What are the Push and Pull Factors in Migration?

This traditional approach to the motivation for migration takes, as a starting point, the differences, in the characteristics of the two places, namely, the place of origin and the place of destination.

Researchers have attempted to determine whether people migrated because the circumstances prevailing at the place of origin pushed them out or whether they were lured by the attractive conditions in the new place.

Among the various push factors operating at the place of origin may be included in the following: high natural rate of population growth creating population pressure on the existing resources: exhaustion of natural resources; droughts, floods and natural calamities, such as earthquakes and famines; and acute social, religious or political conflicts compelling people to migrate to other places for reasons of safety.

The following may be included as the pull factors: establishment of new industries with the provision of new opportunities for gainful employment; facilities for higher education in cities; pleasant climatic conditions, etc.

The Thirteenth Round of the National Sample Survey showed that 75.4 per cent of the males in India had migrated to urban areas in order to gain employment, while 11.6 had done so for educational purposes.

Among the male migrants who had not migrated voluntarily, 43.65 per cent had done so along with the earning members of their households, while 32.7 per cent were refugees.

Some variables may operate either as push or pull factors for example, the variable of technological change which results in the establishment of a number of attractive factors in urban areas or which provides modern agricultural machinery to rural areas and frees persons from their bondage to agricultural land.

It is obvious that the push-pull approach has been useful in listing the several factors which affect migratory movements and has several times offered convincing explanations of migratory phenomena.

This approach, however, does not by itself lead to any theory on migration. Some demographers have even questioned the adequacy of its basic concepts.

Williams Peterson observes that this conceptualisation is inadequate as “it implies that man is everywhere sedentary, remaining fixed until he is induced to move by some force.”

It is also apparent that, in most cases«,’ migration occurs not because of either push or pull factors alone but as a result of the combined effect of both.

Moreover, the push-pull type of conceptualization does not explain why, under the same circumstances, some persons migrate and others do not. The motivational aspects of migration are, therefore, highly subjective in nature.