DYNAMICS OF INTERNAL AND INTERNATIONAL MIGRATION IN RURAL PAKISTAN

Abstract

Labor migration from rural areas is a conspicuous phenomenon in developing countries. Due to lack of employment opportunities and insufficient income from farming in rural areas, migrating to the urban areas or overseas for work is one of the limited options available to poor villagers. This paper analyzes labor out-migration based on data from a survey of migrant-sending areas in rural Pakistan and aims to identify household characteristics that influence migration decisions. The study finds an inverse U-shaped relationship between landholding size and the probability of migration in the case of external migration. Since external migration is a costly process, small landholders may not have the funds to finance migration and thus be less likely to migrate. Moreover, external migration of villagers who can afford it only serves as a temporary measure of development. Villagers who work abroad eventually return to Pakistan. This ends the flow of remittances, pushing their households back into poverty and underdevelopment. Therefore, external migration without the possibilities of diaspora formation abroad is not a solution. More constructive policies of development, like skill formation that equips the villagers with sustainable income-generating capabilities, are indispensable.

Keywords:

• internal labor migration
• external labor migration
• migration decisions
• household characteristics
• landholding
• development in rural Pakistan

Acknowledgements

I would like to thank M. Jameel Khan, Director of Punjab Economic Research Institute (PERI) for his support and advice at every step of the research. Without his help, this paper would not have been completed. I am indebted to PERI field staff members, Ghulam Hussain, Ghulam Abbas Khan, Muhammad Imran, and Zafar Abbas Zafar. I am also thankful to Khawar Ata of PERI for keeping things in order. I had benefited from Muhammad Avais Tahir, Muhammad Faisal, Muhammad Shafique, Nayab Sarwal, Ahmad Yar Siddiquee, and Noor Ahmad of PERI on various counts. Last but not least, I am deeply indebted to all the villagers who had kindly spared their time for this study. I am, of course, responsible for errors that remain.

Notes

1. For example, Khan and Shehnaz (2000).

2. The others are Jhelum, Rawalpindi, and Attock. Chakwal district was created by combining parts of Attock and Jhelum and was given the status of district in 1985.

3. The population of Rawalpindi city is 1.4 million. Combined with Islamabad, the total population of the two cities exceeds two million. This constitutes one of the largest urban centers in Pakistan. See Government of Pakistan (2001).

4. Male adult equivalent (MAE) is a unit of labor and a weighted sum of male and female workers. The weights are: for males, 16–60 years = 1.0 MAE, above 60 years and 12–15 years = 0.5 MAE, 10–12 years = 0.25 MAE, and below 10 years = 0; for females, 16–60 years = 0.5 MAE, above 60 years and 12–15 years = 0.25 MAE, 10–12 years = 0.12 MAE, and below 10 years = 0.

5. Please see Government of Pakistan (2000) and Oda (2005) for the details of the poverty line of Pakistan.