Content area
Full Text
ABSTRACT
The paper considers the issue of labour migration which is very significant for economic development of any nation. It presents in a nutshell the trends and patterns of migration in India, its causes and impacts as discussed in the literature so far. After doing a rigorous survey of the literature we observe that the issue is, in some sense, neglected and its importance is underestimated. Hence, the paper would serve as a useful guide to the future research on this area.
JEL Classification: R23, J12, J31, J46, J11.
Keywords: Regional Migration, Marriage, Wage differentials, Informal Labour Markets, Demographic Trends.
Every economy is confronted with certain economic problems. Some of them may be external, while some may be internal. Among all the internal problems, unemployment gains huge importance both in economic theories as well as in terms of policy prescriptions. Every individual wishes to get employed to have a source of more or less steady flow of incomes. Incomes provide purchasing power to individuals and hence they can improve their standard of living. So, if an individual cannot find job in her current location, then she can decide to move out of that place and relocate to some other region in search of employment. This phenomenon is regarded as 'labour migration'. Migration is defined as a move from one migration defining area to another, usually crossing administrative boundaries made during a given migration interval and involving a change of residence1. In general, the level of development gap between the economies and also between the regions within an economy induces an individual to migrate from a region where opportunity to find jobs is lower to a region where job finding is easier. Migration can be of two types - internal migration (from one region to another but within the same country) and external migration or emigration (from one country to another country). In the global scenario, internal migration seems to be more significant than the external migration2.
One major reason for which labourers migrate from one region to another region is in search of employment. Even in a situation where an individual is indifferent between the two regions in terms of employment opportunities still there can be an incidence of migration. In that case, the...