Determinants and Patterns of International Migration: A Case Study of Village Khizarabad (Punjab)

Corresponding Author: Kiran Jyoti Kaur, Research Scholar (UGC-SRF), Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, Email:minhas.kiran555@gmail.com

KEYWORDS international migration, Punjab, determinants, pattern

ABSTRACT
Background: International migration has played an important role in shaping human lives in contemporary times. People always see a difference between ‘here’ and ‘there’ because they feel attracted to different places. Punjab is one of the forefront states in India from where major international emigration takes place. There is a massive craze among the Punjabis to move to foreign shores.
Objective: The present paper aims to study the pattern and determinants of international migration from village Khizarabad, district S.A.S. Nagar, Punjab, through the vision and perspective of the left-behind family members of these migrants.
Methodology: The present study is based on primary data collected from 40 households where international migration occurred. Purposive and snowball sampling technique was used for data collection. In-depth interviews of the left-behind family members of the migrants were taken with the aid of a self-designed schedule to understand the determinants and patterns of international migration.
Results: It was observed that the migration pattern in the village was dissimilar between genders, as most of the migrants were males (91.11%), and only 8.89% of migrants were females. The majority (46.67%) of the international migration in the village was observed between the age group of 17-21 years. 37.78% of the migrants have migrated to Gulf countries (UAE, Saudi Arabia and Oman), and others have migrated to countries like Canada, America, Australia, etc.
Conclusion: From the study, it was concluded that lack of employment opportunities, lesser wages, a lower standard of living, bleak future in agriculture were the major push factors, and better lifestyle and living standards, the craze for a foreign land, better job opportunities in the destination country were the major pull factors because of which migrants leave their country of birth and get settled in some other country. The pattern of international migration was analysed by studying the gender-wise distribution of migrants, marital status at the time of migration, age and educational qualification at the time of emigration, economic activity before migration and preferred country of migration.

Kiran Jyoti Kaur¹ and Anil Kishore Sinha²

¹Research Scholar (UGC-SRF), Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, Email:minhas.kiran555@gmail.com
²Professor, Department of Anthropology, Panjab University, Chandigarh, India, Email: aksinha58@gmail.com

DOI-DS: 12.2022-76546565
DOI Link :: https://doi-ds.org/doilink/12.2022-76546565/Frontier Anthropology/06.2021-53228984/V11/A3

Frontier Anthropology, 2022, 11: 25-35
©Anthropological Society of Manipur

Original Article

Manuscript Timeline
Submitted: July 22, 2022
Accepted: November 17, 2022
Published: December 7, 2022