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NepalLifetime Regional Migration
Until the mid-1950s, the volume of permanent migration
within
the country was very small. Since then, however, there has
been
increased permanent internal migration, mainly because of
population pressures, paucity of land resources in the
hills, and
the implementation of land resettlement programs in the
Tarai
Region. This form of migration was identified in the 1981
census as
lifetime internal migration.
The total volume of lifetime internal migration in 1981
was
close to 1,272,300 persons, a figure that represented 8.5
percent
of the total population. The vast majority of lifetime
internal
migrants originated in the Hill and Mountain regions and
moved to
the Tarai Region in search of land in a movement that can
be called
frontier migration (see
table 4, Appendix). These findings
confirmed that the north-south (highland-lowland) flows of
migration have made a substantial contribution--both
directly and
indirectly--to the rapid population growth of the Tarai
Region.
One of the major variables responsible for this trend
was the
Hill residents' quest for land. About half of the male
Hill
migrants to the Tarai mentioned "agriculture" as their
reason for
migrating (see
table 5, Appendix). The "not stated and
others"
category also constituted a high percentage, probably
because most
family members who moved with their parents or household
heads had
no specific reason for their migration.
A high score for trade and commerce among the mountain
migrants
might reflect the fact that they historically were deeply
engaged
in interregional as well as cross-border trade with Tibet
as their
principal economic activity. Because their traditional
trade and
commercial relations with Tibet had been largely cut off
because of
political changes after 1950, they might have moved to the
Tarai,
where such opportunities were expanding, particularly in
urban
areas.
The pattern for female migrants was generally
consistent with
the pattern for male migrants. The exception was female
migrants
for whom marriage as a reason for geographical mobility
ranked
quite high. This pattern generally reflected the commonly
observed
reality that female mobility in Nepal was largely tied to
family
mobility (that is, husbands or parents). Although
individual
(unmarried) female migration seemed to be gradually on the
rise, it
still was quite limited.
Data as of September 1991
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