<p>Asia is a rapidly developing region, with its incredible levels of economic growth now being mirrored by its pace of urbanisation. Although greater urbanisation can be seen as both an effect and facilitator of development, it also brings with it a slew of complex problems, particularly in developing countries, as public administration systems buckle from the weight of poor government policy. Most serious is the issue of rural–urban migration and the upward pressure it brings on urban unemployment, studied extensively by Harris and Todaro. This paper revisits and extends the Harris–Todaro model in two directions by: (i) developing a game-theoretical framework using iterated interactions to capture the dynamic relationship between job creation and migration decisions; and (ii) incorporating social capital into the migration equilibrium condition to reflect the often-overlooked role of non-pecuniary motivations in migration. Such considerations demonstrated that addressing the serious information lag and asymmetry in urbanisation data, as well as considering non-pecuniary motivations such as social capital, would better prepare governments to make proactive policy choices while enhancing the viability of integrated rural development. Finally, we draw policy insights and recommendations from both the theoretical models and a review of the broader literature.</p>