Social Costs of Migration

This volume is an empirical assessment of an often-neglected space in migration research — social, psychological and human costs for both migrants and the families they leave behind — based on qualitative and quantitative research findings.

Globally, the focus of migration research has consisted of the intersections of migration and remittances. This overemphasis on remittances obscures the contributions and sacrifices made by migrants and their families. With this backdrop in view, India Migration Report 2013 documents issues such as:

• Children’s negotiation of parental migration

• Coping mechanisms adopted by women left behind

• Utilization of social networks by the elderly during a health crisis

• Demographic implications of migration

• Household management and child care by spouses of migrant nurses

• Lifestyle management by the elderly, who migrate with their children, in the absence of other traditional and familiar kinship structures

• Transition costs involved in peasant migration

• Social costs of migration in the case of emigration to the Gulf region

• Broader impacts of migration on the family

In addition, the book also includes articles dealing with nurses’ migration, skilled mobility, informalization of labour markets, mobility of women workers, global financial crisis and return migration, remittances management and a critical assessment of bilateral mobility agreements among nations to protect Indian workers.

It will be of interest to those in migration studies, sociology, law, economics, gender studies, diaspora studies, international relations and demography, apart from non-governmental organizations, policy-makers and governmental institutions working in the field of migration.