Post on 29-Aug-2019
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2. REVIEW OF LITERATURE
The literature pertaining to the study on “Impact of replacement
migration on wages and employment on construction sector in Kerala” is
discussed in this chapter under the following heads.
2.1 Concept of Migration
2.2 Process of International Migration
2.3 Process of Internal Migration
2.4 Theoretical Framework on Migration
2.5 Reasons for Migration
2.6 Studies on Different Dimensions of Migration
2.1 Concept of Migration
Human migration is a universal phenomenon. It is a process through
which people move from a permanent place of residence to another more or
less permanent one for a substantial period of time (Chakravarthi, 2001; Chand,
2002 and Singh et al; 2001).
Migration may be classified as rural to urban, urban to urban, urban to
rural and rural to rural. Migration leads to redistribution of people at the origin
and at the place of destination (Singh, 1998). Population tends to migrate from
low opportunity areas to higher opportunity areas (Pandey,1998; Lingan,
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1998). Intensive agriculture establishment of industries and higher living
standards are the major reasons for providing work opportunities.
The characteristic feature of labour in India is its migratory character.
Therefore, migration of labour assumes greater significance in the Indian
economy. Migration is thought to be the consequence of unequal development
where in people from ‘backward’ regions move to ‘developed’ regions. These
developed regions may either be prosperous rural areas or the expanding urban
areas where the people from the regions of less employment and income
opportunities flock.
Migration is also viewed as the concomitant result of industrialisation
and urbanisation and relates to special differences in employment
opportunities. In the past few decades in India several structural changes like
polarization of land holdings, increasing inequality, fall of cottage industries,
mechanization of agriculture etc. have accentuated the miseries of the rural
people which have forced them to find new sources of survival. One such
escape route is migration. John Connel et al; (1976) and Oberai and Singh
(1983) distinguished economic approach from geographical, sociological and
anthropological approaches. While economists view migration as a product of
salary differentials and potential earning opportunities between urban and rural
areas and explain in terms of pull and push factors, geographers are concerned
about special pattern of migration (Patel and Talati, 2002).
Throughout history there have been periods when migration has been an
important economic and social safety valve, allowing labour to relocate to areas
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where it was more scare. Usually, the cost and difficulty of travel were a
serious limitation, but a major break occurred in the twentieth century, when
lower transportation costs made possible a sharp increase in labour mobility,
even when the nation and state increased controls on migration (World
Development Report, 1995).
2.2 Process of International Migration
Like trade and capital flows, international labour flows after great
potential for benefits for both the home and the host country. Migrates are
often more productive and reduce labour cost in home country, and they send
remittances to relatives back home, boosting income in the home country.
International migration remains much more potentially charged than trade
capital flows. In the host countries public opposition to unskilled migrants has
risen sharply, exacerbated by domestic employment difficulties not necessarily
of the migrants causing.
Today the number of both sending and receiving nations has increased –
at last 125 million people now live outside their country of origin. Migrants
today increasingly come from poor countries, and their stay in the host
countries is being shorter. The number of highly skilled workers in the move
has increased as well. There has also been a sharp rise in the number refugees,
a consequence of regional conflicts and breakup of the old East – West order.
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2.2.1 The new international migration ( Vertovec and Cohen,1999)
2.2.1.1 More migration:- In the early 1970s there was a virtual halt to legal
labour immigration for the purposes of permanent settlement to the more
powerful industrialised countries of Western Europe and North America. This
was not a real “immigration halt” but political rhetoric to dampen nationalism
and xenophobia. But seen at a global level, migration increased. With the
collapse of communist world, most countries have abandoned controls on the
exit of their populations, and some have encouraged it.
2.2.1.2 New labour migration routes:- Legal labour migration took new
avenues: e.g.from Asia to the Middle East, more developed countries of
Northeast and Southeast Asia, and to a limited extent to Russia. Castles 1998
estimates that three million Asians were legally employed in Asia and another
three million elsewhere (Gulf states) in the mid-1990s.
