being the ‘world’s factory’. Three major issues pertaining to this migrant labor system and recent developments in China and the global economy are examined. They presage important changes to come, which are likely to impact both China and the rest of the world.
This paper analyzes the impact of rural-to-urban migration on income inequality and gender wage gap in source regions using a newly constructed panel dataset for around 100 villages over a ten-year period from 1997 to 2006 in China. Since income inequality is time-persisting, this paper uses a system GMM framework to control for the lagged income inequality, in which contemporary emigration is also validly instrumented. The paper finds a Kuznets (inverse U-shaped) pattern between migration and income inequality in the sending communities. Specifically, contemporary emigration increases income inequality, while lagged emigration has strong income inequality reducing effect in the sending villages. A 50-percent increase in the lagged emigration rate translates into one-sixth to one-seventh standard deviation reduction in inequality. These effects are robust to the different specifications and different measures of inequality. More interestingly, the estimated relationship between emigration and the gender wage gap also has an inverse Ushaped pattern. Emigration tends to increase the gender wage gap initially, and then tends to decrease it in the sending villages.
This paper measures and analyzes levels and trends in the intensity and spatial impact of internal migration based on census data from the 1990, 2000 and 2010 rounds of census. Migration intensities tend to be highest in the new world countries of Australia, Canada, New Zealand and the United States of America, and lowest in Asia. Intensities in Europe, Latin America and Africa stand at intermediate levels, but with considerable intra-regional diversity. The authors estimate that at the global level, as of 2005, there were approximately 763 million persons living within their own country but outside their region of birth. Internal migration has redistributed a sizable proportion of the national population across major regions.
This essay explores the social relations and experiences of mobile people in the current global era. The essay describes regional flows, summarizes recent research on current labour migration trends, and assesses the effect of nation states and policies on the experiences of migrants and refugees in an era of increasing economic and political precarity. The essay explores the importance of social networks and family dynamics of low skill and skilled migrants. Throughout, the paper emphasizes the impact of the precarious nature of late capitalism on migrant family ties, affective experiences, and perceptions of mobility and opportunity.
In this study, we examine migrant stigma and its effect on social capital reconstruction among rural migrants who possess legal rural residence but live and work in urban China. After a review of the concepts of stigma and social capital, we report data collected through in-depth interviews with 40 rural migrant workers and 38 urban residents recruited from Beijing, China. Findings from this study indicate that social stigma against rural migrants is common in urban China and is reinforced through media, social institutions and their representatives, and day-to-day interactions. As an important part of discrimination, stigma against migrant workers creates inequality, undermines trust, and reduces opportunities for interpersonal interactions between migrants and urban residents. Through these social processes, social stigma interferes with the reconstruction of social capital (including bonding, bridging and linking social capital) for individual rural migrants as well as for their communities. The interaction between stigma and social capital reconstruction may present as a mechanism by which migration leads to negative health consequences. Results from this study underscore the need for taking measures against migrant stigma and alternatively work toward social capital reconstruction for health promotion and disease prevention among this population.
Based on data from a 2005 survey conducted in Shanghai, China, this research examines the role of social capital in income inequality between rural migrants and urbanites. We find strong income return on social capital, in particular on social capital from strong ties. The paper also observes a great disparity in social capital possession between rural migrants and urban local residents. Although social capital from strong ties seems to be more important for rural migrants than for urbanites, local ties and high-status ties do not seem to benefit rural migrants. Hence, migrants not only suffer severe social capital deficits but also capital return deficits. Given the strong income returns on social capital and the substantial differences in access to and return on social capital between migrants and urban residents, social capital is consequently found to explain a large part of the income inequality between the two groups. Overall, the findings reveal macro-structural effects on the role of social capital in labor market stratification. In China, the lack of formal labor market mechanisms continues to create both a strong need for and opportunities for economic actions to be organized around informal channels via social relations. Yet, the long-standing institutional exclusion of migrants caused by the household registration system has resulted in pervasive social exclusion and discrimination which have substantially limited rural migrants’ accumulation and mobilization of social capital. Under these conditions, social capital reinforces the economic inequality between migrants and urban residents in China. Such empirical evidence adds to understanding the role of social capital in the economic integration of migrants and in shaping intergroup inequality in general.
This paper first finds a clear pattern of child gender difference in family migration in China. Specifically, our estimates show that on average, the first child being a son increases the father’s migration probability by 25.2 percent. This paper hypothesizes that the family’s competitive earning incentive for sons drives this child gender effect on family migration: parents migrate to earn more money in an attempt to improve their sons’ relative standing in response to the ever-rising pressure in China’s marriage market. This competitive-earning-incentive hypothesis is then supported by additional empirical evidence. It further finds that, facing heavier financial pressure from the marriage market, parents spend less on their sons’ education and more on marriage and buying houses and durable goods. This gender difference in resource allocation, together with the absentee-father problem resulting from paternal migration, may unexpectedly adversely affect boys’ long-run human capital development in China.
As massive rural residents leave their home countryside for better employment, migration has profound effects on income distributions such as rural-urban income gap and inequalities within rural or urban areas. The nature of the effects depends crucially on who are migrating and their migrating patterns.this paper emphasizes two facts. First, rural residents are not homogeneous, they self-select to migrate or not. Second, there are significant differences between migrants who successfully transformed their hukou status (permanent migrants) and those did not (temporary migrants). Using three coordinated CHIP data sets in 2002, the paper finds that permanent migrants are positively selected from rural population especially in terms of education. As permanent migration takes more mass from the upper half of rural income density, both rural income level and inequalities decrease, the urban-rural income ratio increases at the same time. On the contrary, the selection effect of temporary migrants is almost negligible. It does not have obvious effect on rural income level and inequalities.
The main objective of this paper is to propose a systematic approach to empirically analyse the effect of remittances on the utility of migrants, as proxied by their subjective well-being (SWB). Using data from a new survey on China (RUMiC), the paper estimates models in which a measure of subjective well- being is regressed on the level of remittances, and it finds a sizeable positive correlation. The effect of remittances on well-being varies with the socioeconomic characteristics of migrants, migration experience and the diversity of family arrangements. As a complementary objective, this paper uses SWB measures to elicit the motivations behind remittances and find evidence that both altruistic (such as pure altruism and reciprocity) and contractual motivations (such as co-insurance and investment) are at work among rural-to-urban migrants in China.
Rural-urban migrants in China appear to prefer nearby destination cities. To gain a better understanding of this phenomenon, we build a simple model in which migrants from rural areas choose among potential destination cities to maximize utility. The distance between a migrant’s home village and destination city is explicitly included in the utility function. Using recent survey data, this paper first estimates an individual’s expected income in each potential destination city using a semi-parametric method, controlling for potential self-selection biases. It then estimates the indirect utility function for rural- urban migrants in China based on their migration destination choices. The baseline estimates suggest that to induce a migrant to move 10 percent further away from home, the income of this migrant has to increase by 15 percent. This elasticity varies very little with migration distance; it is slightly higher for female than male migrants; it is not affected by the migrant's age, education, or marital status. This paper explores possible explanations of these results and discuss their policy implications.
The unprecedented large scale rural-to-urban migration in China has left many rural children living apart from their parents. In this study, we examine the impact of parental migration on the nutritional status of young children in rural areas. This paper uses the interaction terms between wage growth in provincial capital cities and initial village migrant networks as instrumental variables to account for migration selection. The results show that parental migration has no significant impact on the height of children, but it improves their weight. This paper provides suggestive evidence that the improvement in weight may be achieved through increased access to tap water in migrant households. Concerns about the sustainability of the impact on weight are raised in the conclusions.
Job-related welfare entitlements are common in China. Migrants who do not hold urban registration are, in principle, not entitled to job-related welfare even if they are employees in the State sector. The official explanation is that rural-urban migrants are allocated access to farm land in their rural origins, and hence their welfare rights and security are covered by this entitlement to the use of land.This paper looks at whether migrants still benefited from these opportunities. Second, it investigates whether it is the poor, the unentitled and the vulnerable that are excluded from public protection programs. Chinese official social protection programs are, like in most western countries, officially designated as being for poverty alleviation. However would such programs still be targeted in ways that limit their coverage, curtail the range of basic needs provided for and allocate benefits very unequally? Thirdly, this paper explores whether households with favourable productive characteristics are more likely to get into social protection programs. Here, the ongoing debate concerning equality of opportunity and equality of outcomes has some relevance. Finally, we examine the roles social networks or Guanxi (the Chinese term for social connections) may play in dealing with economic shocks.
Since the 1980s, China’s government has eased restrictions on internal migration. This easing, along with rapid growth of the Chinese economy and substantial increases in foreign and domestic investments, has greatly stimulated internal migration. Earlier studies have established that migration patterns were responsive to spatial differences in labor markets in China, especially during the 1990s. However, other important economic and socio-political determinants of interprovincial migration flows have not been considered. These include the size of the migrant community in the destination, foreign direct and domestic fixed asset investments, industry and ethnic mixes and geographic biases in migration patterns. We estimate a modified gravity model of interprovincial migration in China that includes as explanatory variables: migrant networks in the destination province, provincial economic conditions, provincial human capital endowments, domestic and foreign investments made in the province, industry and ethnic mixes in the province, provincial amenities and regional controls, using province-level data obtained from the National Census and China Statistical Press for the 1980s and 1990s. This paper finds strong evidence that migration rates rise with the size of the destination province’s migrant community. Foreign and domestic investments influence migration patterns, but sometimes in unexpected ways. This paper finds that as economic reforms in China deepened in the 1990s, the structure of internal migration did not change as much as earlier studies have suggested. Consequently, the results raise new questions about the World’s largest-scale test case of internal migration and strongly suggest a need for further research.
This paper examines the working conditions of rural migrant workers in China. It first describes the spectacular increase in the number of migrants, from an estimated 30 million in 1989 to about 130 million in 2006. The paper then provides some descriptive statistics on the regions of origin of migrants, their destinations, the sectors in which they are employed, as well as on their age, sex and level of education. The paper goes on to discuss the difficult working conditions of many rural migrant workers in the Chinese labour market, in particular their low wages, the problems of wage arrears, the lack of written contracts, the long working hours, the short weekly rest periods, the low social security coverage, the poor housing conditions, and the difficulties they face in accessing public services. Finally, the author describes how the Chinese authorities have gradually loosened restrictions on rural-urban migration, and how new policies have been developed to try to improve the situation of migrant workers. However, he considers that the objective of decent work for migrant workers in China will remain a major challenge for years to come
The 2015-16 Global Monitoring Report, produced jointly by the World Bank and International Monetary Fund, details the progress the world has made towards global development goals and examines the impact of demographic change on achieving these goals. The report details the decline of those living in global poverty, which is reclassified as living on $1.90 or less a day, to a forecast 9.6 percent of the world’s population in 2015 -- a projected 200 million fewer people living in extreme poverty than in 2012. It also revises world economic growth projections for 2015 down to 3.3 percent on the basis of lower growth prospects in emerging markets. The Global Monitoring Report also analyzes how profound demographic shifts could alter the course of global development. The world is undergoing a major population shift that will reshape economic development for decades. The direction and pace of this transition varies dramatically from country to country, with differing implications depending on where a country stands on the spectrum of aging and economic development, the report said. To accelerate gains, the report says, development policies must take into account this altering landscape. Depending on the circumstances, this means that countries need to spark their demographic transition, accelerate job creation, sustain productivity growth, and adapt to aging.
In the nationally representative household data from the 2008 wave of the Rural to Urban Migration in China survey, nearly two thirds of rural-urban migrants found their employment through family members, relatives, friends or acquaintances. This paper investigates why the use of social network to find jobs is so prevalent among rural-urban migrants in China, and whether migrants face a wage penalty as a result of adopting this job search method. This paper finds evidence of positive selection effects of the use of networks on wages. Users of networks tend to be older, to have migrated longer ago and to be less educated. In addition, married workers and those from villages with more out-migrant are more likely to use networks, while those without local residential registration status are less likely. Controlling for selectivity, the paper finds a large negative impact of network use on wages. Using job contacts brings open access to urban employment, but at the cost of markedly lower wages.
Using data from recent surveys of migrants and local residents in 10 cities in 2005, this paper examines how migration influences measurements of urban poverty and inequality in China, and also compares how other indicators of well-being differ for migrants and local residents. Contrary to previous studies that report that the income poverty rate of migrant households is 1.5 times that of local resident households, this paper finds relatively small differences in the poverty rates of migrants and local residents. Although the hourly wages of migrants are much lower than those of local residents, migrant workers work longer hours and have lower dependency ratios and higher labor force participation rates. Including migrants increases somewhat measures of urban income inequality. Significant differences between migrants and local residents are found for non-income welfare indicators such as housing conditions and access to social insurance programs.
This study of inter-provincial migration in China uses the 2000 full Census and 2005 1% sample Census datasets. ‘Migration velocities’ (Mi-j/(Pi.Pj) for all inter-provincial flows have been calculated to reveal the spatial structures of the flows, and to identify trends over time. Location quotients for the provincial in-migrants’ occupations and education levels have also been calculated. I then test four hypotheses: (i) that distance-decay functions are decreasing, meaning that the Chinese space-economy is becoming more integrated as capitalist development proceeds; (ii) that the migration patterns and trends will reflect the strong spatial clustering of ‘neo/peripheral Fordist’ capital accumulation in the Shanghai-Guangdong coastal axis, and that this migration will reflect the occupational and educational characteristics typical of such development; (iii) that there will be evidence from the trends in, and compositions of, the inter-provincial flows of the emergence of a ‘new spatial division of labour’ in China (replacing regional sectoral specialisation); this will imply, in particular, the migration of professional, technical and managerial staff to and from Beijing and Shanghai; and (iv) that the trends in migration flows will reflect the weakening control over migration exercised by the central state (manifested, for example, by weaker in-flows to, and stronger out-flows from, those provinces which have received priority status for development in the fairly recent past, such as Xinjiang and northeast China).
Recent decades have seen dramatic changes in China’s migration situation. China’s floating migrant population grew rapidly during the late 1980s, and continued to grow during the 1990s until in 2000, there were over 140 million floating migrants in China. Floating migrants are now to be found in every Chinese province, in cities, towns and villages, across the country, working in a range of occupations. This dissertation compares data from the 2005 1% Population Sample Survey (NBSC 2007), the most recent large-scale, nationally-representative survey to have been carried out in China, with data from the 2000 Chinese Population Census (NBSC 2002) in order to investigate how patterns of floating migration, and characteristics of the floating migrant population, have changed between 2000 and 2005. Important changes to the spatial distribution of floating migration are identified. Characteristics of the floating migrant population including gender makeup, age structure, type of destination and origin (rural/urban), reasons for migration, time since migration, and size of population are evaluated, and compared with past findings, particularly those from the 2000 Census. Finally, some potential explanations for the changes seen are presented.
Using data from 22 provinces in China, this paper analyzes the effect of origin-based migrant networks on wages among rural-to-urban migrants, with particular attention to potential endogeneity problem. Heckman’s two-stage method is used to correct for sample-selection. Natural disaster in the village of origin is used as an instrumental variable to deal with other potential estimation biases. The results presented here verify significant network effects on wages of migrants.
This paper focuses on the determinants of self-employment among rural to urban migrants in China. Two self-selection mechanisms are analysed: the first relates to the manner in which migrants choose self-employment or paid work based on the potential gains from either type of employment; the second takes into account that the determinants of the migration decision can be correlated with employment choices. Using data from the 2008 Rural-Urban Migration in China and Indonesia (RUMiCI) survey, a selection model with endogenous switching is estimated. Earnings estimates are then used to derive the wage differential, which in turn is used to model the employment choice. The procedure is extended to account for migration selectivity and to compare individuals with different migration background and employment histories. The results indicate that self-employed individuals are positively selected with respect to their unobserved characteristics. Furthermore, the wage differential is found to be an important driver of the self-employment choice.
Unlike most countries, China regulates internal migration. Public benefits, access to good quality housing, schools, health care, and attractive employment opportunities are available only to those who have local registration (Hukou). Coincident with the deepening of economic reforms, Hukou has gradually been relaxed since the 1980s, helping to explain an extraordinary surge of migration within China. In this study of interprovincial Chinese migration, we address two questions. First, what is a sensible way of incorporating Hukou into theoretical and empirical models of internal migration? Second, to what extent has Hukou influenced the scale and structure of migration? This paper incorporates two alternative measures of Hukou into a modified gravity model – the unregistered migrant’s: (i) perceived probability of securing Hukou; and (ii) perceived probability of securing employment opportunities available only to those with Hukou. In contrast to previous studies, this model includes a much wider variety of control especially important for the Chinese case. Analyzing the relationship between Hukou and migration using census data for 1985-90, 1995-2000 and 2000-05, we find that migration is very sensitive to Hukou, with the greatest sensitivity occurring during the middle period.
Hundreds of millions of rural migrants have moved into Chinese cities since the early 1990s contributing greatly to economic growth, yet, they are often blamed for reducing urban ‘native’ workers’ employment opportunities, suppressing their wages and increasing pressure on infrastructure and other public facilities. This paper examines the causal relationship between rural-urban migration and urban native workers’ labour market outcomes in Chinese cities. After controlling for the endogeneity problem, results show that rural migrants in urban China have modest positive or zero effects on the average employment and insignificant impact on earnings of urban workers. On examination. the impact on unskilled labourers is once again found to be positive and insignificant. This paper conjectures that the reason for the lack of adverse effects is due partially to the labour market segregation between the migrants and urban natives, and partially due to the complementarities between the two groups of workers. Further investigation reveals that the increase in migrant inflow is related to the demand expansion and that if the economic growth continues, elimination of labour market segregation may not necessarily lead to an adverse impact of migration on urban native labour market outcomes.
This paper examines the trafficking of vulnerable populations in Southeast Asia and the effectiveness of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations in combating human trafficking in the region. Human trafficking is one of the most egregious and persistent human rights violations throughout Southeast Asia, and increases in regional migration and lack of inter-governmental coordination have consistently exacerbated this issue. ASEAN’s establishment in 1967 has since facilitated regional cooperation in Southeast Asia, and with the adoption of the ASEAN Declaration of Human Rights in 2012, the grouping is expected to put greater emphasis on addressing human trafficking issues in the region. This paper critically evaluates the success of ASEAN’s antitrafficking initiatives by researching different trafficked groups in Southeast Asia (labor, sexual, child, etc.),examining the trafficking laws of countries with significant trafficked populations, and assessing the effectiveness of existing ASEAN policies. It is concluded that ASEAN has not yet had a significant impact on reducing human trafficking throughout Southeast Asia. However, increased inter-governmental cooperation and accountability mechanisms promoted by ASEAN may lead to improvements in the future. This research sheds light on the effectiveness of ASEAN as an international human rights actor as well as providing recommendations for the improvement of the organization’s anti-trafficking endeavors.
The paper investigates the impact of remittances on the relative concerns of households in rural China. Using the Rural to Urban Migration in China (RUMiC) dataset, it estimates a series of well-being functions to simultaneously explore the relative concerns with respect to income and remittances. Results show that although rural households experience substantial utility loss due to income comparisons, they gain utility by comparing their remittances with those received by their reference group. In other words, this paper find evidence of a “status-effect” with respect to income and of a “signal-effect” with respect to remittances. The magnitudes of these two opposite effects are very similar, implying that the utility reduction due to relative income is compensated by the utility gain due to relative remittances. This finding is robust to various specifications, controlling for the endogeneity of remittances and selective migration, as well as a measure of current migrants’ net remittances calculated using counterfactual income and expenditures.
The problems of migrant workers are not caused by one factor alone but are the result of the intersections between gender, migration, labour, and trafficking issues. The characteristics of labour migration and trafficking of Indonesians are not only connected to economic issues but are influenced by gender issues, labour regulation, and the treatment of migrants in destination countries. The purpose of this feminist participatory action research was to explore the linkages between gender, migration, labour, and human trafficking as experienced by prospective, current and former women migrant workers in Rowoberanten Village, a village in the Kendal district, Central Java province, Indonesia.
This study has been conducted to complement the existing literature on Indonesian labour migration, with a particular focus on an evaluation of the legal system governing recruitment of prospective Indonesian labour migrants. The study focuses especially on Law No. 39/2004 Concerning the Placement and Protection of Indonesian Overseas Workers, as this is the main piece of legislation governing recruitment, placement, and protection of migrant workers. The study was carried out through extensive desk research, with additional input provided through two consultation meetings with the Government of Indonesia.
People from the village of Limbangan in Indonesia have been migrating for work since 1985 and the number of migrant workers from the village continues to rise sharply. From government data, 1502 people (out of a total village population of 8,501) worked abroad in 2008 and 1605 people from January to June 2009. In Limbangan, ATKI wanted to explore the financial and other impacts of labour migration policies and recruitment agency/employer practices on Indonesian migrant workers. In collaboration with Limbangan village residents and GAATW, ATKI initiated feminist participatory action research to achieve three objectives: first, to share experiences among families of migrant workers and women migrant workers who had returned to Indonesia; second, to analyse the findings with migrant workers and their families to identify the systemic root causes of problems affecting migrant workers; and third, to encourage action among migrant workers’ families to address the problems brought about labour migration and experienced by migrant workers and their families.
This paper explores how international migration changes the private transfers made between households in the migrant sending communities of developing countries. A priori, it is indeterminate whether migration and remittances strengthen or weaken the degree of private transfers in these communities. From a policy perspective, public income redistribution programmes would have an important role to play if migration reduced the extent of private transfers. Using household survey data from Kyrgyzstan, it find that households with migrant members (as well as households receiving remittances) are more likely than households without migrants (without remittances) to provide monetary transfers to others, but less likely to receive monetary transfers from others. This suggests that migration is unlikely to lead to a weakening of private transfers.
In-country migration is changing the face of China’s urban areas. As individuals and families move from the countryside to the cities, parents and children must adapt to new expectations and challenges. Most research on immigration examines data from large surveys that describe trends or characteristics of the migrant population. Little research includes individual migrants telling their own stories in their own way. Using an adaptation of Photovoice, a participatory research method, this paper asked migrant mothers in Shanghai to take photographs of their daily lives and use those images in group discussion to describe their parenting experiences. In addition, the research team independently coded the photographs to identify themes not included in the mothers’ initial discussion. Researcher-derived codes were member checked before including the results in this article. The article also presents results of a key stakeholder forum during which the migrant mothers presented their pictures and stories to decision makers.
Bangladesh is one of the most vulnerable countries in the world due to climate change and sea level rise (SLR). This has caused large-scale population displacement, human insecurity and illegal migration to India. This paper first analyses the environmental crisis of Bangladesh taking into considerations the problem of SLR, tropical cyclones, soil salinity and mangrove depletion. The second part of the paper discusses its impact on India with special emphasis on the problem of illegal Bangladeshi migration on three areas – North Bengal, Indian Sunderbans Region and North East India. It discusses the possibilities of retaining back the climate-induced migrants through climate change adaptation techniques, people's participation and the bilateral cooperation between India and Bangladesh.
The large scale acquisition of agricultural lands for Special Economic Zones (SEZs) in India has become an issue of serious political and social contestation in recent years. In the south Indian state of Andhra Pradesh (AP), land acquisition for irrigation projects (known as Jalayagnam) under the public sector; and SEZs and industrial and power projects in the private sector along the east coast (with the Bay of Bengal) have become major issues of contention. This paper presents an overview of the key facets of these issues.
The purpose of this study is twofold: first, to strengthen the evidence base on child labor and labor conditions in the shrimp and seafood supply chain and within the communities engaged in the shrimp and seafood processing industries; and second, to provide practical and empirically grounded policy recommendations that can be discussed with different stakeholders and utilized by both national and provincial governments. The research study and associated policy analysis take a socioeconomic approach in exploring how available data can inform our understanding of: (i) the social and economic impacts of migration into landbased shrimp and other seafood processing industries on migrant communities and Thailand more broadly; (ii) attitudes among industry workers and employers; (iii) labor conditions within the industry; (iv) exploitation of migrant workers; (v) access to services by migrant workers and their children; and (vi) related issues and considerations.
