What are the socio-demographic consequences of migration?

Migration represents a response to the uneven distribution of opportunities across space. Persons tend to move from location of low opportunity as well as low safety to the location of higher opportunity as well as better safety. Consequences can be seen in social, political, cultura, demographic and economic terms.

(A) Demographic Consequences:

Migration results in redistribution of the population within a nation. Rural-urban migration is among the significant factors contributing to population growth of cities. Skill- and age-selective migration from rural regions have adverse influence on rural demographic structure forming serious imbalances in sex and age composition. Male population within working age groups migrate out of rural regions leaving old-aged people, females as well as children, which enhances the proportion of dependent population within rural regions. Urban regions receive heavy migration of the working-age male population, resulting in a sex ratio that is highly unfavourable for women.

(B) Social Consequences:

Migrants act like agents of social transition. The fresh ideas connected with family planning, new technologies, girl’s education, etc. tend to get diffused from urban to rural regions via them. Migration results in intermixing of persons from diverse cultures. It exerts positive contribution like the evolution of composite culture in addition to widening of mental horizon of persons at large. But it also possesses serious negative consequences like creation of social vacuum, anonymity as well as sense of dejection among persons. A sustained feeling of dejection result in people falling in traps of anti-social activities like drug abuse as well as crime. Furthermore, it may result in loss of identities among emigrants. Because of heavy male migration from rural regions, the situation becomes particularly tough for females as they have to be responsible for both economic as well as domestic work in villages, resulting in higher participation of females in agriculture with no decrement in their household workloads. Migration of females either for employment or education increases their autonomy as well as role in economy.

Urban regions receive heavy migration of working age male population, resulting in the sex ratio to be extremely unfavourable for women, thereby giving rise to crimes against females as well as enhancing their vulnerability. Unemployment results in enhancement in crime rate in urban regions.