Changing Patterns of Migration in India: A Perspective on Urban Exclusion

Abstract

A negative perspective has emerged on rural-urban migrants in the development literature, characterizing them as impoverished people, forced out of livelihoods, absorbed into slums, manifesting in a host of civic, and health problems, implicitly endorsing a view that slowing down migration would be desirable not only for the wellbeing of the population receiving them but for the migrants as well. Has this perspective on migration and the stresses and strains in the labour market impacted on labour mobility adversely, when several global institutions are advocating reshaping of economic geography by organising movement of labour force from backward regions to select urban agglomerations? The issue becomes extremely important in Indian context wherein the development process has resulted in accentuation of spatial inequalities in economic and social dimensions. The present paper analyses the trends and pattern of internal migration in India, considering the gender, rural urban categories and durations of mobility, using the latest information from Population Census and National Sample Survey. The general conclusion is that the mobility of men, which is often linked to the strategy of seeking livelihood, has gone down systematically over the past few decades, as it has become increasingly difficult for the poor to shift to urban centres in pursuit of survival. Urban labour market has shown preference for skilled and educated persons which has changed the composition of migrants in urban areas, discounting the proposition that the mobility of labour in the environment of globalization would lead to emergence of inclusive cities.