2.2.1.3 Undocumented labour migration:- It is widely supposed that
undocumented labour migration has taken the place of legal from Mexico to the
US; from African countries to South Africa; from Northern Africa, Eastern
Europe, and Asia to Western Europe. This occupies a wide range from
overstaying to illegal entry. It is often assumed that irregular entry is a domain
of organised crime, but it is probably better pictured as a business with both
legal and criminal avenues ranging from taking money for issuing a legal
invitation letter to a person with all the legal documents to the forgery of
passports and visas and clandestine crossing.
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2.2.1.4 Independent female migration:- Feminists in the 1960s declared that
“women were hidden from history”. This observation had largely been valid in
migration studies. Many studies of migration either dealt with women only as
part of those “left behind” or studied them only as independent migrants. The
increase in independent female migration has been significant both numerically
and sociologically. In part this has been elicited by demand specifically for
female labour- from domestics to prostitutes – that could not be domestically
satisfied at the same costs.
2.2.1.5 Highly skilled transients:- Expatriate accountants, computer experts,
lawyers, academics, doctors, managers, engineers and consultants who move
around the world as freelancers or corporate employees are also “hidden from
history”, albeit in a very different way. They have no local political or social
rights in their temporary places of residence and do not usually seek them:
instead of the state, they often deal with the employer, which provides
insurance, education for children, and pension.
2.2.1.6 Investor- immigrant and skilled immigrant schemes:- A number of
countires, particularly Canada, Australia, and New Zealand but also the United
States, have implemented schemes to offer permanent residence to people who
are prepared to invest substantial amounts or who possess particular skills.
Canada and Australia have linked immigration, labour, and economic policies
so that immigration vacancies are in sync with employers’ needs. The United
States has introduced special visas, the HIBs, to admit over a hundred thousand
skilled temporary workers (most of them software engineers) each year.
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2.2.1.7 Migration as business:- Migration has developed into a complex and
lucrative global business, which brings lots of money to goverments, lawyers,
universities, and other migration brokers, including criminal ones, worldwide.
Each of these players attempt to regulate of influence migration in such a way
as to maximise their profits.
2.2.1.8 Increase in entry controls:- Increased migration and the vocalisation
of xenophobia propelled a conspicuous increase in entry controls, directed even
at asylum seekers. Recent calls to change asylum laws based on the Geneva
Convention system created after World War II - such as in Germany and the
UK- highlight the increasing difficulty of separating formerly clearly
identifiable refugee flows from other migrant flows. Yet these barriers to the
mobility of persons are being erected by the nation-state just as its sovereignty
is being undermined by other, largely celebrated, global flows: of capital,
goods, ideas, images, laws.
2.3 Process of Internal Migration
In the developing country like India the problem of domestic migration
arise in the contex of unbalanced supplies of capital and labour. In the whole
process of intra-regional and inter-state migration of labour, the movement of
labour tends to be excessive, in the sense that more people leave the traditional
sector than can be observed in the modern sector. Hence the entire process of
labour migration involves mainly the relationship between the modern and
traditional sectors.
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Agricultural labourers migrate to cities with the hope of better earning.
Basically the process is seen as one in which agricultural workers come to the
city and join the un-employment pool, while they wait for scarce urban jobs,
un-employment is sort of queue. Figure 2.1 explains the process of labour
migration.
Fig. 2.1 LABOUR MIGRATION
Urban Industrial centres
( )
Absorbed in urban Informal Sector Jobs
Semi‐urban areas, small cities, towns etc.
Rural areas villages and interior scattered human etc.
