Progress of the study “Determinants of family migration to urban areas in Sri Lanka and its consequences on social and economic security”

Progress of the study “Determinants of family migration to urban areas in Sri Lanka and its consequences on social and economic security”

Abstract

Internal migration is a common phenomenon of migration process in the developing world. Temporary or permanent migration from rural to urban areas and urban to urban areas has become one of key features of urban population in Sri Lanka. Since 1977, with more open economic policies there has been a huge trend of young people migrating from rural to urban areas for industrial employment in Sri Lanka. Although at the beginning mostly individual migration was common to urban areas, in recent years, a significant volume of family migration to urban areas has also been observed due to various socio-economic and political factors. However, there is a vacuum of research on family migration to urban areas and social and economic security of migrant families in the context of the internal migration process in Sri Lanka.    
 
Focusing on this research gap, the present study aims to examine determinants of the family migration to urban areas and its consequences on their social and economic security. This paper presents an analysis of theoretical, methodological and empirical literature on family migration and preliminary findings of the study.
 
Moderator: Dr. Theerathorn Yoongthong

* A visiting research student at IPSR

** PhD candidate, Department of Demography, University of Colombo, Sri Lanka

March 11, 2015 Time: 12:30 – 13:30 hrs. Room 109 (Srabua)