The emerging issues of Internal migration in post war Sri Lanka

Internal migration has made a significant contribution in unequal distribution of population in Sri Lanka for many decades. The direction, pattern and volume of migration have been influenced by a number of socioeconomic and political forces. The recent patterns and determinants of inter-district migration have not been adequately examined due to 30 years cvil war in the Northern and Eastern part of the country. This paper analyzes the recent dynamics of internal migration and associatrd reasons. the analysis uses data from the 2012 Sri Lankan Population and Housing census. The results indicate that the growth of internal migrants has been increasing in non-traditional migrant receiving locations in districts of Northern and Eastern provinces, and Hambantota district in the Southern Province. The former is driven by the resettlement and relocation programmes for the internally displaced populations while latter is lead by economic and infrastructure development projects. Additionally, traditional urban districts, Colombo and Gempaha still remain as employment and education related migration destinations . Marriage and other reasons are also important. Results suggest that future policies should focus on identifying strategies to ensure better quality of life for migrants particularly those in non-traditional locations