Microlevel evidence has improved our understanding of how climate affects individual and household decisions to migrate over time in African and Asian countries. Macrolevel analyses help us assess whether such country-specific evidence may be systematic enough to constitute a global phenomenon. Following a review of recent evidence, this brief segues into the main research challenges in identifying migration–climate links and discusses the policy options to formalize migration as an adaptation mechanism to climate change.
The unprecedented, large-scale, rural-to-urban migration in China has left many rural children living apart from their parents. Yet the consequences for child development of living without one or more parents due to migration are largely unknown. This paper examines the impact of parental migration on one measure of child development, the nutritional status of young children in rural areas. It uses the interaction terms of wage growth in provincial capital cities with initial village migrant networks as instrumental variables to account for migration selection. Results show that parental migration has no significant impact on the height of children but that it improves their weight. The paper provides suggestive evidence that the improvement in weight may be achieved through increased access to tap water in households with migrants. To conclude, it raises concerns about the sustainability of the impact.
Limited statistics on internal migration, international migration, and remittances worldwide prohibit understanding of migration’s role in the agricultural transformation process. Insights from the qualitative literature suggest the migrant’s gender and household decisionmaking dynamics may influence future investments in agriculture. This paper reviews the literature on migration in Asia, with specific attention given to how gendered migration may influence future agricultural productivity. The first section examines the current body of evidence on the state of international and internal migration, using largescale datasets that cover several Asian countries. The second section summarizes the findings of an extensive literature review on gendered determinants of migration, employment, and remittances. The third section lays out the gains and losses of migration and discusses the evidence on possible changes in gender roles owing to migration. Global statistics and evidence from the qualitative literature challenge the traditional narrative of male migrants as breadwinners. Even among studies that focus on male employment migration, women have an increasing role in the investment of remittances. What remains unclear is whether women who are migrant breadwinners, decisionmakers, or both regarding the end use of remittances favor investments in agriculture. Adding migration questions to existing nationally representative surveys would shed light on the significance of gendered migration patterns in Asia and its associated consequences on rural livelihoods.
The great 21st-century migration into cities will present both a great challenge for humanity and a significant opportunity for global economic growth. This paper describes the diverse patterns that define this metropolitan migration. It then lays out a framework for understanding the costs and benefits of new arrivals through migration's externalities and the challenges and policy tradeoffs that confront city stakeholders. The paper concludes by suggesting ways municipalities, by optimizing flexibility, can make migration more productive and less destructive in shaping the 'good city' and the 'smart city.' There are few paths to global economic growth that do not run through cities, and even fewer that do not depend on growing the city in population size, scale, and economic exchange. Historically, cities have grown by concentrating the economic advantages of number and density, the social potential of innovation, and the cultural possibilities of newness. By bringing together the factors of production, land, labor, capital, and enterprise, in ever more recombinant forms, cities offer the possibility of securing new economic advantages and scaling them up.
Recent national concern for “victims of trafficking” seems to offer new possibilities for dialogue between government and those lobbying for migrants’ rights. This paper argues that the language of trafficking is anti-political, in that it smuggles in certain politics under an apparently humanitarian agenda. It first considers the implications of trafficking for the politics of citizenship, understood as a process of constructing relations. It goes on to examine the politics of labour implicit in the free/forced labour distinction which is crucial to the definition of trafficking. The paper concludes by emphasising the importance of putting state institutions and the relation between state and labour markets at the centre of an analysis of the exploitation of migrant labour.
Climate change has become a major concern for the international community. Among its consequences, its impact on migration is the object of increasing attention from both policy-makers and researchers. Yet, knowledge in this field remains limited and fragmented. This paper therefore provides an overview of the climate change – migration nexus: on the basis of available empirical findings, it investigates the key issues at stake, including the social and political context in which the topic emerged; states‟ policy responses and the views of different institutional actors; critical perspectives on the actual relationship between the environment and (forced) migration; the concepts and notions most adequate to address this relationship; gender and human rights implications; as well as international law and policy orientations. Two major interconnected arguments arise. The first regards the weight of environmental and climatic factors in migration and their relationship to other push or pull factors, whether of social, political or economic nature. The second is about the political framework in which such migration flows should take place and the manner in which to treat the people who move in connection with environmental factors. The two issues are deeply intertwined, as the extent to which the environment determines migration is intimately connected to the status to be associated with the people concerned.
Networks have been identified as playing a critical role in reducing the costs and risks to migration. Yet, approaches to trafficking associate children’s labour migration with exploitation, and the persons with whom they migrate as traffickers. Findings from ethnographic research undertaken in Bangladesh reveal that children’s migration for work is largely contained within established social networks. Although children’s migration for work is predominantly economically motivated, it is social and highly protective. The persons with whom children migrate are not ‘traffickers’. Rather, the relationship between them reveals extra-household interdependencies for economic and social benefits. Although the system of child labour migration is heavily structured, girls and boys assert their own interests during the process of migrating and finding work and, in so doing, display agency and power.
How is the traditional concept of the relationship between nation and women reinforced or modified in discourses on immigration? To explore that question, this paper examines the ways in which perceptions of and attitudes towards immigration are gendered and racialised in South Korea, one of the main countries into which contemporary inter-Asian migration is flowing. The paper studies recently introduced governmental policies along with public/media interest in migration and ethnic diversity. It argues that South Korea’s project of multiculturalism actually works as a nationbuilding project. This is because South Korean policies and studies about immigration and ethnic minorities prefer to target marriage-migrant women, instrumentally defining them as the mothers of South Korea’s next generation. The paper also points out that although marriage-migrant women are expected to serve as wives and mothers within Korean families, they are still posited as “others” in the overlapping hierarchical relationships between husband and wife and between sending and receiving countries.
The 'Migrant' speaks both to citizenship and to the 'Good Citizen', to citizenship as a legal relation between an individual and a state, and as 'substantive citizenship', that is, the rich content of citizenship. It reveals how citizenship signifies closure and exclusion at the same time as it claims universalism and inclusion, and thereby calls into question the claims of citizenship as signifying equality and resistance to subordination. This paper explores these tensions and what they tell us about the nature of citizenship as a formal status, and about the nation as an imagined 'community of value', that is, status in the sense of value, worth and honour. It also examines naturalisation processes as attempts to match formal citizenship with the community of value. It argues for an analytical lens that enables us to consider the exclusion of non-citizens (migrants and refugees) alongside the exclusion of failed citizens (such as (ex)-prisoners and welfare dependents).
The Rohingya, a Muslim ethnic minority group in Arakan State, Burma, are among the most vulnerable and persecuted populations across the globe. Despite their significant historical presence in the country, the Government of Burma does not recognise the Rohingya as citizens, thus rendering the population stateless. Many observers argue that the root cause of the crisis is the group’s denial of legal status, suggesting that granting them citizenship would offer a lasting solution. While the possession of legal status is fundamental to an inclusive notion of citizenship, consideration of other non-formal dimensions of citizenship are just as necessary in expanding the boundaries of inclusion. Drawing on the case of the Rohingya, I will conduct a genealogy of exclusion to illustrate that their status is not merely a product of lacking citizenship, but rather embedded in more elaborate processes of nation building, ethno-political identification, and religious intolerance. This paper challenges the centrality of the concept of legal citizenship through an interrogation of the Rohingya’s exclusion from historical narratives, their ambiguous status, and their current socioeconomic insecurity in an attempt to move the conversation beyond their statelessness and lack of formal status to understand the true nature of their exclusion.
This paper studies the mutual effects of globalization, liberalization and income inequality using a case study of China. Comparing the trends of economic growth and income distribution, it found that the economic reform and opening-up policy promoted China’s rapid growth while inducing an expansion in income disparity. It also found that the income gap had been a force driving China’s high growth in its earlier transition period but began to be an obstacle as the Chinese economy became more globalized and liberalized. To enhance future economic development, China must reduce this inequality.
This paper investigates the role of gender in remittance behavior among migrants using the 2004 Vietnam Migration Survey data. The gender dimension to remittance behavior has not featured strongly in the existing literature and our findings thus contain novel appeal. In addition, it uses estimates from both homoscedastic and heteroscedastic tobit models to decompose the raw gender difference in remittances into treatment and endowment components. It finds little evidence that gender differences in remittances are attributable to behavioral differences between men and women, and this finding is invariant to whether the homoscedastic or heteroscedastic tobit is used in estimation.
This paper explores the dynamics of economic growth, poverty, inequality and migration in Thailand, and evaluates the relevance of Lewis model to Thailand’s long-term development. Thai economy seems to follow the latter part of the Kuznets curve since mid-1990s, amidst the global trend of rising internal inequality. Also, Lewis model’s predictions were not present, both in the overall pattern of internal migration and the labor market conditions in either urban or rural areas. Dualism in Thailand is better characterized by formal/informal dichotomy. However, the Lewis model can be relevant if modified by including the role of foreign workers.
This paper explores why migrants at their destination fare better than nonmigrants, across different socio-economic classes in India, while the general perception of migrants is that they are less endowed than the locally residing population. It explains this by the relatively high elite presence among migrants, dualism of Indian migration (between long-term and circular ones), but mainly by the differences in the levels of education. In India, migration has taken an overall color of increasing the nation-wide inequalities (mainly by heightening the rural–urban gap and urban disparities).
IDMC estimates that as of July 2015 at least 31,400 people are internally displaced as a result of conflict and violence in Indonesia. Nearly all are protracted internally displaced persons (IDPs) who have been living in displacement for more than 15 years. This report details their condition.
ILO instruments have long recognized the potential of bilateral agreements as a good practice in the governance of labour migration flows between countries, and in contributing to the protection of migrant workers. The ILO Migration for Employment Convention (Revised), 1949 (No. 97) recommends: “Whenever necessary or desirable, conclusion of agreements to regulate migration for employment in cases where numbers of migrants are sufficiently large”. This report emphasizes the value of bilateral agreements and explores their potential for enabling safe and equitable labour migration.
The article begins with a discussion of definitional issues regarding human trafficking and modern slavery and then briefly critiques some popular claims regarding each problem. Examples of macro-level research are critically evaluated, followed by a review of micro-level studies that illustrate tremendous variation and complexity in structural arrangements and individuals’ lived experiences. These studies suggest that in this field micro-level research has at least three advantages over grand, macro-level meta-analyses—advantages that are quantitative (i.e., estimating the magnitude of the problem within a measurable universe), qualitative (i.e., documenting complexities in lived experiences), and well suited to formulating contextually appropriate policy and enforcement responses.
This paper analyzes the impact of the Sloping Land Conversion Program (SLCP) on rural labor migration in China. It uses recent survey data from Ningxia Hui Autonomous Region and a difference-in-difference approach to assess the impact of the policy on labor migration decision. It finds a significant effect of the policy: the migration probability increase due to the SLCP policy amounts to 17.5 percentage points in 2008. Furthermore, it highlights the role of policy duration in strengthening the impact of the program on migration. It also find that young, male and Hui nationality individuals are more likely to be impacted by the policy.
This paper first develops a structural micro-founded model of aggregate net migration flow using matching ideas to study how migrants choose between multiple locations using multiple criteria. Migration should reduce inequality in the criteria. Most migration models either do not handle multiple criteria and locations or lack micro foundation. The model predicts that migration flows will be out of all but the top two ranked regions. The empirical work, which uses 1990–1999 Guangdong annual data, confirms this proposition and finds a high degree of common marginal effects of the criteria among 18 locations but also finds increasing regional inequalities.
This paper presents a basic theoretical framework of ethnic identity, i.e., the level of immigrant's commitment to his or her host society as well as the immigrant's commitment to his or her home society. This model can explain the emerging empirical literature which studies the effect of the immigrants' characteristics, such as age, gender, education, religion, age at arrival, stock of immigrants in the host country, etc., on their ethnic identity (such as the Ethnosizer). In addition, this paper can be used as a basis for future empirical and theoretical research on this topic.
This paper considers the interaction between local workers and migrants in the production process of a firm. Both local workers and migrants can invest effort in assimilation activities in order to increase the assimilation of the migrants into the firm and thereby increase their interaction and production activities. The paper considers the effect of the relative size (in the firm) of each group and the cost of activities on the migrants’ assimilation process.
This article unravels the migrants’ incidence of skill mismatch taking into consideration different migration flows. Mismatch is the situation in which workers have jobs for which lower skill levels are required compared to their education. We use a dataset (from a large multi-country web survey) particularly suited to investigate differences in skill mismatch between native and migrant workers. The main advantages are its ample size and the large variety of country of origin and destination combinations, which allows for detailed analysis of different migration flows. This provides an innovative multi-country perspective, including nations and migrants from all continents. We also identify the relation between overeducation and some of the most widely accepted theoretical explanations for the phenomenon among native workers and test whether it holds for migrants. These results are achieved by fulfilling three research objectives, which are to investigate (1) the factors affecting overeducation and whether migrants are more often overqualified, (2) the relation between overeducation and different country of origin and destination combinations, and (3) whether a range of theoretically based assumptions affect the incidence of overeducation and the extent to which they are relevant in the case of migrant workers. Skill mismatch is found to be more common among migrants compared to native workers, although the incidence differs across migrants depending on the country of residence. Differences in the incidence of overeducation between native and migrant workers are not only related to the country of residence but also to the combination of country of origin and destination. When theoretically based assumptions are used to explain overeducation, the relation found for the total population does not always hold in the case of migrants. All these findings are confirmed by both an explorative and a in-depth analysis.
This paper reviews the literature on educational mismatch of immigrants in the labour market of destination countries. It draws on the theoretical arguments postulated in the labour economics literature and discusses their extension in the analysis of the causes and effects of immigrants’ educational mismatch in the destination country. Relevant empirical approaches have been presented which show that immigrants are in general more overeducated than natives and that the reasons for those range from imperfect transferability of human capital to discrimination to perhaps lack of innate ability. It then assesses the state of current literature and proposes an agenda for further research.
Researchers in many fields, such as demography, economics, and sociology, have established various data collection methodologies and principles to answer a range of academic and policy questions on migration. Although the progress has been impressive, some basic challenges remain. This paper addresses some basic, yet fundamental, questions on identification of international migrants and how their various demographic, personal, and human capital characteristics are captured via different data sources. The critical issues are the construction of proper sampling frames in censuses, registers, and surveys and the design of questionnaires in household, labor market, and other relevant surveys. The paper discusses how these data sources can be used to answer policy questions in areas such as labor markets, education, or poverty. The focus is on how some of the existing shortcomings in availability, quality, and relevance of migration data can be overcome via improvements in data collection methods.
This paper connects population aging with international migration. After documenting the trends for both, it reviews the supply-push and demand-pull determinants of migration, focusing particularly on the role of age and aging. It subsequently discusses the literature concerning the implications of migration in the context of aging for labor markets, health and public budgets including the political economy context. Although immigration is sometimes suggested as a solution for the aging problem, the existing academic literature from different fields is more cautious about its role and potential. While large-scale selective immigration might contribute to alleviating demographic pressures, it is unlikely that immigration will increase to the unrealistically large numbers needed.
This paper presents the findings of an experimental study to investigate the causal impact of social identity on individuals’ response to economic incentives. It focuses on China’s household registration (hukou) system which favors urban residents and discriminates against rural residents in resource allocation. Results indicate that making individuals’ hukou status salient and public significantly reduces the performance of rural migrant students on an incentivized cognitive task by 10 percent, which leads to a significant leftward shift of their earnings distribution. The results demonstrate the impact of institutionally imposed social identity on individuals’ intrinsic response to incentives, and consequently on widening income inequality.
This article consists of three parts. The first part deals with theory, and evaluates the pros and cons of government involvement in urban housing and of renting versus ownership. In the second part, the paper summarizes the different housing policies that have been implemented in the United States, Europe, and Asia and suggests that there is a tradeoff between encouraging home ownership and social housing since countries that have favor the former have neglected the latter (like Japan, Spain, etc.). In the third part, these insights are used to address the problem in China. One of the main concerns in Chinese cities is the raising of poverty mainly by “illegal” migrants (who are Chinese rural residents) living in “urban villages”. The paper proposes two steps to fight poverty in Chinese cities. The first one is to require that the Chinese government recognizes these “illegal” migrants by helping them becoming “legal”. The second step is to encourage social housing that directly or indirectly subsidizes housing for the poor.
This paper provides an assessment of the state of scholarly and policy debates on migrant entrepreneurs in development. They are often described as super-entrepreneurs who contribute to development through (i) being more entrepreneurial than natives; (ii) providing remittances that fund start-ups in their countries of origin and (iii) returning entrepreneurial skills to their home countries when they re-migrate. The paper evaluates these three views and concludes that the empirical evidence to support the notion of the migrant as a superentrepreneur is weak. It further argues that the evidence is less ambiguous on the general development contribution of migration over and above its contribution through entrepreneurship. The implication is that removal of discriminatory barriers against migrants and against migrant entrepreneurs in labour, consumer and financial markets will promote development in both sending and receiving countries, not least through reducing the shares of migrants that are reluctant entrepreneurs.
One of the well-known barriers to development is persistence of disadvantage among communities. The lack of occupational and therefore upward social mobility continues to restrain households from achieving socially desirable outcomes. This paper studies the effect of short-term internal migration experience on the intergenerational persistence of industry upon a migrant’s return to native place. We develop an occupational choice model of a return migrant to study the relationship between the migrant’s savings, skill or any other productive asset accumulation during migration and the decision to work upon return, in the industry where his/her father is employed. Using data from a nationally representative sample survey, we find that short-term migration by males reduces the probability of intergenerational persistence by 20% in rural India. Migration to urban areas, work experience in a different industry and higher frequency of migration reduce the return migrant’s chance of being employed in the industry where his father is employed. The results suggest that skill formation during migration can play a key role in reducing labour market inequality by weakening the strength of intergenerational transmission of disadvantages.
This study carried out by Labour Resource Centre (LRC) of SAVE, Tiruppur attempts to determine the garment production mobility in terms of garment workers involvement in the production, wages prevailing in the industries and worker’s violation at workplace. Three pronged approaches were used in the data collection viz., industrial survey, focused group discussion and interview schedule survey. In industrial survey 25 industries were survey, in focused group discussion a group of 7 workers of various industries were interviewed, 120 individual workers were interviewed using interview schedule tool. Most of sampled industries are manufacturing and exporting garments in the ranges of 50000 to 80000 pieces per month. Seven tenth of the sampled industries are making an annual turnover of rupees 7 crores to 9 crores. Majority of the workers are in the adult age group of 28 to 37 years. Women workers are observed high in garment industries in equal proportion with the men workers. Psychological and sexual abuses are more prevalent in the industries, of whom women are more vulnerable.
Labor migration from and within Asia is a key component of international migration flows, underlined over several years during the annual Roundtable on Labor Migration in Asia organized by the Asian Development Bank Institute (ADBI), the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), and the International Labour Organization (ILO). Most of Asia’s labor migration occurs within the region or in countries of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) and mainly comprises lesser-skilled labor. However, Asian migrants remain an essential element of labor markets in Europe, North America, and the Pacific island countries, and contribute significantly to the most-skilled categories thereof. This report summarizes the main trends in migration from and within Asia. The first section provides a discussion of labor migration flows to Asian and Middle East countries. This is followed by a description of flows from Asia to OECD countries. International students—for which Asia is the fastest-growing region of origin—are then discussed, followed by the key characteristics of Asian migrants to OECD countries in terms of skill level and labor market outcomes. Finally, an overview of trends in remittances is provided.
Culture is not new to the study of migration. It has lurked beneath the surface for some time, occasionally protruding openly into the discussion, usually under some pseudonym. The authors bring culture into the open. They are concerned with how culture manifests itself in the migration process for three groups of actors: the migrants, those remaining in the sending areas, and people already living in the recipient locations. The topics vary widely. What unites the authors is an understanding that though actors behave differently, within a group there are economically important shared beliefs (customs, values, attitudes, etc.), which we commonly refer to as culture. Culture and identity play a central role in our understanding of migration as an economic phenomenon; but what about them matters? Properly, we should be looking at the determinants of identity and the determinants of culture (prices and incomes, broadly defined). But this is not what is done. Usually identity and culture appear in economics articles as a black box. Here we try to begin to break open the black box.
This paper examines an atypical south-north labour migration that emerged in the postsocialist international migration system: China-to-South Korea ethnic labour migration. In the past two decades, South Korea has experienced an unprecedented increase in the arrival of foreign labour. The majority of the low-skilled migrant workers come from the People’s Republic of China. Based on a multivariate analysis of primary survey data on 525 predominantly undocumented Chinese migrants of Korean descent in Seoul, this study reveals the underexplored economic dimension of ethnic migration in Northeast Asia. Empirical findings on this source of migrant labour in South Korea demonstrate that the China-to-South Korea ethnic population movement is an important yet an unknown dimension of the New Economics of International Labour Migration. The study suggests that ethnic migration from a socialist transition economy to a capital-rich economy linked through ancestral connections must be (re)considered in the context of the changing global migration and demographic landscapes, rather than the ethno-nationally romanticised view of the return of diaspora.
Street vendors’ rights to carry on their trade in public spaces, has been the subject matter of debate and discussion in India for a while. In fact it has taken numerous judgments of the Supreme Court and High Court to recognise their rights and shape up a statutory regime. Despite this, the sight of street vendors being harassed at the hands of municipal authorities or police officials remains a common occurrence, and their wares are constantly confiscated. This scenario raises an important question, as to what kind of property rights are granted to these street vendors. This paper explores the protection afforded to street vendors which effectively defends their right to property, especially with regard to the recent piece of legislation i.e. the Street Vendors (Protection of Livelihood and Regulation of Street Vending) Act, 2014.
This report presents a summary of evidence for the dynamics of India's urban transition. Migration is a key feature to understanding urban shifts. The growing youth population holds tremendous potential for growth, and it is vital to map their shifts in order to understand the kind of opportunities available to them. Urbanisation will play a major role in changing social relations, and this paper maps key data sets to present urbanisation trends in India.
The main focus of this paper is to examine the performance, outcomes and impact of MGNREGA Scheme on beneficiary households. This article is based on a field survey carried out in 2010 in three villages in Mahabubnagar district of Telangana State, India. This study adopted a multi-stage random sampling method. The study found that majority of the job card holders are only able to get employment/work between 30-60 days and receive wages maximum between Rs.60 to 70 per day wherein wage discrimination was prevalent in line with gender. It concludes by saying that the government sponsored employment programme has indeed given rural poor a sense of hope about livelihood security through guaranteed employment. On the other hand, the scheme is defected in providing full employment days, wages and thus unable to prevent the working class from migrating to cities/towns in search of employment.
The health conditions and mobility patterns of female migrant workers are subjects that sit at the crossroads of multiple pressing issues, best understood in the context of social, economic and political disparities in the global landscape. This research focuses on domestic, factory and sex work – all of which are typically underpaid, characterized by poor working conditions with little or no protection from the state. The comprehensive mapping of the occupational lives of migrant women realized through both qualitative and quantitative research frames the discussion on how occupational demands impact on the general and reproductive health of migrant women. The analysis and findings of this research are meant to provide information and support to Thailand’s national HIV/AIDS control program for a more sensitive and responsive implementation of their outreach operations. In addition, these are also meant to inform the practice of policy makers, health care providers, and organizations working with migrant women.
The need to reduce ‘demand’ for trafficked persons is widely mentioned in the anti-trafficking sector but few have looked at ‘demand’ critically or substantively. Some ‘demand’-based approaches have been heavily critiqued, such as the idea that eliminating sex workers’ clients (or the ‘demand’ for commercial sex) through incarceration or stigmatisation will reduce trafficking. This publications explores the links between trafficking and: (1) the demand for commercial sex, and (2) the demand for exploitative labour practices. Current approaches used to reduce each of these types of ‘demand’ are assessed and have considered other long-term approaches that can reduce the demand for exploitative practices while respecting workers’ and migrants’ rights (e.g. enforcing labour standards, reducing discrimination against migrants, supporting sex workers’ rights).
The Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW) is an international human rights treaty which aims to eliminate all forms of discrimination against women and to promote equal rights between men and women worldwide. CEDAW is of great significance to trafficking in women and the exploitation of migrant women workers because it obliges states to uphold, promote, protect, respect and fulfil many rights which are critical in preventing and eliminating trafficking in women and the exploitation of migrant women workers and ensuring that adequate and rights enhancing protections and remedies are afforded to those affected. Accordingly, this toolkit provides guidance to NGOs engaging in the CEDAW review process. It hopes to enable NGO reporting to provide more thorough information on the situation of trafficking in women and the exploitation of women migrant workers 7 and to link these areas of concern with migration, labour and discrimination issues. It also provides lobbying tools for NGOs to facilitate effective advocacy to the Committee on these issues, in order that the Committee is better equipped to address trafficking and the exploitation of migrant women workers with states under review.
This briefing document from IOM addresses the risks of human trafficking associated with conflict situations, and presents a recommended response strategy.
This set of three papers explores new urban spaces and accumulation under post-colonial capitalism, through the themes of infrastructure and the new urban political subject, migrant labour, and communal identity.
Data for 2014-15 shows that children under 14 years still account for nearly 25% of the total workforce in cottonseed farms in India. In 2014-15, a total of around 200,000 children below 14 years were employed in cottonseed farms in Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Gujarat, Tamil Nadu, Karnataka and Rajasthan states. Gujarat, which has the largest cottonseed production area in the country accounts for nearly 55% of the total children employed in this sector (110,000). The persistence of child labour on a large scale is due to the limited coverage and insufficient impact of the present interventions. This report presents a comprehensive overview of child labour in the hybrid cottonseed industry in India.
This paper presents an economic model of human trafficking that encompasses all known economic factors that affect human trafficking both across and within national borders. The authors envision human trafficking as a monopolistically competitive industry in which traffickers act as intermediaries between vulnerable individuals and employers by supplying differentiated products to employers. In the human trafficking market, the consumers are employers of trafficked labour and the products are human beings. Using a rational-choice framework of human trafficking the paper explains the social situations that shape relocation and working decisions of vulnerable populations leading to human trafficking, the impetus for being a trafficker, and the decisions by employers of trafficked individuals. The goal of this paper is to provide a common ground upon which policymakers and researchers can collaborate to decrease the incidence of trafficking in humans.
Human trafficking, over 20 percent of which is trafficking in children, is believed to be a multi-billion dollar industry. This report presents findings from a rights awareness and legal assistance program in four districts of West Bengal.
In this paper, the author explores the definition and the characteristics of trafficking of girls and women, and the grounds for complete citizenship. The article then goes on to examine whether statelessness is a de jure phenomenon or a de facto reality. Before concluding, the paper studies the relationship between trafficking and statelessness within refugee camps. Data for this paper is drawn from West Bengal.
Bangladesh, India, Nepal and Sri Lanka have all taken steps in the right direction to combat human trafficking; however, there is a need to look closely at country specific laws to understand where the gaps lie. It is in the light of this, that a Legal and Policy Review of Responses to Human Trafficking has been taken up. This Report looks at the law and policy, especially in the context of the Protocol, supplementing work already available in different studies.
Different policies are required for different types of human mobility related to climatic changes. Hence, it is necessary to distinguish between migration, displacement and planned relocation in climate policy and operations. The purpose of this Policy Brief is to help distinguish between human migration, displacement and planned relocation and present state-of-the-art thinking about some of the key issues related to addressing these in the context of climate policy.
This note provides a practical guide to collecting and compiling statistics on specific categories of informal workers. The methods discussed can be used in designing questions in surveys to collect data on these workers. It can also be used in preparing tabulations based on the survey data.
Seasonal employment in the rural economy at a wage rate below subsistence level forces underprivileged labourers to migrate for survival. Brick kilns in India are a major destination for migrant labourers, who are tied to them for the production season after accepting advance wages from agents. Based on the livelihood conditions of the migrant labourers and their indebtedness, this paper points out these migrations have to be seen as forced. The labourers remain in inter-kiln circulation, but are prevented from moving on because of their limited skills and social networks. They return home to repay a never-ending debt and again receive advance wages for the next season--renewing a cycle of debt and migration for survival.
Migrant labourers, free from rural bondage, are now bonded to other sources of debt, contracted from the agro-industry or construction sectors. The flows of migration in the brick-making and sugar cane sectors in Tamil Nadu, where bondage coexists with many public welfare schemes, illustrate the persistence and renewal of this phenomenon. The welfare schemes play the role of a safety net, but also contribute to low wages, and impunity on the part of employers. Alliances between capital and the state, through the politicisation of employers, are instrumental in the continuation of all forms of labour exploitation. When workers resist, employers tighten working conditions and start recruiting migrants from North India. And even if these forms of labour management obey a capitalist logic, they are inseparable from the caste hierarchy.
IDMC's discussion paper provides an updated estimate of the number of IDPs in Sri Lanka, examines the dynamics of protracted displacement in the country and assesses current challenges and prospects for durable solutions. It aims to inform discussions between the government and humanitarian and development actors on how to tackle protracted displacement, particularly in relation to a durable solutions strategy and return plan which are currently being drafted. Sri Lanka’s experience of internal displacement illustrates how long-term displacement is often a development challenge that needs to be addressed first and foremost by governments and also by supporting development actors.
This working paper examines the migration drivers into the two low-paid and insecure occupations of domestic work and construction work from rural areas in Indonesia. While the ideas of migration exist in Indonesia’s social imagination, the decision making process on whether to migrate and who should migrate in the household is complicated by the gendered migration regimes, gender roles and responsibilities within the household as well as intergenerational family obligations. Traditional gender ideals see men as the more appropriate labour migrant (both internally and overseas). However, women have greater access to labour migration, especially to international markets, due to the availability of credit offered to facilitate their movement. In this paper, we investigate how migrants and their households exercise their agency in the context of structural gendered constraints. We found that some households reshuffle household roles and responsibilities to maximise economic gains through women’s migration, while men stay behind to take care of the household. Other households are immobilised by the gendered migration regimes where no one in the household migrates because men are unable to afford migration financially, while women are constrained by their household responsibilities. Other households make conscious decisions to work only within Indonesia (both men and women) or reject migration in favour of spending more time with their family members.
This paper attempts to examine recent research done on street vendors in Asia with the aim of assessing the magnitude of street vending in different countries and the composition of the vendors. Further, it collates information on the extent of unionisation of the vendors and other organisations, such as non-government organisations (NGOs), self-help organisations (SHOs), advocacy groups, etc, that work for their welfare.
There are an estimated 750 million internal migrants in the world, yet the effects of access to internal migration for rural households are not well understood. Internal migrants may provide wealth transfers, insurance or credit to households remaining in rural areas. This paper exploits two unique features of China's history to study the impact of relaxing migration constraints on the outcomes and choices of agricultural households: reforms to the household registration (hukou) system that relaxed restrictions on migration, and historical, centrally-planned migration flows. This paper suggests that historical flows of temporary migration due to a government policy called the ``sent-down youth'' (SDY) program created lasting inter-province links, so that decades later, reforms to the hukou system in cities which sent SDY increased migration in provinces where those SDY were sent. Using this variation, we find that improved access to migration leads to higher levels of consumption and lower consumption volatility for rural households. Furthermore, household production decisions change, with a shift into high-risk, high-return activities including animal husbandry and fruit farming.
Hawkers and vendors are among those who are the most regulated but the least acknowledged. Their contribution to the national economy has seldom been computed by government. In this hand book efforts have been made to include judgments of the Supreme Court and High Court and specific provisions of Municipal and Police Laws affecting the day to day affairs of the street vendors. Right from 1989 Sodan Singh judgment of Supreme Court, it covers all possible judgments concerning street vending. The handbook is designed to facilitate effective support to advocates, policy maker and vendors.
Street vendors – and the mode of production and consumption that their livelihood constitutes and represents - are ubiquitous in every city across the world today precisely because the problem of production has not truly been solved. Street vending – a phenomenon as ancient as urban settlement itself – represents in many ways the modest (and less belligerently confrontational) fore-runner to the occupy movements that grip our cities today. As India ushers in an era of foreign investment in retail trade, a critical examination of the context of street vending in India enables an appreciation of deeper theoretical issues concerning culture, citizenship, commodification, consumption, public space, social movements, and constitutional fairness. While this essay focuses on an admittedly eclectic range of themes and categories of analysis, the hope is that the reader is nonetheless left with a sense of what is at stake in ongoing discussions on market reforms and urban street vending in India. Please note, this essay was first published online on Azim Premji University's Law, Governance and Development Initiative (LGDI) blog.
An understanding of the dynamics working in the vending sector in urban Bihar is indispensable for policy purposes. Therefore, a comprehensive vending sector assessment comprising a two stage survey of the street vendors in 28 project towns of Bihar, followed by an analysis and interpretation has been undertaken. This report is a presentation of this exercise.
Recent statistics show the majority of workers in developing countries earn their livelihoods in the informal economy. The Informal Economy Monitoring Study (IEMS) is a qualitative and quantitative study designed to evaluate the reality of informal livelihoods. In Ahmedabad, WIEGO partnered with the Self-Employed Women’s Association, a trade union of women informal workers. This study reflects economic driving forces, policies and practices of local governments, value change dynamics; and suggests policy recommendations based on the findings.
This paper presents an overview of the situation of street vendors in India, and highlights national-level interventions, moves towards organizing vendors, and an insight into the place of street vendors in the urban economy.
The purpose of this paper is to provide a summary analysis of five case studies prepared for the 2013 World Development Report team that illustrate why and how the representative voice and economic rights of urban informal workers should be promoted. Section 1 provides a statistical overview of the urban informal workforce, including: the official statistical definition of informal employment, recent data on non-agricultural employment (a proxy for urban employment data which are not readily available), and the first-ever published data on the four groups of urban informal workers featured in the case studies and this paper. Section 2 explains what platforms for representative voice and what types of economic rights urban informal workers need—and demand - and why the voice and rights of these workers is of such critical importance today. Section 3 presents a summary of five case studies.
Street vending is an important source of livelihood for nearly 2.5% of the Indian population. A substantial number of vendors are found in urban areas. This paper explores to success of the Bhubaneshwar Vending Zones, which are dedicated market spaces for street vendors set up by the municipality, and their potential for replication in other cities in India.
Crucial for displaced people is citizenship (or the lack of it). In conventional terms, citizenship is seen as political membership in a given nation-state through which citizens possess civil, political, economic and social rights. Most states, however, have groups within them who do not belong and are denied citizenship rights, even though they may have formal citizenship. In particular, displaced people (both within and crossing borders) are denied formal citizenship and rights but are claiming them, subjectively seeing their de facto experience as lived citizenship. This paper explores the informal processes and feelings of belonging through case study examples, linking them to changing dynamics in different displacement regimes (e.g. refugee, IDP – internally displaced people – and DID – (development-induced displacement).
India is neither party to the 1951 Convention on Refugees nor the 1967 Protocol. The lack of specific refugee legislation in India has led the government to adopt an ad hoc approach to different refugee influxes. The status of refugees in India is governed mainly by political and administrative decisions rather than any codified model of conduct. The ad hoc nature of the Government’s approach has led to varying treatment of different refugee groups. Some groups are granted a full range of benefits including legal residence and the ability to be legally employed, whilst others are criminalized and denied access to basic social resources.
As India has embarked upon economic reforms during the 1990s, published data from the 2001 Census provides an opportunity to study the country's urbanization process with reference to regional inequality and to the contribution of the components of urban growth, namely, natural increase, emergence of new towns, and the net contribution of rural to urban migration. India has more than 4000 cities and towns, which comprise 28 per cent of India's population of 1028 million as enumerated in 2001. However, about two-fifths of India's urban population live in only 35 metropolitan cities. The rate of urban population growth slowed down during the 1990s despite the increased rate of rural to urban migration due to a significant decline in natural increase in urban areas. This has led to an observable slowdown in the pace of India's urbanization.
This briefing summarises the effects of the temporary absence of migrant men on women’s livelihoods in rural West Bengal, India, and northern Bangladesh. It discusses how temporary work migration by men often increases insecurity in women and children living in poor households, by leading to food shortages, financial pressure or ill-health. In these instances, informal social protection from kin or social relations can be instrumental in reducing and overcoming insecurity and hardship for those women who stay behind. Despite the increased risks, the temporary absence of migrant men can sometimes facilitate greater autonomy for women, allowing them to manage their own work and take decisions on household needs.
This review of the published academic literature on internal and regional migration for domestic work shows a dearth of studies on internal migration for domestic work in South Asia. The existing literature is heavily dominated by papers on the transnational migration of domestic workers from South East and East Asia which examine in detail the shortcomings of the legal framework for regulating working conditions and recruitment practices resulting in little protection for migrant workers against exploitation. The paper highlights the serious lack of attention paid to the impacts of migration for domestic work on poverty levels within families in source areas. This is a significant gap in the literature given that migration is usually a household decision in which one member migrates to access more remunerative employment and remit money home. The paper offers a number of suggestions for improving the evidence base on this important migration stream.
As in many developing countries, Indian street vendors constitute a substantial proportion of the informal sector, providing affordable goods to the urban poor and filling a valuable economic and social role in the urban cityscape. There are an estimated 10 million street vendors in India and 350,000 in New Delhi alone. These workers are disproportionately women. Contrary to previously held assumptions, the number of informal sector workers in India has been growing rather than shrinking. Yet street vendors struggle at the margins of the economy, facing police harassment, arbitrary restrictions on their work, and local officials hostile to informal markets. This working paper addresses the opportunity created by the Indian Supreme Court to shape Indian street vending laws and regulations through the construction of a comprehensive national framework. Based upon an international comparison of street vending regulatory approaches, it examines possible frameworks and provisions that Indian policymakers may consider during the legislative drafting process and suggests approaches that street vendor advocates may want to propose.
Muslim women have remained invisible in the larger discourse on migration. This paper shows how Muslim women who have migrated to Jamia Nagar in Delhi are leading a more fulfilling life in their new locality, as is evident from the fact that they claim to have migrated for social security, well-being, better opportunities and higher education. Many of them are fleeing from small-town prejudices and overbearing families. However, it is also true that while Muslim women, belonging to different socio-economic backgrounds seek mobility, this is often achieved within the rubric of familial and community strategies of both migration and of living together as members of the same community in a territorial space marked out as their own. This has certain implications that both facilitate as well as impede their need for employment, safety and autonomy. Legal and policy frameworks must pay more attention to women migrants to create a gender sensitive migration policy.
Migration provides a pool of labour that becomes the backbone of any growing economy. A study on the status of migrants working in industries of Ludhiana city found that they experienced changes in their social, economic and cultural status after migration. Despite discrimination and exploitation they continued to work out of desperation. While they saved a meagre amount which they remitted home to their families, their overall economic condition improved post-migration.
The findings of this study, undertaken in 12 sick and closed tea gardens in Jalpaiguri district, demonstrate the close link between vulnerabilities, migration, and trafficking in children and women. It also suggests there have been changes in the nature of human trafficking in the country, calling for a new policy perspective on the issue.
This study seeks to contribute to a better understanding of precarious employment, highlighting its association with migration through the prism of the private security industry in Goa. In light of rising social anxiety about poor, disenfranchised migrants in India, this article explores the political-economic conditions that give rise to their precarious employment, highlighting the prevalent practice of subcontracting and the associated lax regulation, which render workers vulnerable to exploitation. The research illustrates the power that the state wields, not only in regulation and law enforcement, but also as a principal employer. It concludes with recommendations for policy and action that can lead to greater protection of workers in precarious employment.
Focusing on female migrant domestic workers from Jharkhand, this article looks at their lives before and after migration. Jharkhand witnesses heavy migration and mobility to cities like Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata, especially female migration. Girls and young women coming from marginalised communities migrate through different means and organisations like placement agencies, religious institutions or with the help of friends or relatives. Most of them get into the unorganised sector such as domestic work. Lack of social security measures continues to be a major challenge and a source of distress for these workers.
This technical paper provides evidence-based estimates of the likelihood of disaster-induced displacement in Afghanistan, Bangladesh, Bhutan, India, the Maldives, Nepal, Pakistan and Sri Lanka. It attempts to better quantify human displacement risk. It brings together data from several sources – notably the Global Assessment Reports (GARs) and the Asia-Pacific Disaster Report of the United Nations International Strategy for Disaster Reduction (UNISDR), national disaster loss inventory databases (DesInventar) and IDMC’s Global Estimates – in order to better quantify human displacement risk. Applying a probabilistic risk model, it is one of the first attempts to assess how many people are at risk of being displaced by natural hazard-related disasters.
The research draws on interviews with rural-urban migrant construction workers in Kathmandu as well as with families of construction workers, other migrant labourers and non-migrants in two contrasting villages in the Karve district in Central Nepal and Saptari district in the Terai. Interviews at destination show that migrant construction labourers are poorly educated, not organised and vulnerable to exploitative working conditions at the hands of agents and employers. Despite tough working conditions and high expenses in the city, a majority of migrants remitted money to their families. Remittances were used for a variety of poverty reducing and social status enhancing purposes. Interviews at origin showed how social structure and factors related to class, gender and ethnicity influenced the necessity and ability to participate in migrant construction work. Households with construction migrants and households with other types of migrants (labourers) were better off than non-migrants, and subjective assessments by the migrants, their families and others in the village community suggest that migration had led to positive changes. Expenditure figures also show that there are significant differences between spending on education by migration status and type. In both villages, construction migrants spent more on education than other migrants and non-migrants. Women’s control over remittance spending differed by ethnicity, with Tamang women belonging to indigenous hill communities having more control over household finances compared to Madhesi women in the Terai. The paper explores the reasons for these observed differences and offers lessons for policy in the area of migrant support.
As the redistributive state gradually retreated from the economic sphere to give place to a competitive labor market, those who used to be under the protection of state egalitarian policies tended to lose out and face more disadvantages in the labor markets, whereas those who used to be discriminated against by the socialist state tended to gain more opportunities from economic liberalizations. These predictions are verified by the empirical evidence from Xinjiang in Northwestern China based on an analysis of a sample from the population mini-census in 2005. This paper argues that Han and Uyghur Chinese were segregated into different economic sectors. The Han-Uyghur earnings gap was negligible in government or public institutions, but it increased with the marketization of the employment sector. On the other hand, Han migrants in economic sectors enjoyed particular earnings advantages and hukou registration status had no impact on earnings attainment except in government or public institutions. The findings shed new lights on the relationship between ethnicity, migration, and nationalism in the context of China’s economic transition.
Presenting a critical review of the issues in labour market reforms in India, this article places them against the backdrop of trends in labour force participation and formal/informal employment in the organised/unorganised sectors. Critically assessing the theoretical literature on labour market flexibility in the advanced economies, discussions in the Government of India's Economic Survey and the evidence in India, it asks if the reforms aimed at making the labour market more flexible will succeed in raising the economic growth rate and generating more employment, as advocates of labour market reform would have us believe.
Labour inspections could, in theory, improve labour standards and help countries move towards decent work goals and the elimination of chronic poverty. But, in practice, inspections are either not conducted or do not result in penalties for those who break the law. Using the case of India, and examining labour contracts and standards in selected informal agricultural and non-agricultural occupations, the author identifies the reasons for this state of affairs: corrupt and under-resourced labour departments; subcontracting arrangements where employer–employee relationships are difficult to prove; little political commitment to improving labour standards; and poor coverage of new categories of work by existing labour laws. The paper also documents how, in the absence of an effective labour inspection machinery, civil society organisations and the media have successfully mobilised consumers and NGOs in the West to put pressure on suppliers in global value chains to improve labour standards and eliminate child labour. Those sectors that are being watched include the garment industry, stone quarries, the carpet industry and cottonseed production, all of which have links with rich countries. But occupations in sectors that are not linked to the outside world, such as work in sugar fields and in construction, continue to violate labour laws with impunity. The author concludes that regulation is important in a context where employer–employee relations are highly unequal and where workers in the informal sector are adversely incorporated into markets and value chains. More political commitment from national governments and more resources from governments and donors are needed for improving labour standards, and conventional inspections need to be replaced by multi-party inspections involving the media, researchers, NGOs, advocacy groups and human rights organisations. The author also concludes that, contrary to popular belief, there is a need for new legislation for categories of work that fall outside existing legislation.
This study explores the general profile, educational status, activities performed and income of the migratory child labour vis-a-vis the natives engaged in agricultural activities in Punjab. The study details findings about the age groups, work practices, and living and working conditions of these children, explores the status of their education, and presents recommendations for the improvement of their access to schooling.
Millions of children in India toil as virtual slaves, unable to escape the work that will leave them impoverished, illiterate, and often crippled by the time they reach adulthood. These are India’s bonded child laborers. A majority of them are Dalits, so-called untouchables. Bound to their employers in exchange for a loan, they are unable to leave while in debt and earn so little they may never be free of it. This report focuses on bonded child labor in India’s silk industry. Boiling cocoons, hauling baskets of mulberry leaves, and embroidering saris: children are working at every stage of the silk industry. Conservatively, more than 350,000 children are producing silk thread and helping to weave saris. These stages are the focus of this report because they are the stages most reliant on bonded children. The children work twelve or more hours a day, six and a half or seven days a week, under conditions of physical and verbal abuse.
Child labour is a complex problem basically rooted in poverty. The Government of India has formulated policies since the economic reforms of the early 1990s. Children under fourteen comprise 3.6 per cent of the total labour force in India. Nearly eighty-five per cent are engaged in the traditional agricultural sector, less than nine per cent in manufacturing, services and repairs and only about 0.8 per cent are in factories. The elimination of child labour is a priority and is being implemented at the grass roots level in India. A large number of non-governmental and voluntary organizations are involved in this process along with national and international organisations. This paper reviews the child labour situation in India and analyses the effect of globalisation on child labour.
A short documentary on the lives of children trafficked to work in Bt Cotton fields in Gujarat, highlighting the exploitation and abuse faced by these child workers and the importance of education in countering child labour.
This paper examines the sources of inequality of income opportunity in the Himalayan state of Uttarakhand. It is based on data collected from a survey over three clusters in disparate geographical regions of the state. The econometric analyses show that the rural sector lags in household income opportunities not just due to lesser access to educational opportunities, but also due to non-educational factors, and because the same education provides unequal incomes between the sectors. The analysis also reveals other sources of inequality such as the age and gender composition of the households. Moreover the implications of such factors vary between hilly and plain areas. The study highlights the need to address the quality of education and to design policies specific to regional demands.
This case study is one of three carried out at selected sites in India, Nepal, and Pakistan to look at the phenomenon of migration, and the flow of remittances, in the western Hindu Kush-Himalayas. Migration in the Hindu Kush-Himalayas (HKH), as in other mountain areas of the world, is not a new phenomenon. In the next decade, migration will continue to grow in the HKH and other mountain areas of the world, driven by the global financial crisis, food insecurity, climate change, globalisation, and escalating income disparities. As mountain migration is a highly engendered process, with mostly men leaving and women staying behind, it is of particular importance to better understand the effects of this mostly male outmigration in order to develop (gender) sensitive solutions to improve the development relevance of remittances. To address the lack of information, three case studies were carried out in India, Nepal, and Pakistan looking at migration in general, and the flow of remittances in particular, at the different sites. The present report presents the results of the case study in Uttarakhand, India.
