Circular Migration and Precarity: Perspectives from Rural Bihar

The Indian Journal of Labour Economics : the Quarterly Journal of the Indian Society of Labour Economics
Amrita Datta

Abstract

Migration and mobilities are vastly underestimated in India. In particular, circular migration remains poorly captured as circular migrants move back and forth between source and destination regions. Based on survey data from rural Bihar, an important source region of migration in India, this paper finds that a vast majority of migrants work and live in precarity in predominantly urban and prosperous destinations across India. However, those at the lowest rungs of the social and economic ladder in source regions-the scheduled castes and scheduled tribes, other backward classes I and the labouring class-are the worst off at destination; they are part of the most precarious shorter-term migration streams, earn the lowest incomes, have the poorest conditions of work, and live in the harshest circumstances. The paper shows that social and economic hierarchies, and in turn, precarity in source region is reproduced at destination, and, thus, there is little evidence that spatial mobility is associated with social mobility. Focusing on migrants' location, work, employment, income, housing, and access to basic services at destination, the paper foregrounds migrant precarity and adds to a small body of empirical literature that is signi...Continue Reading

Methods Mentioned

BETA
Destinations
Destination

Related Concepts

Related Feeds

Cell Migration

Cell migration is involved in a variety of physiological and pathological processes such as embryonic development, cancer metastasis, blood vessel formation and remoulding, tissue regeneration, immune surveillance and inflammation. Here is the latest research.

Related Papers

The Gerontologist
Amanda GrenierChris Phillipson
Revista medico-chirurgicală̆ a Societă̆ţ̜ii de Medici ş̧i Naturaliş̧ti din Iaş̧i
Valeriu Rusu
La Revue du praticien
Hélène de Champs Léger, Guillaume Rieutord
Population Geography : a Journal of the Association of Population Geographers of India
Smita, R C Chandna
© 2021 Meta ULC. All rights reserved