Employee absorbed in informal sector
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i) The model characteristics the movement of labour from rural area to the
urban area as a two stages process: (A) From rural to urban industrial
centres and rural semi- urban areas, (B) from Semi- Urban areas to urban
industrial centres.
ii) The majority of the migrants from the rural areas in the big cities/urban
industrial centres absorbed in the urban informal sector, due to lack of
better qualification required by the modern sector.
iii) However, the majority in the urban industrial centres even in the informal
sector, come from urban and not rural backgrounds.
iv) Migrants from semi-urban areas are not concentrated in the
informal/traditional sector, because the small cities apprently act as a
filter, sending to metropolitan areas the best qualified of their young
people and keeping the first-stage rural-urban migrant and the less
qualified or less ambitious of the native born. Therefore, they are capable
enough to grab formal sector jobs in urban industrial centre. Therefore,
the informal sector serves as a source of supplementary income for any
worker without access to a formal sector job.
v) The migration process is of intergenerational geographic stages. Rural
migrants do not directly go to the industrial centres. They go to small
cities and town and stay there. Their generation go to big cities. Thus
small cities and towns of India performs the training and educating role
assigned to the informal urban sector in the migration assimilation model.
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The share of unorganised sector in Indian economy was as high as
90.66%. Employment in unorganised sector over the period of three decades
grew at an annual rate of 1.1% . Informal economy constitute both wage and
self employed workers, within the self-employed also they constitute segments
having varying levels of entrepreneurial capacities. Given this heterogeneous
nature of informal workers, there are likely to be both voluntary and
involuntary entry into this sector. The various segments among the informal
workers enter this sector for varying reasons, sometimes voluntarily and
sometimes involuntarily. A segment of employees may be rationed out of the
formal sector and hence may be forced to participate in the informal sector due
to lack of any form of unemployment insurance in India (Jeemol, 2005). The
percentage of workers engaged in the informal sector is increasing every year.
2.4 Theoretical Framework on Migration
2.4.1.1 Lewis Model (1954)
Lewis introduced the concept of a subsistence wage, which is the
absolute minimum labour reward to sustain the productivity of the worker. In a
sense the wage is the minimum requirement to provide primary economic
goods to sustain health and to nourish a person. The subsistence wage level
must therefore be above the equilibrium price level thereby creating apart from
the agricultural and manufacturing sector, a third informal sector. The
subsistence wage level holds across all three sectors even in the informal
sector. The under-employed survive the harsh conditions in the informal sector
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through sharing their burden with their family. Lewis emphasis the altruistic
role of the extended family specifically the direct family members.
2.4.1.2 Harris and Todaro Model (1970)
Harris and Todaro introduced a new model to explain internal migration,
which combines both push and pull factor in the model. On the one hand the
migration decision is driven by unfavourable economic conditions in the
countryside, which push migrants out of rural areas. On the other hand the
favourable conditions in urban areas attract new migrants, thus pull potential
migrants from the countryside. The model assumes that only urban areas
experience unemployment. As urban unemployment increases (or urban
employment decreases) the chances of regular employment decreases. In
consequence the expected wage, which is the product of the urban employment
rate and the institutionally fixed urban wage, decreases. In this probabilistic
model every migrants has an equal chance of obtaining a urban job. The
probability of obtaining a job is simply equal to the urban employment rate,
which is the ratio of urban employment to the total urban labour force. As the
gap between the expected urban wage and the rural wage increases, the number
of migrants in a given time period also increases. In the sum, the rural-urban
migration decision depends on three factors, specifically : the rural-urban wage
gap, the urban employment rate and the responsiveness of migrants to
economic opportunities in urban areas.
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2.4.1.3 Gupta Model (1993)
In contrast to the Lewis and Harris-Todaro models, this model explicitly
subdivides the urban sector in an informal sub sector and a forma sub sector.
The Harri-Todaro model assumes that the oversupply of our-migrants are fully
absorbed in the informal sector. In contrast to this view, the Gupta model
introduces open unemployment, which exists side by side with informal sector
employment. This model predicts how alternative development policies,
specifically price subsidies, capital subsidies and wage subsidies effect the
equilibrium values of for example the following endogenous variables: the
informal sector wage rate, the relative price of the informal sector’s product,
urban informal sector employment and urban open unemployment.
