Employment Status of Rural to Urban Migrants in Pakistan

Abstract

This study attempts to assess the impact of employment status of rural to urban migrants in Pakistan with diverse socio-economic backgrounds such as gender, marital status, status of the member of household, education and training and province of residence. The data is sourced from Labour Force Survey conducted by Pakistan Bureau of Statistics for the year 2012-13. The topic is chosen keeping in view the anticipated challenges that Pakistan may encounter being one of the developing countries facing rise in people migrating from rural to urban areas either in search of better employment opportunities or to set up their own enterprises. The study estimating the determinants of employment status of migrants is categorised in fixed wage workers, casual paid workers and self-employed workers. It revealed substantial evidence from analysis that age, education, duration of migration, and province of residence play a vital role in determining the employment status of an individual migrant. The study helped distinguishing features leading to economic impact on migration focusing on the categories those may fall under respective characteristics, such as individual/ demographic, human capital and residential. The multinomial logit model was applied to estimate coefficients of variables in question to substantiate impact with significance and level of association on the migrant’s employment status. The study has also renders the consequential impact of level of education and origin of residence, in relation with employment status categories such as fixed paid, casual paid jobs and self employment. The distinguishing feature of this study is the entire economic impact on migration, that is, to focus on the category they may fall under, while considering migrant’s respective characteristics.