Environmental security and labor migration in Nepal

Do changes in environmental security that result from declining access to forest resources shape labor migration in a context where household production and consumption are intimately dependent on natural resources? Using 1996 household data from the Chitwan Valley of Nepal, we examined if a decrease in access to firewood increased the likelihood of migration of individuals for work. The results of multinomial logistic regression showed that, environmental insecurity was a significant predictor for migration regardless of destination, domestic or international. Labor requirements for household maintenance also played an important role in the decision to migrate. Management of forest resources and poverty alleviation by providing firewood substitutes and economic opportunities at the local level is likely to change the labor migration flow, which could be an important issue for future research.     

Spatial and temporal dimensions of weather shocks and migration in Nepal

Population and Environment - Research shows that environmental shocks can influence migration. However, studies vary widely in the shocks and type of migration measured, the context, and the...     

Altruistic and contractual remittances between male and female migrants and households in rural Thailand

Past research has questioned the extent to which remittances are altruistic behaviors versus payments in a contractual relationship between households and migrants. This article explores altruistic and contractual patterns of remittances using a gendered approach. On the basis of results with various levels of significance in regression models, male and female migrants from Nang Rong, Thailand, behave both altruistically and contractually. However, women and migrants from poorer households behave more altruistically, while men and migrants from richer households behave more contractually. These results point to the need for further research and theory development to explain heterogeneities in migrants' behavior.     

Seasonal migration of rural labor in India

The impact of seasonal migration has been overlooked by students of migration. A unique data set collected in Dungarpur – one of the less developed districts of India – allows us to closely examine both the determinants and impact of seasonal migration. Detailed information was gathered from all members of 624 households, thus enabling analyses at both individual and household levels. The findings indicate that seasonal migration among rural laborers is wide-spread. Rural households in India use migrant labor offered by their members to improve their well-being by both reducing the impacts of inferior conditions and by raising household's income levels. Migrant labor is a compensating mechanism used by households to reduce their disadvantageous position. Migrant households are characterized by lower education levels, lower levels of income from agriculture, and by an inferior geographical location. However, those households sending migrant labor are found to have higher income levels than those not sending migrant labor. Income from migrant labor accounts for almost 60% of total annual income of households sending at least one migrant laborer. Such findings are in accordance with explanations derived from the `new economics of migration'. We can thus learn that migration-related decisions should not evaluated only on the basis of utility maximization of individual migrants, but also on the basis of risk reducing by households.     

Migration decision making and migration behavior in rural Kenya

Micro theories of migration have generally been tested with data which do not allow one to distinguish between the decision to move and the act of moving. The latter is usually treated as a proxy for the former. Using data from a two round survey of youth in rural Kenya we classify respondents as decision processors/nondecision processors from round one data, and determine who migrates over a nine month interval from round two data. Thirty-four percent of the sample are classified as decision processors and 25% as migrants, but decision processors were only slightly more likely to migrate than nondecision processors and more migrants actually came from the latter group.A simple model is developed to determine the extent to which the same factors that influence decision-processing influence who migrates. The model is tested using regression procedures by first treating decision-processing as the dependent variable then migration. The model explains 26% of the variance in who decides, but only 10% of the variance in who actually moved. Finally, separate analyses are done of the determinants of migration for decision processors and nondecision processors.     

A preliminary survey of specialized households with single children in Tianjin rural areas

A preliminary survey of specialized households with single children in Tianjian rural areas was carried out in order to understand the impact of the economic system reform on family planning programs. Out of 180,000 specialized households, 37,000 are those of young peasants under 35, accounting for 24% of the total specialized households. The survey showed that family planning publicity could be improved in 4 ways. A change in the peasants' concept of childbearing in favor of family planning should be actively promoted. Publicity efforts should be strengthened. Both the content and methods of family planning education and publicity should be improved. Publicity should be integrated with service. Centers of publicity and guidance should become centers of publicity and service. Family planning workers should become close friends of young couples of reproductive age. Education must be integrated with service. A recent trend of having fewer children has set in. This change manifests itself in 3 ways: the state policy of making the people rich greatly encourages young couples to devote themselves to pioneering causes; after becoming rich, the peasants become aware that they should have healthier and better educated children; when the peasants become rich they worry less about their old age and other problems. The recent trend toward early marriage in rural areas should be curbed.     

