Factors affecting rural-urban migration of agricultural laborers

Rural-urban migration is an important issue regarding the availability of manpower both in rural and urban areas of Bangladesh. It’s a dynamic issue and depends on various changing factors over time. The present study is an attempt to explore the present factors that cause laborer migration. It purports to inquire into push and pull factors of migration of agricultural laborer in Dumuria upazila of Khulna district. Data were collected from the purposively selected 80 respondents during August to September 2019 through a structured interview schedule on a number of eleven selected socioeconomic and demographic characteristics and the (push-pull) factors affecting migration. Relationships between the concerned independent variables and dependent variable(migration to urban area) were ascertained using Pearson’s Product Moment Coefficient of Correlation (r) [for parametric data] and Spearman’s Rank Order Coefficients (ρ) [for non-parametric data] of Correlation. The majority of the respondents (58.75%) were middle aged, 27.50% had higher secondary level of education, 76.25% were married, 60% belonged to the medium sized family, 65% had small sized farm, and 46.25% had low experience in farming. The majority (58.75%) of the respondents had low annual family income, 78.75% had no training, 56.25% had no organizational participation, 56.25% had low scale of extension media contact, and 46.25% had high cosmopolitanism. More than half (53.75%) of the respondents made a decision by themselves to migrate with a properly planned way (67.5%). About half of the migrants (48.75%) are presently involved in works which are permanent in nature. The majority (63.25%) of the respondent indicated that the place of migration is more improved than the previous residence. 60% of the respondents were moderately affected by push factors and 66.25% were affected by pull factors of rural-urban migration. The respondents hada high migration index of push factors regarding landlessness (67.50%) and pull factors regarding most attractive quality life (82.08%). Among other push factors extreme poverty (65.83/%) and searching for work (63.75%) ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively. Among other pull factors more wealth (81.25%) and better service (79.17%) ranked 2nd and 3rd respectively. Among the selected characteristics of the respondents, there was a significant negative relationship between farming experience and migration. The study concludes that rural-urban migration occurs not for ignoring agricultural activities, but it happens for searching improvement of overall life status by a farmer.