2.4.1.4 Banerjee (1984) and Bhattacharya (1998) Models
According to Banerjee and Bhattacharya, the model by Todaro does not
adequately describe the migration process in India. In contrast to Todaro, both
the authors view the urban labour market as being segmented. They distinguish
between the urban formal sector and the urban informal sector, but don’t see
the informal sector as a stagnant and unproductive sector. In their view it is
economically rational for a low skilled worker to migrate to the informal sector
without giving much attention to neither formal sector employment
opportunities nor the relatively higher formal sector wages. These rural to
urban migrants are not blinded by formal sector amenities, because they are
fully aware of their potential and the limited opportunities in the formal sector.
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The informal sector provides job opportunities, which are on their own
enough to attract agricultural workers, who work under harsh and uncertain
conditions given their heavy dependence on the monsoon season. Although
formal sector employment is likely to be preferred, informal sector
employment is a more likely and practical alternative in the eyes of the low
skilled migrant because it provides the badly needed income even if the income
is irregular. Further, they remarked that only a relatively small number of
unskilled migrants are directly absorbed in the formal sector. This minority of
migrants is lucky enough to be at the right place at the right time or has the
right urban contacts, which informed them of the vacancies.
Banerjee (1984) stresses the importance of information flows
specifically : (1) latent generalized information, (2) direct generalized
information and (3) specific information. Most villagers have latent
generalized information in the sense that they have a perception of the urban
labour market conditions and opportunities, mainly through the migration of
relatives and co-villagers. The larger the number of out-migrants the greater is
the awareness of the rural residents. Given that villages have a tight
community, news about their urban experiences circulates quickly. The
performance of these out-migrants in terms of money remitted to their families
is easily visible for other residents and is a way to verify the ‘success’ stories.
The quality and quantity of information can be improved through direct
generalized information. This type of information can be obtained during
festivals, the marriage season and other occasions when migrants return home
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or when rural residents personally visit or correspond with urban-based
relatives (Haan, 1997). These relatives can inform potential migrants about the
state of the labour market, which jobs are and are not available, the difficulties
involved in the job search, what and how the adjustment process was etc.
Urban-based relatives are not only providers of generalized information but
also specific information. They inform potential migrants about specific job
opportunities in urban areas and in some cases even put in a good word for the
migrant by their own employer. In certain industries the demand for labour
fluctuates periodically. In the construction industry (Mosses et al, 2002) and
textile industry (Haan,1997) for example labour recruiters (jobbers,
middlemen, contractors), visit their native village to persuade relatives and co-
villagers to migrate in great numbers in order to facilitate the temporary
increase in demand for semi-skilled and unskilled labourers. In some cases they
offer potential migrants a firm commitment and in other cases a reliable
assurance of employment is given.
Potential migrants with many contacts rely on multiple types of
information and at a certain point can become recruiters themselves, more
isolated migrant have less access to information sources and in many cases
become part of the urban casual labour market (Mosses, et al 2002). Specific
information for more educated potential migrants from mostly wealthy families
can be obtained through official channels like for example news papers. Skilled
migrants are attracted to the formal sector, because this sector provides high
level job opportunities and greater non-financial rewards in terms of carrier
opportunities, secondary labour conditions and networking possibilities.
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According to Bhattacharya (1996, 1998, 2002) migrants that have
obtained a high level of education are most likely to be absorbed in the formal
sector, while less educated, less skilled migrants are absorbed in the informal
sector. Those skilled migrants who are not absorbed by the formal sector,
because they lack contacts and find employment in the informal sector.
Based on these models, migration and mobility of labour extensively
studied by economists, sociologists, demographers and geographers. Economic
theory postulates that workers should be moving from slow growing to rapidly
expanding sectors and there is evidence to show that this does in fact, happen.