Until work do us part: Labour migration and occupational stratification in non-cohabiting marriage

While recent decades have seen considerable research on cohabitation without marriage, the study of marriage without cohabitation has not fared as well. Prior work on the latter has emphasized the importance of occupational stratification, but ignored the social context around occupation, particularly regarding labour mobility and economic development. In this paper, we outline the significance of contemporary labour mobility and concomitant occupational stratification for the risk of non-cohabiting marriage, and use data from the IPUMS–International project to provide a cross-national accounting of non-cohabiting marriage. We focus on two issues: first, how does prevalence vary across countries, across time, and with respect to economic development? Second, how do the core dynamics of labour mobility—including migration, occupational status, and economic development—influence the probability of non-cohabiting marriage? Results indicate broad cross-national differences in prevalence, increasing risk over time, and a pattern of accumulating risk associated with multifaceted social disadvantage.     

Climate-related migration in rural Bangladesh: a behavioural model

Research into the climate change and migration nexus has often focussed solely on how people move in response to the impacts of variability and change in climate. This notion often ignores the nature of migration as a tried and tested livelihood choice amid a variety of socio-economic and environmental opportunities and limitations. This paper closely looks at the behavioural aspects of migration decision-making in Bangladesh in the context of changes in its economy, and, increasingly, exposure to the impacts of climate variability and change. We find that villagers in areas particularly affected by increasing climatic stresses and shocks are diversifying their traditional livelihood strategies by migrating. Environmental factors, including climatic stresses and shocks, often make such shifts even more necessary. Although the migrants’ primary motivation is better income, in effect, migration becomes an effective form of adaptation. Based on a qualitative study in three geographically distinct places of Bangladesh, we propose that migration is a socially acceptable behaviour that occurs in the context of perceived environmental change and climate variability. Migration decisions are mediated by a set of ‘behavioural factors’ that assesses the efficacy of different responses to opportunities and challenges, their socio-cultural acceptance and the ability to respond successfully. This understanding has policy relevance for climate change adaptation, in terms of both how migrants are perceived and how their movements are planned for.     

Drought and migration: an analysis of the effects of drought on temporary labor and return migration from a migrant-sending area in Nepal

Population and Environment - Although the relationship between drought – a dimension of climate change – and migration has been explored in a number of settings, prior research...     

Using a gender perspective to explore forest dependence in rural HIV/AIDS-affected Malawian households

Throughout Sub-Saharan Africa, forest resources play a crucial role in enabling households to control and adapt to HIV/AIDS; however, little is known about how the disease impacts the gendered use of forest resources. This exploratory study characterizes how the dependence on forest resources changes for female and male respondents in HIV/AIDS-affected households in Malawi through three phases: before HIV was known to be present; during HIV-related morbidity; and after AIDS-related mortality. The results presented for female and male respondents in this paper are strikingly similar, and many respondents report that there are no longer any traditional gender roles for household tasks due to HIV/AIDS. Therefore, we question the thinking around gender-specific forest-related interventions for HIV-affected people. Moreover, given the gendered knowledge base that must surround resource use, what do these changes in traditional roles mean for sustainable forest resource use in the future? Further research on knowledge transmission around these resources is warranted.     

Marital migration of the rural population in Beijing suburbs]

The recent increase in marital migration in China among the rural population of the Beijing suburbs is examined, with a focus on the impact of uneven economic developments in villages and of different rates of population growth and distribution, fertility, and sex ratios. Findings are based on a survey of 1981 marriage patterns in a number of Beijing suburban communes. It is found that slightly over 50 percent of the women married within their communes, less than 20 percent married men from other suburban communes, and the remainder married outside the communes. The author observes that more women than men have migrated into the Beijing area and that marriage has been a major determinant of this movement.     

A cost-benefit model of rural to urban migration in Taiwan

Abstract Migration is a form of human behaviour which has lent itself to careful measurement for a relatively long period of time. In 1885 Ravenstein set forth certain empirical laws concerning the relationship of migration to age and distance which have held up to the present. Since then an abundance of migration data has enabled social scientists to develop more precise models relating the volume or rate of migration to characteristics of the migrants or of the areas of origin and destination. Prominent among these models are the gravity model, the intervening opportunities model, a gravity type model including wage rates and unemployment rates developed by Lowry, and the Cornell mobility model.     

