Role of Migration in People’s Lives: A Qualitative Study of Four Villages in Mahaboobnagar and Anantapur Districts in Andhra Pradesh (2003) Study commissioned by Andhra Pradesh Rural Livelihoods Programme (APRLP), Hyderabad

Migration is a multi-dimensional and complex phenomenon. Socio-cultural, economic, political, and natural factors broadly structure its processes. Migration is generally understood as a livelihood strategy employed by households in overcoming periodic stress and shocks. Multiple causes are responsible for migration that include natural causes like drought, economic causes like lack of employment opportunities, lack of livelihood diversification, social causes such as population pressure, household size, etc. While most of these causes leading to migration are found across most parts of the country, semi-arid regions like the study areas of Mahaboobnagar and Anantapur are much more vulnerable to drought and migration becomes an essential part of livelihood diversification strategy for people inhabiting these regions. Drought induced distress migration is a common phenomenon and most poor households resort to migration to overcome their economic vulnerability.

But migration is not always a passive reaction to adverse socio-economic and environmental forces alone. Patterns of movement are determined by context specific and complex dynamics, mediated by social networks, gender relations and household structures. Similarly, migration is not always a coping strategy but also a pathway for accumulation in some cases. Migrants with employment skills going through social networks and not through labour contractors or middlemen, longer stay at destination, earning higher wage rates have accumulated. However, the study points to the fact that, even under this stream, i.e., migration for accumulation, the long term consequences and effects of migration have turned out to be negative as accumulated savings in the form of remittances invested in agriculture and other non-farm activities have been lost due to continuous drought in Mahboobnagar and Anantapur districts.

Migration whether for coping or accumulation also has negative consequences both for migrants at the destination as well their family members  staying back in the place of origin. The negative effects of migration  faced by women  is much  severe as they have to face problems of adjustment, sexual harassment, ill health, psychological stress at destination while they have to bear the burden of looking after the household and managing farm activities if left behind. Women of poor households left behind most often have to rely on periodic remittances sent by their husbands to run the family.  On the one hand this signifies a new role for the women, but on the other, the lack of any kin support and other social security mechanisms, places them in a disadvantageous position. Similarly, migration has negative effects on children as it disrupts their proper upbringing in terms of regular schooling and parental care.