The Outflow of Labor from Agriculture: A Framework for Analyzing Migration from Rural Areas

This paper examines the context and determinants of rural migration with particular emphasis on the interaction between demographic and agricultural related variables. Migration is one of the demographic phenomena which has both consumption and production overtones, and is a family rather than an individual decision. Consequently, the operation of the family as a decision -making unit has received special emphasis in this paper. The decisions and the choices open to the family are constrainted by the setting within which she lives. The setting is described by three sets of variables at the village level, that describe level and pattern of labor utilization, level of agricultural technology, and village's environment which is defined to include two groups of variables; those describing level and distribution of resources within the village and those describing the extent of the village integration into the outside world. It is argued that while the setting determines the volume of migration, the individual's propensity to migrate is influenced by the socio-economic position of the the family, and type of family organization and strategy. A two-1-level analysis of migration (at the village level and at the household level) in villages of different settings is therefore needed, in order to capture the different patterns of causal relationship between variables on one hand while increasing the policy relevance the results on the other.