Rural - Urban Linkages in South Asia: Contemporary Themes and Policy Directions

The early literature on migrant urban communities emphasized the conditions and employment patterns of squatter residents who have emerged on the urban landscape. Only recently has attention shifted to the relations that enable or constrain patterns of migration (particularly in the area of social capital) or to the varied demographic profiles of migrants and their decision-making processes. In South Asia, the early profile of migrants was primarily of males who leave temporarily or seasonally in search of work for subsistence. Movement was portrayed either as from one rural area to another for agricultural employment, or as temporary migration to a town or urban area to secure wages during the slack season. Few individual women were assumed to migrate, and few families were found to seek permanent settlement in an urban community.