The Cambodian Rural Urban Migration Project conducted a three-survey study of rural migration to Phnom Pehn. This study locates the boom in migration to Cambodia's capital city in terms of the Cambodian historical, economic and demographic context. The first tool was a survey of 1,000 migrants currently living in Phnom Penh. The second was a survey of 4,500 rural households around the country, divided into those with and without recent migrants. The third was a survey of 375 village chiefs who are knowledgeable informants about the villages in which the rural household survey took place. The main aim of the project was to collect survey data that allow examination of characteristics of migrants and investigation into the linkages between migration and welfare of individuals, families and communities.
According to the Internal Displacement Monitoring Centre (IDCM), by the end of 2009, there were approximately 27.1 million people displaced due to conflict, generalised violence or human rights violations across the world. Apart from Pakistan and Afghanistan, it is Sri Lanka which has being confronted with challenges of IDPs.
This paper investigates the complex relationship between disasters, migration and poverty in a case study carried out in one of the poorest and most disaster-prone countries in the world. The focus was set on individual household and community adaptation strategies. Original in this study is the explicit testing of the effectiveness of adaptive coping strategies to reduce the damage cost and its consequences to the social structural changes.
Global warming, riding on spiralling emissions, has been bringing about irrevocable changes in the climate and environmental systems around the globe. For citizens of the world, especially for the poor and impoverished who depend on natural resources for their lives and livelihoods, mere survival now means negotiating through substantial additional burdens and challenges. In other words, they must now adapt to more hostile environments for their sustenance.
Research has been done on the economic factors determining why people migrate for work. Labor migration from Purulia in colonial and post-colonial times has been least discussed from the ecological point of view. However, some recent studies from different parts of India show that deforestation has exacerbated migration of both men and women. The present paper seeks to argue that environmental crises in indigenous belts of habitation create difficulties in survival and ultimately force people to migrate.
Post-reform China has been experiencing two major demographic changes, an extraordinary amount of internal migration and an aging population. This paper presents a general migration model which captures the idea that older migrants have shorter durations in the destination but possibly larger general human capital to transfer. Therefore, the incentive to migrate is ambiguously related to age. The paper suggests that shifts in China’s age distribution have generated significant changes in the country’s migration patterns.
The present paper assesses the social and economic situation of people living in Chhattisgarh and the factors responsible for their migration to other towns and cities in search of better livelihood and better quality of life. In Chhattisgarh, counter insurgency measures such as the creation of a popular movement to resist naxalist groups, Salwa Judum,has led to the forcible displacement of people throughout Bhairamgarh, Geedam Bijapur areas, under police and administrative supervision. According to official estimates approximately 15,000 people from 420 villages are living as refugees in temporary camps. People have left behind their cattle and most of their household goods.
Markets for insurance and credit are often missing in developing countries. As a result, households often insure each other through complex systems of inter-household loans and transfers. To understand the economic benefits of migration, as well as design policies to help households address income risk, it is necessary to therefore understand how households make decisions about migration and informal insurance at the same time. This study looks at the economic effects of temporary migration in South India, in particular.
The reform of China's "hukou system" seems to be gathering momentum. The hukou system is a household registration system, which splits the population into urban and rural residents. In the context of growing urbanization pressures in China, a hukou reform is increasingly becoming both an economic and political necessity.
Economic theories portray wage differences and income-diversification as key determinants of rural-urban migration in developing countries. This paper develops a dynamic theory where economic and social variables work in tandem to shape and accelerate such movement.
Street vendors are often migrants from rural areas in search of livelihoods. For most street vendors, trading from the pavements is full of uncertainties. They are constantly harassed by the authorities, and are seen as outsiders and encroachers by the urban middle class.
In 2003-2004 the National Commission for Women sponsored a series of five Public Hearings on the Status of Women Construction Workers, in the State capitals of Jaipur, Bangalore, Delhi, Mumbai and Patna. The Report and recommendations of these Hearings are included in this document.
The current dominance of neoliberal globalisation has led to an attack on social protection systems around the world. Many citizens are experiencing the loss of social protection entitlements leading to increasing disparities and insecurity for many workers. The increase in informalisation of work functions to place many workers in less secure contexts. Structural adjustment policies in most developing countries have led to an increase in the informal sector of work. Social protection has become an urgent issue for all workers; especially low skilled migrant workers who face triple disadvantages of discrimination, marginalisation and vulnerability and are often excluded from social security benefits.
Few issues in the lives of the world’s poor receive more attention from rich country observers than child labour. Child labour is often perceived as a form of child abuse, and popular opinion in high income countries seems to believe that child labour stems from opportunistic businessmen seeking cheap labour and callous parents happy to live off the earnings of their children. Thus, economic growth and the economic gains from global integration either will not affect child labour or may increase it by expanding the earnings opportunities open to children. Consequently, lowering the demand for child labour in poor countries is a main focus of anti-child labour policies. Moreover, governments in both the U.S. and Europe have committed to employing punitive, income-reducing measures such as trade sanctions to punish countries with high levels of child labour. This labour demand focused policy has been developed in an environment where surprisingly little is known about the determinants of child labour. The aim of this study is to better understand the determinants of child labour through a careful, empirical analysis of household survey data on child labour from three Asian economies: Nepal, Pakistan, and Vietnam.
Feminized migration has increased inequality and injustice based on gender, class and nationality in Asia. It has also, however, opened up opportunities for migrant women to increase family incomes and for Asia’s growing civil society to challenge oppressive policies and practices affecting migrants. Although many legal and institutional barriers to social justice remain in labour-importing countries, civil actions by citizens and migrants comprise significant steps toward the realization of migrant workers’rights.
This paper examines the growth experience of twenty states of India during the period 1961-91, using cross-sectional estimation and the analytical framework of the Solow-Swan neoclassical growth model. We find evidence of absolute convergence--initially-poor states did indeed grow faster than their initially-rich counterparts. There has also been a widening of the dispersion of real per capita state incomes over the period 1961-91. However, relatively more grants were transferred from the central government to the poor states than to their rich counterparts. Significant barriers to population flows also exist, as net migration from poor to rich states responded only weakly to cross-state income differentials.
The proposition that climate change will or could generate international security concerns has become prominent in public discourse over the last few years. Various think tanks, government agencies and non-governmental organisations have produced reports on climate change, conflict and national security in which they argue not only that a substantial proportion of humanity could be “on the move” as a result of climate change but that migration could be a major factor in the chain of events that link climate change to violent conflict. Yet much of that literature remains poorly informed by research on the demographics of migration and the kinds of choices that people and communities make about mobility. Nor does it pay sufficient attention to the human insecurities that can result from climate change and, when it does occur, migration both within states and across borders as a result of the impacts of climate change.
Millions of footloose and impoverished men, women and children in India, migrate from the countryside each year to cities – in crowded trains, buses, trucks and sometimes on foot – their modest belongings bundled over their heads, in search of the opportunities and means to survive. Some arrive alone; some are accompanied by family or friends. Some stay for a season, some several years, some permanently. Many tend to drift quickly to low-end, low paid, vulnerable occupations – picking waste, pulling rickshaws, constructing buildings and roads, or working in people’s homes. They service a city which does not welcome them. Forever treated as intruders and somehow illegitimate citizens, they live in under-served makeshift shanties, under plastic sheets, or on streets and in night shelters. Police and municipal authorities notoriously harass and drive them away. Laws protect them in theory, but rarely in practice. Their wage rates tend to be exploitative, illegal and uncertain, works hours long, and conditions of employment unhealthy and unsafe. They are often unable to easily access even elementary citizenship rights in the city, like the right to vote, a ration card, supplementary feeding for their children, and school admissions. Their numbers are substantial; their economic contributions enormous; yet internal migrants tend to remain in the periphery of public policy.
This paper focuses on climate variability and changes as a reason for the continued migration of people from Bangladesh to India and attempts to understand the vulnerability of people using the concepts of nested vulnerability. This paper argues that the vulnerability of specific individuals and communities is not geographically bounded but, rather, is connected at different scales. Among the many causes of vulnerability of people, cross border migration due to climate change might increase the susceptibility of people to climate change in both the countries. Without adequate bilateral and multilateral institutional arrangements in place to protect of climate migrants, it will pose greater risks to India.
In this paper we examine the role of climate change, migration, and security broadly at the national level in India and Bangladesh—and then zero in more closely on northeast India and Bangladesh to demonstrate the interlocking problems faced by the people there and writ larger across all of South Asia.Climate change, migration ad security are considered as three distinct layers of tension assess scenarios in which the three layers will overlap. The Indian border state of Assam is a case study on where the three factors converge.
The issues of internal migration and the initiatives by the government are discussed. What are the areas that need attention are also addressed here.
Migration to Delhi and Ranchi are compared.
The number of migrant workers going abroad from South Asia reached approximately 1.5 million in 2010. Remittance inflow for the same year was logged at a record high of US$72bn. South Asia’s economy has overwhelmingly become a “remittance economy,” whereby countries like Bangladesh, India and Nepal are increasingly dependent on remittances by migrant workers.
The study aims to capture the overall dynamics of migration of youth from North Eastern Region and to arrive at useful empirical insights for effective policy formulation, which inter alia lead to the improvement of the state of affairs of migrants from NER in Delhi and other urban centres in India.
The paper makes an attempt to understand the impact of drought on the social and economic conditions of the people. The impact of the drought can be seen at two levels: impact on the food security pattern and on the economic condition. The study also attempts to understand the different coping mechanism adopted by households when they face a drought like conditions. The regions identified are two villages in the severe drought prone districts of Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput in Odisha.
There exists great demand for a skilled workforce, especially in the context of globalization and when Indian economy is growing at an unprecedented rate. Availability of such skilled workforce is closely associated with the kind of vocational education and training system existing in the country. This paper highlights various government initiatives towards skill development by reviewing and analyzing the prevailing schemes under various institutional arrangements, to promote a meaningful and employable skill development system.
The issue of skill building has been at the forefront of policy debates in recent years.Several committees/ commissions/task forces have examined the issues related to skill formation and recommended to expand/ upgrade the skill building efforts. However, most of these recommendations have generally remained focused on the formal sector. It is in this context that the NCEUS has examined the issue of skill formation in the unorganized sector. The Commission has carried out a detailed analysis of the socio-economic characteristics of the skilled and unskilled persons. The Commission has put forward a set of comprehensive recommendations for building a skill development and training system that explicitly focuses on the expansion of Vocational Education and Training (VET) for the informal sector workers.
The present study, based on case studies of South Indian NGOs, it seeks to understand the ways in which skills are developed in the informal sector and how the workers are trained, if at all. Attempts are made to map interesting cases of skill transfer, which combine social and technical learning processes and to draw relevant lessons for formulating and designing policies and programs. The study argues that renewed attention needs to be given to the informal sector. In particular, a central argument of the study, based on the case studies, is that the very notions of skill-building, capacity enhancing and training, might need to be reformulated, departing from the concept of vocational training and education, if the notion of decent work has to be brought in the framework.
India is a dominant force in Asia‟s economic growth and home to the world‟s second-largest workforce some 5oo million people. It is estimated that less than 12 percent of the work-force in India belongs to the formal sector, leaving more than 90 percent well over 447 million people in the informal sector. The informal sector has also been termed "The non-farm economic activities" especially in relation to rural economy.In most country studies that the informal sector is the largest employer of relatively unskilled workers. The informal sector has reached a level where it „must be regarded and treated as part of the solution to the current economic problems of developing nations.
Labour management is one of the most crucial task of an entrepreneur. In order to surpass the stringent labour regulations, Indian industry has largely resorted to contract labourers, who are governed by the “Contract Labour Regulation and Abolition Act of 1970”. This paper discusses the findings from a primary survey carried out in one of the industrially developed states of India, Karnataka. It reveals that many of the stipulations made in the Act to safeguard contract labourer are not followed in practice. It has also been felt by the workers that collusive agreement between the labour inspector, the protector of law, and the principal employer has aided the violation of law. It shows why it is economically optimal for an enterprenuer and a labour inspector to collude. It also examines whether any provision of reward for the labour inspector would help to protect the law.
The informal labour market is a very large part of the agricultural sector, but is also a significant part of the urban sector. There is a difference between employment in the formal sector and the informal sector in terms of conditions of work, whether workers are subject to government taxes, have access to social security or insurance, casual or contract workers. The NSSO (2012, p ii) document finds that in 2009-2010 in the non-agriculture sector, nearly 71 percent of the workers in rural areas and 67 percent in the urban areas worked in the informal sector. It finds that the informal sector activities are concentrated mainly in the manufacturing, construction, wholesale and retail trades, and transport, storage and communication industries.
Social Security is widely seen as a fundamental building block of a just and equitable society. With more than 85% of the labour force in the unorganized sector, it is no surprise that the provision of comprehensive social security for the unorganized sector has been a stated objective of the Indian government. In the spirit of extending social security to the unorganized sector and keeping in mind long term demographic trends which indicate a rapidly ageing population and a non-declining unorganized sector workforce, the Government of India passed the Unorganized Workers‘ Social Security Act in 2008. This report attempts to analyse and characterize the nature of the challenges in the design and implementation of these schemes, and use this understanding as the basis to draw out lessons on design and implementation of a Comprehensive Social Security Scheme for India.
Social Protection comprises those measures which aim at preventing, reducing and eliminating economic and social vulnerabilities to poverty and deprivation. The term “social floor” or “social protection floor” has been used to mean a set of basic social rights, services and facilities that a global citizen should enjoy. The vast, informal and heterogeneous characteristics of the workforce in India, with growing in-formalization of employment, on the one hand denotes low levels of social protection and high vulnerability, and on the other, constrains the expansion of social protection, mainly due to the dearth of appropriate institutional arrangements and policy, and due to lack of visibility and voice of such workers. This calls for strategies both to improve the quality of employment and growth and to extend social protection to the unreached.
Construction is one of the important industries employing a large number of people on its workforce. It is true that a sizable number of the workforce is from the unorganized sectors — the working hours are more than the stipulated hours of work — the work place is not proper — the working conditions are non-congenial in most of the cases and involve risk factors. Their wages are also not adequate, making it difficult for them to run their families. In this article, attempts have been made to review some of the important laws and legislation pertaining to the welfare of workers and attempt has been to provide path for further research on this.
It is well known that migrant construction workers are at high risk for HIV/AIDS. India is also the home for the third largest number of persons living with HIV/AIDS in the world with close to 2.5 million people currently living with HIV/AIDS. There are several special population groups in India who are at high risk for HIV/AIDS and migrant workers are one of them.Vulnerability has been defined in several ways, medical, epidemiological, social and political.The migrant population is unique in that they are vulnerable in all these ways. This study was done to understand the vulnerability profile of migrant construction workers to HIV/AIDS in an urban area in south India.
More than half a million women die annually worldwide because of pregnancy-related complications. About 90-95% of these women come from developing countries. The maternal mortality ratio in India is 407 per 100,000 live births (NFHS-3). This paper studies the utilization of antenatal care services along with breastfeeding practices among migrant women construction workers as an indicator of their health status. This study depicts the wide disparity in maternal and child health indicators in this population in comparison with the national and state averages. This information will be useful for local administrators to effectively plan the coverage strategies for this population.
Construction industry is one of the stable growing industries of the world and in India it is the largest economic activity after agriculture. Construction workers are at a greater risk of developing certain health disorders and sickness than workers in many other industries. The aim of this study is to understand the occupational health problems of construction workers — building and civil, to compare the morbidities among these two categories of workers.
This empirical study attempts to understand the issues related to sexual behavior and sexual health of the Migrant Construction Workers (MCWs) in India. The findings suggest that the MCWs are marginalized people in urban spaces and more susceptible to sexual health problems. They are victims of multiple complications because of unstable nature of their employment, vulnerable living conditions, lack of health awareness and dearth of health care facilities. This study draws the attention of the policy makers and health planners towards the sexual health problems of the unorganized workers and concludes that immediate intervention is required for improving their situation.
The impact of migration on children of migrated families is a serious policy concern. Migrant children are affected by poverty, poor living conditions, isolation from mainstream society, break in continuity of education and low self-esteem. This study has been conducted with the aim of initiating a policy dialogue with the government and amongst civil society organizations regarding the concerns of migrant children in the urban city of Kolkata and their access to basic health, education and protection related services.
Seasonal and circular migration is an important livelihood strategy for workers in developing countries and the construction industry is one of the largest recipients of such labour. The impact of labour migration to this industry on workers and their families is an important research issue with significant policy implications. This policy brief presents the findings from India, which showed that while migrants have the opportunity for higher remuneration in the construction sector they also face significant work-related risks and difficult living conditions at destination. The brief concludes with policy recommendations to help ameliorate these challenges.
Migration rates vary across caste groups and villages, with the highest incidence among chronically poor people living in remote villages. Migration is higher among chronically poor groups living in RRAs and that it plays an important role in managing risk and improving standards of living and household well-being. There has been an overall positive impact of migration in terms of being able to repay debts faster, being able to spend on education, health, agriculture and housing and being able to borrow large sums when needed. However, these positive impacts come at a cost, because migration increases the risk of injury and exposure to disease and noxious substances, as well as the negative impacts of long separation from ones family.
Migrant population, being a non-native population, is vulnerable and is exposed to many health problems. Most of the health problems of migrants are ascribed to their migration to urban areas, decreased awareness about local health facility, inability to cope with psychological stress, unhealthy sexual practices, and frequent migration. Other factors are: food insecurity, climate, and other environmental hazards. According to the National Sample Survey 2007-08, the number of migrant households per 1000 households in India was 33 in urban areas. Two-thirds of the households migrated for employment-related reasons. Another 21% of the households migrated for study purposes.
The division of labour by gender, referring primarily to allocation of paid and unpaid work between women and men in private and public life reflects the traditional division of women’s and men’s roles in society, which result in women’s work being often invisible and therefore undervalued in national accounts and labour statistics. The division of labour by gender, referring primarily to allocation of paid and unpaid work between women and men in private and public life, also reflects the traditional division of women’s and men’s roles in society, which result in women’s work being often invisible and therefore undervalued in national accounts and labour statistics.
Analysts and policymakers have long been pushing the cause of flexible labour markets in India. On the other hand, such proposals have been met with staunch resistance from those whose interests are vested in an inflexible labour market, including employees, trade unions, and the labour ministry. This report proposes a workable approach to labour market reform, different from the polarised debates. It recommends that such an approach could be started by making small changes to social security administration, increasing federal freedom and competition, and engaging meaningfully with trade unions. One of the primary messages is to move the reform narrative to the informal sector.
Migration is a process that gets intensified with the process of economic development. Population mobility from rural to urban areas is a common feature in India. Interestingly, this rural-urban migration is observed to have significant implications on the development of urban informal sector. Less skilled migrated labour are less equipped for the urban formal jobs due to their lack of knowledge and experience and hence they end up forming the ‘urban informal sector’. Thus there is an intense linkage between rural-urban migration and the expansion of urban informal sector. In fact there exists a two-way causation: migration helps in booming of urban informal sector, while the development of informal sector attracts further. This paper attempts to examine the nature and pattern of internal migration and its determinants across India. An attempt has been made to examine the inter-relationship between the extent of rural-urban migration and the expansion of urban informal sector. Among various factors explaining the extent of internal migration rural unemployment, rural indebtedness, opportunity cost of migration, rural industrialization, extent of urban informal sector etc. have been identified as key variables.
Linkages with the native place as well as integration within the city constitute backward and forward linkages of slum dwellers. Remittances are important part of these linkages. The paper explores the existing linkage and role of remittances of migrants staying in Delhi’s slums within the city and region. It also explores the impact of resettlement on the socio-cultural and economic ties of slum dwellers.
The present paper explores the post reform nature of migration in India with special focus on migrant workers. Types of movement, profile of migrants vis-a-vis the natives, occupational distribution, and wages received by them have been examined. This has been contrasted with the pre-reform situation. Results suggest that migration among males are more of an ‘assured’ type rather than a ‘search’ type, in response to regular wage employment, where the better endowed / skilled / trained are moving. Pull factors are definitely playing more important role than push factors in this regard, though in post-reform period push factors have strengthened. Though better-off states with lower incidence of poverty and higher per capita income have higher migration rates, net out migration rates are considerably higher for poorer states indicating that condition of the source region is perhaps the most important factor in migration decisions.
Trafficking in women and children is one of the worst abuses of human rights. But it is very difficult to estimate the scale of the phenomenon as trafficking is closely related to child labour, bonded labour, child marriage, and prostitution. This paper has attempted to analyse the nature, causes, modes and volume of trafficking in a country that has recently become a soft target in the South Asian region for trafficking in persons.India has failed to comply with certain international standards to combat the crime. The paper highlights the need to develop a multidimensional approach and focuses attention on structural factors of trafficking for recommending meaningful stratagems to counter the social evil.
The introduction of BT cotton in Indian agriculture with its tall claims of high yield has increased the demand for labour. Small farmers with marginal size of landholdings were lured into cotton cultivation. However, in contrast to the propaganda of seed multinationals, the crop is labour intensive. In order to maintain profit margins, children are a preferred choice over adult farmers. As a cheap source of labour, child labour can be made to work long hours and exploited. Children are also trafficked from nearby regions to work on cotton farms. This study explores the reasons that lead to children engaging with cotton and cotton seed cultivation.
While an emerging literature cites weather shocks as major determinants of migration, scant evidence exists on how such migration impacts the labor markets of receiving communities in developing countries. This paper addresses this knowledge gap by investigating the impact of weather-driven internal migration on labor markets in a post-conflict country, Nepal. Contrary to the conventional narrative, it has been found that prevailing environmental and conflict factors entice workers with positively selected attributes (such as education and skill) to migrate.
This report is a result of ten months (March-December 2012) of intensive consultations with the nodal Anti Human Trafficking (AHT) officers, field visits to see the functioning and measure the impact of the Anti Human Trafficking Units (AHTUs) on the ground, visits to the government and NGO run shelter homes, interaction with Ministry and NGO officials. Given the clandestine nature of the crime and difficulty in reporting the same, data and statistics are largely based on anecdotal and media reports.
FIDH identified serious human rights concerns on textile factories’ work-floors and hostels during its mission and as a result of interviews conducted with local trade unions, NGOs and experts. Precarious employment and working conditions continue to be commonplace. Disproportionate use of contract labour and apprenticeship, stripping workers of legal protections and benefits, as well as overtime work and salaries below minimum wage are amongst the issues prevailing in garment factories. Garment workers can be subject to an alarming level of control both within factories and at hostels, including through restrictions on their freedom of movement and communication outside the factory. Garment factory facilities such as “doctors rooms” and toilets were found empty in every factory visited, which may indicate an intense pressure to maintain high productivity.
In India child labour is a pervasive problem driven primarily by poverty, lack of appropriate education, and ability of perpetrators to exploit vulnerabilities of underprivileged populations. Lack of awareness at the grassroots level as well as at the level of employers regarding repercussions of child labour and the poor implementation of laws and regulations to prevent the same have exacerbated the problem of forced child labour (Sharma, 2013). These children are employed across a multitude of industries. The purpose of this paper is to bring to the forefront a comprehensive analysis for public awareness, lobbying and advocacy against the garish realities of forced labour, focusing on child domestic labor (CDL) and commercial sexual exploitation (CSE).
This paper studies how changes in climatic variables such as temperature and rainfall impact migration through agriculture. Bangladesh is recognized as one of the most vulnerable countries to climate change because of its unique geographical location. UNDP identifies Bangladesh as the most vulnerable country to tropical cyclones and the 6th most vulnerable country to floods. These climate-change induced conditions have direct bearing on the livelihood of the people. Among other, migration, both internal and international has emerged as one of the most frequently used coping strategies to mitigate income shocks. This study systematically investigates the impact of climate change on migration.
Unorganised or informal sector constitutes a pivotal part of the Indian economy. More than 90 per cent of workforce and about 50 per cent of the national product are accounted for by the informal economy. A high proportion of socially and economically underprivileged sections of society are concentrated in the informal economic activities. Informal sector is a source of easy and quick employment for women as compared to men in the developing world. Low income women workers form one of the most vulnerable groups in the Indian economy. Vulnerability of women workers in informal sector employment is caused by structural factors and migration. As associated migrants, women migrant workers are faced with extremely reduced economic choices at the destination and lack of social support.