In the words of Banerjee (1967) “Irregular agricultural work to obtain income
and worsening of economic situation were most frequent cited reasons for
migration”.
2.4.2 New trends in migration theories
2.4.2.1 Where classical migration theories fail:- Applied to the diverse picture
of today’s migration, accepted theories of migration ,which focus on the
reasons for leaving or staying, may work in individual instances but offer too
little to tie together the multiplicity of flows that actually interact in the life of a
society. This is particularly so since the same family’s recently migrated
members are often found in different countries. Even for such traditional
migrant homelands as Fujian, the concept of chain migration, which pictures
migration as a product of socialisation and collective economic dependence, is
almost never sufficient to explain individual choices of migration strategies.
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Such strategies are made from a wider range and on the basis of more
information than before.
2.4.2.2 .New approaches to migration:- Demographers and geographers (Lim
and Zlotnik,1992) retained the term “migration” in a restricted sense but
attempted to re-establish a holistic picture of migration but placing it within a
larger picture of movements and networks thereby transcending the binaries of
outward and return migration, sending and host country. They introduced the
term “migration system” to describe aggregate connections through migration
between one or more places of origin with one or more with places of
destination. Anthropologists like Pieke (1999) took a similar approach, but
instead of describing migration from the perspective of the outside observer,
they attempted to describe the social reality that migrants themselves operate
in. Instead of asking “ what migration does, or how it comes about , or how it
structured”, this cultural approach to migration “is concerned with how
migratory experiences are tied into the web of ongoing discourses of belonging,
separation, and achievement”, power, nationalism, and transnationalism. Pieke
proposed the term “ migration configuration” to encompass the movements of
people, information, goods, money and other resources between the two or
more loci of a transnational community, but also the institutions and networks
supporting such flows and niches carved out by migrants.
A migration configuration could include “kinship and community ties,
formal immigration barriers and commercial human traffickers, state agencies
and individual officials , the configuration of ethnic groups migrants encounter,
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airlines, railways and shipping companies and even law firms, human rights
groups, and anti- immigration activists”. In this approach , a phenomenon such
as chain migration is explained not only in structural terms but also in terms of
the “culture of migration” in the sending community that inculcates in its
members a particular discourse of movement and achievement. Pieke argues
that this cultural approach “ makes it possible again to look at migration... in its
own right rather than just as an adjunct of, say, the inequalities of the world
economic system, modernisation, or simply the workings of the national or
international labour market”.
2.4.2.3 Problematic categories:- Taking a contexualised, ethnographic view to
migration, the problematic nature of certain commonly operationalised
categories becomes obvious. This causes not only a conceptual problem but
also a data collection one, as governments and international organisations
maintain the old, rigid boundaries between categories of people who move,
with mostly incompatible databases. Where lies the dividing line between a
migrant and a traveller, a legal and an illegal migrant, a political and an
economic migrant, a migrant and a refugee, an individual and a chain migrant,
push and pull factors? Reality has become more complex than to fit into these
categories. Let us take a “ permanent resident” in a foreign country who spends
half of his time in the home country and in third countries, a “foreign investor”
who gains that status in his home country after only a few months of residence
abroad, and a “tourist” who only makes short trips abroad but maintains a
business network there . Both voluntary and involuntary migration is
characterized by a combination of compulsion and choice. Both “migrants” and
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“refugees” are motivated by a mixture of fears, hopes, and aspirations, and
often follow the same routes and are in constant contact with each other en
route and at the destination.
2.5 Reasons for Migration
The most important reason for voluntary migration is economic. Better
economic opportunities attract the labour to move from one place to another.
That is true for both-international as well as internal migration. Helan Safa has
remarked, “Migration is normally viewed as an economic phenomenon though,
non-economic factor obviously have some bearing, most studies conscious that
migrants leave their area of origin primarily because of lack of economic
opportunities in the hopes of finding better opportunities elsewhere”.
