Haque, Jiyaul
(2018)
Land, caste and power in circular migration (NIAS Working Paper No.WP9-2018).
Working Paper.
NIAS, Bangalore.
| Abstract: |
The phenomenon of rural workers
seeking employment in multiple locations
is a well-established practice. Seasonal
migration of agricultural workers occurs
both intra-state as well as inter-state.
There is now growing evidence that
this search for employment for a part
of the year extends beyond agriculture
in rural areas to non-agriucltural work
in urban settlements. This leads to what
has been called as circular migration, or
the phenomenon of workers working for
a part of the year in urban settlements
and returning to their rural base for the
rest of the year. Much of the attention
around circular migration has focused
on the conditions prompting workers to
seek employment outside their villages.
Micro-studies have shown that circular
migration is largely undertaken due
to rural unemployment, scarcity of
land, inequitable land distribution,
low agriculture productivity and high
population density (Bird & Deshingkar,
2009). This denotes extreme economic and
often social hardship and is undertaken
mostly by landless or land-poor, unskilled
and illiterate poor laborers (Deshingkar
& Start, 2003, p.2). Consistent with this
picture is the fact that circular migration is more prevalent in regions which
witness high levels of intra- regional and
inter-regional socioeconomic inequalities
(Keshri & Bhagat, 2010, p.39). While
these analyses provide insights into why
workers are forced to seek employment
outside their villages, they are somewhat
less forthcoming on why they return to
the village for a part of the year. Among
the possible reasons is the inhospitality
of the urban spaces to circular migrants.
These migrants often have to live in very
difficult conditions in the city and urban
employment is temporary. |
| Item Type: |
Monograph
(Working Paper)
|
| Subjects: |
School of Social Sciences > Inequality
Programmes > Inequality and Human Development Programme |
| Date Deposited: |
05 Feb 2021 11:40 |
| Last Modified: |
05 Feb 2021 11:40 |
| Official URL: |
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| Related URLs: |
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| Funders: |
UNSPECIFIED |
| Projects: |
UNSPECIFIED |
| DOI: |
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| URI: |
http://eprints.nias.res.in/id/eprint/2055 |
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