Urban households are increasingly dependent on domestic workers and without them, their employers can't move out to work in the 'productive' economy. The demand for domestic workers is increasing in the city of Bangalore. This paper conceptualizes domestic services as major informal sector activities which assumes importance due to transformation in class relations and unhindered mobility of labour. The case of women domestic workers in Bangalore shows that migration for domestic service is largely a female driven phenomenon from within the state and from neighboring states. The conditions of work are deplorable with low pay and absence of job security.
Drawing on research conducted in Bangalore city, the paper presents information on children who migrated autonomously, that is, those who left their villages unaccompanied by parents/guardians,and now live either in foster homes, on the street, or may have a dual residence between both. The field research on migrant children was carried out (during 2010-11) mainly in six neighborhoods in the south of Bangalore.
Since the early 1990s, the employment structure of organised manufacturing industries in India has undergone substantial changes with the steep rise in the use of contract workers in place of permanent workers. The lower wage earned by contract worker is largely due to cost cutting, rather than differences in labour productivity. The factors affecting job security are divided as productivity related attributes like level of education, skill etc. and institutional attributes such as labour market rules and regulations, union membership etc. Contrary to the general expectation the study finds that permanent workers are more concerned of job insecurity than contract workers.
This paper, based on a sample study of female migrant workers in Tamil Nadu, highlights the trends, pattern and nature of female migration in Tamil Nadu; the push and pull factors of migration and finally the role of migration as a livelihood strategy. The major push factor was lack of employment opportunities in the place of origin caused by drought and the pull factor was a favourable employment situation in the destination areas. After migration there seems to be a sizeable improvement in self-employment and regular salaried jobs for women. But the concentration of women in the informal sector to the extent of 82 per cent is an indication of their disadvantaged position in the urban labour market.
This article focuses on the changing work profile of migrant women and the avenues available to them. Drawing from academic and ideological position that it is the relational domain within which women’s work needs to be placed, the paper looks at women in the workforce post migration to urban centers and how does it affect established gender stereotypes. Although stereotypical constructions of women’s place within the domain of household responsibilities continue to encode migrant women’s employment pattern in urban areas, the younger women seem to have moved away from these constructs, assisted further by educational attainment beyond a certain threshold.
Many observe that since last decade,labor shortages in rural India have become an issue. Farmers in rural areas blaming it on employment guarantee scheme MGNREGA, but there is no concrete evidence to prove this, some are also claiming that the faster growth of the economy and non-farm sector are the main reasons, which is in fact is a good sign .However, there are no studies specifically test the theoretical and empirical issues of rising wage rates in India.As a result of increased rural-urban migration, many villagers perceive labor shortages which adversely effects rural economy. As labor became more costly,many farmers are abandoning agriculture agricultural production and some are shifting to wide scale farm mechanization.These structural changes increases demand for high skilled labor even in rural areas with higher premium on skilled laborers.
Migration in South Asia has contributed enormously to this illegal trade, as globalization has created dramatic shifts in the world labour market, and more women than ever before are leaving their traditional occupations in search of work.The aim of this paper is to comment upon and interpret recently published evidence and opinion on forced labour and migration in South Asia in the light of changing global circumstances and perceptions of the nexus between the two. The focus is on the relationship between trafficking, migration and forced labour of women on the subcontinent.
As per the Ministry of Labour and Employment, there is a large number (2,86,839) of identified bonded labourers (Annual Report, 2007-08). About 93% of the identified bonded labourers have been rehabilitated;some are in the process of rehabilitation. The maximum number of bonded labourers were rehabilitated in early 1980s and the number of identified bonded labour is decreasing over time indicating the decrease in new incidences and no or very low relapse cases. It has been observed that over the period the program of release and rehabilitation is improving. The gap between release and rehabilitation has been significantly reduced. Still there is scope to make the program more efficient and effective to have better impact on the livelihoods of the released and rehabilitated bonded labourers.
Many tribal women migrants, especially those working as domestic workers end up being exposed to severe vulnerabilities. Most of the domestic workers are deprived of overtime pay, public holidays and timely payment of salaries. They also travel even in the absence of any prospect or promise of employment. They are exposed to hazardous working and living conditions, lack of sanitation, malnutrition, fatigue, separation from family, forced restrictions, loneliness,physical exploitation by managers and supervisors in the factories they work in, which affect the mental health of these women. This paper primarily attempts to explore the trends of the female tribal migration in India. It also attempts to explore the reasons responsible for their migration Most importantly, the paper tries to identify the mature of work and the problems faced by them in urban areas.
The tribes of Jharkhand (India) have a long history of migrating out of the areas. Earlier the tribal out migration - largely in response to pull forces of economic opportunities in tea gardens and factories - was in a large part of adult and young peoples' movement. A growing number of tribal women and young girls from Jharkhand are being trafficked, lured by promises of employment and marriage to Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, West Bengal and Maharashtra. Reports on the alarming rise in trafficking of minors and children for commercial sexual exploitation not only in India but also at an international level, is a matter of great concern. It is a clandestine operation centered around Jharkhand and it is taking advantage of the tribal natives, known for simplicity, gullibility, sincerity and affectionate nature and at the same victims of extreme poverty. The main objectives of the paper are to discuss cases of tribal female trafficking and perception of people regarding the same and to develop international understanding.
This paper focuses on the relationship between individuals’ risk preferences and their migration status.The decision to relocate to a new environment naturally involves uncertainty,e.g., regarding prospects on the labor market,income , housing and lifestyles , especially at the beginning of the relocation. The study was conducted in China, where the current rural -urban labor migration flows are the largest in the history of humanity. The scale of migration continued to rise, with the number of migrants surpassing 260 million in the year 2012 alone. The results suggest that migration may be driven more by a stronger belief in one’s ability to succeed in an uncertain and competitive environment than by risk attitudes under state uncertainty.
According to United Nations, 50 percent of the global urban population can be classified as slum dwellers-persons suffering from inadequate and/or limited access to safe drinking water, sanitation and other infrastructure; poor quality of housing and insecure residential status. In the least developed countries, estimates of slum population accounts to nearly 78 percent of urban population (UN-Habitat, 2003). Th is paper suggests that the complicated nature of slums requires less conventional and more innovative collaborations that involve not only the public and private sectors, but also voluntary entities, such as non-governmental organizations, and those most affected by such efforts – the slum dwellers themselves. The paper uses Ahmadabad city as case study which has a history of over 500 years.
The term “Informal city” is a polite expression, often used to describe a substantial section of the city population living in slums, unauthorised colonies, resettlement colonies and urban villages, mostly in sub human conditions. The case under study is the national capital which grew under the protective umbrella of the State, as noted above, at least during the first couple of decades after Independence. An analysis of the data over the past few decades suggests that the Delhi urban agglomeration and its surrounding towns and villages have experienced rapid population growth. The central city, however, has succeeded, although partially, in diverting population growth to geographic or socio-economic “periphery” of the metropolis. Large sections of poor migrants have been absorbed either in the hinterland or in the marginal areas within the agglomeration viz. sides of railway tracks, around factory sites, swampy lands etc, wherein the quality of life is low. Using instruments such as master plans, environmental legislations, slum clearance/rehabilitation projects etc, the state has off and on pushed out informal settlements to the “periphery”.
Around 3.4 million people live in slums in Dhaka, Bangladesh, and the number is increasing rapidly due to rural-urban migration. Most slums are illegal and so are not provided with government services, including education. Children living in slums also have very limited access to government schools elsewhere, and the schools are often poor quality. This paper addresses the issue of education for migrant children as a choice versus the costs associated with educating. It reflects on the decision making process for a slum household to educate their child and the overall policy implications for the urban poor.
Tribal community practices and cultures, particularly the lack of traditional restrictions on women’s work and labour, have indeed been a significant factor in bringing larger proportions of tribal women into more mobile forms of labour in comparison to other social groups in India. However, this paper shows that the longstanding and higher propensity to labour migration among tribal women has not fundamentally altered their conditions of historical disadvantage in the agrarian economy, and in fact has integrated adivasi women in the developing labour market under capitalist development at several levels of additional disadvantage. While the principal patterns of tribal women’s migration have been identified in the paper with an eye to the sectors/segments in which they have critical mass, the focus of the description, discussion and analysis has been on the nature of work/employment relations being shaped by their migration, and its implications for an equality and emancipatory agenda.
n 2009, there were 145 million rural-urban migrants in China, accounting for about 11 percent of the total population. Among them, an estimated 85 million to 100 million were born after 1980 — a period when three distinct government policies converged to shape the circumstances for increased rural-to-urban migration within China. According to a recent report by the China National Bureau of Statistics, 44.4 percent of new-generation migrant workers are employed in the manufacturing industry compared to 31.5 percent of the previous generation. Construction, which was traditionally the primary magnet for rural-urban migrants, now draws just 9.8 percent of new-generation workers compared to 27.8 percent of the previous generation.
The proponents of "market and governance" oriented perspective believe that the strategy of globalisation and structural reform is responsible for the acceleration of rural urban (RU) migration, giving boost to the pace of urbanisation. The pace of urbanization has been modest to high in select countries in Asia, not because of their level of economic growth but its composition and labour intensity of rapidly growing informal sectors. Several countries have launched programs for improving governance and infrastructural facilities in a few large cities, attracting private investors from within as well as outside the country. These have pushed out squatter settlements, informal sector businesses along with a large number of pollutant industries to a few pockets and peripheries of the cities. This paper an attempt is made here to examine the thesis of southward movement of urbanisation and urban explosion in Asia.
One of India’s biggest challenges today is coping with the wave of urbanisation unleashed by economic liberalisation. An estimated 160 million people have moved to the cities in the last two decades (as of 2010), and another 230 million are projected to move there within the next 20 years. India’s growth over the last two decades has resulted in one of the largest human migrations in history – from the Indian countryside to its growing metros. The country’s on-going industrialisation, while stop-start and riddled with missteps, has driven, and will continue to drive, the transformation and relocation of its pre-dominantly (rural) agricultural labour force into urban areas as they become industrial and service workers. The massive influx of people has strained India’s urban systems to the point of breaking, creating massive slums with inadequate housing, sanitation, basic services and security. In India’s financial capital Mumbai, which boasts some of the country’s most expensive real estate, approximately eight to nine million people (or over 40% of its households) currently live in slums, which the Indian Census succinctly defines as “residential areas unfit for human habitation.
In the process of development in developing countries, there is a shift of labour and capital from rural to urban sectors leading to rapid pace of urbanization. But the relationship between urbanization and economic growth is complex and varies some what among countries. The demographic feature of urbanization process, viz. natural increment of population and rural to urban migration has resulted in a substantial increase in urban labour force. Against this backdrop, this study is an attempt to examine migration of workers from rural to urban areas with reference to slum dwellers of Bhubaneswar in Odisha. The objective of the present paper is to analyse the causes and motives of migration of slum dwellers ,and their mobility within informal sector and from informal sector to formal sector.
Slums have been present in developing cities landscapes for quite some time and while central and local governments continue their quest for making their cities slum-free, the overall outcome of slum policies is in most cases unknown or unclear. Some studies have revealed that slum policies might have unforeseen side-effects such as poverty recycling: where poor slum dwellers aren't able to maintain new living conditions and sell/rent their dwelling moving back to the slum. By 2030-2040, estimates suggest that there will be 2 billion slum dwellers and slums will be housing about one third of the total urban population (United Nations, 2007). The recognition of slums as a menace to the ―planned city‖ along with their high correlation with poverty have made slum improvement a priority for many local governments and international organizations. Slum and housing policies have multiplied, bringing new waves of thinking and original solutions that consider much more than just a house. Furthermore, recent studies have revealed that slum policies, by changing the living environment, might trigger other important positive changes as well as some unwanted side-effects. Among the stated benefits of slum policies are poverty reduction, higher gender equality, better access to credit and higher income generation.
This papers deals with livelihoods and collective action among migrant slum dwellers in the rapidly expanding slums of New Delhi; a Mega-city of 14 million people. Close to half the city population lives in unauthorised colonies and more than one third in illegal slum settlements. The slum and slum expansion, a consequence of both national and global forces, has increasingly become a hotbed of urban politics. An historical-institutional perspective is used in combination with household surveys, field observations, and key informants in order to examine relationships between local governance and access to housing, property, and social services among migrant settlers of the Sangam Vihar slum.
This briefing paper examines the links between internal migration, remittances and poverty based on analysis of national data for India and Ghana. Internal migrants outnumber international migrants by an order of magnitude and the total sum of internal remittances exceeds international remittances. People move from relatively poor areas to richer ones. While it is difficult to establish causality, these moves allow poor people to access better opportunities in richer regions. The 2009 Human Development Report (HDR) reported that the number of internal migrants worldwide is 740 million, nearly four times the number of international migrants. Thus the large majority of migration involves internal movements, including rural-urban or rural-rural flows. This briefing uses data for Ghana and India captured in censuses and household surveys in order to explore the relationship between internal migration and poverty.
Due to poor conditions and limited employment opportunities in rural areas, Indians are increasingly migrating to cities or towns to find work. Some estimates suggest that there are more than 100 million seasonal domestic migrants in the country. A major concern for these individuals is being able to transfer money safely and efficiently from their place of work to their family back home. Because migrants come from socially vulnerable households that use the funds to finance household consumption and investment, it is essential that they be able to transfer as much of their hard-earned money as possible, without incurring unnecessary charges. The study aims to examine the various transfer mechanisms available to 274 Indian migrants and their families along four major migration “corridors.” Bihar to Hoskote, Karnataka (a small town),Semi-urban Tamil Nadu to Mumbai, Rural Orissa to Surat, Semi-urban West Bengal to New Delhi
As recently as a decade ago, internal migration in general and rural-urban migration in particular were viewed favorably in the economic development literature. Rapid internal migration was thought to be a desirable process by which surplus rural labor was withdrawn from traditional agriculture to provide cheap manpower to fuel a growing modern industrial complex. Numerous studies have now documented the fact that throughout the developing world rates of rural-urban migration continue to exceed rates of urban job creation and to greatly surpass the capacity of both industry and urban social services to absorb this labor effectively.On the contrary, migration today is being increasingly viewed as the major contributing factor to the ubiquitous phenomenon of urban surplus labor and as a force that continues to exacerbate already serious urban unemployment. But the influence of migration on the development process is much more pervasive than its obvious accentuation of urban unemployment and underemployment. It is in the context of its implications for economic growth in general and for the "character" of that growth, particularly its distributional manifestations, that migration research has assumed growing importance in recent years.
In India, internal migration among multi-ethnic states raises many of the same citizenship issues as international migration does in the West. Many of India's states are territorial homelands for the country's various cultural and linguistic groups, forming a federal system that accommodates minorities by offering opportunities for self-determination. In this system, large-scale internal migration points to a particular irony of Indian politics: as the national government strives to accommodate minority nationalism through the creation of new states, minorities often leave these areas and settle elsewhere within India.
Attention has focused on the demographic process underlying the urban transition in the Third World, but disproportionately on the economic costs and opportunities for men. Female labor force participation in turn relates to more balanced sex ratios in urban areas. Women migrate to the city in part in response to their own economic opportunities there. Other factors contributing to more balanced sex ratios include smaller city size, a smaller proportion of migrants in the male population, and location in the South. More balanced sex ratios in the cities may improve the quality of urban life and offer women the benefits of urban advantages in literacy and life expectancy.
Regardless of the duration of their stay, labor migrants face myriad challenges at their destinations in a country that is dizzying in its diversity of languages and cultures. Among the challenges: restricted access to basic needs such as identity documentation, social entitlements, housing, and financial services. Many migrants—especially those who relocate to a place where the local language and culture is different from that of their region of origin—also face harassment and political exclusion.
In this paper, the author has examined ethnic issues in the Indian context, particularly the north east as a determinant factor for migration. The paper has examined the process of forced migration for the north eastern state of Arunachal Pradesh. Ethnic conflict has over the decades led to large scale exodus of people from this region to other parts of India.
In this paper, an attempt is made to study the phenomenon of seasonal migration in India and its determinants by using the recent (2007-08) National Sample Survey (NSS) data. The theoretical model used to study the determinants of seasonal migration is based on the utility maximisation principle developed by Stark and Fan (2007). The empirical result supports the theoretical argument that higher wages and the cost of separation shape seasonal migration to a significant degree in India. In light of these findings, it is suggested that seasonal migration be controlled for those who are physically, socially and economically vulnerable. With this objective in mind, the government should ascertain the reasons for the failure of MGNREGS in controlling distress migration in India and ensure its successful implementation.
Displacement of population or forced migration causes profound economic and cultural disruption to the displaced persons and thereby social fabric of the communities of the area gets completely shattered. Such displaced persons have been known by different terms depending on causes of displacement, distance they move and administrative boundary they cross. There are currently 25 million internally displaced persons uprooted by conflict and human rights violations worldwide. In India at the beginning of 2006 there were about 600,000 IDPs because of political violence. This figure at the end of 2003 (reference period of study) was about 650,000, of whom between 250,000 to 450,000 were from Kashmir and 250,000 others from northeast India (IDMC, 2007).
This paper examines the conflict- affected internal displacement in India. Insurgency and retaliatory operations by security forces are a major factor of displacement. In Kashmir, the Northeast and in several states of central India civilians have fled fighting zones and have sometimes been directly targeted by militant groups. Majorities of the internally displaced people (IDPs) have not been able to return for several years, either due to protracted conflicts or unresolved issues related to land and property. India’s largest situation of internal displacement stems from the conflict in the Northwestern state of Jammu and Kashmir between militants seeking either independence or accession to Pakistan, and Indian security forces.
India has invested in number of industrial projects, to achieve rapid economic growth. However, there has been a severe deprivation caused by such projects in terms of internal displacement of people. Available reports indicate that more than 21 million people are internally displaced populations (IDPs) due to development projects in India. Although the tribal population only makes up eight percent of the total population, more than 40 percent of the development induced displaced are tribal peoples in India. The difficulties faced by IDPs are numerous but distinct. Their right to participate and contest in the political processes is difficult. Such consequences lead to the requirement of legislations that address not only the issue of compensation, but also of resettlement, rehabilitation and participation in negotiation. Hence, the objectives of the study are to bring forth the impacts of major development projects on Internally Displaced Populations in India.
The First Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC AR1) in 1990 noted that the greatest single impact of climate change might be on human migration. The report estimated that by 2050, 150 million people could be displaced by climate change related phenomenon like desertification, increasing water scarcity, floods and storm etc. The United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) termed these future migrants as ‘environmental refugees’-people who have been forced to leave their traditional habitat, temporarily or permanently, because of marked environmental disruption (natural and/or triggered by people) that jeopardized their existence and/or seriously affect the quality of their life.
This report considers migration in the context of environmental change over the next 50 years. The scope of this report is international: it examines global migration trends, but also internal migration trends particularly within low-income countries, which are often more important in this context. Environmental change will affect migration now and in the future, specifically through its influence on a range of economic, social and political drivers which themselves affect migration. However, the range and complexity of the interactions between these drivers means that it will rarely be possible to distinguish individuals for whom environmental factors are the sole driver (‘environmental migrants’). Nonetheless there are potentially grave implications of future environmental change for migration, for individuals and policy makers alike, requiring a strategic approach to policy which acknowledges the opportunities provided by migration in certain situations.
This paper studies the characteristics of the workers in the informal economy and whether migrants treat this sector as a temporary location before moving on to the organised or formal sector to improve their life time income and life style. The study is limited to the Indian urban (non-Agricultural) sector. It studies the characteristics of the household heads that belong to the Informal Sector (Self Employed and Informal Wage Workers) and the Formal Sector.
Migration influences the social, political and economic life of the people and no government can ignore developing a good statistical system on internal migration in a country. In India, Census and National Sample Surveys (NSS) are two main sources of data on internal migration in the country. This paper examines the two national sources of data on internal migration related to the definitions of migrants, duration of migration, streams and reasons of migration. It brings out that given the importance of internal migration in view of HIV/AIDS and public health impacts, there is a need to account the seasonal migrations/or floating populations in the country. Further, socio-political reasons such as communal riots and ethnic conflict also need to be incorporated explicitly in the reasons of internal migration in India.
Mumbai, along with mega-urban regions of comparable scale faces daunting issues of regional planning and governance. It takes on a national level character, after all, Mumbai contributes 40 percent to the GDP of Maharashtra-the second most populous state in India with population of 112 million (2011). The state's contribution to national GDP is at 5 percent. The contribution of Bangkok and Jakarta to their national GDP is even more striking: 44 percent and 26 percent respectively. Unfortunately, the structure of governance of mega-urban regions does not reflect their key role in national economy. The structure is complex, multi-layered with different jurisdictions having responsibility for different aspects of administration and development planning. To understand the problems of administration and governance requires an understanding of the demographic dynamics of the mega-regions as a whole. This paper contributes to such an understanding of Mumbai, utilizing data from Census 2011.
Indian experience since independence in 1947 is generally consistent with these patterns. India adopted the East European (and Latin American to some extent) development philosophy of “industry primacy”. Industrial support programs have dominated Indian plans and GOI budgets. India did recognize the importance of food production in the late 1950s and 1960s. The Government of India's response to rapid population increases led to the support of a very effective agricultural research and extension system and the realization of a Green Revolution. This paper examines agricultural growth associated with the Green Revolution. Secondly, it asses the trend of migration glows in the context of rural non-farm employment. Finally it discusses the policies for higher agricultural growth and rural non-farm employment.
A documentary feature describing the severity of the lives of migrant labourers in India's brick making industry. The brick making industry in India, is the largest in the world, second only to China with more than 150,000 production units and providing employment to an estimated 10 million workers. With rapid urbanization, the demand from this industry has increased, luring more and more people to look for wage employment in this sector. Most of the workers are migrant families forced to migrate due to distressed conditions in the state of their origin. Lack of farm income, low agricultural productivity, limited access to development schemes has been contributing to the mass exodus of communities, sometimes even entire villages to the brick kilns. Primarily based in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, theses units are infamous for their harsh working conditions where labourers have to work for about 16 hours a day under inhumane conditions. Even children are not spared and contribute to the family income. This feature by Aide-et-Action, a Non-Governmental Organization (NGO), captures the deplorable working conditions and the blatant abuse of human rights that goes unnoticed in this industry.
This study on the census of street children in Delhi sheds light on their numbers, concentration locations, nature, demographic profiles, and other details about the night shelters available for them. The study had two objectives: (1) To estimate the total number of street children in Delhi; and (2) To bring about an understanding of their socio-economic and related conditions. The existence of a street population is an outcome of urban planning’s inability to accommodate the rapid inflow of people into a city. Governments and nongovernmental organisations (NGOs) throughout the world, including in India, have initiated a lot of efforts at the policy and program levels to alleviate the plight of street children. Efforts need to be made to ensure that children from families that migrate on a seasonal basis are cared for in their home villages. The government and NGOs need to develop schemes to support and provide care to the children of migrant couples in their villages in poor rural areas.
The decision to migrate involves the comparison of income gains and other benefits associated to the move with its pecuniary and non-pecuniary costs. To estimate the expected returns of moving to alternative destinations, potential immigrants gather information from different sources. By providing information on the migration process, facilitating the access to the job market and helping integration upon arrival, networks are crucial to individual migration decisions. In order to isolate the role of information on migration decisions, we focus on an alternative popular source of information: exposure to television. Internal migration in Indonesia is not a recent phenomenon. Already during the last period of the Dutch rule, the country had a highly geographically mobile population. According to the 1930 census, 11.5% of the total native population lived outside their district of birth. In this paper, it has been shown that having better media coverage of one’s own country does not necessarily increase the incentives to internally migrate. More information leads to more accurate migration choices. Hence, the final effect on migration depends on whether individuals were under rather than over-estimating the potential gains from migrating. We uncover a strong negative effect of TV exposure on the propensity to internally migrate, thus suggesting that Indonesian citizens, prior to the expansion of private TV broadcasting, were too optimistic in assessing the potential gains from moving.
