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Abstract
This paper examines the context and determinants
of rural migration with particular emphasis on the
interaction between demographic and agricultural related
variables. Migration is one of the demographic
phenomena which has both consumption and production
overtones, and is a family rather than an individual
decision. Consequently, the operation of the family as
a decision -making unit has received special emphasis in
this paper. The decisions and the choices open to the
family are constrainted by the setting within which she
lives. The setting is described by three sets of variables
at the village level, that describe level and pattern of
labor utilization, level of agricultural technology, and
village's environment which is defined to include two
groups of variables; those describing level and distribution
of resources within the village and those describing
the extent of the village integration into the outside
world. It is argued that while the setting determines the
volume of migration, the individual's propensity to
migrate is influenced by the socio-economic position of the
the family, and type of family organization and strategy.
A two-1-level analysis of migration (at the village
level and at the household level) in villages of different
settings is therefore needed, in order to capture the different
patterns of causal relationship between variables on one hand
while increasing the policy relevance the results on the other.