A Test of Two Rival Migration Models

This chapter provides a test—using an Indian dataset—of both the Todaro-type probabilistic models of migration and a distinctly different view of the labour migration process which sees the rural-urban migration flow as consisting of two distinct streams with separate incentives—one group migrating to the informal sector where wages are competitively determined and the other group to the formal sector with jobs mostly prearranged (and with rural-urban migration not contributing to an increase in unemployment in any meaningful sense). The evidence presented in this chapter are seen to support this alternative view of the labour migration process. The chapter also considers the role of the social factors in migration decisions and examines the extent to which the variables which explain the migration for employment also explain the migration behaviour of those who gave various reasons other than employment for migration. The scheduled caste status, in particular, is seen to be negatively associated with rural-to-urban migration.