Determinants of Regional Rural Urban Migration in Bangladesh : A Model Test on Marginal Segment in Rajshahi City

This paper examines the factors of regional rural-urban migration in Bangladesh. Key objective of this article is to examine the results of the first phase, i.e, the findings of the 2006 survey, compare with the recent outcomes. The econometric model is developed to observe the association between dependent and the exploratory determinants variables. It is found that the underlying cause of migration is mainly driven by economic and social factors ie, monga, poverty, unemployment, kinship, migrant economic development at the origin, default of loan and changing hereditarily businesses. In the migration process the push factors are more active then pull factors, as poverty and unemployment always push the poor villagers to change their residence to the cities. After migration majority of the migrants comparatively improved their livelihoods in the city during the period of last ten years. Although poor migrants have contributed significantly to the economic growth and gained from higher wages in higher productivity areas, they remain socially and economically excluded from the wider benefits of economic growth such as access to food and education, housing, sanitation and freedom. The study results highlight the need to target migrant groups and urban poor within urban areas in the provision of availability of work and social care services