The paper contrasts and compares the evidence on internal migration in Asia to gain a better understanding of the links between migration, poverty reduction and development. Recent field studies across Asia show that internal migration is growing and, if managed properly, can play an important role in poverty reduction and the redistribution of the benefits of location-specific growth to underdeveloped regions. Fresh evidence from a range of sources, including official statistics, village studies by academics, NGOs and donor agencies indicates that the main new pull factors attracting people from the overpopulated and fragile rural hinterlands is the spread in urban services, manufacturing and construction. The result is a growing tide of rural-urban migrants. Even if migrant jobs are in the risky informal sector, the gains to be made can be several times higher than wages in rain-fed agriculture. Seasonal pushes have now been superseded by all-year pulls in many locations.
Internal migration has become both a major policy concern and a subject of a heated public debate in Bangladesh. It has been identified as both saviour and villain of the national developmental story; a driver of economic expansion and modernization, while also the cause of severe urban deprivation and a destroyer of traditional rural life. Internal migration is viewed in a positive light, seeing it as essential to economic transformation, and crucially, to the on-going reduction of poverty. This paper explores the nature, causes and dynamics of domestic migration, and specifically the role played by three distinct factors – livelihoods and economy, the quality of public services and the presence of challenging environmental conditions. It presents key findings, conclusions and offers a series of policy recommendations.
In this overview paper, basic questions related to voluntary internal migration are revisited with a view to adding some of the substantial new field evidence that has emerged in recent years and setting out the policy implications of these findings. The paper addresses internal voluntary migration for paid work. It includes both permanent and temporary migration as well as rural-rural, rural-urban, urban-rural and urban-urban migration. The evidence suggests that internal population movements are growing. Probably the three most significant recent changes in the pattern of internal population movement in recent years are- The feminization of migration; The emergence of more accumulative kinds of migration which can contribute to the reduction of poverty; The increase in temporary migration, especially commuting
Maharashtra ranks first nationally in the proportion of total migrants ( Census 2001). Migration of males from other states of India to select districts of Maharashtra is common, and there is a growing consensus among policy makers and program managers that migration could be a major contributor in the spread of HIV in the state (NACO, 2003). However, empirical evidence to support or refute this conjecture is limited. Maharashtra was one of the first states to be affected by HIV in India. Results from the National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) in 2005-2006 indicate that 0.62 percent of men and women in aged 15-49 years were infected with HIV, as compared to the national average of 0.28 percent.
This report presents case studies rural-urban migration linkages in Guinea, Zimbabwe and Guatemala. It shows that in areas of high internal migration, the well being of rural household members and that of their urban relatives are strongly interdependent, and should be analyzed as part of a single, unified livelihoods system. Rural-urban linkages represent efforts by households to create their own safety net. Policymakers and practitioners thus have an opportunity to advance participatory development by designing interventions that strengthen this self- generated safety net.
This article shares the findings of a study conducted by Aide et Action and the Bernard van Leer Foundation to assess the situation of seasonal migrant workers’ children in Indian cities. It also describes a model intervention at a brickworks in Hyderabad to explore how safer and healthier living conditions can be created for these children. The study starkly reveals how dangerous it is for the children to live in close proximity to worksites. Children of 306 households – just over 8% of those surveyed – reported having sustained injuries in accidents on the worksite, including falling from buildings under construction. Not only this, 2% were often abused by the contractors or owners. Being unfamiliar with their surroundings, 61% of the children said they didn’t go out to play for fear of being abused. Most of the families and their children reported facing discrimination at the worksite.
This paper examines the impact of rural–urban migration on under-two mortality in India, using data from the 1992/93 Indian National Family Health Survey. Analysis shows that relationship between migration status and mortality exists when socio-economic and health utilization variables are omitted from the model. The relation between migration and mortality is thus explained by differences in socio-economic status and use of health services between rural-urban migrants and non migrant groups.
Mumbai has a long history of migration. Migration has remained the major force behind the city’s very rapid population growth since its inception. This study assess the access to health services by the migrant population settled in Shivaji Nagar Slum of Mumbai. Migration to Mumbai has always remained a matter of serious concern to researchers, planners and policy makers. From the issues that emerged from the study and recognizing the paramount importance of health in the well-being of the people, it is crucial that policy action be taken to improve health services for migrant populations who live in the unauthorized slums. It is estimated that 100 to 300 new families come to Mumbai every day and most land up in a slum colony or just erect a shanty on the nearest available footpath. The Shivaji Nagar slum in Govandi houses about 26,000 families. It is comprised of slums namely Padma Nagar, Shanti Nagar, Chikhalwadi, Azad Nagar and Rafi Nagar; and has a combined population of about 300,000 people.
The most striking feature of migration in India is its range and diversity and the significance of rural-urban migration as opposed to rural-urban shifts in population. The study presented in this paper demonstrates that migration does not operate as an equilibrating mechanism rather aggrevates rural-urban inequalities. Further, migration perpetuates future course of migration. Movements are not therefore related to income or status. The study opines that policies aimed at influencing migration trends should aim at eliminating the inequalities which are prime cause of internal migration.
Social and development policies have not been successful so far in mainstreaming health issues of internal labour migrants in India. This opinion paper reflects on the current situation of migrants and puts forth some perspectives on the way forward. It suggests some avenues for further research and scaling up of migrant-friendly health programs.
Few papers in the literature provide quantitative analysis of the difficult circumstances faced by children of short-term labour migrants. This paper uses new survey data from rural northwest India to study both children who migrate and those left behind. It finds that, unlike in other contexts, children who migrate rarely work when they accompany adult migrants. Additionally, this paper reports a robust, previously unquantified negative relationship between children’s migration and educational outcomes and investments. It calls for further research about externalities of migration for children and suggests that expansion of a large public employment program might help these children.
Each winter season in the state of Odisha, starts a process of migration. The populace of the western districts of the state of Odisha is the ones who migrate particularly of undivided Bolangir, Koraput, Kalahandi districts (now known as the KBK districts). The phenomenon of migration is believed to have taken roots in the aftermath of severe drought of the 1960s. Today every year thousands of people across the length and breadth of the region leave their native village in search of food and employment and flock the brick kilns in the neighbouring state of Andhra Pradesh, the construction sites of the cities and also to the towns of the state. Looking at migration through the lens of gender can show how futile it is to try to divide up experiences of migration as forced or voluntary, positive or negative. Migration entrenches restrictive gender stereotypes of women’s dependency and lack of decision making powers. The gendered division of labour in destination results in women’s skills being under utilized or lead women into sex work. Health, education and employment protection services are hard to obtain in the destination areas particularly if the migration is illegal and informal.
The main concern of the paper is to study internal migration and the related urban decay using Census data of 1991. The large metropolitan cities have grown very rapidly in India, unfortunately with slum growing many times faster. Poverty, agony, misery, exploitation, humiliation, insecurity, inequalities, and human unhappiness are also multiplying tremendously in the recent decades. These are indeed manifestations of our iniquitous society and faulty planning. These crucial problems will aggravate many times in the early part of the next century, specially when aided by population explosion and increasing migration. These crucial human problems need our urgent attention and immediate redress.
Existing survey results show that all types of migration have recently increased significantly. Rural to urban migration is the most prevalent form of migration in Bangladesh. A recent study found that nearly two-thirds of emigration from among 62 randomly sampled villages was to urban areas. The figure for rural-rural migration was 10% and was 24% for overseas migration. However, the linkages between migration and development are not straight forward. Although mobility of people from rural to urban areas has increased significantly. Rural-urban migration is one discernable force of change amidst growing forces of diversity and complexity in patterns of migration. In the light of sweeping changes taking place through Bangladesh, the linkages between migration and development need to be re-examined.
The paper attempts to describe the correlation between migration and child labour by reviewing secondary data of migrant children with or without their families, and children left-behind by their migrant parents. The paper observes that governments’ migration policies need to be balanced with their obligations under the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child and the ILO Conventions on the Minimum Age for Employment, No’s 138 (1973) and the Worst Forms of Child Labour, No. 182 (1999), to ensure that the rights of children, including migrant children, are protected, including the right to be free from child labour.
The paper is about new internal migration trends and their triggers in India; economic growth, in particular urban economic growth; inflation due to rising oil prices, food prices; changing climate conditions and its impact on farming patterns and disasters. The paper also presents findings from primary surveys based research conducted in New Delhi and Bangalore (metropolitan cities) and Faridabad and Dodballapur; satellite cities to Delhi and Bangalore respectively.
A substantial portion of urban labour employment in a developing economy like India lies in the informal sector because the organized labour market is unable to absorb the entire urban labour force. This paper has analysed the working of the informal sector in light of the development policies. Using Harris-Todaro model of rural-urban migration, the equilibrium wage rate and employment is determined. Its speciality lies in determination of the simultaneous existance of open unemployment and the existence of informal sector in urban areas. The model studies the effect of alternative subsidy policies on unemployment and welfare of workers.
Rapid growth and development of Delhi is resulting in opportunities of livelihood support [work] for poor, unskilled/ semiskilled rural population in the secondary and tertiary sector of economy within Delhi. Today more than half the population of Delhi live in (Jhuggi-Jhopri) JJ clusters, slums designated areas, resettlement colonies, unauthorised and recently authorised colonies etc. which of course is not an ideal or healthy situation. Therefore, critical analysis of relevant dimensions of migration-causes, magnitude etc. are the pre-requisite for strategic planning to counter the trend.
Migration plays an important role in urbanization of a state. In general more the migration higher the urbanization rate though it many not necessarily true in all the situations but in general it is witnessed that migration have a fairly large share in urbanization. This paper focuses on district level analysis for Rajasthan state to comprehend urbanization due to migration, their inter-linkages and association.
This report, prepared by the population division of the United Nations, correlates three aspects of development process, i.e., urbanization, internal migration and population distribution. Around the world, urban population is on the rise as a result of rising per capital incomes. Asia and Africa will account for major portion of world urban population. Between 2007 and 2050, the urban areas of the developing world are expected to absorb an additional 3.1 billion people while the overall population will grow by just 2.5 billion people. In 2008, the 3.4 billion urban dwellers in the world live on barely 3 per cent of the earth’s land. Similarly, rural population in Asia will peak by 2025 and decline thereafter. Migration from rural to urban areas will lead to sustained urban growth in the coming years. Poverty induced migration will pressurize on the urban infrastructure. The report presents important findings in this regard for the developing world.
Migration and urbanization are direct manifestations of the process of economic development in space, particularly in the contemporary phase of globalization. Understanding the causes and consequences of the former in terms of the changes in the distribution of population and economic activities, along with the success and failures of the interventions by state and other organizations would be extremely important for evaluating the available policy options and exploring areas of possible strategic intervention.
This paper, studies the impact of changing trend of internal migration away from cities along with the exclusionary and unwelcoming nature of cities on the mobility of workers. Cities are becoming unaffordable (because of costly housing facilities and higher cost of living), and individuals opt to commute to urban areas for work to optimize their income along with affordable housing and basic amenities in the rural and peri-urban areas on the outskirts of the cities. Using the latest nationally representative survey on employment and unemployment 2009-10, it shows that higher urbanization, labor market factors (job availability, wages etc.) along with the location of jobs (agglomeration of industries and services) affects the decision of a worker to become a commuter. We find that higher urban and peri-urban population in a region causes higher commuting of workers from rural to urban areas due to better connectivity and more job opportunities in these areas as compared to their rural counterparts. The spatial clusters of manufacturing jobs in rural as well as urban areas lead to higher commuting , both ways- urban to rural, rural to urban. On the other hand, service sector jobs concentrated in urban areas attract workers to commute from rural to urban areas.
This work examines the status of Fundamental Principles and Rights at Work (FPRW) in the informal economy in India and locates the gaps and challenges in ratifying the ILO Conventions 87, 98, 138 and 182. The study also tries to identify various gaps in the existing data base of the informal sector regarding the four ratified fundamental conventions (Conventions 29, 105, 100, and 111).
The massive population flow from rural to urban areas in post-reform China is the result of both institutional and structural changes caused by economic growth. During its planned economy phase, China had a household registration system (hukou system) which was designed to control population migration and labor mobility between rural and urban areas as well as across regions. Since market-oriented reforms were instituted, controls over labor mobility have been gradually relaxed. The introduction of the Household Responsibility System (HRS) in the early 1980s allowed farmers to earn income based on effort. This paper talks about relaxation of institutional reforms to further allow for transfer of labour and while the nation losses its demographic advantage of declining rate of working population, migration could be the key to economic growth.
Labour migration to urban areas depends on the sustainable economy at the destination and the absorption capacity of its structure. In the same manner, increasing labour migration to Udupi taluk needs to be understood and a long-term strategy evolved to deal with problems it poses. This paper has identified patterns of long-term migration to Udipi district, where the construction industry has been absorbing the continuous influx of migrants.
The report shows that Bihari labourers, which comprise the largest migrant group in Delhi do not know of the existence of the Inter State Migrants Act 1979. Neither is there any agency nor organization that takes the responsibility of following the migrants and collection of information about them. This is because the number of people coming into Delhi is so large that it is not possible to keep track of them. The report also tells that there is no exhaustive database on contractors.
This paper explores the struggle of migrant workers in a metal polishing factory to retain their legal work status. The paper describes the experiences of turbulence at the factory, union efforts to oppose management actions, and workers’ placard protests on roads of the city. It discusses workers’ motives, methods, and difficulties in the protests, interactions with other workers, managers, and the judiciary.
The paper examines how left-behind children influence return migration in China. It first presents a simple illustrative model based on Dustmann (2003) that incorporates economic and non-economic motives for migration duration (or intentions to return), among which are parents’ concerns about the well-being of their left-behind children.
Occupational mobility is observed in both, the formal and the informal sector. This paper attempts to find out whether this occupational mobility is also observed in case of an urban slum dweller who migrates from his/her native place in search of earning opportunity, with a hope to improve his/her livelihood condition, and earn more than that he/she is earning at his native place. The research then identifies the determinants and the hurdles associated with occupational mobility among the urban slum dweller.
The paper looks at the status of migrant workers in Delhi the migrating patterns, the duration of stay and the composition of families; social and economic status; access to government programmes (for example, ration shops, health centres,anganwadis); and the impact of the Building and Other Construction Workers' Act ,1996. It then examines the health and nutritional status of children on the sites, and the childcare and health-seeking practices of the migrant families.
This paper documents migrant women’s experiences of living in the city of Delhi and working in the informal sector. The research for this paper was carried out over one year in slum settlements with the objective to understand,the processes of migration for women to the city, finding work, setting up a home and building a new life. The respondents in this research study included factory workers, domestic workers, self-employed women and construction workers.
A construction workers tells how he migrated from Rajasthan to the city. But doesn't get work. Because of this his family has to go to hungry. Sad story of construction workers are shown here. [AlJazeera].
With the objective of providing welfare benefits and security at work to the workers engaged in the construction industry, the government of India enacted the Building and Other Construction Workers (Regulation of Employment and conditions of Service) Act, 1996. As per the legislation, the Karnataka State Government has framed Rules, constituted State Welfare Board and planned the welfare scheme in 2006. The paper documents the findings of survey conducted in Bangalore and Tumkur which shows how workers remain deprived of the welfare benefits due to multiple reasons.
An attempt has been made in the present paper to examine the occupational status of migrants and non-migrants over the last two decades. The present analysis is based on the National Sample Survey (NSS) data collected during the last two decades. Results are based on nearly 2000 households of four rounds of the NSS conducted in 1983, 1987-88, 1993 and 1999-2000. These four rounds of the NSS data are on employment and unemployment based on principal usual activity and weekly activity. [IUSSP].
This paper looks into the empirical literature on internal migration and how it is related to urbanization. The paper identifies that apart from expected wages and employment opportunities, family and networks, physical distance, wealth and capital market at the destination also determine the decision to migrate. Similarly, evidences from several countries show varying patterns of migration. While in certain countries, rural-urban migration is predominant, in some cases, in can be intra-rural and intra-urban also.
The interest of interregional migration flows in economics covers two important aspects. The first aspect concerns the role played by the main macroeconomic variables in determining the intensity and the directions of the migration flows. The second aspect focuses on migration as an important variable that might affect the growth rate. This study reviews and discusses the main literature on migration with respect to these two branches of study.
The fundamental issue of analysis of any society is the way it transforms across generations. Given the phenomenal growth India has experienced since the late 1980s and its rise in the new world order, much has been written about the changing landscape of Indian society. However, little has been said or discussed on the issue of intergeneration mobility. How the occupation structure has changed? How does the present generation fare in terms of education? What are the opportunities available and what is the extend of mobility in today's Indian society.
Addressing distress and hunger migration is considered as a one of the key impact area to measure success of MGNREGS. When MGNREGA was enacted 2005, the underlined obligation of the Act was to facilitate a people led process for creating a win-win opportunities for the poor. A cursory observation on the current level of employment in MGNREGA implies very poor and discouraging trend in Odisha and particularly failed to provide 100 days of employment and towards reducing distress migration in the backward regions of Odisha.
The paper has highlighted the importance of rural development programs like MGNREGA that were implemented by the government with a view to provide employment and income to the rural population in the country. It has also shown that for both migrant and non-migrant households in rural areas, agriculture was the main source of income, and their consumption expenditure was more than the production. It has also been observed that migration has a positive impact on income,expenditure and net savings of migrant sample households.
Over 700 million people around the world migrate within their own countries. In India over 30 percent of the population migrate to urban areas in search of a higher standard of living, better health care and education for their children. In Calcutta although many migrants live in poverty they are still better off than in their home communities.
The notion of moving to land of opportunities has been a popular tale of American mystique. It is widely believed that internal migration in the United States is higher than in many other countries. This belief is not exactly wrong but the reality is more complex. While the country has shown high rates of internal migration historically, people of other countries including Finland, Denmark and Great Britain appear equally mobile. This paper discusses the downtrend in migration that was observed since the 1980s in the US and suggests the factors that have led to reversal of the earlier trend.
India has seen an upsurge in economic growth since 1990 which was also the time around which internal migration became a more active phenomenon. The 2001 census shows that internal migration has picked up rapidly during the 1990s. Compared to intra-state movement, inter-state migration has grown faster. The states with higher per capita income and larger dominance of non-agricultural sector show not only high in-migration but also high out-migration rates. Poverty ratio is not found related with out-migration rates at the state level. On the contrary, migration rates are higher in households with higher monthly per capita expenditure. Also, the socially disadvantaged groups like Scheduled Castes and Scheduled Tribes do not show higher mobility compared to other population categories. Thus the increased mobility of India’s population in recent times is more confined to better off sections.
This paper introduces habit formation into an otherwise standard model of international trade. The liberalization of internal agriculture trade in India will generate short-run caloric losses unless income gains from trade are relatively large, and that there would be no such losses if tastes were identical across the country. The consumption patterns of inter-state migrants are examined, and .it is found that they consume fewer calories for a given level of food spending than otherwise similar consumers. This effect only disappears two generations after migration, as tastes adjust to local prices. These findings, which reflect the higher prices of preferred origin-state goods in the migrant’s destination state, further corroborate the assumptions of my model. [CGD].
This paper has attempted to account family migration in India which has remained a relatively under-researched phenomenon. The analysis, while exploring both Growth theory (pull factor) and Third World Urbanization (push factor)versions of migration, also explains the evolving framework that incorporates the complexity of social, political, environmental and development related factors for a more comprehensive understanding of family migration in India and elsewhere in the developing world.
Migration to urban areas is a regular phenomenon but climate induced displacement forced to migrate to cities over the recent years is a matter of concern. Increased frequency and severity of natural disasters by climate change over the past recent years are not only displacing people physically but also exposing to enhanced poverty by threatening their livelihoods temporarily and permanently. Growing number of people rush to city’s slums creates urban crisis. But urban slums located mostly in environmentally hazardous area coupled with inadequate facilities like food, shelter, sanitation, health care make their life even worse.
The paper presents a theoretical and empirical study of how immigration influences the joint determination of the wage structure and internal migration behavior for native-born workers in local labor markets. Using data from the 1960-2000 decennial censuses, the study shows that immigration is associated with lower in-migration rates, higher out-migration rates, and a decline in the growth rate of the native workforce.
Restrictions imposed by the Government of India on the emigration of women in ‘unskilled’ categories such as domestic work are framed as measures intended to protect women from exploitation. However, restrictions have directed potential migrants to the use of informal / illegal processes in connivance with state agencies. Whereas, intermediaries, including recruiting agents and government officials, profit from the use of informal / illegal processes by prospective emigrants and hence they have an interest in rendering these more effective than formal processes established by the state, we argue that the gender politics around movement provides an enabling condition for both state restrictions and the burgeoning of informal processes.
Using two rounds of nationally representative household survey data, the study measures the impact on poverty in Nepal of local and international migration for work. One-fifth of the poverty reduction in Nepal occurring between 1995 and 2004 can be attributed to higher levels of work-related migration and remittances sent home. We also show that while the increase in international work-related migration was the leading cause of this poverty reduction, domestic migration also played an important role. The findings demonstrate that strategies for economic growth and poverty reduction in Nepal should consider aspects of the dynamics of domestic and international migration.
Seasonal migration for work is a pervasive reality in rural India. An overwhelming 120 million people or more are estimated to migrate from rural areas to urban labour markets, industries and farms. Migration has become essential for people from regions that face frequent shortages of rainfall or suffer floods, or where population densities are high in relation to land. Areas facing unresolved social or political conflict also become prone to high out-migration. Poverty, lack of local options and the availability of steady work in other locations become the trigger and the pull for rural migration.
The article assesses the dual stresses that climate change and climate-induced migration are imposing on megacities in developing and emerging market countries. The article draws on two cases, Bangladesh and India, to illustrate the forces that are causing involuntary mobility from rural to urban areas and the consequent stresses that megacities like Mumbai will experience.
Large number of people migrate from rural areas to cities because rural India is saturated and cannot provide employment opportunities to the expanding population. In 1951, the urban population in India was 62 million people, 17 percent of the total population. By 2011, the urban population was 377 million, or 31 percent. By 2025, 42.5 percent of the population will be urban. With saturation eminent in cities, government has to shift focus on developing the rural areas.
Migration of male labour force from Bihar has increased during last two decades which prompted this research on the consequences of efficiency in inputs of agricultural production, livelihood through remittances and also the empowerment of women left behind at place of origin. The paper has noted that the role of women of migrant households changed from unpaid female labour to managers of the household, however, they face problem in management of fund, technology and input-output marketing.
Given that urban areas constitute more than 65% of India's Gross Domestic Product (GDP), the sustained increase in the population of urban areas is no surprise. Undoubtedly, migration has contributed as the major factor of growth of urban population. This paper attempts to understand whether it is push or pull factors causing this rural to urban migration using Bengaluru as a case study.
This paper deals with internal and international migration, both of which are large-scale with impacts on economic growth and poverty reduction in many regions of the country.
Economists have long conceived dual developing economies, linked by costly permanent migration from the rural sector to seek urban employment. However,permanent migration of men from rural Indian villages remains uncommon. Moreover, existing data have limited opportunities to study the details of how households leave agricultural work for non-agricultural work or, how they use short-term migration to combine these livelihoods. This paper analyzes new data about 705 households from 70 villages in rural Rajasthan, Gujarat, and Madhya Pradesh. Data collection emphasized detailed migration histories, and included interviews with 2,224 adults. These data address unresolved questions and suggest limits of existing accounts of Indian labor migration. [PAA].
India’s National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) is one of the largest public works programs globally. Understanding the impacts of NREGS and the pathway through which its impacts are realized thus has important policy implications. A three-round 4,000-household panel from Andhra Pradesh together with administrative data to explore short- and medium-term poverty and welfare effects of NREGS is used. [IFPRI Discussion Paper 01289].
