Migration : Types, Causes And Consequences

Work and Employment remains the largest pull factor for males from the rural to move to the urban cities of India.

Maharashtra with 2.3 Million (23 lakh) net in-migrants receives the maximum number of immigrants followed by Delhi, Gujarat and Haryana. Uttar Pradesh (-2.6 million, 26 lakh) and Bihar (-1.7 million, 17 lakh) were the states, which had the largest number of net out-migrants among all the states.

Male migrants dominate the rural to urban stream of inter-state migration in India due to economic reasons.

The Greater Mumbai receives the highest number of in-migrant population of all the Urban Agglomerations in India.

A life-time migrant is one whose place of birth is different from the place of enumeration of the census. Whereas a migrant by last residence is one whose last resident is different from the place of enumeration of census.

In India, female migration is caused by the institution of marriage which require the bride to shift to the groom’s household after marriage. Hence, female migration dominates intra-state migration.

Male members are considered the breadwinner in Indian households, while the female members are nurturers and discouraged from taking up jobs. It is the responsibility of the male members to earn and sustain the family. Hence, men dominate the rural to urban stream of inter-state migration due to economic reasons.

An individual is like a cell in human body, she/he is the basic fundamental unit of a society. Her/his decisions can impact the composition of the society. Rural-Urban migration in India is dominated by working population (16-50 years of age), which means the rural population is more of aged individuals. Moreover, it is the male members who move to the urban areas in search of low skilled jobs, which usually is not sufficient to support moving his family to the urban area. Thus, the rural areas exhibit significantly higher sex ratio and existence of dependent population.

Migration is a response to the uneven distribution of opportunities over space. People tend to move from place of low opportunity and low safety to the place of higher opportunity and better safety. This create both benefits and problems for the areas, people migrate from and migrate to. Key among these consequences are:

Economic Consequences

• The source regions benefit from the remittance sent by migrants. Remittances from the international migrants are on the major sources of foreign exchange in India.

Social Consequences

• Migration leads to redistribution of the population across geographies. Age and skill selective migration results in adverse consequences for the source region, like distortion of demographic indicators (like sex ratio).

Social Change

• Migrants act as agents of social change. Through the exposure to foreign cultures, they are introduced to many progressive ideas, believes and technology.

Environmental Consequences

• Overcrowding of people due to international migration puts pressure on existing infrastructure, which ultimately leads to unplanned growth of urban settlements and formation of slums shanty colonies. It also leads to the depletion of natural resources due to over-exploitation.

The negative effects of international migrations are often overlooked in the face of the positives. However, it is the negatives that determine the long-term stability of both the source and destination areas.

Migration can never be considered in isolation; it is a response to the uneven distribution of opportunities over space. When an individual or a family relocates, it has indirect effect on the many variables of society and demography. As a first, it leads to the redistribution of the population within a country. This means certain regions end up with more people than it can handle, whereas certain other places sustain itself with far lesser number of people. Thus, without effective policy intervention by the Government, regions with greater opportunities gets too many migrants while the region with lesser population remains untouched by developmental activities, lacking proper infrastructural facilities. Moreover, migration renders serious imbalances in the sex ration in both the origin and destination of migrants. Unchecked migration can lead to over-crowding, which puts pressure on the existing social and physical infrastructure in the urban areas. This ultimately leads to unplanned growth of urban settlement and formation of slums. In addition, due to over-exploitation of natural resources, many urban cities are facing acute problems of depletion of ground water, air pollution, disposal of sewage and management of solid waste. From an individual’s perspective, migration is beneficial as leads to an improved standard of living, whereas from a larger societal perspective unchecked and unplanned migration is a cause of worry. The Government of the land has to find reasons for out-migration and create opportunities to minimise it.

On a side note: Why had Sundar Pichai gone to the U.S.? Why couldn’t he complete his education here and lead to Google-like company here? Why is there an influx of migrants to the Europe?

Migration is not that bad, from an evolutionary perspective. Early humans migrated in search of livelihood and had mixed with other groups of people. Our DNA is a pool of genetic materials, thanks to this mixing of early migrants. Populations should intermix for natural selection to happen, but the current artificial migration (like forced, either directly or indirectly) is creating undue stresses on the natural resources, which is unhealthy if we are looking for long-term sustainability.