Internal migration and family dynamics

Although staying - even more than moving - is a common feature of human existence, the nature of staying is heavily under researched. Numerous studies have given us extensive knowledge about migration and migrants, however much less is known about the non-migrants and their characteristics and decision processes. This study seeks to address this gap in the literature by focusing on the specific nature of staying. At the centre of attention are Swedish life-long stayers aged 60 +. By the use of the Linnaeus database, micro-level population data covering the full Swedish population and containing apart from rich socio-economic data and links between generations also detailed geographical information, the quantitative studies of the extent and patterns of staying can be addressed. By utilizing population register the life course and characteristics of the “stayers” are scrutinized, and questions concerning the effect of rootedness and regional and temporal differences are addressed.

In recent years, urbanization has been taking place rapidly and vigorously in Ho Chi Minh City, the largest urban agglomeration in Vietnam. Because of the creation of a multitude of new urban zone development, the resettling of people has become common. Within 10 years, resettlement projects has released tens of thousands slums, cleaned polluted waterways, improved many old infrastructure systems. This paper aims to clarify the impacts of the resettlement on the live hood and social relationships of the relocatees, to analyze how they have coped with new situations and the role of social policy in supporting for relocatees.
The paper make use of both published secondary sources and primary survey. The effective sample size of the survey is 300 households which were selected from resettlement projects. The data were collected through face-to-face interview and semi-structured questions.
Findings show that the resettlement does not just stop at making a segment in-place to another place but also links to a serious of social policy for supporting relocated households. There are certain "immaterial and invisible” changes affected to the life of resettled households.

In India, caste system has strong routes in society and it affects the environment in which migration decision takes place. Since different caste/ religion groups have different impact on migration process thus in the present study an attempt has been made to study the trends in rural out migration at the household level according to different caste/ religion groups. Data have been taken from a survey conducted in the flood prone area of Bihar, India in 2010. Some probability models have been proposed to describe the phenomenon and it has been applied to the observed distribution of migrants from the households. Under certain assumptions, it was found that inflated geometric and beta geometric distributions explain satisfactorily the pattern of migration. Also in this study an attempt has been made to know the distribution of risk of migration which cannot be observed directly.

A national representative Nepal Demographic Health Survey (NDHS), 2011 data has used for study the socioeconomic characteristics of the Nepalese migration within Nepal, India, GCC countries and other countries and also tries to see the impact on housing facilities, household status, wealth status, education and food security. This data collected information on migration among individuals who lived in the interviewed households in the past 10 years but have since moved away. Preliminary results shows that four fifth of migrants are of age 24 and younger within Nepal while 93 percents migrants above age 20 years and about 42 percents beyond age 30 in GCC countries. Ninety seven percents are male migrated to GCC countries on the other hand within Nepal 58 percents are females. Reason for migration in GCC countries are work only whereas studies are also the reason in other countries besides work. Migrations are largely from rural area and Terai region of Nepal. About 70 percents migrants to GCC countries belong to middle and above wealth quintiles while 75 percents migrants to India are middle and lower quintiles.

Key words: International migrants, household, Nepal, NDHS, GCC countries

Over the past 20 years, China’s migration transition has been moving from a stage of individual migration to a stage of family migration. Using data from 2006 One-per-Thousand Floating Population Survey in Beijing, this paper examines family and residential patterns of the migrants in Beijing and the determinants of family migration. In 2006, the percentage of family migration among total migration stood at 60%, more than double that reported in a survey 10 years ago. Family patterns are dominated by households consisting of one married couple and one married couple plus children. Three-fourths of the married migrants are living with their spouse, while slightly more than half of the migrants who have children are living with their children. The mean size of migrant households is 2 persons and the mean size of married migrant households is 2.3 persons, which is considerably lower than the average household size (3.4 persons) of the general rural population in China. Individual characteristics and the district of Beijing where the migrant lives significantly affect the likelihood of family migration. One important finding is that non-economic factors, such as for better children’s education, have become a more important driving force in family migration.