Human trafficking has become an endemic crime facilitating the abuse and exploitation of enormous number of people worldwide. In the ASEAN region, thousands of people are trafficked to, from and through ASEAN countries each year. This report provides a country profile of human trafficking in the ASEAN region as means of drawing a basic outline of human trafficking as understood.
The research paper has focused on migration networks in Anand (Gujarat), India. Migration agents are key figures in any migration industry who facilitate migration. Migration agents possess knowledge and overseas connections that potential migrants cannot acquire through their networks. Furthermore, agents can function as substitutes for persons who do not possess a migrant network, therefore placing them in a position to migrate.
The present study attempts to analyse the effect of capital gains and inheritance taxes on individual decisions to migrate. [NIPFP No. 31].
The regional pattern of temporary and seasonal labour migration in India assumes sharp focus when seen in the light of data from the 64th round of the National Sample Survey. The phenomenon is more prevalent in rural areas of the country’s northern and eastern states. This paper also examines the association between temporary migration and its determining factors, particularly economic status, landholding and educational levels. [EPW].
This paper presents an array of cases of the denial of migrants’ right to the city; it reviews the nature and process of migration to urban areas in the light of recently available evidence, identifies the exclusionary processes operating in Indian cities influencing migration and migrants, and suggests strategies for the integration of migrants in building inclusive cities in India. [UNICEF].
Dialogue on the key challenges and vulnerabilities faced by migrants was informed and wide-ranging, touching on the key problems of fee charging, risks of debt bondage, forced labour and trafficking and restrictions on workers’ freedom of movement. Presentations and interventions by participating brands and recruitment agencies and associations were inspired, with both focused on how they are “raising their game” against human trafficking and addressing the many challenges that lie before them, not least in scaling up their engagement. [IHRB Round table].
Climate change has become a major concern for the international community. Among its consequences, its impact on migration is the object of increasing attention from both policymakers and researchers. Yet knowledge in this field remains limited and fragmented. This article, therefore, provides an overview of the climate change–migration nexus in India. It investigates the key issues at stake, including the social and political context in which the topic emerged. It further investigates the responses of the state, market and the civil society.
The objective of this working paper is to examine the extent of employment oriented migration of females in India and the inter –state variations in its magnitude using NSSO 55 th Round Household level data on Migration . It is found that though the percentage is very small for ‘employment oriented migration’ an analysis of work force participation of female migrants in the age group 15-60 , irrespective of the reasons for migration reveals that in the post migration period work participation of these migrants increases steeply in all the states
The first migrations from Bihar date back to 1834. Every second family in the state today is sustained by migrant workers who form the backbone of the country's workforce. But in 2008, thousands of Biharis found themselves forced to return from Maharashtra following the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena's sons-of-the-soil campaign. After decades selling bhelpuri on Mumbai's Chowpatty or working as construction labour, Bihar's migrants were shocked to find themselves treated like outsiders in their own land. [Inchange].
The roundtable meeting was the third in a series of roundtables convened by IHRB, on this subject, bringing together in a key sending country apparel brands, suppliers, recruitment agents, government and civil society to discuss options for collective and sustainable approaches to strengthening migrant worker protection during the recruitment phase in Bangladesh, as well as responsibilities of companies to ensure safe return of workers, including in times of crisis. The meeting was held under the Chatham House Rule. This report summarises key points raised during the roundtable. Organisations mentioned in the report have granted their permission to be cited. [IHRB].
The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagara Palike (BBMP) is responsible for providing infrastructure and services in the metropolitan area. From January 18 to 21, 2013, it bulldozed 1,512 homes (42 blocks) and evicted more than 5,000 people living in tin sheds in the economically weaker section (EWS) quarters in Ejipura/Koramangala, Bangalore. The demolition affected around 1,200 women and 2,000 children. It made thousands homeless. [PUCL].
This paper explores migration from Bihar, one of the most underdeveloped states in India, by paying particular attention to social class (caste) and landholdings. After describing details of individual migrants, we present our preliminary findings on the determinants of migration, based on our field survey of 200 households in four villages in 2011. In terms of social class, Muslims are mo re likely to migrate, but Scheduled Castes do not show a high propensity to migrate as is stated in some of the existing literature where the underclass is said to be more mobile. In terms of landholdings, the probability that someone will migrate is high among the landless and smaller landholders but it decreases as the size of the landholding increases. However, as the size of the landholding increases still further, a reverse effect of landholding on decisions regarding migration moves in, with the decline in probability becoming less and less. This result confirms a non-linear relationship between landholdings and the decision to migrate. Some further research questions are raised in the paper. [IDE Discussion paper no.334].
This report records the findings of a small investigation into a fragment of experience of homelessness, and into the social, economic and nutritional situation of the urban homeless in four cities: Delhi, Chennai, Madurai and Patna. The study finds that the lived experience of urban poverty, and even more so of urban homelessness, differs in many significant ways from that of rural poverty. [Centre for Equity Studies].
This study concerns that category of internal labour migrants in India, forced to eke out aliving at the fringes of society in the most marginal of occupations at their places of destination. It also intends to foster an understanding of the situation of such migrants in times of disaster, such as the earthquake that struck Gujarat, both in terms of the destruction caused, and to highlight their vulnerability in general. [Aajeevika Bureau].
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.
To determine the coverage of childhood immunization appropriate for age among socioeconomically disadvantaged rural–urban migrants living in Delhi and to identify the determinants of full immunization uptake among these migrant children. [volume 15 no 11 pp 1326–1332].
Whereas other contributions in this volume focus on contemporary migration, this article explores the role migration has played over a long period of time, in western Bihar, India. By doing so, it reinforces one of the central themes in this volume, regarding the importance of migration for livelihoods: this case study challenges the assumption that migration would be a recent phenomenon, and argues that to understand the history of this area one needs to take account of the complex interaction between migration and development. Migration has been a livelihood strategy for many groups within the area, and the study explores how migration has been caused by and in turn influences poverty and livelihoods for men and women, and how these relationships have changed over time. [The Joournal of Development Studies, Volume 38, Issue 5, 2002].
Migration data is matched from the Indian census with climate data to test the hypothesis of climate variability as a push factor for internal migration. The main contribution of the analysis is to introduce relevant meteorological indicators of climate variability, based on the standardized precipitation index. [CES Working Papers].
Temporary labour migration has rarely been studied at macro level despite its high prevalence in India. Drawing from the recently available Indian National Sample Survey (2007–08), this paper aims to study the basic differentials between temporary and permanent labour migration at the national level and examines the socioeconomic determinants of temporary labour migration at the state level. The study shows that temporary migration is seven times larger than permanent migration, and is largely a rural phenomenon dominated by rural to urban migration. A regional pattern in temporary labour migration is evident in the low-income Central and North Indian states. Low economic, educational and social status significantly induces temporary labour migration in contrast to permanent labour migration. As such, temporary labour migration appears to be a survival strategy of the rural poor in India. [Asian Population Studies, Volume 9, Issue 2, 2013].
Migration can serve as an outlet for employment, higher earnings, and reduced income risk for households in developing countries. The 2004–2005 Human Development Profile of India survey is used to examine correlations between the receipt of remittances from internal migrants and human capital investment in rural areas. A propensity score–matching approach to account for the selectivity of households is used into receiving remittances. [IFPRI Discussion Paper 00858].
One of the important objectives of the Palanpur Survey has been to track the evolution of various aspects of well being of households in the village over time. A central focus has been income which is inextricably linked to the way agriculture has been organised in the village. At the same time, it must be recognised that agriculture now plays a less important role in the village economy than in the years of the previous surveys. The expansion of outside jobs and migration has brought both a diversification of employment and income sources and a decline in the contribution of agriculture in shaping household income: the shift from farm incomes being a majority share of total income in 1983 to a minority share in 2008-09 represents a fundamental change. [LSE Asia Research Paper No. 45]. change.
This is a focused study of a) the nutritional status of homeless people; b) the categories of people who survive partly or fully on charity for food; c) organisation of religious and large private food charities; d) government initiatives to provide meals to the destitute; and on the basis of these e) make out a case for large scale meal subsidised meal programmes in cities for urban homeless populations.[Centre for Equity Studies].
The paper is about the lived experiences of internal migrants to vulnerable occupations to Delhi, one of the most powerful magnets for such migration in the country. The study enquires who these people are, what factors propel them to the metropolis. [Centre for Eauity Studies].
The paper reviews the existing evidence on migration-poverty interface in the light of the macro and micro level studies in India. It also discusses the extent, patterns, and correlates of short term migration with the help a large set of data collected from rural households in major states in the country. Policy implications are also discussed. [CPRC].
In this paper, the plausibly exogenous variation in localized hydro-geological conditions in northern Gujarat is analysed, one of the most groundwater-scarce regions of India, to study the impacts of the gradual depletion of this vital resource. [IGC Working Paper].
This paper has constructed a model of family migration which explains the rural-urban migration phenomena observed in developing countries more consistently than the existing analyses of migration. This framework determines the differences between the forces that affect family decisions and individual migration decisions. It is also shown how the aggregate flow of migration is affected if migration decisions are predominantly family decisions. Data from India have been used to suggest a method for empirical investigation of the incidence of family migration decisions. [Journal of Development Economics].
This paper is devoted to discuss basic features of Nepali migrants in India relating to volume, sex ratio, spatial variation, growth rates and migration cohorts using census records. An effort is made to estimate fresh migration rate, annual migration and return migration of Nepalese. [IUSSP Conference].
The paper examines how the state and other agencies in the host state (Kerala) responded to reduce the vulnerability of inter-state migrant workers. The paper also makes an assessment of a pioneering welfare scheme for inter-state migrant workers introduced by the Kerala government. [CSES Working Paper No. 26].
The research discussed in this study shows that the forces leading to migration are as much to do with the social relations of dependency and indebtedness which subsistence failure entails, as with ecological decline. The problem is not so much one of declining production, as of systems of usurious money lending, labour contracting and exploitation. The social experience and consequences of migration are far from uniform, but shaped by class and gender. For a minority of Bhil households migration offers positive opportunities for saving, investment and meeting contingencies. For the poorer majority, migration is a defensive coping strategy covering existing debts and extreme economic vulnerability. In combining unequal and individualised income accrual with the need for joint livelihood strategies, migration has a major impact on intra-household relations. [The Journal of Development Studies].
This paper conceptualises the cultural dynamics of daily commuting against the backdrop of agrarian change in three villages in Uttar Pradesh. In doing so, it brings about a linkage between power structure, politics and labour mobility. Although neither circular migration nor its understanding is new in the context of villages in India and the state of UP, this paper shows how subordinate groups have been able to renegotiate their identities promoted by ‘development’ to their advantage. [Migration and Development, Volume 1, Issue 2].
This study focuses on whether the BP levels and hypertension prevalence differ between neo-migrants and settled-migrants in the city of Delhi. Data on BP, anthropometry, social variables, and demographic variables were collected from a cross-sectional sample of 226 settled migrants and 227 neo-migrants. [Asia-Pacific Journal of Public Health, Volume, 21, Number 4].
The study aimed to explore the demographic and socioeconomic characteristics of households with and without child domestic workers (CDW), and explore the causes and process of becoming CDWs in Bangladesh. Both quantitative and qualitative approaches were used to collect data. A purposive sampling technique was applied to select the sample locations. Data were collected from six districts of Bangladesh: Mymensingh, Kishoreganj, Jamalpur, Bhola, Kurigram, Chapai Nawabganj, and a slum of Dhaka city. A total of 1,564 (rural 1,454 and urban 110) parents of with and without CDWs were interviewed. Ten in-depth interviews with CDWs were conducted. [RED Working Paper No. 35].
The paper shows migration, policy lacunae, illegal migration, ethnic migration, internal displacement and the state's responses to internal displacement in Northeastern India. [East-West Center Working Paper].
The aim of the study is the nature and extent of illegal immigration in Nagaland, the factors of immigration, the local perception towards illegal immigration and the overall impact of illegal immigration. [IDSA Occasional Paper No.8]
Recent trends suggest that India might very well be at the "tipping point" of the transition in its agriculture dependent population. A large proportion of youth in the countryside is on their way out of agriculture. Rising disenchantment with the profession pushes them out of agriculture while opportunities in other sectors of the booming economy pull them out of agriculture. This is suggested by this study which attempts to identify the drivers of this process of withdrawal and assess the odds of an average farmers’ move out of agriculture. [IWMI].
This article constitutes an empirical socio-economic analysis based on a field study involving 1200 young unorganised workers found in the construction sector of the so-called tri-city of Chandigarh, Panchkula and Mohali. The main aim of the study was to examine the reasons why and how these young people had come to work in this urban environment, how they live and spend their money and what they perceive as their major problems. Based on the findings, the article argues that Indian policy makers, with specific regard to the urban unorganised labour sector, should take more-adequate measures for the protection of human rights of such migrant workers. [South Asia Research].
The main argument of the paper is to emphasise the positive aspects of migration, that tend to get less attention. The central focus of this paper is migration as part of people’s strategies to enhance their livelihoods. [Eldis, Social Development Department].
The fencing of the India–Bangladesh border suggests finality in the territorial partitioning of South Asia. This article examines the converging and competing narratives surrounding the fence at the national level in India and in the borderland itself, focussing on the federal state of Meghalaya. From this comparison two main arguments are made. First, at the national level, narratives around migration, national security, counterinsurgency and trade underpin a powerful logic that is difficult to contest. By contrast, in Meghalaya the narratives are less cohesive and the logic of the fence is far more contingent on local politics. Second, not only is there a difference between the ways the fence is viewed at the national level and in the borderland, but there is differentiation within the borderland itself. These narratives provide insights into the different ways borders, citizenship and insecurity are viewed and politicised in contemporary Asia and beyond. [Global Change, Peace & Security, Volume 24, Issue 1].
In South Asia, India has been at the receiving end of the problem of illegal immigration from Bangladesh. This paper argues that such illegal migration is posing a threat to internal security because the issue has not been properly securitised. Migrants seem to have successfully bypassed legal hurdles, which has kept certain territories out of reach even for Indian nationals. If Bangladesh's internal politics and economic deprivation are major factors for this state of affairs, then permissiveness towards illegal immigration in Indian political circles is also responsible. The largely lenient political class has been prompted to take a close look at the issue as an increasing number of Bangladeshis have of late been found to be involved in terror activities. [Strategic Analysis, Volume 35, Issue 1].
Patterns of rural-urban migration and employment shifts in a region that is facing ongoing depletion of groundwater resources in Northern Gujarat, India is discussed. Given that migration typically does not occur due to one singular risk, the study assessed the multifactorial drivers of migration. [IGC Working Paper].
in-migrant workers, kerala, Trivandrum, poor, living conditions, savings and investment, migrants, political instability, family, urban areas, migration, jobs, social and cultural, urban economy, young workers, wages
This article focuses on the relationship between migration and education as aspects of wider livelihood strategies among Nepalese migrants in India. It argues that physical and social mobility are inextricably linked and looks at education (both formal and informal) as a driving force in migration. Combining a broad notion of education with a transnational approach to migration, the article sheds light on the multiple and changing meanings ascribed to education in processes of physical mobility.
Migration has been a major source of human survival, adaptation, and economic change over centuries across regions. Today, more than ever, migration forms a central part of the global flow of humans, practices, and ideas. However, from a social point of view, migration is often considered as a potential source of social disorder and crime. Several explanations have been provided on this aspect in Indian context but none of these provide a sound analysis of the linkage between migration and crime. This paper attempts to investigate empirically the association between interstate migration and crime in India. [Science Direct].
This paper examines the hypothesis that the persistence of low spatial and marital mobility in rural India, despite increased growth rates and rising inequality in recent years, is due to the existence of sub-caste networks that provide mutual insurance to their members. Unique panel data providing information on income, assets, gifts, loans, consumption, marriage, and migration are used to link caste networks to household and aggregate mobility. [NBER Working Paper No. 14850].
The paper focuses on the question of how rural labour markets and migration can be made to work better for poverty reduction. Using select case studies and longitudinal studies from five parts of India and Bangladesh the key processes are discussed that shape rural labour markets and how these have evolved over time with the changing macro-economic, policy, agro-ecological and infrastructural context. Each region is discussed separately to draw out the influence of location specific factors and illustrate the complexity of labour markets in South Asia. [ODI].
Studying a stream of migration from Jharkhand to western Uttar Pradesh (UP), this article focuses on the work and life experiences of migrant labour from tribal India. Based on an in-depth study of a Jharkhand village, alongside a briefer stint at the destination village in UP, it examines the micro-level nuances and complexity of migrant labour movements and their often unexpected and unrecognised social consequences, particularly, the renegotiation of class and gender relations at home and the destination. Apart from pointing to the deep interconnections between the relations of production and reproduction, it demonstrates how the use of distinct representations of work and life due to spatial distanciation contribute to renegotiating both labour relations and social identities. [The Journal of Development Studies].
This paper assesses the impact of climate change on Indian agriculture covering a cross section of crops, seasons and regions based on existing literature. [ISEC WOrking Paper No. 277].
The paper examines patterns of internal migration among the youth, evidence of attainment of basic rights, access to employment opportunities and the labour market outcomes for migrant youth. The paper concludes by enumerating several key challenges faced by present and potential migrant youth, and briefly outlines policy measures that will enable India’s policy makers to fully appreciate and take advantage of its burgeoning young workforce. [UNESCO].
Labour migration is an important livelihood strategy in India. There are very significant migration flows, in some regions with considerable impacts on individuals, households and regions. However, not much is written on migration in India and its considerable costs and returns remain outside the public policy realm. The purpose of this paper is to review key issues relating to internal labour migration in India and its links to poverty and development. [Migration and Development in Asia Conference].
India's economy has accelerated sharply since the late 1980s, but agriculture has not. The rural population and labour force continue to rise, and rural-rban migration remains slow. Despite a rising labour productivity differential between non-agriculture and agriculture, limited rural-urban migration and slow agricultural growth, urban-rural consumption, income, and poverty differentials have not been rising. Urban-rural spillovers have become important drivers of the rapidly growing rural non-farm sector, which now generates the largest number of jobs in India. Rural non-farm self-employment is especially dynamic with farm households diversifying into the sector to increase income. The bottling up of labour in rural areas means that farm sizes will continue to decline, agriculture will continue its trend to feminisation, and part-time farming will become the dominant farm model.
Migrants constitute a “floating” population, as they alternate between living at their home and host location, and in turn lose access to social security benefits linked to the residence, and other informal social networks. [UNICEF].
There is an ever increasing presence of migrant workers from Tamil Nadu to Kerala in seach of different occupations. There are also workers from Bihar, Jharkhand, West Bengal and Karnataka. [Antipode].
This paper shows the remarkable persistence of remittance-based migrations in India across the twentieth century. Drawing on recent national survey data and unique census data at the district level, we show that for regions covering 20% of the population of India, poor and rich, mobility has been persistently high in magnitude and has been male-dominated, remittance based and circular in nature for well over a 100 years This paper highlights the importance of social networks and deep rooted migration cultures influenced by source region conditions, in explaining migration persistence, and argues that remittance economies constitute a unique model of development that needs to be judged separately from other development models. [Migration and Development, Vol.1, No.1].
Among the major aspects of forced migration in India’s east and north-east that deserve attention are border and boundary conflict, security, and refugees, the large presence of internally displaced persons in the region due to various conflicts and development projects, and mass-scale displacement due to natural disasters and environmental degradation leading to resource conflicts in recent times. [EPW].
There are over one million Domestic Migrant Labour (DML) in Kerala is concerned about their economic and social situation. The GoK also feels the State has a responsibility towards the DML in Kerala and is seriously considering some interventions that are needed to ensure their welfare. [Labour Department, Kerala]. URL:[http://lc.kerala.gov.in/images/Current/ismstudy.pdf].
Can culture constrain caloric intake and contribute to malnutrition? Inter-state migrants within India consume fewer calories per Rupee of food expenditure compared to their non-migrant neighbors, even for households with very low caloric intake. [BREAD Working Paper No. 389].
This study examines the impact of agrarian distress on the different socio-economic groups, the strategies of livelihood adopted by households and the local institution in shaping these strategies. The study is based on the data collected from in-depth socio-economic enquiries conducted in Upputhara Panchayat in Idukki District. [CDS].
Migration literature has always considered environmental constraints as one of the prime movers of populations, especially from dry regions, where water rather than land is the primary limiting factor. An analysis of the impact of degradation of private land, as well as common pool land resources, on migration decisions is done. Data is analyzed from three dryland districts in Gujarat from a survey of over one thousand households. [SANDEE Working Paper No. 10-05].
This paper seeks to map out the historical trajectory leading to a series of migrations in and from the erstwhile princely state of Travancore during 1900-70 in order to acquire and bring land under cultivation. [CDS].
Delhi, as the capital city of India and one of the country’s mega cities does not appear to be providing a very hospitable terrain for women as workers. The paper shows the women migrants in according to different occupational categories. A hyper visibility of women workers in the streets of the city presents a striking contrast with the statistical picture of a small percentage of workers among the women of the city and of women in the total workforce of Delhi. [CWDS].
This study grew out of a twofold engagement with the changes taking place in women’s lives in the era of liberalization and globalization.The subject of migration in India from a women’s movement perspective. [CWDS].
This paper deals with migration into India from adjoining neighbours and its impact on security and other issues of national interest. This paper examines implications for India.s national interest, especially when the migration is illegal and poses multi-layered challenges to the Indian state. The paper restricts itself to only Nepali and Bangladeshi migrants. The nature of migration from these countries to India has been dissimilar. This is because of their different historical backgrounds, geographical variants, ethno-religious affinities, political systems and bi-lateral arrangements with India. [ICRIER Policy Series No.1].
This paper analyses gender dimensions in rural to urban migration (age 10 years and above) in Pakistan. The study is based on Labour Force Surveys 1996-2006. The findings of the study show that overtime internal migration (age 10 years and above) remained unchanged. Female migrants dominate in internal migration (age 10 years and above). In case of female migration, marriage plays a vital role. [PIDE].
The current paper examines the nature of functioning of the MGNREGS in Tripura with special focus on the issues of equity and efficiency. This paper investigates and evaluates government programmes assumes greater significance for future policy directions.
The present study has been undertaken to examine the various dimensions of the problem of migration and trafficking of children in Nagaland. [NILI Research Studies No. 103/2013].
This paper presents an alternative viewpoint on debt-migration in brick-kilns and the construction industry, through migrants’ perceptions of poverty, identity, aspirations and long term life goals. Often described as neo-slavery and neo-bondage, debt-migration has been viewed as an extension of caste and class based exploitation by policy makers, academics and NGOs alike. In contrast migrants’ perceptions of their own life trajectories and the role of particular labour markets and social relations (especially labour market intermediaries) are fundamentally different. [KNOMAD].
The discussion focuses on the difficulties faced by children of seasonal migrants face with schooling both in villages and at migration sites, and the conditions under which children drop out of schools, as well as the response or lack of response of local school systems to the education of migrant children in some areas. The paper also outlines the efforts made so far by government and NGOs to address these problems through alternative schooling,and provides recommendations for state and central governments in terms of policy and program interventions. [CREATE Research Monograph].
This study explores the three way linkage between weather variability, agricultural performance and internal migration in India at state and district level using Indian Census data. [MSE].
The present study attempts to, (a) analyse the broad patterns of temporary and permanent migration in India; and (b) explore the determinants of temporary and permanent migration with special focus on weather and its variability. The analyses presented focuses on rural sector. [MSE].
The goal of the study was to examine the linkages between male out-migration and HIV transmission in married men and women and to explore other mechanisms by which HIV is transmitted within marital relationships in districts with high out-migration. he districts included in the study were: (1) Ganjam district where HIV infection among women attending antenatal care (ANC) clinics was more than 3 percent and men migrated predominantly to states/districts with high HIV prevalence (Surat in Gujarat and Mumbai and Thane in Maharashtra); (2) districts in northern Bihar where HIV infection among women was on the rise and men migrated primarily to states with low HIV prevalence (Delhi, Haryana and Punjab); and (3) districts in Eastern Uttar Pradesh (UP) where HIV infection among women was on the rise and men primarily migrated to states with high HIV prevalence (Mumbai and Thane in Maharashtra). [UNDP].
