Migration and Remittance study in

Odda village

Introduction:

Migration is a historical fact. As in form for slavery in older times then in form
of colonisation, after industrialisation development of cities gave a big push to
migration. As globalisation curtails the distances and information is more
dispersed international migration of people have been paced.

People migration in the will of better life and living, but the process is most of
the time painful and troublesome. Although many people migrate in search of
better earning and living, it becomes upmost painful when people migrate
because they have no other strategy left for sustaining their life and livelihood.

In a situation where no other coping up strategy is left and people migrate to

sustain their life it becomes a distress led migration.

Although people usually migrate in the hope of improving their life chances
and well-being, the process of migration is nonetheless characterised by
impediments, susceptible not only to structural and even cultural constraints
affecting the choices available to would-be migrants, but also to the emotional
and psychological distress associated with it. Several factors and
considerations shape the decision to migrate. ‘For the migrants, time presents
itself differently in the host nation and the present is experienced as a double
loss, of origin and of reality, a “hyper reality”, as it were’ (Thapan 2005). Or, as
Rapport and Dawson (1998) note, ‘home is conceptualized in fluid terms as
being neither here nor there . . . rather, itself, a hybrid, it is both here and
there – an amalgam, a pastiche, a performance’.
This is a report on the study of migration in a village where almost every
household had somebody in some point of time migrated because of distress
conditions.

Concepts:

1. Migration:

NSSO defines migrants as,” A person, whose last usual place of residence was
different from the present place of enumeration on the date of enquiry, has
been considered as migrant.”

Thus NSSO requires change in place of resident in order to be considered as

migrants. But there are a large number of people who
migrate seasonally for employment change in
residence are not reported in their case. In order to
understand true situation of migration we need to take
account of all employment related migration. Thus NSSO requires change in
place of resident in order to be
A person, who moves from his/her local place to any
considered as migrants. But
other place which is substantially different from local
there are a large number of
place for some employment oriented reason, is
people who migrate seasonally
considered migrant in the study.
for employment change in
Thus, if a lady was married to a man who lived at a residence are not reported in
different place, she is not considered a migrant in the their case.
study even though her place of residence was
changed.

2. Livelihood:
 According to Scoones (1998): “A livelihood comprises the capabilities, assets
(including both material and social resources) and activities required for a
means of living. A livelihood is sustainable if it can cope with and recover from
stress and shocks maintain or enhance its capabilities and assets, while not
undermining the natural resource base.”

It is important make distinction between livelihood resources and livelihood

strategies. Livelihood resources refer to the basic assets which rural people and
families possess for pursuing different livelihood strategies; these are not
limited only to material assets like cash or land or livestock, but also include
skills, social networks and natural infrastructure.

Livelihood resources are used in various combinations to pursue livelihood

strategies. There are three main clusters of livelihood
strategies practised by the rural people:
1. Agriculture Extensification and Intensification
It is important make distinction 2. Livelihood Diversification
between livelihood resources 3. Migration
and livelihood strategies.
Analytic framework of concepts:

Migration has become a part of the life the village

Odda. When people migrate at such a mass level
many issues arises at home as well as at destination.
This study tries to investigate these issues. Apart from looking in to the
patterns of migration, study tries to look in to various socioeconomic
conditions of migrant families and local community.

The study focuses on number of issues:

1. Understanding distress situation and coping up decision process of

people and analysing livelihood strategies of people.
2. Factor determining migration like migrants destination, duration, work
profiles etc.
3. Issues faced by people in the process at home or at destination.
4. Finding some areas of possible intervention.
These issues require us to investigate number of questions:

What are the different livelihood opportunities available to people?

What is the structure of families of migrants?

What economic factors work for migration?

What is the duration and seasonality of migration?

What are the education, skills and employment scenarios of migrants?

What are substances of remittances?

What are the arrangements for remittance?

What are the social differences in migrants from non migrants?

We use occupational status and house hold income to determine livelihood

status.

Methods:

The study takes individuals of migrant families as unit of study. As Odda village
is settled in hamlets largely based on caste, we take random sample of 50 from
hamlets.

We conduct a survey in the selected sample. Also conduct 2 FGDs with

migrants of village.