At a time migrants from North India are having harrowing time in Gujarat, forcing a number of them to flee, an international study has shown that domestic migrants in a country experience substantial decline in mental and physical health even though they earn better.
Apart from being away from near and dears ones, the yawning gap between their aspirations and achievement leave them distressed, the study said.
Even though the findings were based on a study carried out in Pakistan, they are equally relevant in developing countries like India, authors of the study argued.
The study was conducted by researchers from the International Food Policy Research Institute (IFPRI) and the Ohio State University in the US and is scheduled to be published in an upcoming issue of the journal
Effects of migration
“Our study found migrants experience deteriorating physical health coupled with feelings of stress and relative deprivation,” said Katrina Kosec, co-author of the study and senior research fellow at IFPRI. “Despite substantial monetary gains from migration, people may be happier and less mentally distressed by remaining in their home communities,” Kosec said in a statement.
“India has already witnessed significant structural change due to internal migration. It has booming non-agricultural sectors which pulls migrants to locations to provide for the families they leave behind. We can learn from these neighbouring experiences the extent workers have overcome these health burdens or whether there are increasing longer term implications on society as long-distance migration for manual labour grows,” said Valerie Mueller, an IFPRI Fellow and Assistant Professor at Arizona State University.
Even though migrants have nearly 35-40 per cent higher consumption than non-migrants, they are less likely to report being happy, calm and in better health. “Internal migration has the potential to substantially increase incomes, especially for the poor in developing countries, and yet migration rates remain low. Our research shows the emotional consequences from migrating long-distance may be quite high, providing another potential explanation for low spatial mobility within countries,” Kosec said.
Expectation vs Reality
According to the study, migrants also suffer an emotional setback due to a rising gap between their aspirations and their actual accumulation of assets. Individuals who migrate aspire to increase their level of assets between 18 and 23 per cent more than non-migrants, setting a goal that is highly difficult to achieve, and yet they tend to actually achieve lower levels of asset wealth. This may enhance the feelings of stress and unhappiness that they experience.
“Higher aspirations may be a positive development,” Kosec said, “but only if the opportunities that surround a person can reasonably enable him to achieve them.” With a growing gap between one’s achievements and one’s aspirations, unhappiness can result.
To overcome the mental health costs associated with migration, the authors recommend addressing regional inequality by shifting production, rather than workers, across space.
“One option may be to bring jobs closer to rural areas than in distant urban areas. Another option would be to improve transport so that rather than migrate to work, people can commute rather cheaply and remain with their families,” said Mueller.