The present paper tries to understand the pattern and trend of female migration to six mega cities of India namely Mumbai, Delhi, Kolkata, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bangalore having more than five million population each. The study uses the census data at two periods of time,namely, 1991 and 2001. It is found that most of the migrants to these six cities originate from relatively backward states of India. Marriage is still the most important factor of female migration in India, but, its importance as a cause of female migration has declined over the time. On the other hand, it is quite encouraging to find that the proportion of females migrating for work, employment and education is increasing over the period of time. The volume of female migration to all the six mega cities has also increased over the period of time.
Bilaspur is a District of Chhattisgarh state it is known as Nyayadhani of state. Total area of Bilaspur District is approximately 6337 SQ. Km. The total population of District is 1993042 (Census2001). 857577 Workers are working in Bilaspur District, 503677 Workers belong to male and 353900 Workers belong Female. Bilaspur is a most migrant District in Chhattisgarh State. For better livelihood Workers have been going from this district to an other state like U. P, Bihar, Punjab, Haryana, Delhi, Himachal Pradesh, Gujarat, Jammu & Kashmir, M.P, West Bengal etc.
By treating females as associational migrants, migration research in India undermines the significance of various factors, specifically the economic ones, which determine migration behavior. However, the process of globalization has a strong impact on female mobility patterns and the major impetus for female migration has changed from social to economic reasons. Using Census data and applying OLS regression method, a district level analysis has been carried out to explore the determinants of female migration. The study finds that economic factors significantly influence female migration .
The paper examines the spatial pattern of poverty in India and tries to understand how multiple deprivation leads to reproduction of poverty especially in forest - based economies in the central - eastern parts of the country. This has been attempted in the light of a case study of four villages in Koraput district in Orissa, India. [ODI].
Seasonal labour migration has not declined in spite of MGNREGA in Jharkhand. Nearly 30% villagers do migrate for 4-6 months to brick kiln along with their families. Article reviews the reason for migration based on a qualitative study conducted through FGD and PLA in 12 villages of Bero and Itki blocks of Ranchi district. Study analyses the type, pattern, cause and effect of migration to brick kiln and impact of such migration on children. It was reported children’s vulnerability increased due to migration much to the ignorance of the parents and due to their fatalistic life style. Article throws light on plausible way forward from this vicious cycle.
This paper discusses the relationship between labour migration and poverty in India. This is placed against the on-going debates on changes in patterns of employment and job creation in India, during the periods of economic liberalization, under the Inclusive Growth policies since 2004,and under the impact of the global financial crisis, and growing inequalities. The paper focuses on the migration patterns of deprived social groups, analyse whether migration form a routes out of poverty, and what specific policies for these groups exist or should be recommended. The paper first discusses general findings on the links between poverty and internal labour migration. These stylized facts are used to structure the insights into the changes in migration patterns in India, highlighting the under-recording of migration of most vulnerable groups. The third section discusses the implications of these insights for a notion of Inclusive Growth, concluding there is a need to address the invisibility of migrants and to review common policy aspirations to reduce migration. The conclusion reflects on the analysis of migration and policies to enhance migrants’ well-being and ability to participate in India’s disequalising growth.
The study sought to explore, through fieldwork, the reasons behind and the implications of women’s participation in NREGA in selected areas of three states, Kerala, Himachal and Rajasthan. These states were selected for study for a number of reasons. While Kerala and Rajasthan show a very high proportion of works days generated being taken up by women. Himachal is a contrast is a contrast with very low share of women. Rajasthan leads the country in the total number of work days generated, has a number of active civil society groups that have engaged with the programme, and as a prior history of large scale public works programmes popularly known as ‘famine works’.
Karnataka is one of the high HIV prevalence states in India. Results from National Family Health Survey (NFHS-3) indicate that 0.69 percent of adults aged 15-49were infected with HIV in 2005-2006 (IIPS and Macro International, 2007). According to the sentinel surveillance system data, HIV prevalence among pregnant women receiving antenatal care in Karnataka was 1.25 percent (NACO, 2006). Further, 18 of the state''s 27 districts have recorded HIV prevalence of more than 1 percent among pregnant women receiving antenatal care in sentinel sites (NACO, 2006).
Here a discussion of the constraints on organizing migrant labour, as well as some of the legal, policy and strategic options that exist for responding to these constraints and building a larger struggle. The focus is on seasonal migrant workers, though some of the points here may be relevant to other forms of migration as well.
The present paper uses data from the Census of India 2001 and tries to study the association between migration and workforce participation in the four Himalayan states, namely, Jammu and Kashmir, Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim and Uttarakhand. It focuses on the characteristics of migrants in these states; age, sex, reason for migration and duration of stay in the place of enumeration. Further, a comparison of work force participation between the states as well as between migrants and non migrants has been done.
The study takes a comparative approach by examining household livelihood mobility within two very different villages, in the same district administration of Madhya Pradesh (MP), India. [ODI Working Paper No. 236].
This brief explores circular migration in India and the policy response, and impact of this policy response, on the welfare of migrants and more broadly, on regional inequality. [ODI Policy Brief No. 4].
The paper is concerned with the high levels of infant and child illness and death amongst poor urban slum communities in Rajasthan, a state with one of the highest infant mortality rates in India. The paper examines the consequences of internal migration for women’s reproductive experiences and for their children’s health and is based on work between 2002-2004 in two urban slums in Jaipur city, the capital of Rajasthan in North West India. The research presented in this paper specifically focuses on the positive and negative roles of migration for the survival prospects of children in Rajasthan. While migration is an increasing feature which defines the lives of the rural and urban poor in India, few studies have considered its effects on the health of migrants and their families.
This paper reports some initial findings of a study of how migrants and the household members that stay behind reduce the insecurities they face (including hunger, debt, ill-health and work-place exploitation) through drawing on available informal support, based in relationships with kin, neighbours, fellow migrants and even, at times, employers. [DRC].
India has around 100 million circular migrant workers. Yet migration in India faces an almost total absence of forward-thinking policies. Rejecting policies to ‘keep them in rural areas’ as unrealistic, this paper identifies the kinds of migrant support that are needed if migrants are to continue adding to economic growth as they currently do, but at lower personal cost than at present. [ODI].
An investigation into the extent to which researchers with names associated with some of the larger states were writing scientific papers in those states, and in other ones, and to see how these relative concentrations (relative to the whole of India) had changed since the early 1980s. [Collnet papers, Unpublished].
This article draws on a fieldwork in a village in Jharkhand and a brick kiln in West Bengal to argue that migrants do not understand their movement in economic terms alone. Many see the brick kilns as a temporary space of freedom to escape problems back home, explore a new country, gain independence from parents or live out prohibited amorous relationships. It is suggested that Jharkhandi activists and policy-makers’ construction of such migration as a ‘problem’ is as much about their vision of how the new tribal state ought to be as about exploitation. [Contributions to Sociology].
The present study is concerned with the migrant who has changed his/her place of residence from a state other than Punjab and is working in brick-kiln industry as worker.
The unexpected increase in the number of census towns (CTs) in the last census has thrust them into the spotlight. Using a hitherto unexploited dataset, it is found that many of the new CTs satisfied the requisite criteria in 2001 itself; mitigating concerns of inflated urbanisation. The new CTs account for almost 30% of the urban growth in last decade, with large inter-state variations. They are responsible for almost the entire growth in urbanisation in Kerala and almost none in Chhattisgarh. Consequently, the estimated contribution of migration is similar to that in previous intercensal periods. [CPR].
This paper records the findings of a small investigation into a fragment of this lived experience, and into the social,economic, nutritional situation of urban homeless men, women, boys and girls in four cities: the metropolises of Delhi and Chennai, and the cities of Madurai and Patna.
A recent study of construction workers in New Delhi, India, provides a vivid account of the migrant experience. Mobile Crèches has developed distinct modalities of childcare services in construction sites and in urban slums. This report focuses on the day care programmes within the construction sites. [ARNEC]. URL:[http://www.arnec.net/ntuc/slot/u2323/publication/India_Mobile%20Creches.pdf].
This is an attempt to study formation of a linguistic enclave in Pune city. Pune is rapidly growing million city of India. This growth is largely due to contribution made by migration. People have come from all the states of the Indian Union. Among the states the first five contributors were Karnataka, Andhra Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Kerala and Rajasthan. Migrants from different states, prefer to stay together for security, cultural affinity and to retain the identity. Hence an effort is made to demarcate and study the enclave formed by the migrants. To identify the enclave, a city survey map was used.
Migration in India, particularly in rural areas, is dominated by the movements of women for the purpose of marriage. These are analyzed by mobility patterns by examining marital arrangements among Indian households. In particular, it is hypothesize that the marrying out of daughters to locationally distant, dispersed yet kinship-related households, are manifestations of implicit inter-household contractual arrangements aimed at mitigating income risks and facilitating consumption smoothing in an environment characterized by information costs and spatially covariant risks. [UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA].
This study of Domestic Migrant Labour (DML)estimates their numbers and their annual inflow into Kerala. The train-based survey covered all the 63 long distance trains entering Kerala through Kasaragod and Palakkad. This survey generated estimates of the number of DML in Kerala. It is estimated from the Survey that there are over 25 lakh Domestic Migrant Labour in Kerala today with an annual arrival rate of 2.35 lakhs. The remittances to their home states by the DML are over Rs. 17,500 crores.
This paper shows why some groups of people have succeeded in entering accumulative migration pathways while others have been excluded. A social exclusion and livelihoods approach that moves beyond neo-classical economics and structuralist theories is adopted. This helps us to understand that migration patterns are determined by people’s access to resources, the (institutional, market, policy) environment, intra-household relations, wider social relations, and not just the productivity and demand for labour in an area. [ODI Working paper No. 220].
Various issues related to internal migrats in India are discussed. [UNESCO].
A macro-picture of the sectoral composition of male and female labour migration is fi rst presented based on the 2007-08 migration survey by the National Sample Survey Offi ce (NSSO). The centrepiece of the paper, however, is a summarised presentation of the new primary level data that was generated by a series of micro-surveys conducted between 2009 and 2011 by the CWDS across 20 states, consolidated to present a meso-level view.
It has been observed that a few Indian states attract students from the other states at secondary level. It is also observed that the states which attract more students at secondary level have better educational infrastructure especially in the Engineering and Medical education; higher number of seats as well as larger number of institutions.
The pattern of interstate and international migration in different zones is compared and various socioeconomic factors influencing migration are assessed along with their reasons for migration.Materials and The study is based on the secondary data of 1991, 2001 Census of India. Zone wise comparison was studied for patterns & reasons for migration among interstate&international migrant (based on last place of residence, for all duration). [International Journal of Recent Trends in Science And Technology].
This research study focuses on Occupational Health problems of Migrant Women Workers. The migrant women workers face several problems such as low wages, health hazards, sexual exploitation and denial of their fundament al rights. Through this study the researcher aims to analyze the life of these migrant women workers. The specific objectives of the study are to identify the occupational health problems and exploitation faced by the women migrant workers and the expectations of the migrant women workers. The research design used for this study is descriptive. The sampling strategy used is simple random through lottery method. Data was collected from 100 respondents using an interview schedule by directly interviewing the respondents. The present study reveals that majority of the respondents (56%) seems to be affected by all kinds of skin diseases. Skin related problems occur because of heavy disposal of sunrays when the workers work in the quarry. Majority of the respondents (59%) say that no availability of the fencing or physical barriers are not available to prevent unauthorized entry. Most of the respondents say (90%) that heat stress, noise, dust related problem, vibration and stress problem are prevalent in the work place and majority of the respondents say that the problems of lighting, radiation, renal, liver and occupational cancers are less due to work. Migrant women workers are not having any basic facilities. They are deprived of their basic rights and are exploited by the contractors. So there is an urgent need for the protection of migrant women workers to overcome these problems. [International Research Journal of Social Sciences].
The post-1988 period saw the re-emergence of the ‘self-determination movement’ in Kashmir. The secular nationalist voice within this movement propagates the idea of Kashmiriyat - a shared cultural identity of people from different faiths. The migration of Kashmiri Pandits from the valley in the early 1990s seems to pose a challenge to the claims of secular nationalists and to the whole concept of ‘Kashmiriyat’. This paper will attempt to briefly look at the concept of Kashmiriyat and its conceptualisation by Kashmiri Nationalists, while in detail it will look at the various narratives around Pandit migration to see if and how this migration poses challenges to Kashmiriyat.
The broad idea of the paper is to analyze the socio-economic status of the migrant labour in urban India. Through the field study, the paper examines if the migration of labour to an urban space has made any significant change in their living and working conditions, in particular labour market and human development related aspects. [ATLMRI Discussion Paper Series 9].
This paper synthesises the available evidence to show that the relationship between migration and Water Shed Development (WSD) is complex and depends on a variety of factors ranging from rural-urban wage differences, personal aspirations and education levels. It argues that more empirical research is urgently needed in this area. The paper concludes that policy makers should be prepared to face increasing migration levels and embrace accumulative migration as a valid livelihood strategy that can be combined with WSD efforts to create win-win situations for the poor and overall economic development. [ODI].
Can migration reduced if the NREGA Act (2005)is implemented well - migration involves a great social cost as well as families get uprooted. Children get separated from their parents and their education might suffer. Also a study is done to show that if the Villupuram model of implementing the scheme is successful in providing enough incentive to curb distress migration and create productive assets secondarily for the villages, it could be used as a model for regions like Kalahandi-Bolangir-Koraput (KBK) in Orissa where people die of starvation till today and alternative means of employment other than agriculture should be created.
In this study the reasons for the migration of the tribals on how and where they migrate, their living conditions prior to migration and at their place of migration, what they feel about their future, whether they know the development programmes being implemented for their benefit, what is their health status, their vertical job mobility, the impact of the migration on their socio-economic life pattern at individual and community level, agencies involved and all other related aspects particularly the tribal women migrants. The study is focussed on the four tribal majority states of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh, Orissa and Jharkhand. The study includes women migrants from the cities of Delhi, Mumbai and Kolkata. [Planning Commission]
Thousands of tribal women and girls migrate from their hinterlands in tribal areas to urban city centers mainly in search of employment. They are new to the city life style and environment and find it difficult to make adjustment with the changed situation and environment. They have to face a number of problems in the cities they get migrated. Moreover, they are exploited both financially and sexually by the non-tribals in the cities. The socio-economic conditions of these migrant tribal women and girls are explained here.
The study suggests that the stream of women migration is not favorable for the social structure in general and rural area in particular for India. So, the Indian policy makers should concentrate on rural development to surge the sex ratio in general and rural areas in particular to save the social structure, rural culture and as well as an optimum development of urban areas of the country. [Greener Journal of Social Sciences].
Migration decisions to urban areas that are backed by economic rationale and attempts to understand gains accruing to individuals from migration, in terms of poverty outcomes are analysed. The analysis is based on the 55th round survey data on Employment - Unemployment Survey 1999-2000 (EUS) provided by the National Sample Survey Organisation. A broad descriptive socio-economic profiling of the migrant households in urban India and explore the dynamics of poverty among interstate as well as intrastate migrants to urban destinations are undertaken. [WP 414].
The present study was conducted to assess the various aspects of Maternl and child healrh (MCH) issues among migratory families. It was a cross sectional study and conducted in the Sumandeep Vidypeeth Campus, Piparia, district Vadodara . There were 52 families working in campus and all were interviewed for study. [Healthline]
The theoretical predictions on a sample of Indian districts in the period 1981-1999vis done, and it is found that urbanization has a substantial and systematic poverty reducing effect in surrounding rural areas. This effect is largely attributable to positive spillovers from urbanisation rather than to the movement of the rural poor to urban areas per se. Results using estimation suggest that this effect is causal in nature (from urbanisation to rural poverty). [SERC DISCUSSION PAPER 14].
There are many schemes, Act by the government of India for the betterment of migrant workers. But the problem of migrant workers are hug and requires the cooperation of NGOs, Trade unions, government departments to give them their proper rights. [Himalaya Forum].
Some Trade unions and Non-Governmental organizations though very small in number made sincere efforts to alleviate the problems of the migrant workers. IMF initiated an effort to organize the Migrant Workers at the Shipbreaking Yard at Mumbai and Alang through Steel, Metal & Engineeringworkers’ Federation of India (SMEFI). These Migrant Workers were organized in the existing union Mumbai, Port Trust, Dock and General Employees’ Union (MPTDGEU) by amending the constitution and reducing the rates of subscription. Non-economic demands like civic amenities, Occupational, Health and Safety (OHS) and social problems were taken up. [Himalaya Forum WEbninar].
Based on the census data, this paper analyses the district level rural to urba migration rates among males and females separately. [IDE Discussion papers].
This paper tests the impact of the National Rural Employment Guarantee Scheme (NREGS) on (1) rural-urban migration; (2) urban unemployment and (3) Inequality in India. Simple Harris-Todaro framework is used to analyze the labour market outcomes of this policy intervention. For analysis district level data from two rounds of National Sample Survey (NSSO) and exploit a quasi experiment setting where the NREGS was launched in phases across different districts over time. [ISID].
This paper analyzes HIV vulnerability in migrant source areas in UP within the framework of the existing HIV programs for migrant populations and makes a case for focused interventions to ensure the provision of seamless prevention and care services through the entire migration cycle to check the spread of the epidemic, particularly in the rural migrant source areas. [USAID].
2001 census data on migration of youth is analyzed to throw some light on the pattern of inter-state migration in the context of development and regional disparity focusing mainly on the eight EAG states. [UAPS 2011].
A detailed investigation on labour out-migration was done in the states of Uttar Pradesh and Bihar to study its determinants of migration and their impacts on farm economy.[UMDCIPE].
This paper is an attempt to understand the emerging migration patterns in India and issues underlying it. With globalisation, urbanisation and accompanying changes in socio-economic conditions, migrants are attracted to urban areas in recent times. The emerging migration pattern depicts confinement of migrants in lower socio-economic class in Urban India in response to the macro economic reforms. The latest NSS data (2007/08) on migration reveals a gloomy and divergent picture of recent migrants who have migrated prior to five year. [ISEC].
This study explores the three way linkage between weather variability, agricultural performance and internal migration in India at state and district level. The state level analysis focuses on inter-state out-migration using 1981, 1991 and 2001 Census data, while the district level analysis focuses on inter- and intra-district in-migration using 2001 Census data. [UNU-WIDER].
This paper explores the relationship between migration, remote rural areas (RRAs) and chronic poverty in India. It argues through the analysis of three rounds (2001/02, 2003/04 and 2006/07) of qualitative and quantitative data from six villages in the Indian states of Andhra Pradesh (AP) and Madhya Pradesh (MP) that migration is higher among chronically poor groups living in RRAs and that it plays an important role in managing risk and improving standards of living and household wellbeing. [ODI Working Paper 323].
The paper uses the place of last residence data from the census of 1971 to 2001 and attempts to bring out the trends and patterns of internal migration in India. [Paper presented at the Annual Conference of Indian Association for the Study of Population (IASP) during 7-9 June, 2006, Thiruvananthapuram.]
The focus of this paper is circular labor migration, wherein poor people from low productivity areas migrate for part of the year, often on a seasonal basis, to areas with more job opportunities and wages.
Internal migrants in India constitute a large population: 309 million internal migrants or 30 per cent of the population. Many policy recommendations are given in detail to improve the condition of labourers who migrate internally.
The study is of a pilot nature on internal migration in Kerala with a very limited sample size of 100 casual labourers from Tamil Nadu seeking work at selected centres on a day to day basis. The sample was drawn from the city of Kochi, which, it is believed accounts for the largest number of in-migrants in view of its fast expansion in economic activities. [CSES Working paper No. 16].
This paper deals with migration decisions to urban areas that are backed by economic rationale and attempts to understand gains accruing to individuals from migration, in terms of poverty outcomes. The analysis is based on the 55th round survey data on Employment - Unemployment Survey 1999-2000 (EUS) provided by the National Sample Survey Organisation. [CDS Working Paper No. 414].
Migration from rural areas of India contributes to urbanisation and may increase the risk of obesity and diabetes. Does rural-to-urban migrants have a higher prevalence of obesity and diabetes than rural nonmigrants? Also, does migrants would have an intermediate prevalence of obesity and diabetes compared with life-long urban and rural dwellers, and that longer time since migration would be associated with a higher prevalence of obesity and of diabetes. [plos medicine].
The paper discusses how gaps in both the data on migration and the understanding of the role of migration in livelihood strategies and economic growth in India, have led to inaccurate policy prescriptions and a lack of political commitment to improving the living and working conditions of migrants. Field evidence from major migrant employing sectors is synthesized to show that circular migration is the dominant form of economic mobility for the poor; especially the lower castes and tribes.
The study analyses the pushing and pulling factors of migration and also the living and working conditions of migrant workers including wage pattern, facilities available at Tirupur and to address the health issues particularly on HIV / AIDS. The study analyses through group discussions with men, women, trade union members, employers and interaction with medical community of Tirupur about HIV / AIDS related issues, that are integral part of the study.
This paper, (a) analyses the role of weather variability in inducing short-term migration using NSS (2007-08) data; and (b) estimates elasticity of long-term migration with respect to weather variability using Census data over the period 1981-2001.
This paper addresses the issue of migration and its public health implications within the human rights framework. Disaggregated information on the types of migrants in India, their magnitude and their vulnerabilities impacting their health and access to healthcare has been presented[CEHAT].
The dynamics of the socio-economic characteristics of external and internal migration in Kerala during 1999-2004 are shown here. It is based on panel data collected in the South Asia Migration Study conducted by the Centre for Development Studies in 2003/04.[CDS Working Paper No. 384].
In India, migration from rural areas is an important issue that is gaining more significance year after year. Moreover, the extent, nature, characteristics and pattern of migration have been evolving over time. In fact, the growing part of the migration taking place is seasonal and cyclical in nature. Seasonal or short duration migration is certainly not a new phenomenon in India. However, the magnitude of rural labour circulation is of recent origin, and a direct consequence of structural changes in the economy. [CDS Working Paper No. 433].
The objective of this working paper is to examine the extent of employment oriented migration of females in India and the inter–state variations in its magnitude using NSSO 55th Round Household level data on Migration. It is found that though the percentage is very small for ‘employment oriented migration’ an analysis of work force participation of female migrants in the age group 15-60 , irrespective of the reasons for migration reveals that in the post migration period work participation of these migrants increases steeply in all the states. Though marriage is identified as the reason for migration they work prior to and after migration which is not brought to limelight. [MSE Working Paper No. 4/2006]
This paper tries to focus on the method to assess the magnitude of short/seasonal migration based on its broad characteristics. It attempts to analyse the contrasting characteristics of short duration and permanent migration. The study applies the widely recognised demographic technique of Parity Progression Ratio to measure the magnitude of short duration migrants. [CDS Working Paper No. 442].
Return migration and health has received little attention in policy and research. This article will focus on the risk factors and social determinants of health during all phases of migration that can impact the health of returnees. It will highlight the diversity of returning migrants and illustrate through examples how return migration can influence the health of individuals and populations. The paper will conclude with policy recommendations for healthy return migration. [Plos Medicine].
The dynamics of internal migration in India plays an important role in the process of economic development and social transformation and shows an increasing trend of rural to urban flow over the years. At the same time, it shows falling trends in all other streams of migration and are registering negative growth rates as well. The determinants of rural to urban migration include a set of socio-economic, demographic, geographical and environmental variables. The empirical results establish the “Gravity Model” of migration in India; where as the “Harris-Todaro Model” of rural urban migration has limited applicability in both inter-state and intra-state migration in India. [ ISEC Working Paper No. 234]