Economic reform, uneven regional development and internal migration in India

Abstract

ABSTRACTAs per the existing literature on the theory of migration, inequality, regional wage differentials and regional development create a natural spur for people to migrate. Focusing on India, this study aims to investigate the effects of uneven regional development on internal in-migration before and after economic reform using panel data regression analysis. The paper attempts to contribute to the literature by linking migration to the development aspect of the economy. The nature of streams of migration appears to change after economic reforms with internal movement occurring within rural sectors with much prominence. The variation in in-migration rates too dropped across states, showing a more homogenous spread of migrants. The models based on nine different in-migration behaviours show more significant relations between the economic variables than with social variables. With the highest share of migrants flocking in urban areas, migration between urban-to-urban and rural-to-urban areas dominates in terms of destination and source in contemporary times. Interestingly, development of the manufacturing sector appears to be the most significant pull factor in the urban sectors for male in-migrants and specifically in urban-to-urban stream of migration while development of construction sector has encouraged females more to move into rural-to-rural and rural-to-urban patterns of movement. The service sector development has significantly influenced the movement towards the urban sector. The role of expenditure on the social sector and literacy level of the states havs remained trivial in attracting migrants though the development of employment schemes has hindered the movement of migrants in nearly all realms of in-migration behaviours. Interestingly migration has also occurred in poverty-stricken states, specifically in urban-to-rural and urban-to-urban direction. Nevertheless, the urbanization rate of the state has played a decisive role in determining the in-migration trend except for rural in-migration behaviour, specifically in rural-to-rural in-migration behaviour. The study confirms that both the development and underdevelopment aspects of regions through structural adjustments initiated after the economic reform in India in the decade of 1990s are strongly associated with internal in-migration in contemporary India.