Tondon and Singh (2007) made a study on rural-urban migration in
India : status and direction revealed that India ranks quite low among the
countries of the world in the degree of urbanisation, few reasons can be
attributed to it – net migration from rural areas, agricultural economy, natural
increase of urban population. Since the process of urbanisation started in India
about a decade, it has not gathered enough momentum so as to enable to it to
absorb a significant chunk of the rural population. They realised that there is
variation in urbanisation at state level. Few states are more urbanised as
compared to others. The level of urbanisation and absolute number of urban
population shows two different pictures for example: Uttar Pradesh level of
urbanisation is low i.e. only 2.7 percent population is urban level in absolute
number it has 34,51,300 which makes it as one of five most urban states.
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Sidhu and Naresh (2005) made an attempt to identify the push and pull
factors which influence workers inter-state migration, on the basis of
perceptions of workers. A sample of 200 workers drawn from 25 brick-kiln
located in three districts of Pubjab was interviewed. This study found that
industrial development, better job opportunities and comparatively higher
wages in Pubjab have emerged as the most important pull factors which
motivate labour to migrate. Lack of development, inadequate agricultural land
and poor economic conditions of family forced labour to migrate our of its
native place. The study further found that economic factors have emerged more
significant as compared to non-economic factors in the process of migration.
Study recommends that in view of the slow absorption rate in the urban
industrial sector, the labour migration should be regulated. Concrete plans and
their effective implementation are necessary in order to minimize the difference
between the economic opportunities in urban and rural sectors.
Catalina et al. (2006) used data of Mexico while studying about
“Migration, remittances and male and female employment patterns”. They
traced the impact of international remittances on the labour supply of working-
age, men and women in Mexico. They accounted for the endogenuity of
remittance income and examined differences in the hours worked in various
type of employment by men and women in urban and rural areas, owing to
their remittance income. Remittances may reduce or increase work hours
depending on the gender of the recipient, the location of the household, and the
type of work. The income affect appears to dominate in the case of women in
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rural areas, who seem to be using remittances to purchase durables. Higher
remittance appeared to be associated with a reduced male labour supply in
informal sector work and urban self-employment.
During the year 1992 The Council for Social Development, Hyderabad,
had undertaken a study on ‘Migrant Labours in Mahabubnagar District’ (Usha
Rao,1993) sponsored by the DADA, Mahabubnagar. The study mainly focused
on the socio- economic characteristics of the migrant labour households,
causative factors responsible for migration, nature and pattern of migration and
impact of migration. The study also tried to assess the kind of assistance that
the Government could render to improve their socio-economic status and
thereby reduce or prevent the migration and finally possible measure for
development and welfare of migrant labours were suggested. The study made
use of structural schedules and also case studies to obtain an in depth
knowledge of the problems faced by the migrants.
Migration studies with a focus on women, unwaveringly highlight
women’s income/wage earning work as integral to the understanding of
households survival strategy. A study by Kasturi (1990) on ‘Women at Delhi’
presented a broad view of the consequences of urban poverty for women and
the family. The study indicated a highly complex occupational specialisation
based on religion, caste and region of origin. The significant findings were:
1. The seeming relationship of the women’s traditional economic role
in the family and the likelihood of her being able to adapt her skills
to the urban situation.
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2. The concept of ritual pollution associated with traditional caste
occupations carried over to urban occupation.
Ramesh (2007) in his study on ‘Out-Migration of Labour from Rural
Areas’ mentioned that about 60 percent of the agricultural labourers
interviewed reported that they usually move to other places as there was not
sufficient work in the local villages. Another 21 percent go to other places as
they are already part of some informal group working in those places. Only
eight percent go in the expectation of higher villages. Palamur in Andhra
Pradesh was the study area. The migrant labourers of this area are popularly
known as ‘Palamur Labour’. The migrant labour of this district is estimated to
be about three lakhs, highest for any other district in the state. These labourers
are historically known for migration to outside of the state for construction
work.300 migrant labourers were selected from villages like Kosyi, Achampet
and Shadnagar. Information is collected from observation and interview
schedules. The study concluded that all the drought prone districts of Andhra
Pradesh face the most chronic and extensive seasonal out-migration .