Many young women from rural areas in developing countries feel it is their duty to migrate to urban areas to help relieve family poverty. Women and girls who migrate are highly vulnerable to sexual exploitation and to sexual violence.
This is a pioneering study in Vietnam which used interviews with families of migrant children in rural areas, interviews with young migrant sex workers in northern Vietnam, and key informant interviews to analyze the decision-making processes for migration and the journey leading to sexual exploitation.
This study aimed to explore why parents obligate their daughters to migrate unattended and begin work in an entertainment industry. The findings indicate that young women often migrate from rural areas out of obligation to assist in the family income. As the young women leave their familiar environment and arrive in the city, they are then tricked or lured into selling sex to supplement the family income. The young women are affected psychologically, physically and emotionally by their sexual exploitation. In addition, the young women report not being able to return home due to family expectations of remittances. In this way, policies and programs much work towards effective strategies to protect young migrant women.

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the various patterns of rural youth outmigration (permanent, temporary and planned) and assess their influence both on their parents' fertility, as well as their own transition to adulthood and family formation. The data come two quantitative samples: a targeted sample of 1098 rural origin, unskilled youth (aged 15-29) residing in Addis Ababa, and a stratified, random sample of 835 rural households in 4 districts and 8 villages in the two of the most important youth sending areas; and two qualitative sources, teenage (male and female) focus groups and adult key informant interviews. The complex decision-making process included peer influence, social networks, poor quality education, conflict over land and with their rising aspirations that the sending family can't meet. Education was the main reason for outmigration from Gojjam, and work-related reasons from Wolaitta. No evidence is found for the "replacement" fertility effect on migrant-sending households, and CPR is twice as high among migrants households as among non-migrant households in Gojjam. Transitions to adulthood were delayed through high school education, health workers, non-farm labor and urban residence which combined to delay marriage and reduce desired family size, as well as increase perceived migrant well-being

With the rapid development of the Chinese economy, a very large number of unmarried young women are entering the floating labor market. They leave their hometowns to work in big cities without moving their Hukou from their hometowns to their working places because of the difficulty of such Hukou migration. An increasing number of migrant women have married husbands from their places of work. It is reported that nearly 10-20% of these husbands and wives are not laoxiangs, but come from different places. This is becoming a new type of Chinese marriage migration. Using the latest Third Wave Survey on the social status of women in China, carried out jointly by the All-China Women’ Federation and Chinese National Bureau of Statistics in December 2010, characteristics of and influences on female migration marriage in the floating labor market were investigated at the individual and household level. Factors affecting migration marriage in the floating and open marriage market were analyzed by logistic regression. The results indicate that the couples in a migration marriage have better individual and family characteristics than couples in a laoxiang marriage. Floating females with better individual and family conditions integrate more easily to into the society at their workplaces and find it easier to achieve migration marriages.

Indian urban family structure is in a transitional stage and it is gradually moving from joint to nuclear families. The rapid urbanization and increasing number of urbanites changes the traditional family structure and religious composition of urban centres through differential migration. Religion and Caste played a vital role for determining the family structure and social composition. Slums are mainly dense households, settling beside the roadways and along the railway tracks, haunted the industrial and commercial set up in urban environment. Cities’ social areas are determined by these two components. The social and family composition varies from cities to cities. The study shows the comparison between slum and non-slum households in eight cities. The presence of slum households is higher in metropolitan cities as compared to other cities and towns. Most of the slums and non-slums of metropolitan cities are of nuclear type. There is no impact of religion and caste on the family structures of slum and non-slum households. Also among slum households, the family structure is independent of caste and religious affiliation, but is strongly dependent on age and educational levels of the head households.

Migration to Mumbai city and its constituent units is different both in nature & context. A study of 9102 migrants to Greater Mumbai Urban Agglomeration (GMUA) indicated that the median age while migrating was 19.4 years & half of them were married. Most of the migrants had rural background. Such migrants were less in Mumbai city. More than half were from Maharashtra. Migrants from UP were in higher proportion. One fifth migrants migrated to GMUA after 1991 whose proportion was three times more compared to Mumbai city. More literates migrated to the constituent units. Though migration to Mumbai city had reduced it was still significant in the adjoining urban centres. Majority of migrants came to GMUA in search of employment. One third migrants had to wait for 6 to 12 months to get a job. One of every four migrants had changed their jobs at least once. The migrants maintained regular contact with the persons/kin in their native place and often sent remittances. There is a need to look at GMUA’s migration scenario in the context of micro level urbanization and regional disparities in Maharashtra and other less developed states from where people migrate to GMUA.