Environmental pressures and rural-urban migration: The case of Bangladesh

Michael Herrmann and David Svarin

MPRA Paper from University Library of Munich, Germany

Abstract: Bangladesh, like other least developed countries (LDC), has a large rural population and agricultural labor force. At the turn of the Millennium 75 percent of the LDCs’ population still lived in rural areas and 71 percent of the LDCs’ labor force was involved in agriculture. Yet, even the least developed countries are affected by rapidly accelerating rural-to-urban migration. This decade, 2001-2010, is the first ever in which the urban population grows faster than the rural population in the LDCs. And this change is also associated with a historic employment transition, where the agricultural sector gradually loses importance. Both the population and the employment transition that can be observed for the group of least develops countries, are largely attributable to LDC's in Asia, and in particular Bangladesh. The very large rural-urban migration in Bangladesh, in comparison with other least developed countries, is attributable to relatively strong push factors on the one hand, and strong pull factors on the other. The principle factor that encourages people to leave their homes in the country side is the frequent recurrence of natural disasters, which undermine agricultural development and cause food crisis. By contrast, the principle factor that attracts people to urban centers is the expansion of the non-agricultural sectors, industry and services, which promises jobs and higher household incomes.

Keywords: Bangladesh; climate change; rural-urban migration; agricultural development; urban planning; dual-dual model; employment; poverty (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: I32 J21 J31 J61 O18 Q54 R0 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2009-01
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-agr, nep-cwa, nep-dev, nep-env, nep-lab and nep-mig
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (3)

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