Determinants of Migration from Poor Households in India: An Empirical Investigation

In developing countries, poverty alleviation is a major concern. The marginalised population generally adopts migration as a livelihood strategy to improve their socio-economic position. Scholars have primarily focused on migration decisions from rural households, a dearth of literature talks about the migration decision by poor households. This study attempts to empirically investigate the factors determining migration from rural households particularly from ‘poor households’ in developing countries like India. Further, we separate the long-term and short-term driving forces of migration in poor households. Through nationally representative data from the India Human Development Survey (2011) and the logit model framework, the role of household composition, resources, shocks, debts, prevailing male wage in villages etc., in migration decision-making has been examined. Our findings indicate that long-term migration is likely to trigger in the presence of debt burden, household resources, belongingness to upper caste group, and major family events or shock. The result for short-term migration indicates that deprived groups such as Scheduled Caste (SC) and Scheduled Tribe (ST) are especially inclined towards short-term migration. Debt, major shock and dependent members also trigger short-term migration from poor households. On the other hand, as rural male wage rises the tendency to engage in short-term migration declines, reflecting the need to generate local employment opportunities. The result highlights the compulsion that poor household faces while making migration decision particularly when it is for short duration. In order to achieve poverty elimination and inclusive development goal, there is a need to integrate migration and poverty for policy measures.