Review of Literature - shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.inshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/21348/11/11_chapter 2.pdf · Review of Literature 9 ... so that immigration vacancies are

Review of Literature

9

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,


10

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


11

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.


12

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.


13

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.


14

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.


15

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


16

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.


17

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


18

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.


19

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.


20

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


21

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.


22

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.


23

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,


24

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


25

“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.


26

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


27

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.


28

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


29

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


30

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


31

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


32

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.


33

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


34

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.

Review of Literature - shodhganga.inflibnet.ac.inshodhganga.inflibnet.ac.in/bitstream/10603/21348/11/11_chapter 2.pdf · Review of Literature 9 ... so that immigration vacancies are

Documents