ABSTRACT
Academic study and policy-makers have been divided on these issues. Studies on links between development and migration have focused on international migration. There are few topics in the study of development that are as controversial as migration, with greatly varying views on what causes it and what its impacts are. Rural-urban migration would assist in providing labour for the urban economy, and reduce wage differences between urban and rural areas. This dualistic model of migration draws heavily on the surplus-labour model, focused on rural-urban migration, in which non-agricultural employment increases without real wages rising initially, until surplus labour is absorbed. Economic models have also tried to explain remittance behaviour. These remittances act as insurance contracts between the migrant and the household left behind, as a means of coping with household risk. Central in much of the thinking on the impact of migration has been the question of remittances, one of the new ‘development mantras’.