Sibling rivalry and gender gap: intrahousehold substitution of male and female educational investments from male migration prospects

Improved migration prospects for men could have negative spillover effects on women. We use an exogenous change in an education-based policy for recruiting Nepali men to work in the British Army to examine the effect of new job prospects for men on the human capital of women within the same household. Men who were directly exposed to this change raised their education. These gains came at the expense of their female siblings, who lost 0.12 years of schooling and increased their participation in economic activities. This spillover accounts for a 8% decline in female education and widens the gender gap by 31%. For every additional year of education completed by men, female siblings “lose” 0.394 years of education. This gender spillover is more severe for poor and agricultural households that are more resource constrained.     

Intimate partner violence during pregnancy and use of antenatal care among rural women in southern Terai of Nepal

Background

Underutilisation of antenatal care services due to intimate partner violence during pregnancy has been well documented elsewhere, but it is understudied in Nepal. Our study aimed at exploring the impact of intimate partner violence on antenatal care service utilisation in southern Terai of Nepal.

美国农村人口迁移与启示

美国农村人口迁移始于 2 0世纪 2 0年代 ,结束于 6 0年代 ,均为自发性的移民。其农村人口迁移具有阶段性 ,第一阶段主要是迁往大城市 ,且具有较高文化层次的选择性 ,第二阶段移民则不具有文化选择性 ,移民规模与非农经济发展呈正相关关系 ,移民迁出地与迁入地的距离与移民规模也是呈正相关。美国农村人口迁移的经验 ,对我国农村人口迁移有一定启示。     

Projections of households and household populations by household size propensities

This paper describes a method for constructing projections of numbers of households of various types and the numbers of people in that structure. The method uses the concept ofhousehold size propensity, that is the probability that a person of given age and sex resides in a household of sizea, c, wherea is the number of adults per household andc is number of children per household. Using data from the 1981 and 1986 Censuses and population projections to the year 2011, the method produces projections of Australian households and household populations by size of household for five-year intervals from 1991 to 2011. The research reported in this paper arose out of the University of Melbourne’s research program to study the structure, economics and technology of households. This research began in 1986 at the Centre for Applied Research on the Future in the Department of Architecture and Building and from 1991 has been continued by the Households Research Unit in the Department of Economics. Reports of this work are contained in the collection of essaysHouseholds Work edited by Ironmonger (1989) and in discussion papers issued by the Centre for Applied Research on the Future by Ironmonger (1987), Jennings (1989) Sonius (1989) and Ironmonger and Richardson (1991). The authors wish to thank Roger Jones of the Social Sciences Data Archive for running some cross tabulations on the 1981 Census one per cent sample tape, Vic Jennings of the Households Research Unit for his valuable contributions in a number of discussions, and the referees to thisJournal for numerous helpful suggestions.     

Endowments and parental investments in infancy and early childhood

This article tests whether parents reinforce or compensate for child endowments. We estimate how the difference in birth weight across siblings impacts specific parental investments: breast-feeding, well-baby visits, immunizations, and preschool attendance. Our results indicate that normal-birth-weight children are 5%–11% more likely to receive early childhood parental investments than their low-birth-weight siblings. Moreover, the presence of additional low-birth-weight siblings in the household increases the likelihood of investments such as well-baby visits and immunizations for normal-birth-weight children. These results suggest that parental investments in early childhood tend to reinforce endowment differences.     

Family organization and fertility limitation in Nepal

This paper uses the family mode of organization framework to link together hypotheses relating social change to fertility limitation. Experiences in nonfamily activities are predicted to affect fertility behavior, with the outcome depending on the social, economic, and cultural context. To provide individual-level tests of hypotheses, the paper uses data from a Nepalese community which recently began dramatic family and fertility transitions. The findings show that experiences in nonfamily activities before marriage increase the odds of subsequently adopting fertility limitation in this setting. The evidence also demonstrates the importance of including measures of husbands' experiences in models of fertility decisions.     

Land Use and Marriage Timing in Nepal

I examine the relationship between patterns of land use and marriage timing in the Chitwan Valley, a rural area in south-central Nepal. In this setting, I conceptualize a relevant dimension of land use as the portion of land in each neighborhood devoted to agriculture. Using discrete-time event history models, I examine the relationship between the proportion of land devoted to agriculture and the rate of marriage among 811 never-married individuals aged 15–20 years. Agricultural land has a positive association with marriage rates. As potential intervening mechanisms between agricultural land and marriage rates, I propose nonfamily organizations, school and work activities, and local marriage markets. A portion of the relationship between land and marriage rates appears to be mediated through the accessibility of nonfamily employers. Respondents’ actual employment activities, however, fail to mediate the effects of agricultural land or nonfamily employers. The precise mechanisms linking land use to marriage remain unclear.