Freeman (2006) studied about the causes and consequences of
immigration and showed that people flows are large and growing but remain
smaller than the trade and capital flows, and thus represent a promising way to
attain global economic benefits. Greater mobility of labour across borders
could raise the output and economic well being of workers in developing
countries. Recipient countries could experience modest gain as well, but
because immigration can be economically and culturally disruptive, countries
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are unlikely to favour free immigration event to the moderate extent that they
favour free trade. People flows will become more important in globalisation
and should help to reduce global inequality among workers around the world.
2.6 Studies on Different Dimensions of Migration
Sheldon (1990) argued that not only do people change employers,
occupations and industries, but some of them also change their locations. The
shift from “Old Home” to “New Home” is termed migration. Sheldon further
wrote that, the movement to “stopping places” around the old and the new
homes may be on a form of “temporary movement” community and other
temporary movements make-up the activity space of an individual and can be
referred to as ‘circulation’ occupational shifts, migration and circulation are
thus subsets of labour mobility.
Reddy (1998) in his study “Rural – urban migration” was confined to
one district, Andhra Pradesh. He concluded that rural-urban migration is an
inevitable socio-economic phenomenon as a result, a high standard of living in
the urban areas when compared to rural areas. He suggested better living
conditions, housing loans, provision of basic amenities and skill development
programmes as short term action plans in the rural, to prevent rural-urban
migration.
Yadava and Yadava (1998) mentioned that high population density,
surplus of labour force, high unemployment rates, meagre incomes,
dissatisfaction with housing demand for higher schooling rural-urban wage
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differentials, pattern of land possession, and the prior migration patterns were
identified as some of the main determinants of rural out migration in most of
the developed countries.
Murthy’s(1991) study on ‘Palamur Labour’ indicated that : the Palamur
contract system violates the legal rights of workers. It contravenes the Bonded
Labour Abolition Act, 1976 the Inter-State Migrant Workmen Act Regulation
of Employment and Conditions of Service 1979 and The Minimum Wages Act
1974 of the Govt. of India. The loans that were obtained from money lenders
constituted 30 percent of the total debt and were charged at an interest rate of
48 to 60 percent per annum. Most of these loans, other than those incurred
during the contract, were taken for the purpose of marriages, construction of
houses, organisational investment, medical expenses. The erratic rainfall and
declining ground water also drew small peasants into indebtedness.
W. N. Slave (2009) stated that the problems of migrant workers have
become very important in many developing countries of the world. The process
of theorization of migration began in the 19th century. It has been discussed by
many researchers, who have emphasised social and cultural, distant and
economic factors as causes of migration. Migration of labour started in India
during the period of British colonial rule. It was aimed at meeting the
requirements of capitalists development both in India and abroad. The labour
was moved from the hinterland to the sites of mining, plantation and
manufactories. It was recruited from the rural areas and regulated in such a
manner that women and children remained in the villages while males migrated
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to the modern sector. Generally, there are two basic factors of migration: 1)
Distance, 2) Duration. From the distance point of view, migration can be
classified under four categories: 1) Rural to Rural, 2) Rural to Urban, 3) Urban
to Rural, 4)Urban to Urban. Besides, migration can be divided into following
categories: 1) Intra-district, 2) Inter- district, 3) Inter- State, 4) Inter-State, 5)
National and International. From the duration point of view migration can be
studied under three categories: 1) Casual- Temporary, 2) Periodic – Seasonal,
3) Permanent.
Studies on Tamil migrants in Delhi highlighted the significance of
women’s earning to the survival of the household (Rani and Kaul 1986).
