Exploring the relationship between internal migration and wellbeing: the case of rural Punjab, Pakistan

Abstract

This thesis aims to explore the relationship between internal migration and well-being in rural Pakistan. In doing so, I first investigate the relationships between migration and well-being at the household level among four rural household socio-economic categories i.e., large landholding, small landholding, landless farm labour, and non-farm rural households. Later, I extend my investigations into the gendered and generational dynamics of intra-household relations to understand the meanings and aspirations of well-being in relation to migration and how power hierarchy based on gender, social status and economic position shape migration and well-being outcomes. Conceptually, I draw on the three-dimensional (3-D) well-being framework which includes objective, subjective and relational aspects of well-being. Through questionnaire-based field survey of 331 households and 53 semi-structured interviews with individual members of the rural households, I investigate migration and well-being relationships and outcomes through a mixed method approach. Based on my study findings, I argue that the well-being meanings and aspirations of individual household members are situated within particular intersecting household hierarchies, which themselves are located in a similarly hierarchically structured rural society. To counter these challenges, I argued that three pathways stood out as the most important: education, religion, and migration. I contribute to the knowledge by exploring how people’s desire for quality education for their children or their narratives about cities as ii symbols of modernity for family growth and knowledge, reflect aspirations that extend beyond the objective and subjective meanings of well-being. Moreover, I argue that religious disposition in rural households shapes different meanings of well-being, providing a source of hope and peace, which in turn encourages them to work hard and have patience for future economic opportunities and earnings, particularly among landless and non-farm households. Moreover, I argue that religiosity and migration reinforce each other, i.e., religiosity among elders and migration desire in young men, led them to encourage and follow their aspirations. In this regard, I argue that rural society in Pakistan showed more social cohesion, while living within a highly polarised hierarchal rural society. Furthermore, I contribute to the knowledge that digital connectivity and remittances transfer through online platforms has shaped intra-household power relationships in rural Pakistan. This has provided some space for migrant wives and other women in the household to define their own life choices and better bargain while living in the extended families. This also brings incremental changes for rural women to contribute to household decision-making process, but also migrant wives developed digital connectivity with migrant husband for their mobility, childcare and financial requirements.

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Identifiers

ORCID for Kashif Majeed Salik: orcid.org/0000-0003-2581-8207

ORCID for Julie Vullnetari: orcid.org/0000-0003-1578-8622

ORCID for Craig Hutton: orcid.org/0000-0002-5896-756X

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