8.1. Economic Factors & Demographic Factors

The major reason of voluntary migration is economic. Low agricultural income, agricultural unemployment and underemployment are the major factors pushing the migrants towards areas with greater job opportunities. Even the pressure of population resulting in a high man- land ratio has been widely recognised as one of the important causes of poverty and rural outmigration. This is true of both internal as well as international migration.

The most important economic factors that motivate migration may be termed as ‘Push Factors’ and ‘Pull Factors’. In other words it is to see whether people migrate because of the compelling circumstances at the place of origin which pushed them out, or whether they are lured by the attractive conditions in the new place. Now we shall discuss these factors.

♤ Push Factors: The push factors are those that compel or force a person, due to various reasons, to leave that place and go to some other place. For example, adverse economic conditions caused by poverty, low productivity, unemployment, exhaustion of natural resources, lack of basic infrastructural facilities like healthcare, education, etc. and natural calamities may compel people to leave their native place in search of better economic opportunities. The main push factor causing the worker to leave agriculture is the lower levels of income, as income in agriculture is generally lower than the other sectors of the economy. Due to rapid increase in population, the per capita availability of cultivable land has declined, and the numbers of the unemployed and the underemployed in the rural areas have significantly increased with the result that the rural people are being pushed to the urban areas. The non-availability of alternative sources of income in the rural area is also another factor for migration. In addition to this, the existence of the joint family system and laws of inheritance, which do not permit the division of property, may also cause many young men to migrate to cities in search of jobs. Even sub division of holdings leads to migration, as the holdings become too small to support a family.

♤ Pull Factors: Pull factors refer to those factors which attract the migrants to an area, such as, opportunities for better employment, availability of regular work, higher wages, better working conditions and better amenities of life, etc. There is generally city-ward migration, when rapid expansion of industry, commerce and business takes place. In recent years, the high rate of movement of people from India to the USA, Canada and now to the Middle- East is due to the better employment opportunities, higher wages and better amenities of life, variety of occupations to choose from and the possibility of attaining higher standard of living. Sometimes the migrants are also attracted to cities in search of better cultural and entertainment activities or bright city lights. However, pull factors operate not only in the rural-urban migration, but also in other types of internal as well as international migration.

Sometimes a question is asked which factors are more important, push or pull?

Some argue that the push factor is stronger than the pull factor as they feel that it is the rural problems rather than the urban attractions that play a crucial role in the shift of the population. On the other hand, those who consider the pull factors as more important emphasize high rates of investment in urban areas leading to more employment and business opportunities and greater attraction for the city way of life.

This classification of motives for migration into push and pull factors is very useful in analyzing determinants of migration, but all migratory movements cannot be explained by these factors alone. Moreover, sometimes migration may occur not by push or pull factors alone but as a result of the combined effect of both.

♤ Push Back Factors: In India and in some other developing countries also, another important factor which plays crucial role in migration is ‘push back factor’. The urban labour force is sizeable, and the urban unemployment rates are high, and there also exist pools of underemployed persons. All these factors act in combination as deterrents to the fresh flow of migration from the rural to urban areas. He calls this as a ‘push back factor’. He further adds that if new employment opportunities are created in the urban areas, the first persons to offer themselves for employment are the marginally employed already residing in those areas, unless of course special skills are required.

♤ Pull Back Factors: This has been a recent phenomenon. With better opportunities for employment (MGNREGA and other schemes, agricultural revolutions) individuals are pulled back to their native places.