Women contribute to the process of migration by participating in income
earning work as family migrants, assisting the male migrants by taking change
of sustaining the household at the area of origin, performing the functions of
selling down ,and assimilating into the urban life situation as housewives.
Singh (1998) focused on female migration in India. In his opinion
migration pattern in India indicated the percentage of migrants to total
enumerated population is consistently declining among both the male and
female population. Employment among males and marriage among females
were found to be the most dominant factors behind their movement,
irrespective of the type of movement or distance of movement. The study
found out that 30 percent of the Indian population are migrants based on place
of birth and place of last residence concepts adopted in Indian census. The
stream wise migration data indicated a decline in percentage of migrants
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between 1981 and 1991. The educational level of within the state migrants was
higher than that of interstate migrants. The work participation rate among male
migrants was about 90 percent compared to female migrants. This indicated
that more than half of the females who had cited employment as the reason for
migration, were either unable to get employment or had opted to be out of
work. Census data from 1961 to 1991 are used to examine the migration level,
reasons for migration, work force participation rate and educational level of
migrants.
Nair (2005) made a study on “Migrant Labourers from Kerala and the
Impact on Household Economy”. The sample design adopted for National
Family Health Survey (NFHS) is a systematic, multi-stage stratified sample of
households. The universe consisted of all urban and rural areas of the state
from the entire fourteen districts. It was designed to provide estimates for the
state as a whole and for urban and rural areas separately. The total number of
households interviewed was 4387 (72.2percent) from rural areas and 1220
(27.8 percent) from urban areas. The analysis found that there were more
Muslim migrants (42 percent) than Hindu (37 percent) and Christian (21.2
percent) migrants. Majority (68 percent)of the migrants households have fairly
good houses now. Its relevant to not that majority of the house are located in
rural areas. However, only 39 percent of the households posses some cultivable
land. This shows a glimpse of the pattern of utilisation of remittances in
Kerala.
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Shankar (1999) observed “Labour Migration from Bihar to Punjab”.
In this study he found out that economy of Punjab is agro-based. As such, the
state inevitably needs a troop of agricultural labourers. It is well known to all
that a major chunk of Punjab people are either in the national army or they are
engaged in business. As a consequence they are dependent on the migrant
labourers. Abundant number of Bihari labourers are absorbed in agricultural
activities. In fact the migrant labourers of Bihar are acquainted with the crop
cycle of Punjab. Nearly one crore labourers migrate each in search of job and
livelihood. Such labourers normally switch over to Punjab which lags far
behind in natural resources as compared to Bihar. Looking at it from the point
of view of substantial impact, activities such as migration or frequency of
migrating labourers conveying the earned money to Bihar do not have much
significant bearing in parts like Bihar, Orissa and Uttar Pradesh. No significant
impact is perceived on local economical structure on the society and on the
Government.
Jetley (1987) analysed the impact of “Male migration on rural females”.
To undertake the study of rural families whose males have migrated to the
cities, the capital of India was selected to trace the male migrants to their rural
homes. By a snowball sampling technique, the male migrants were asked to
name other fellow villagers working in Delhi. Ninety seven migrants families
were traced to three villages in Eastern Uttar Pradesh. The study revealed that
male out-migration from the rural poor over extended periods greatly increases
women’s work burdens and compounds their difficulties of basic survival. The
additional source of income through remittances does not substantially change
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the economic status of family nor helps it come out its subsistence level. A
little more food and a few basic needs to reduce their poverty is all they get in
return for prolonged displacement of family life, emotional deprivation and
insecure future, except for a possible bridge for their children to go to the big
city. The women in these de facto female headed house holds project
themselves as the “ behind- the – scene” decision makers while trying to live
according to the expectations of the particular ideology, conferring the role of
major decision maker on the absentee husband. Thus male migration from the
poor peasants or landless households by itself neither leads to greater autonomy
for women nor pulls the family out of its poverty.