State tops in intercity migration for work

CHENNAI: In a sign that farm distress is no more the prime driver of migration to urban areas, Census 2011 figures show that most people who migrate in Tamil Nadu do so from villages to villages or cities to cities.The figures on migration released recently show that rural to urban migration constituted only 8% of the migrant population of Tamil Nadu whereas urban to urban migrants constituted 31%, four times as much.This wo uld show that migrants search not for a change in lifestyle but improvement in their existing standard of living, experts say.
Tamil Nadu tops in the urban to urban migration. Gujarat clocks 19.3% while Maharashtra, 23%.
The floating population has been increasing in the state. Census 2011 migrant population in TN is more than that of Census 2001by 18 percentage points.
Within each classification too, women migrate more than men. For instance, of the nearly 1 crore who migrated from one urban area to another, women constitute nearly 53 lakh. But the reasons for migration for women are different. They migrate for the sake of marriage whereas men migrate due to jobs, business and education.
Analysis shows 14.83 lakh men have migrated from one urban centre to another for the sake of work in the state. This could be either transfer within the same organisation or joining another organisation due to better pay and profile. Among women, only 3.39 lakh have migrated within urban areas for work.
In TN, migration related to urban areas accounted for 62%. “Tamil Nadu is comparable with Maharashtra in urbanisation. The migration to urban areas either from rural or urban areas happens due to better urbanisation and better availability of education, jobs and business opportunities,“ said Indira Gandhi Institute of Develop ment research professor S Chandrasekar.
The data released does not specify the type of migration intra or inter-state. But a significant component of urban to urban migration may well be people moving from core cities to satellite towns. “To really analyse the reasons for migration we need further details but a random look at the present data shows migration between urban and urban areas can happen either due to high cost of living in cities like Chennai or due to better job opportunities,“ he said.
People in TN are not much interested in migrating to other places either within the state or outside for the sake of business, as only a lakh of men and women have migrated due to business.